Should You Correct a Boss, Lead Attorney, or Co-Counsel, in the Courtroom?

A dilemma that no junior associate hopes to encounter is seeing their boss make a mistake in the courtroom. However, whether or not it's your boss, a lead attorney, or co-counsel, how you interact with the attorney presenting your client's...

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When Do 'Summer Hours' End?

For many lawyers, 'summer hours' are nothing more than wishful thinking, or simply a frustrating way for the firm to cut costs. The very thought of closing the office an hour or two early, or scaling back support staff...

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Falsifying Billable Hours: Never Worth It

Is it a victimless crime for a lawyer to overstate a legal bill but never send the bill to the client? Probably not, but the results were about the same for one Louisiana attorney. Kenneth Todd Wallace was suspended...

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Open Office Floor Plans for Law Offices: Yay or Nay?

More and more law firms are adopting the holy grail of office floor plans, the open concept office. These floor plans eschew private working spaces for more collaborative spaces. Maybe having client meetings in wall-less cubicles sounds less than...

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Legal Support Staff Is on the Move

Remember calling tech support, and the help was speaking to you from another country? Well, get used to it for law office help, too. Law firms are realizing that it is cheaper to move some operations to less expensive...

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When Do Law Firm Mergers Mean Layoffs?

While it's hard to predict the weather, it's a good bet the sun will come up tomorrow for most people. If you are in the middle of a storm, however, it can be hard to see a way out....

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How to Deal With Crazy Law Partners

When explosive attorney Marc Kasowitz sent profanity-laden messages to a public relations professional, the law firm had to duck and cover. Ronald Rossi, a partner at the law firm handling President Trump's personal matters, explained the meltdown to reporters...

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7 Tips on How to Proofread Pleadings

Proofreading is important. Whether you're trying to catch problems with your argument or just fix an incorrect subject verb agreement, if you don't proofread, you might miss something important or just appear careless to the court and adversaries. Ideally,...

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Should Your Law Firm Have a More Creative Office Space?

Should you have a more creative office space? Well, duh, because the '90s want their furniture back. Unless you've got more retro-shtick than the Dude, his Dudeness, or Duder, it's time for an upgrade. This is not an entirely...

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What Ever Happened to All That 'Mindfulness' Stuff?

A couple years back, a lawyer couldn't throw a handful of rocks at a computer screen without hitting some article on the subject of mindfulness. If you managed to avoid the deluge of articles from the mindfulness invasion, maybe...

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How to Write a Funny Demand Letter

It's not every day that a lawyer writes a funny demand letter. The very thought of it sounds like a bad joke -- as if lawyers had a sense of humor. But one Netflix attorney broke the mold recently,...

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Lawyers Beware: Social Justice Burnout Is Real

Especially in our current political climate, regardless of what side of the coin, aisle, or pantry, you identify, fighting for social causes that you believe in is exhausting. For attorneys, being professional while on the clock for your cause...

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Women Lawyers Taking More Roles in Firm Leadership

Women lawyers are taking 25 percent of the governance roles in top law firms, nearly double the amount in the last decade. That is the brightest spot in a new report on the promotion and retention of women in...

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Can You Really Ghostwrite a Pleading for a Client?

There are some clients that you just can't help. Try as you might, if helping a client jeopardizes your ability to practice law, you need to rethink what you're doing, and maybe call your local ethics hotline. However, sometimes...

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Lawyers Can Accept Bitcoin Payments -- With Conditions

Lawyers may accept digital currencies in payment for legal services, according to a new ethics opinion. The Nebraska ethics opinion is the first by a state ethics body, according to the ABA Journal. The Lawyers Advisory Committee issued the...

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How to Tell Clients They're Being Stupid

It may come as no surprise that most Americans are ignorant about the law. According to the University of Pennsylvania, most Americans don't have a clue about the Constitution. Barley one-third can remember the First Amendment right; only one...

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Women Can Lead Trials With High Emotional Intelligence

People still talk about the legacy of Ellen Pao's high-profile sex discrimination case in the Silicon Valley -- even though she lost several years ago. Lynne Hermle, who led a team of mostly women defense lawyers, won the case....

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Handling Parenting Challenges as a Full-Time Lawyer

Gennady G. Golovkin, who is a better boxer than $300-million-per-fight Floyd Mayweather, was facing the biggest challenge of his perfect-record career. "GGG" was preparing to fight a younger, stronger fighter who was thirsty to take Golovokin's championship crown. But...

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Pros and Cons of Being a Civil Rights Plaintiffs' Lawyer

So long as you're doing plaintiff work, being a civil rights attorney is about the most noble calling a private attorney can answer. But that's not to say that practicing in the area is not without its pitfalls. Below,...

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How to Get Interesting Cases With Online Marketing

Often times, when high profile or legally fascinating cases get some media attention, the lawyers not handling those cases will be left wondering: how did THAT lawyer get THAT case? While a lawyer's personal reputation and personal network still...

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How to Ambush by Deposition

'Ambush by deposition' is not as bad as it sounds. It means "to catch a witness by surprise," which is the Perry Mason paradigm. Nothing wrong with a little curve, right? It's not right to harass a witness with...

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How to Perform Well Under Pressure

Diamonds are made under pressure. It's a naturally occurring process deep in the Earth. Companies do make fakes -- "cultured diamonds" -- but nature's recipe is the most valuable. People are not much different when it comes to performing...

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Can Remote Translation Attract Non-English Speaking Clients?

Can you speak a language other than English? Can you do so well enough to attract speakers of that language as potential clients? If so, it may just be a matter of expanding your marketing to reach that demographic....

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Is It Fair Game to Use Your Smartphone Against Opposing Counsel?

Basically, it was a high tech way of spying. According to reports, the Red Sox baseball team was stealing hand signs by watching video replays of the game off the field and then texting the information live to a...

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Will You Get Sanctioned Over a Novel Litigation Theory?

Sometimes the law just doesn't fit a case the way that it should. And when those cases have compelling facts, it can often be worthwhile to pursue a novel litigation strategy or theory. However, how you pursue that novel...

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Can Hurricane Lawsuits Be Based on Climate-Change Science?

If necessity is the mother of invention, could a hurricane be the mother of new litigation? Apparently so. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, attorneys have already filed lawsuits on behalf of homeowners and businesses that were deluged. They...

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How to Hide 'Tracked Changes' From Opposing Counsel

While courts surely derive some sick and twisted pleasure by forcing attorneys on opposite sides to file joint pleadings, how you go about handling those logistics can have a big impact on your case. Since the great word processor...

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Certified Ways to a Niche Market Fortune for Lawyers

During the Gold Rush, many miners went broke because it cost so much to prospect. That's also how many merchants got rich. One egg cost $25 in today's dollars. Coffee, $100 per pound. A pair of boots, $2,500. In...

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Can a Translation App Expand Your Practice?

If you only speak one language, or you just aren't comfortable speaking that second language you learned over a decade ago, you may not think it's possible to expand your practice to cater to non-English speaking clients. However, thanks...

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How to Be a Rainmaker Without Networking

Facebook gave us endless 'friends,' although most Facebook friends are fake. So in the evolution of social media, has networking turned into "fake-friending"? Or has it always been that way -- "hello, I love you, won't you tell me...

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Top 5 Reasons to Bolt From Your Firm

You can find as many reasons as you want to leave your law firm: the boss is a jerk; advancement is unlikely; the hours are killing you, etc. But you better think it through because in the law business,...

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When Does Another Lawyer's Computer Bill Become Yours?

When you think about how much your law partner's new computer cost, you know instinctively that the bill is also your bill. It's Partnership 101. But different rules apply with your "other partner." We're talking about when a spouse's...

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