When It Comes to Referrals, Keep Your Terrible Clients to Yourself, Please

Here's some simple advice: when you're considering referring a client to other attorneys, keep your worst ones to yourself. If your client has a week case, is difficult to work with, or has a tendency to struggle with timely...

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What to Expect as Baby Boomer Partners Retire

The heads of the heads of America's law firms are getting grayer by the day, as more and more firm leadership hits retirement age (and beyond). Nearly half of the partners in Am Law 200 firms are members of...

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Newsletters Are Back in Style. Should Your Firm Have One?

We're in the midst of a freaking epistolary renaissance, and we largely have newsletters to thank. The electronic newsletter has been undergoing a rebirth over the past few years, with an ever growing number of informed, intelligent, and insightful...

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Are You Billing for Time Spent on Distractions?

Even the most focused lawyer can be pulled off task by distractions, by the urgent phone call, the quick email, the glance at Facebook that turns into a few minutes of scrolling. Such distractions are largely unavoidable. The problem...

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Should Lawyers Wear Black Lives Matter Pins in Court?

The Black Lives Matter movement has certainly struck a chord with many lawyers, from Supreme Court justices to public defenders. Over the last Supreme Court term, for example, Justice Sonia Sotomayor has repeatedly called out perceived abuses in the criminal...

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7 Ways to Tell If Your Firm Is Succeeding -- or Failing

You can have plenty of clients, unparalleled courtroom success, a stellar reputation -- and your firm can still go belly up. That's because running a law firm requires business skills on top of your legal ones. And many lawyers...

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Should You Try the Speed Dating Approach to Hiring?

In the typical speed dating set up, a group of single people looking for love gather for a formalized meet and greet with potential partners. You may spend three minutes speaking to Sandy then, switch, three minutes with Cameron. The...

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Lawyers, Stay Productive by Taking Breaks

It's Monday. You've got a mountain of work to get through. Don't put your head down and start powering through it. Instead, take a break. Stopping to check Facebook, read a blog, or go on a walk can actually...

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If Employees Can Expense Their Scotch, But Not Their Babysitter, Is That Sexist?

No one likes to work late, but one of the few perks is being reimbursed for what would otherwise be normal expenses. Need to order takeout because you're staying late to finish a file? You might be able to...

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5 Body Language Mistakes Lawyers Make

Even the smartest, most well-prepared lawyers can be betrayed by their body language. A shaky hand can undermine the most confident speech and a slouching posture can make the hardest working attorney look lazy. That's because your body language...

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Vamonos a Cuba, Legalmente: Doing Business in Cuba Today

With the U.S. relaxing its longstanding embargo against Cuba, the island nation is suddenly the place to be. Everyone from hotel chains to fruit importers to Jimmy Buffett (really) is looking into expanding to Cuba. And when Buffett shops...

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Is It Wrong to Ban Cowboy Boots in Court?

The trial of Ammon and Ryan Bundy begins today, but the duo won't be wearing their signature cowboy attire. The Bundy brothers, part of the family of Nevada ranchers turned anti-government activists known for their armed confrontations with the...

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How to Buy a Law Practice: 4 Tips

Why hang your own shingle when you can buy one? If you're looking to be a solo practitioner or run your own small firm, buying an existing practice can be an efficient alternative to building your own book of business....

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Lawyers Can Ethically Bill for Unpaid Interns, in New York at Least

You can bill clients for the work your student interns do, even if you pay those interns nothing. That’s the conclusion of a recent opinion from the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics. In March, the committee...

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Guiding Clients Through Chapter 11 With DIP Financing

A client company has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now the real struggle begins. Without access to capital, the most promising businesses may go under before they are able to reorganize and exit bankruptcy. Thankfully, so-called "debtor-in-possession" loans are commonplace....

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Think Twice Before Using Footnotes in This Federal Court

Are you a disciple of the footnote, always ready to drop a superscript 1 or 5 where a "see id., at 20372, 20379, 51924, 51951, 51958" could go? Think that in text citations destroy the flow of your writing...

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Why and How to Bring Veterans Into Your Firm

They've fought for the country, but can they fight for your law firm? Probably. There are more than 20 million veterans of the U.S. armed forces alive today, with experiences that stretch back as far as the Korean War...

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