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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3 Ways to Ensure Productive Meetings

Few people get excited about meetings. Why? Because they're typically felt to be a waste of time. Here you are, listening to someone drone on and on about something that could have been conveyed more quickly in an email....

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Do You Have a Client-Centered Law Practice?

You work late nights for your clients, take their calls on the weekend, lose your hair over their divorces and labor disputes and contract negotiations. You fight hard, obtain favorable outcomes, and even reduce their bills every once in...

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3 Things to Look for When Looking for Law Office Space

Location, location, location. If only it were so simple. You could ask Siri or Google to find your new law office space. Unfortunately, your virtual assistant might lead you to an office supply or office furniture store or some other...

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Can You Still Work If You Are Suspended From the Practice of Law?

Over the years, we've seen lawyers disciplined and suspended from practice for hundreds of different reasons: publishing allegedly false statements about local judges on their blogs, representing both parties in a personal injury suit, falsifying eDiscovery documents, even insulting...

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Essential Soft Skills Lawyers Need to Succeed

Let's face it: law practice is a business. Sure, we may aspire to help the homeless, free the tempest-tossed, and breathe life into the standard of liberty and justice for all. But if lawyers can't bring in business, then they...

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Tips for Including Wikipedia in Your Marketing Plan

Wikipedia is the largest online encyclopedia in the world, according to Wikipedia. It may not be entirely true, but it is true enough for some judges to take judicial notice of the information it contains. And if it's good enough...

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Future Law Career: Privacy Law Specialist?

To think that a good privacy lawyer could possibly have saved the election for Hillary Clinton ...After hackers got into her email, it was the beginning of the end for the presidential nominee. A few non-secure messages, an ill-timed FBI...

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Should You Research Job Candidates on Social Media?

You have an opening at your firm. You've listed the position, received dozens of applications, and focused in on a few qualified candidates. Now, should you track them down on social media?...

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'Racially Coded References' Cost a Prosecutor the Case

A prosecutor's use of 'racially coded references' means that a South Carolina man's death sentence must be reversed, the Fourth Circuit ruled yesterday. Johnny Bennett, who is African American, had been convicted of murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery and...

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Holiday Networking Tips for Lawyers

Thanksgiving is on the horizon, which means that the holiday party season is just a step behind it. Once you hear Nat King Cole singing about chestnuts roasting on an open fire -- so Friday, basically -- get ready...

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Law Firms See Big Drop in Revenue per Partner

If your firm's revenue growth has been stagnant or even declined, you're not alone. Law firms experienced a sizable drop in revenue per partner last year, according to National Law Journal's annual 'Survey of Law Firm Economics.' On average,...

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5 TED Talks to Make You Feel Inspired and Entertained

It's the middle of the week. The sky is grey, the weather is chilly, and the night is coming sooner and sooner. And you've still got those briefs to write, papers to file, and hours to bill. Before you...

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Lawyer's 'Parroted' Twitter Joke Leads to Accusations of Plagiarism

Twitter users tend to run in groups. There's political Twitter, black Twitter, legal Twitter, and even #appellatetwitter. And over the past few days, the legal twittersphere has had its feathers ruffled a little bit. As you would expect, the...

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4 Things Lawyers Need to Know About Marijuana Legalization

The big winner this election cycle wasn't just Donald Trump. It was recreational, legalized marijuana. (Okay, sort of legalized. The federal government, of course, continues to classify marijuana as an illegal drug. More on that in a minute.) Voters...

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What Is Blockchain? A Lawyer's Guide

Blockchain technology is set to transform industries and institutions throughout the world. What started as an idea synonymous with Bitcoin, the virtual currency, is now making its way into everything from contract drafting, to election monitoring, to land registry...

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After a Century of Waiting, We're Finally Getting a Treatise on Judicial Precedent

Here's something a bit unprecedented: 12 distinguished appellate judges have come together with Bryan Garner to release a "hornbook-style" treatise on the doctrine of judicial precedent. And it's the first such publication in over a century. Published by Thomson...

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5 Small Changes That Can Improve Your Time Management Skills

Whether it's making sure we get through all our necessary tasks, prioritize important projects, or simply stop wasting time on Facebook, pretty much every legal professional could improve their time management skills. And you can. If you want to improve...

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5 Tips to Help You Avoid Common Attorney Ethics Pitfalls

Legal ethics aren't something you should pick up through trial and error. Instead, attorneys should make compliance with their ethical and professional responsibilities a central part of their business -- as important as getting clients and billing hours. Thankfully,...

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3 Tips to Help You Reach Clients on Social Media

Word of mouth referrals remain essential to building a successful practice. But when potential clients are looking for a lawyer these days, they're doing more than just asking their family and friends. They're turning to the internet -- and...

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Most Lawyers Work Less Than They Say, Collect Less Than They're Owed

Think everyone else is billing more hours than you? You're probably wrong, according to a new report by Clio, the case and practice management software company. Clio's "2016 Legal Trend Report" provides an overview of the legal industry, based...

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Higher Hourly Rates Don't Always Mean More Revenue

If you want to increase your law firm's revenue, think twice before raising your rates. That's the take away from a new report by Thomson Reuters Peer Monitor, which surveyed data among firms and found that those who raised...

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Lawyer's Qui Tam Spam Nets Him Nearly $12M

Talk about a niche practice: A Chicago lawyer has filed almost a thousand qui tam cases in Cook County, Illinois courts over the past 15 years, bringing in millions of dollars in settlements. Stephen Diamond and his firm, Bloomberg's...

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Thomson Reuters to Host Event on LGBTQ Representation and the Legal Industry

Are you interest in LGBTQ rights and the legal industry? Planning on being in or around New York City on November 7th? Then here's something you might want to check out. Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute is hosting an...

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Supreme Court Emphasizes Limits to Victim Impact Testimony

The Supreme Court's ban on victim impact testimony that recommends specific sentencing outcomes (like the death penalty) is still in effect despite the opinion being partially overruled, the Court announced in a per curiam decision last week. The brief...

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Meritless Lawsuit Leaves Lawyer Liable for $1.75M in Punitive Damages

Talk about a costly mistake: Mark Halpern, a Pennsylvania lawyer, has been found liable for $1.75 million in punitive damages for filing an allegedly meritless lawsuit in a dispute over a family trust. Halpern's client was hit with $300,000...

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3 Ways Lawyers Can Reduce Time Spent on Administrative Tasks

Answering phone calls, balancing the books, organizing your files -- these are the sort of chores that can keep you from doing your actual job: lawyering. Administrative tasks can easily eat up a significant portion of your time, taking...

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