What to Do When Law Practice Literally Makes You Sick

Paula Davis-Laack was killing it. Her practice was so busy lunch was a bag of peanuts and a contract. But then she hit a wall -- that wall every lawyer hits on the way to burn-out. She literally couldn't...

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Etymology of Great Legal Words: Gerrymander

Great legal words are come in all shapes and sizes. Take for instance the word gerrymander. You might not believe it, but the word's origins are about as simple as they sound. It's a portmanteau of sorts of the...

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Beat Procrastination With Emotional Intelligence

Need help beating procrastination? Hang on, we'll get back to that in a minute. For now, let's talk about emotional intelligence. You know, it's that other IQ that starts with EQ? The point is, it's about time to use...

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Cut and Paste Stops Working in Word Update, Lawyers Mourn

This morning, lawyers across the globe woke up to a twilight zone, of sorts. Microsoft Word has stopped allowing the copy/cut and paste function in their latest automatic update of Microsoft Word which pushed last night. Legal secretaries, paralegals,...

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Why Defendants Call Demands Extortion

For plaintiff lawyers, it's a common and annoying refrain, every civil defendant thinks and feels like every demand letter is basically extortion. Yes, whenever a person or business has to pay up or face litigation and associated public condemnation,...

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Marie Kondo for Lawyers: Tidying Up Your Clients

Are you locked into the KonMari method madness yet? Do you evaluate all your possessions in both your personal and professional life to see if each one sparks joy, or should be replaced or relinquished? If so, it may be...

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Litigation Funding: Can I Get Some of That?

Litigation funding is a way to finance your cases, but it may not be your way. If you signed on a client to right a wrong, litigation funders are not really interested. They are in it for the money,...

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Mueller Report Done, Now What?

At the close of business Friday afternoon on the East Coast, Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr. Yes, THE Mueller report, after 22-months, and a whole lot of political drama, is done. Early...

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Can Micro-Influencers Help Promote Your Firm?

Micro-influencers are online personalities who are not as popular as cat videos, yet have dedicated fans. That comparison may be mixing species, but you can't ignore 69 million views for a cat flipping head-over-heels. The point is, it's not...

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Is It Time to Hire a Well-Being Specialist for Your Law Firm?

If law firm morale is slumping three months into the year, it's too late for a New Year's Eve party to cheer things up. Spring break might give people a chance to recharge, but it takes more to create...

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Marie Kondo for Lawyers: Tidying Up Your Law Office

If you're a living, breathing, person with a place to live and access to the internet, then the probability is high that you've at least heard of Marie Kondo and her magic of helping people tidy up. There's even a...

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Proper Semicolon Usage for Lawyers

When it comes to punctuation, few marks are as dreaded or confused as the semicolon. It's more than comma, but less than period. Not surprisingly, even lawyers stumble over how and when to use them. Fortunately, if you're one of...

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3 Better Ways to Welcome New Associates

For the most part, new associates are excited about starting jobs at law firms. After all, they are going to make real lawyer money. And they can't wait to get into the courtroom or the boardroom. But then reality...

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Top 3 Tips for When Document Formatting Drives You Crazy

We've all been there ... it's late, you're trying to get your pleading finalized and ready for efiling, when all of a sudden, your formatting snaps out of place. And unfortunately, the age old remedy of just whacking your...

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Missouri Legislating Against Joinder in Mass Torts

For mass tort plaintiffs, seeking relief in St. Louis, Missouri may soon no longer be a viable option. Although seen as a plaintiff-friendly venue, particularly given the recent massive multi-billion dollar award against Johnson & Johnson, the state's senate...

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Federal Judiciary Adopts New Ethics Rules

The United States judiciary adopted new ethics rules, forbidding sexual harassment, unlawful discrimination, and "egregious and hostile" treatment of workers in the federal courts. The rules evolved from complaints about Judge Alex Kozinski, who resigned from the U.S. Ninth...

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Should You Ever Use an Exclamation Mark in a Pleading?

Even if you love exclamation marks as much as Elaine from Seinfeld, when drafting a pleading, there's really only one time when using one is appropriate. And no, it's not when you really need to put opposing counsel on blast. Much...

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How to Kill Your Opponent With Laughter

Stand-up comedians say they are killing it when audiences laugh; lawyers just want to kill in their arena. It's the nature of the beast, the law of the jungle. Lawyers are trained to attack, but laughter could be their most...

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Minnesota Judge Orders Snow to Stop, and It Worked

While the order itself may look authentic, one Minnesota state court judge is bound to have news station anchors and weather-reporters chuckling for years to come with his recent Order to Enjoin "Minnesota Meteorologists, Old Man Winter, and Mr. Snow"...

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How Perfect Can Your Law Firm Be?

Being perfect is a relative term, of course. "Perfect form" in tennis, for example, may define how a player strokes the ball. In law practice, "perfect writing" may be a brief without blemish. Some law firms, however, may put...

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