Will 2016 Be the Year of Hoverboard Lawsuits?

Hoverboards were 2015's Cabbage Patch Doll or Tickle-Me Elmo -- that is, the gift to get this holiday season. The self-balancing platforms on wheels (think Segway's, but without anything to hold on to) are everyone's favorite new toy. That...

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The Benefits of a Multicultural Law Firm

As the world becomes smaller, it's natural that law firms should become more diverse. In places like the Silicon Valley, for example, literally hundreds of ethnic and national backgrounds convene to make it one of the most pioneering regions in...

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5 Ways to Improve Your Online Presence in 2016

Prospective clients are researching lawyers online more than ever, but getting them through your firm's door (or to your website) requires more than just putting together a .com address or a Yelp page. To take advantage of online marketing...

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When Someone Leaves the Firm, Don't Forget the Exit Interview

For all the attention and effort spent interviewing new candidates for employment, firms often overlook the exit interview. This is a mistake. Exit interviews offer attorneys and support staff the chance to discuss their experiences more candidly and allows...

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How to Be Happy at Work: Tips for Lawyers

Lawyers generally are thought to fall into two camps: those who went into law to "change the world" and those who went into it driven by greed. No surprise, but it seems like money isn't make greedy lawyers much happier.Money...

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Should Lawyers Submit to an E-Discovery Competence Audit?

Lawyers should really consider opening themselves up to being audited for their competence in handling e-discovery. Increasingly, e-discovery is becoming an integral part of being a litigator. Proficiency in e-discovery may even be key factor in whether clients decide to...

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How Big Data May Change Law Firm Hiring Practices

Everybody knows that lawyers are real sticklers for tradition. We like musty law books. We like burnt-umber colored desks. We like Latin. And we also like hiring only 90th percentile students from the T14. But that's changing, at least according...

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What's So Scary About Non-Lawyer Firm Ownership?

Law firms are for lawyers. Allowing non-lawyer ownership and investment compromises a lawyer's independence and dilutes her commitment to the client. Or so the story goes. But evidence from countries that actually allow non-lawyer ownership indicates that non-lawyer owned...

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For 2016, Should You Expand Your Practice to ... Walmart?

In 2014, Walmart entered the legal services market. Or rather, Axess Law moved to Walmart, opening four offices in Walmarts throughout Canada. Hey, if the clients aren't coming to you, go to them, right? Two years later, their practice...

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Attn Lawyers: Networking Tips That Work

Law students know it, and if you've just gotten licensed, you should know it too: networking is everything. Few people can appreciate the importance networking more than lawyers. But even if you're not the most popular guy at the party,...

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7 Last-Minute, Affordable Holiday Gifts for Your Law Firm Staff

You don't want to be Scrooge this holiday season, but it might be a bit too late to order a Christmas turkey for everyone in the office. Do you default to a Starbucks gift card or an envelope of...

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Starting a Law Firm? You'll Need About $10,000

Starting a law firm can be surprisingly simple -- the main costs are really your license and insurance. Fundamentally, a law firm is just you (the licensed attorney), a computer, a printer and a law library. The good news is...

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Tips for Drafting Effective Employment Agreements

Tell your clients they don't need to be afraid of employment agreements. A well-crafted, finely-drafted employment agreement can allow employers to recruit top talent, safeguard their business interests, and protect against unexpected litigation, whether they're for executives or the...

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How Lawyers Can Avoid Getting Killed During a Deposition

Depositions can get very emotional, to say the least. The emotional range seems to span the gamut from boredom to intense rage. But the usual emotion is guarded anger -- remember Justin Bieber's depo? Sometimes that anger can rise...

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How to Fix Your Inbox for 2016

There are 1,600 unread emails in your inbox. Finding an important message takes a couple of minutes, instead of a couple of seconds. The idea of scrolling to the bottom of your inbox and seeing all those missed, unanswered,...

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Do Lawyers Need Accounting Expertise to Keep Out of Jail?

Few other times in history has the subject of accounting been so captivating as it was in the criminal fraud scandal of executives at the collapsed law firm of Dewey & LeBooeuf. The trial revolved around the arguably gray-area practices of...

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There's Still Time for End of Year Marketing Write Offs

2015 is winding down, but it ain't over yet. You still have a few good weeks to make some (tax deductible) investments in your business. Nothing beats ending the year with a marketing push which is, with few exceptions,...

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Tips for Hiring Temp Contract Writers and Lawyers

It was just a scant few years ago when temp workers were thought of as legal pariahs. Now? They're becoming the norm. This is overall good news for lawyers looking for work. According to the National Association of Law...

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With a Few Apps, You Can Have the Best Law Firm Perks

It's not just lawyers at the largest firms who work through the night and it's not just BigLaw partners who deserve a few workplace perks. Thankfully, many of those perks are now available through the click of an app....

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Lawyers Can't Be Whistleblowers Says NY Judge

As an in-house lawyer, what should you do if you have reason to believe that your client is up to no good? Can you sing? Well, if you're in New York, you'd best keep your lips shut -- at...

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A Growing Practice Area: Home Health Care Law

The home health care industry is thriving. Fueled by an aging Boomer population and the desire of many patients to be treated in their own residences, the at-home provisioning of nursing and therapist care has become a $30 billion...

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3 Tips for Hiring Legal Staff at Your Small Firm

A strong legal support staff is essential to operating a successful small firm. Just like everything in life, finding the right staff members can be a challenge.To help you find the right people for your firm, here are three essential...

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Job Applicants Can Sue Under ADEA

In what is potentially a landmark ruling in employment law, the Eleventh Circuit just ruled that a 49-year-old job applicant may use a disparate impact theory to sue R.J. Reynolds Tobacco for age discrimination. The ruling is a headache-inducing...

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How Lawyers Can Avoid Client Complaints

An unhappy client won't be a client for long. And if a client is unhappy enough, you could soon find yourself before a disciplinary committee, trying to rebut a client's complaint. Luckily, avoiding client complaints is not that difficult...

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Blogging for Your Law Practice Is a Business, Not an Art

There is a bit of misguided mythology out there about the nature of blogging. It seems that a fair number of netizens still operate under the notion of blogging as some romantic voyage into inner expression. There may have...

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How to Find Job Security as a Solo Attorney

If you recently passed the bar exam, congratulations. Now welcome to the world of licensed-and-unemployed. There isn't exactly blood out in the streets, but the numbers of attorneys out there without work is startling. Some new lawyers are hanging...

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11 Ways to Improve Your Firm's Internal Collections Practices

If you don't bill, you can't eat. But even if you're racking up 30 billable hours a day, that work will be meaningless if you can't get clients to pay. Sure, you can put liens on delinquent clients or...

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The End of "Too Big to Fail" Bailouts? Can It Be? Nah, It Can't.

The Federal Reserve Board adopted a rule earlier this week that, in theory, precludes it from rescuing individual companies that claim status of "too big to fail." Has your cynicism kicked in yet? The change was implemented following much...

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Hey Lord of the Ring Fans, Turkish Courts Need a Gollum Expert!

Can you speak Elvish? Know Middle Earth like the back of your hand? Do you believe that Gollum might actually be the hero of The Lord of the Rings series after all? Well, the Turkish court system needs your...

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Law Firms in the Business of ... Charity?

When people think about law firms, the word 'charity' is not the first word that springs to mind. And these days, it looks like most firms aren't feeling very charitable. But attitudes can and should change. It's better for...

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Who or What Is 'The Law Guy'?

If you were one of the lucky few who earned a passing score on this last July 2015 bar exam, you might be "the law guy" to your family and friends. Just be careful about using that term in...

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Boutique Firm Becomes First to Pass Legal Tech Assessment

Sure, attorneys aren't the biggest early adopters of new technology. You won't find many esquires who are well-versed in artificial intelligence or nano-architecture, for example. But it turns out that we're also terrible at technology basics. The Legal Tech Assessment,...

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How to Attract Top Millennial Talent to Your Small Law Firm

According to data taken from Census Bureau data of 2015, the Pew Research Center found that Millennials now make up the largest workforce in the nation, according to the Pew Research Center, they're expected to soon become the largest living...

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Is "Dieting Made Me Do It" the New Twinkie Defense?

Jared's diet helped turn him into a child molester. That's the novel theory his lawyers developed last week on the eve of his sentencing. Jared Fogle, the former Subway sandwich chain spokesman and famous weight loss champion, was sentenced...

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Sheldon Silver Trial Update: Jury Deliberates Federal Corruption Case

It has been a difficult several weeks for former Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, once one of the most powerful men in New York. Closing arguments concluded in Silver's multi-week corruption trial that saw its beginnings with the Speaker's arrest in...

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Is Following a Judge on Twitter Ex Parte Communication?

You follow a judge on Twitter. (There's plenty of them to be found.) He tweets about life on the bench. You tweet about cats and the occasional courtroom victory. The judge even retweets you on occasion. If this tweeting...

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How to Start a Solo Law Practice: 5 Tips to Get Started

Many attorneys have successfully hung their own shingle, but it can be daunting to do this on your own. Part of the appeal of BigLaw is that someone else will make the big decisions for you. But this also...

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Why Your Employees Leave -- And How to Keep Them Around

When an employee quits, it's not just a worker walking out the door, its years of training and investment. Hiring replacement employees is expensive and time consuming, requiring you to invest resources in job search and training -- resources...

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Law Firm Tips for Outsourcing

With all the eagerness to be part of the BigLaw leagues, it is very easy to be blinded by the glamour and overlook many of the disadvantages of BigLaw. Sure, people like to be associated with the big names...

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How Technology Is Reshaping DUI Defense

When it comes to law and technology, if you throw a rock, you'll hit someone claiming that legal tech is about to revolutionize practice. But it's not just Big Data and virtual paralegals that are changing how things are...

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Are Law Firms More Inclusive of LGBT Employees?

If you are a lesbian, gay, bi, or transgendered worker, outing yourself in the office can be risky, even today. Employment discrimination based on sexual orientation is banned in only 21 states and the District of Columbia; protections against...

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Holiday Office Parties Gone Wrong

The time hasn't yet arrived for digging into our Turkeys, but we thought it would be a good time to remind firms that there is a definite wrong way to conduct Holiday Office parties. Here's a list of things to...

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Who's Training the New Generation of Lawyers?

Bar Leader, an extension of the ABA, conducted a survey on millennial and Generation Y lawyers. It found that 75 percent of Generation Y lawyers felt that their law school failed to provide them with much practical training or information...

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How to Work in the U.S. as a Foreign Lawyer

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled lawyers yearning to bill hourly." If that's not what is say on the Statue of Liberty, it very well should be. Whether you learned the law in Ireland, Syria, or Bangladesh,...

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Pros and Cons of Taking Small Claims Cases

For most lawyers, the question of whether or not to take >small claims cases will inevitably come up. Many "successful" lawyers will simply dismiss these cases as being a waste of time. By definition, these small-ticket cases simply represent potential...

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Court Imposes Strict New Rules for Litigation Funding in Colorado

Litigation funding just got a bit more difficult in Colorado. The Rocky Mountain State's Supreme Court ruled en banc yesterday that consumer litigation funding companies provide small consumer loans, akin to payday loans. The ruling means that consumer litigation...

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A Brief History of the Billable Hour

The Billable Hour. It's both a loved and vilified institutional mainstay of the legal profession. It has been, up until very recently, the undisputed measure for associate performance at the nation's best law firms for the better part of half...

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Should you Accept Credit Cards at Your Firm?

As a savvy businessperson, you're constantly on the search for means of improving your practice's bottom line. Chances are you've fallen into the custom of accepting cash, check or some other sort of compensation. If you're lucky, you're accepting stock...

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How to Ensure You're Meeting Your CLE Requirements

It's that time of the year. Bar fees are coming due and, for many attorneys, continuing legal education deadlines are approaching. In just a few months, thousands of lawyers must verify their compliance with state CLE rules. While few...

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Inmate Calls to Lawyers Are Taped, Hacker Reveals

A massive trove of inmate conversations was hacked and extracted out of Securus Technologies, a leading provider of jail and prison phone services, raising deep questions about privacy and constitutional protections. The hack reveals that Securus had also been...

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