Legal Outsourcing Trends for 2017

Could your next contract attorney work for you from across the globe? Possibly. The growth of legal process outsourcing means that more and more lawyers are contracting with foreign attorneys and even nonlawyers to perform legal work. The practice...

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How Law Firms Can Improve Diversity in the Legal Industry

The legal industry is one of the least racially diverse professions in America. And even though more women than ever are graduating from law schools, men still dominate the legal practice in terms of pay and partner positions. When...

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Lawyers, When It Comes to Security, Don't Forget the Importance of a Strong Lock

There's plenty of talk about law firm cyber security on legal blogs. Tales of hacked emails, ransomed documents, even hacked household devices. But don't forget, not all threats are cyberthreats. Some thieves still prefer to practice their craft the...

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Lawyer's High Profile Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Settles

She said she was pregnant. Her boss responded: "I guess these things happen. I suppose we have your honeymoon to blame for this?" Between good friends it might have been uncomfortably funny, but between an associate attorney and her...

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ABA: Don't Violate Client Confidentiality When Withdrawal for Non-Payment of Fees

When your client stiffs you in the middle of litigation with an unpaid legal bill, don't you just want to complain about it to someone? Not your bartender, but someone who can do something about it -- like a...

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Tips for Advising Lottery Winners

Admit it, you too have dreamed about winning the lottery. It's OK. Everybody who has purchased a lottery ticket has dreamt about it. Even if you didn't dream about the lottery with a scratch ticket, as a lawyer you...

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5 Communication Lessons From Larry King

Much of a lawyer's job is communicating, with clients, with courts, and with colleagues. But we're not always as great at convey our message, establishing a rapport, or convincing others as we'd like to be. That's where Larry King...

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2 Big Firms Stiffed $800,000 by Same Client

Maybe lighting does strike twice. Using excuses that included his house was struck by lightning, a client struck two big law firms with more than $800,000 in unpaid attorney's fees. What really shocked the lawyers, however, was that one...

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Lawyerly Holiday Gifts in a Click

Don't worry, when it comes ordering holiday gifts for legal professionals, you haven't missed the deadline -- but you're cutting it close. There are just a few days left to buy and deliver some presents before it really is too...

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Three Tips for Preserving Electronic Evidence

Everybody knows discovery -- including electronic discovery -- can be a virtual hole into which many lawyers have disappeared and for which many clients have paid dearly. But if there is a necessary evil in modern law (besides opposing counsel)...

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10 Do's and Don'ts for Lawyer Holiday Cards

Unless you are Martha Stewart, you know about as much about the etiquette of sending holiday cards as anybody. That's because everybody old enough to write their name and lick an envelope knows to send cards for those special...

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Man Running for Judge Gets Law License Suspended Over Attack Ads

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth ten thousand votes. At least, that's what attorney Ronnie Michael Tamburrino must have been thinking when he decided to run some television commerials in his judicial...

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Wait, Embryos Can Sue Famous Actresses? Who Knew?

Embryos in court? Apparently. Two enterprising balls of potential human life filed suit in Louisiana last week. Their target: Sofia Vergara, the star of ABC's Modern Family and contributor of half their genetic material. The embryos were created by...

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Lawyer Vindicated on Appeal After Losing Case on Untimely Bathroom Break

Some things can't wait, like when a Florida lawyer desperately needed to leave the courtroom to go the bathroom. But poor Jeff Tomberg had to wait 18 months for a court of appeal to excuse him. The appeals court...

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Tips for Using a Third Party to Help With Your Job Search

If you're looking for an attorney job, maybe you should stay away from the headhunters because you'll need that head in the future. I speak from personal experience because my head was hunted once by a job recruiter and...

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Should You Sell Clients' Uncollected Debt?

Times are tough when you have to borrow money to pay your bills. Well, it's about that time for more than a few law firms. And it's not just the solo practitioners working on shoe-strings. According to reports, even some...

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More BigLaw Firms Are Suing for Clients' Unpaid Bills

The old wisdom against suing your client is giving way to a new normal. According to recent reports, more BigLaw firms are breaking the old mold and suing their clients for unpaid fees. They say clients expect more of them,...

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Practicing Immigration Law in the Trump Era

Immigration has been central to Donald Trump's agenda since he announced his candidacy almost a year and a half ago. Now, Trump's electoral success has signaled a massive shift in U.S. immigration policy and enforcement: a likely end to...

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When Does Criticizing a Judge Become an Ethics Violation?

Some things are best left unsaid. At least attorney Christine M. Mire should have kept her criticism of a judge to herself, according to the Louisiana Supreme Court. In appellate pleadings, Mire had accused a trial judge of tampering with...

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What Do Safer Streets Mean for Personal Injury Attorneys?

It's a good time to be a driver -- or a pedestrian. Our streets have become increasingly safe over the past decade, with traffic fatalities down 23 percent between 2006 and 2014 and injuries dropping 17 percent over the...

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Decorating Your Firm for the Holidays, Without Offending Anyone

'Tis the season, as they say. The halls are decked, gay apparel is donned, and chestnuts are roasting. But for all the winter mirth and merriment, the season can also be a contentious one. Think, for example, of the...

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What to Do If You Can't Find Your Client

Everybody loses clients, but what if you literally lose a client? Losing track of a client can be more distressing than losing the client's business. Lawyers have a duty to protect the legal rights of even those clients they can't...

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What Could Tort Reform Mean for You?

Lawyers can expect to hear a lot about tort reform in the upcoming months. With a Republican president-elect, a Republican-controlled Congress, and a Trump-selected future Supreme Court justice, tort reform advocates are facing one of their most favorable political...

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Best Practices for Unbundled Legal Services

'Unbundling' means 'limited scope' means 'a la carte.' Somebody get a dictionary, please. A la carte, from the French for "according to the menu," used to mean "separately priced items." As applied to legal services, it became "limited scope representation." Now the...

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