Is Your Firm's Success Hindered by Too Many Rules?

Lawyers like rules. They are, after all, our bread and butter. And good firms establish some basic rules that govern their operation: intake policies, conflict checks, accounting procedures, and the like. They're essential to making sure the firm runs...

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Look Before You Hire: The Costs of Bad Hires for Law Firms

Job seekers often complain about the job search process. The common complaint is that it's drawn out, overly complex and layered, or unnecessary. Although the need to vent is understandable, employees should also appreciate what employers are trying to do:...

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What Can You Say to Someone Who Has Limited Representation?

Limited-scope representation is becoming more and more common, as clients seek out alternatives to traditional legal services. But dealing with an opposing party who only has limited representation can raise serious ethical issues regarding communication. What can an attorney...

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Switching Practice Areas in the Law: 3 Things to Keep in Mind

In a previous piece, we gave a few pointers for how to escape law as a career. That was meant for those who gave it their best but decided that the honeymoon of law was over. If you still have some...

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7 Top Tips for Your Small Firm Taxes

Everyone's least favorite holiday, tax day, is fast approaching. If your fiscal year matches the calendar year and you (or better yet, your accountant) haven't gotten all your tax filings in order just yet, don't worry. You've still time...

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Proposed Legal Thesaurus Might Help You Draft the Perfect Contract

Contracts are critical instruments for keeping lawsuits at bay. Wouldn't it be nice to have a lawyer's thesaurus laying around during those times when we just can't think of another synonym to "person"?...

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Congress Considers Cap to Malpractice Damages, Contingent Fees

Is the medical malpractice world about to experience some dramatic change? Yes, if congressional Republicans get their way. Congress is currently considering a bill that would cap damages for pain and suffering and reduce attorneys' contingent fees. Let's take...

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5 Tasks Your Firm Can Outsource to a Virtual Assistant

Here in Silicon Valley, fewer and fewer law firms rely on the physical presence of a receptionist or legal assistant to manage a front desk. And it's not just here, it's spreading everywhere. Space is expensive and you're most likely...

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Improve Your Law Library With These 7 Practice Guides

If you've got a question about managing your practice, if you're looking to explore a new area of law, or if you're just curious about the latest legal developments, well, you're in luck. There are literally thousands of resources...

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Checkpoint Tackles ACA ALE Requirements for Tax Firms, Clients

As lawyers in the field know, a boutique tax firm has many of the same kinds of issues as their fellow professionals -- in the medical field. That's right, a firm that specializes in criminal law will, they fervently hope,...

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Lawyers, Here's How You Can Save Startups From Themselves

Here's the startup dream: find an untapped need, (say, cheaper travel lodgings or easier cars on demand,) put together a new product to meet that need, "disrupt the paradigm," and get rich in the process. But, as the rise...

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Tax Tips for Deducting Your Travel Expenses

Unless you file for an extension soon, your taxes for this year are coming up. If you're a typical individual, you hate doing your taxes even more than you hate unclogging your drain. You know it has to be done,...

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7 Best Tips for Making the Most of a Paralegal or Legal Assistant

A law firm is more than a collection of lawyers. Often, the staff keeps things running, handling case logistics, managing scheduling, and even researching and drafting. That is to say, your paralegals and legal assistants matter. A lot. Here are...

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Spring Cleaning Tips for Lawyers in the Digital Age

If you're like the grand majority of the rest of the populace, the very idea of spring cleaning is repugnant to you. You like a clean working environment, but thinking about cleaning places is a weight on your spirit. Fortunately,...

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Justice Dept. Admonishes Courts for Fining the Poor

The U.S. Justice Department recently sent a letter to state and local courts warning them about constitutional concerns prompted by overly burdensome fees placed on poor and indigent defendants. The correspondence took the form of a "dear colleague letter" and...

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Should You Go to Trial Paperless? Are You Kidding?

At FindLaw, we're consistently bemused by Internet lawyers' fascination with "going paperless". Many of us once believed that all law offices would be completely devoid of any paper, one day. Trees rejoice! Now another slightly less ridiculous notion has reared...

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Get Ready for the SEC's New Crowdfunding Rules

Mark May 16, 2016, on your calendar. That's the day that U.S. securities law will experience one of the biggest changes since the Securities Act of 1933. On May 16th, the S.E.C.'s "Regulation Crowdfunding" final rules go into effect,...

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Tips to Minimize Overhead When Starting a Solo Practice

For several years, there have been different brass rings to reach for within the legal profession. The most common recurring of these including being named partner and in-house counsel (or better yet, GC) -- though the orders tend to switch....

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9 Great Non-Legal Apps That Lawyers Need

There are plenty of legal apps out there. Some are great, but many are a bit meh. I don't know too many attorneys who need an app to tell them how many days remain between now and their next court...

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5 Top Social Media Tips for Busy Lawyers

These days, you can't get online for two minutes before you find that there's yet another social media app advertised to make your life easier. How does a lawyer stay on top of it all? Take a look at some...

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Lessons in Management From K&L Gates: No Dictatorships

That loud sucking sound you hear is the noise of 30 partners leaving the respected law firm of K&L Gates to find greener pastures. And to what does the firm owe this migratin of talent? Let's call it a difference...

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Coworking Space for Lawyers: A Viable Option?

Coworking space simply sounds nice, whether or not its a vialble option. It brings a more communal working environment, possibly more perks of free food, a startup-like vibe, etc. Now lawyers are thinking of getting in on this whole coworking thing....

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Legal Technology Panels at SXSW 2016

Several panels related to legal technology are being presented at SXSW 2016 Conference in Austin, Texas, USA, 11-20 March 2016:

• Crowdsourcing Policy: Changing Constituents to Changemakers
• Fighting Injustice with Trickle-Up Innovation
• Fighting Wildlife Crime with Tech Innovation
• How to Fight Modern Slavery with Data Analysis
• Putting the Public Back into Public Policy
• State of Blockchain 2016: Where Do We Go From Here?
• Strategic Storytelling: Video As Policy Changer
• Surveillance, Sousveillance and Body Cams
• Using Data to Power Criminal Justice Reform
• Using Social Media to Predict Gun Violence
• We the People: Using Tech to Solve Big Challenges
• The White House Police Data Initiative

Thanks to friends at New York Legal Hackers for part of this list.

If you know of other legal-technology-related panels being presented at SXSW 2016, please feel free tell us about them in the comments to this post.

Filed under: Conference resources, Uncategorized Tagged: Legal applications of blockchain technology, Legal communication, Legal crowdsourcing, Legal evidence information systems, Legal informatics conferences, Legal narrative, Open legal data, Technology for access to justice, Video in legal communication

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Navigating the World of Beer and Wine Law

When we talk about heavily regulated industries, we are usually talking about things like toxic waste management, health care providers, or public utilities. But there's one highly regulated trade that often goes unrecognized: the beer, wine, and spirits industry....

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New Partnership Tax Audit Rules Could Put You at Risk

If your firm is a TEFRA partnership -- and most partnerships are -- your tax game could be in for a change. Without much fanfare, new partnership audit rules were passed last December as appropriations riders. And though they...

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Cyberwar Is Big 'Legal' Business ... and Too Expensive for Most Firms

Cyberwar and cybersecurity is getting to the point that it's even scaring credit card companies, financial institutions, and government agencies. In the past, the problem just wasn't expensive enough. Well, times they are a-changin'. Part of the problem, however, is...

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Even Small Firms Are Jumping on the Merger Bandwagon

If there was one major trend in big law firms in 2015, it was mergers. BigLaw spent 2015 getting even bigger, largely by absorbing its competitors. Last year saw more than 91 large law firm mergers, according to Altman...

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9 Top Tips for Legal Advertising in the Digital Age

The future is now! Wait. Scratch that. When it comes to digital advertising, the future was yesterday. Legal marketing embraced the power of the World Wide Web years ago and digital legal advertising has been growing ever since. But...

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Lawyer's Retirement Plan: What Retirement?

According to a survey of more than 200 lawyers, approximately 29 percent of lawyers responded that they would simply work more in order to make up financial holes in their retirement plans. In other words, their retirement plan was to not...

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How to Successfully Disagree With Colleagues, Clients

When you work with others, conflict is inevitable. That's true whether you're working with co-counsel, support staff, or just a difficult client. How you address these disagreements can be the difference between a productive relationship and completely dysfunctional one....

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Should Lawyers Use GIFs in Their Social Media?

Gone are the days when you could get away with a website and wall of text. Today, the Internet is dominated by the visual as much as the textual -- and savvy lawyers know that they need to take advantage...

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Tips for Lawyers: Advertising on LinkedIn

LinkedIn isn't just for networking. For attorneys, it's also a platform for marketing your business. Lawyers should at least consider taking a glance at LinkedIn's advert options for small firms. Here are a few tips to get you started advertising...

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Best of Women Attorneys: How and Why to Celebrate Ladies in Law

You don’t need a special occasion to appreciate women in the law, though International Women’s Day is just around the corner. And it’s a great time to be a woman in the law, as more and more female lawyers are...

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How Fashion Law Is Fighting Counterfeits Today

What's the best attire for court? (Suit or pants suit.) Can you ever wear too much black? (Not really.) Bow tie or regular tie? (Regular tie, of course.) These are important fashion questions, but they're certainly not what fashion...

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4 Steps to Improve Your Online Attorney Reviews

The days of the simple word-of-mouth referral are over. Legal consumers now start their search online, according to a survey by FindLaw's Legal Marketing. The Internet is the most common place consumers search for attorneys. And part of managing...

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How Do You Become a Marijuana Lawyer?

You don't just become a pot lawyer any more than you would just become an equine lawyer. Such niche areas require experience -- the kind of experience that freshly minted law grads don't have. In fact, "pot law" only recently...

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