3 Signs It's Time to Retire From Your Law Practice

It might be time to retire if: Your aged parents look younger than you do, you don't recognize that old person in the mirror, or you have more hair in your nose and ears than on your head. Come now,...

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Do Lawyers Really Want Work/Life Balance?

Making time for family, traveling the world on vacation, disconnecting from the office, and keeping up your health and exercise -- these are all things lawyers tend to struggle with. With the pressures of a legal career, many lawyers spend...

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Whatever Happened to Juries?

Remember jury trials, one of the hallmarks of the American justice system? You sure don't seem to see many of them around anymore. In 1962, for example, there were nearly 11,000 civil and criminal trials in federal courts, according...

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Cookie-Cutter Law Practice: Recipe for Success or Excess?

If a cookie-cutter law practice sounds tempting to you, maybe you should consider another line of work -- like baking. "Cookie cutter" lawyering is not supposed to sound alluring; it's generally used in a pejorative way. It suggests a...

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Spaces Are the New Frontier in the Lawyer Writing Wars

Lawyers love to get worked up about obscure grammar and style rules, almost as much as they like to get in a huff over obscure laws. (Emoluments, anyone?) There's the long-running fight pitting case law aficionados against the caselaw'ers....

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Faxes Are Still Used, and Still the Cause for Lawsuits

Remember fax machines? If you're like many of us, you probably haven't touched one in years. After all, didn't faxes disappear into the technological netherworld, alongside beepers, dial-up internet, and the Walkman? No, they didn't. Faxes are still around,...

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Jacoby & Myers Loses Appeal to Associate Nonlawyer Investors

How many lawyers does it take to own a law firm? One -- the rest are banks, landlords, and service providers who own everything that keeps the practice afloat. So it's not a good lawyer joke, but comedy is...

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Dealing With Difficult Opposing Counsel

The toughest lawyer I ever met had the credentials to prove it. In college, he was a Golden Gloves boxing champ. He got knocked down one time, but got back up and knocked out his opponent. He didn't go...

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Spring Cleaning for Lawyers

In the spring, a young man's fancy might turn to thoughts of love, if you believe Tennyson, but for the rest of us, well, we'll content ourselves with a little extra sunshine and a healthy bout of cleaning. For...

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Workplace Perks That Lawyers Actually Want

What do you really want? It's a question that sometimes comes up in the crisis stage of a relationship. One partner feels inadequate or frustrated, and the other is stifled about communicating his feelings. Maybe I'm getting too personal...

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Lawyers, Have a Big Aversion to Small Talk? Here Are Some Tips

You spend your days dealing with divorces, or insurance claims, or digging through millions of pages of discovery. Then, when it comes time to head to an industry mixer, you're expected to make small talk with strangers about --...

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Solo Attorney Takes New York's 'Bona Fide Office Rule' to the Supreme Court

Ekaterina Schoenefeld is a one-woman law firm working out of a duplex in New Jersey. She is also a force to be reckoned with, so get used to pronouncing her name. Admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York...

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3 Reasons You Shouldn't Cap Hourly Fees

Capping your hourly fees is like going on a Jenny Craig diet. For most people, any diet is hard to do. But Jenny also costs money. The best-case scenario is that you will get skinny. Same thing with capping...

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Are You Ready for the New Normal? Take This Quiz to Find Out

Things aren't what they used to be. Today's lawyers face a constantly shifting legal landscape. Technology has made it possible to run a paperless law firm, to outsource tasks across the globe, or to find yourself swamped in endless...

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ABA, Law Firms Speak Out Against Cuts to Legal Aid

The EPA and the National Endowment for the Arts aren't the only government programs facing massive cuts under President Trump's proposed budget. In the proposal released last Thursday, the President urged Congress to fully eliminate funding to the Legal...

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Lonely Lawyer? How to Deal With Isolation

In a scene from the movie 'All Is Lost,' an aging Robert Redford is desperately alone in a life raft in the middle of the ocean as a cargo ship passes him as if he weren't there. It is...

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Law Firm Social Media: Different Approaches for Twitter and Facebook

Lawyers can't ignore social media anymore. Facebook can be a way to reach potential clients, for example, while a strong Twitter account could help increase your profile in the legal community. At the same time, social media is not...

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Police Get Search Warrant for Everyone Who Googled a Fraud Victim's Name

Do not Google these words: "Douglas" and "passport photo." If you do, you could find yourself on the wrong end of a search warrant. The Edina Police Department has obtained a search warrant for anyone who Googled that name...

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Why Lawyers Should Know Their 'Net Promoter Score'

What's your 'Net Promoter Score?' You don't know? Well, you should. A Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is a measure of client loyalty, the odds that a client will come back or recommend you to others. For an industry...

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Pros and Cons of Being a Public Defender

What are the pros and cons of being a public defender? First of all, public defenders are surrounded by pros and cons every day. They are the dredges of society, the cast-offs, and the remorseless left-overs from a time...

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Lawyers Can Be Sued for Single Misrepresentation in Lawsuit, Court Rules

A lawyer who made material misrepresentations in a lawsuit may be sued under New York's 'attorney deceit' statute, even if there was only a single act of misrepresentation. The suit, brought by Canon, the camera and photocopier company, involves...

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Tort Reform, Class Action Limits Pass in House; Will They Become Law?

A bill intended to curb class action lawsuits passed in the House of Representatives last week. H.R. 985, the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017, would make major changes to class action litigation, limiting attorney's fees and...

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4 Tips for Beating the Small Law Firm Blues

Merle Haggard wasn't a lawyer, but he knew how to sing the workin' man blues -- the same song that small firm lawyers sometimes hear late at night. "Works hard every day, might get tired on the weekend, after...

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Gender Bias in Silicon Valley and Beyond

Two years ago this month, one of the nation's biggest venture capital firms prevailed in the most-watched gender discrimination case in the history of the Silicon Valley. Ellen Pao, a former partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, accused...

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A Quick Reminder on the Importance of the Oxford Comma, From the First Circuit

Where do you stand on the Oxford comma? If you're like a sizable minority of Americans, you could do without it. But if you're an intelligent, thoughtful person who cares about your writing, you make sure you've got an...

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BigLaw Firm Starts Letting Associates Work From Home

Working from home isn't just for tech workers and Instagram celebrities anymore. About one quarter of the workforce telecommutes frequently, a number that's more than doubled over the past decade. Now, that number is starting to include more and...

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5 Top Tips for Keeping Clients Happy

When it comes to building your practice, client satisfaction is key. Happy clients mean more clients, either through repeat business or future referrals. And while winning, however you define it, is the key to client glee, there are a...

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How to Tell a Client you Made a Mistake

"Lawyer to the Colombian Drug Cartel," Time magazine called him. With the article for an introduction, I called him for an appointment. It's easy to get inside places when you have press credentials. I had a burning question: "How...

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How Blogging Can Improve Your Legal Writing

You all know the maxim: the best bloggers are the best lawyers. Alright, maybe that's not a widely adopted saying just yet. But, when it comes to your writing, lawyers could learn a thing or two from blogging. No,...

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A Chinese Path to Law Office Cost-Efficiency

There's an ancient Chinese proverb that rings true even today: "Those who know when they have enough are rich." I am not Chinese, but I know frugality when I see it. Years ago, I worked in Los Angeles for a...

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Suit Alleges Fewer Bonuses, Lower Pay for Female Partners

Just in time for International Women's Day comes another suit alleging gender discrimination in the legal industry. Two lawyers at Chadbourne & Parke filed a class action lawsuit against their firm, alleging that Chadbourne discriminates against female partners in...

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'Eat This, Not That' of Social Media Ethics for Law Firms

When it comes to avoiding ethical issues, isn't it just a Ten Commandments of Thou-Shalt-Not's? "Don't lie." "Don't cheat." "Don't steal." But how boring is that? Plus it's like a million years old! So let's break the mold and...

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First Murder Trial? Consider the Facts

Stephanie Morales, a 32-year-old prosecutor handling her first murder trial, looked across the courtroom at her opponent -- the community's best known criminal defense attorney. James Broccoletti , who had been practicing criminal law longer than his opponent had...

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Deportation Fears Are Undermining Criminal Prosecutions

The Trump administration has brought a new, hard-line approach to immigration enforcement, looking to ramp up detentions and deportations. Now, deportation fears are starting to impact some criminal proceedings, as undocumented immigrants take a more cautious approach to law...

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Tips for Following Your Passion in the Law

Chloe, the star of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and a voice of inspiration for those who search for meaning in the drudgery of life, said it best: "Rough. Rough." Just kidding. For those of you haven't watched a dog movie...

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What Lawyers Can Learn From the Swatch

Lawyers are skilled professionals, dedicated, focused, highly trained -- not so unlike, say, a Swiss watchmaker. But our precision workmanship isn't the only thing we share with our cuckoo-crafting Swiss brethren. Like the Swiss watchmakers before us, lawyers are...

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With the ABA Selling Cyber Insurance, Is Now the Time to Buy?

The internet is a dangerous place and attorneys are increasingly being targeted by hackers seeking to hold important files for ransom or make a buck off insider information. As a result, more and more attorneys are turning to cyber...

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Legal Practice Tip: Don't Just Rely on Computer Research

If you come across a stack of legal reporters in a law firm today, you know they're largely for show. The vast majority of our legal research takes place online, through services like Westlaw. And thank God! Searching through...

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Lawyers, Here's a New Criminal Justice Series to Add to Your Reading List

We've got a lot of prisoners in the United States -- nearly a quarter of all the prisoners in the world. Yet, despite such a high incarceration rate, the actual workings of the criminal justice system occur largely outside...

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Working With Startups and the Value of Saying 'No'

A young, ambitious entrepreneur came into the office with the next big thing. Having made millions in other enterprises, the client was confident this was the business that would set him up for life. He wanted to record videos...

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Tips for Your Law Firm Social Media Policy

Have you ever seen a retraction or correction of a news story? They are rare and often inconspicuous when they do appear. After all, nobody likes to highlight their mistakes. The real problem, however, is that retractions and corrections...

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