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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Tips for Hiring Litigation Support Specialists

Given the increases in electronic storage and data archiving, eDiscovery has exploded in recent years. That explosion has helped fuel a growing industry of legal support professionals, from attorneys to IT workers to project managers, who manage you eDiscovery...

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Law Firms Embrace Modern Layouts to Free up Space

After many years of lounging in antiquity, law firms are finally taking the necessary steps to modernize their practices, especially in terms of utilizing their real estate. In Orange County, California, a number of law firms have gotten creative...

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Law Firm Throws out Billable Hours for Associate Evaluations

The law firm of Jackson Lewis PC decided to break away from legal tradition and abolish the billable hour as a metric for associate performance. That's right. This is welcome news to come from the employment firm. Since it clocks...

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Judge Tries to Bribe the FBI With a Beer

A North Carolina Superior Court Judge was charged with several crimes after he bribed a member of the FBI with beer. The purpose of the bribe was to secure the text message of his family.It's probably safe to say that...

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Lying Down Helps You Focus, Says Sonoma's Altwork Inc.

According to some designers out of California, lying down helps you focus on your work and they've have built a work station based on that very concept. In 2016, we'll be able to try it out. The Altwork Station...

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The Easiest Marketing Plan: Cross-Selling to Clients

The best client is a client you already have. The best of the best are clients you already have who want even more of your services. Cross-selling your services to existing clients is one of the easiest, most inexpensive...

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Should Police Have Access to Body Cam Footage After an Incident?

Police body cams are becoming increasingly popular, with nearly a quarter of the nation's police agencies currently using the small, body-mounted cameras, and 80 percent considering the technology. Civil rights advocates, law enforcement officers, and even the President, view...

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5 Simple Ways Lawyers can Improve Their Productivity

When you're a lawyer, your time is literally money. Use it effectively and you'll have a profitable career that doesn't keep you working 16 hour days. The key, as the cliche goes, is to work smarter, not harder. Here...

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Writing Advice From the Solicitor General's Style Guide

If you're one of those "good enough" legal practitioners, this piece will make you squirm in your seat. Lawyers must be a dry bunch overall, however, because the The Solicitor General's Style Guide: Second Ed. just took Amazon's #1...

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How to Leave Your Clients, Without Getting 1,100 Bar Complaints

California lawyer James Mazi Parsa might be the most complained-about lawyer ever. The Orange County attorney is currently facing over 1,100 pending bar complaints, many stemming from his alleged abandonment of clients. Let's take Parsa's potential disbarment as a...

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Is it Caselaw or Case Law? Twitter, and Everyone Else, Weighs In

It seems innocuous enough of a topic. When discussing the "legal principles enunciated and embodied in judicial decisions that are derived from the application of particular areas of law to the facts of individual cases" is it caselaw or...

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7 Tips for Your Online Lawyer Bio

First impressions are important. If you want to make a great first impression on prospective clients, it's crucial to have a great lawyer bio. Whether it's the bio on your website, your LinkedIn page, or some other online destination, you...

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SEC Approves Landmark Crowdfunding Bill. This One Is Big.

The SEC just approved changes to crowdfunding rules that will allow small companies looking to raise money to seek investment from small, non-accredited investors. Who are those non-accredited potential investors? Just to give you an idea, that's about 91...

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