ABA Journal

Law firm leadership and the ‘Lemonade’ conference

Ari Kaplan recently spoke with with Debbie Foster, the managing partner of Affinity Consulting, a company focused on optimizing law firm performance. They discussed why efficiency, productivity and profitability have become a focal point for leaders in the legal industry, the technology applications that have the greatest impact on a law firm’s success, and the "Lemonade" virtual conference.

Aug 29, 2022 8:42 AM CDT

Lawyer who moved from Ukraine to US now has opportunity to help others facing similar situations

An immigration attorney started doing pro bono work for Ukrainian immigrants in February, shortly after Russia invaded the country.

Aug 29, 2022 8:41 AM CDT

Unbroken: A call for psychiatric disability initiatives in the legal profession

So many of us struggle in silence while striving for excellence, when only a helping hand and understanding—not only from family and friends but also from colleagues and those with leading positions in law firms—could guide our way to attain success as humans and as professionals.

Aug 25, 2022 8:45 AM CDT

Sick of meetings that go off the rails? ‘Robert’s Rules of Order’ can help

It’s no secret that lawyers are asked to attend or preside over many kinds and types of meetings. But not everyone has formal training in running them.

Aug 24, 2022 8:36 AM CDT

Effective Law Office Design: Inspiring and enhancing workplace culture

A thoughtfully considered office has the ability to truly shift the tide, and a successful redesign starts with just one question.

Aug 18, 2022 10:43 AM CDT

8 types of clients you must manage in your legal practice

Very early in my legal career while practicing law in Jamaica, a client kept me on my toes with a criminal law matter. In one instance, it was clear I had not been given any written instructions about a matter and that client was getting increasingly agitated. A very senior lawyer sitting beside me passed me a note that simply said, “Get that in writing. You must always protect yourself.”

Aug 17, 2022 3:06 PM CDT

Why this BigLaw firm adopted a permanent work-from-anywhere policy for its lawyers and staff

As things are opening up again and people are getting back to how they lived before the COVID-19 pandemic, will that spell the end of the remote-work era?

Aug 17, 2022 8:50 AM CDT

Why it helps to have some clients

Clients. If you have a private law practice, it helps to have them. But what does one do to land clients—and more important, the right ones?

Aug 15, 2022 10:49 AM CDT

‘Bad People Like Him’: An interview with master negotiator and former governor Bill Richardson

On Dec. 13, 1996, President Bill Clinton, in a White House ceremony, announced the nomination of Bill Richardson as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Just a few days earlier, the congressman from New Mexico had been using his diplomacy skills in a much less stately setting.

Aug 15, 2022 8:36 AM CDT

‘Suits’ and the difference between federal and state court

“Most of the law practice occurs while the federal prosecutor sits alone in a room with the suspects. Despite the other outlandish issues in the episode, I found this scenario the least believable,” writes lawyer and ABA Journal columnist Adam Banner.

Aug 11, 2022 10:40 AM CDT

Summer pop culture picks and what else we lost when Roe was overturned

It's time for the Modern Law Library's summer recommendations episode, in which host Lee Rawles shares her pop culture picks with you, plus a re-airing of one of our older episodes that has become relevant again.

Aug 10, 2022 8:41 AM CDT

ProBAR lawyer recalls immigration tent hearings in Texas

“Today, I have to make an impact in front of the judge,” the Venezuelan asylum-seeker told me at the tent court in Brownsville, Texas. This was just a few minutes before his hearing in front of the immigration judge who would be appearing remotely on a monitor inside the tent court.

Aug 3, 2022 12:01 PM CDT

Chemerinsky: With Supreme Court shift on Indian law, will it reconsider a recent landmark ruling?

One of the most important themes of the recently completed Supreme Court term is the significance of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg being replaced by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. An important example of how this has affected court rulings came in a case in the area of Indian law that, by comparison, received little media attention.

Aug 1, 2022 8:36 AM CDT

Letters: Cultural Clash

Cultural clashes As a member of the Indigenous Affairs Subcommittee of Pacific Yearly Meeting (of Quakers) and a former member of the Indian Affairs Committee of New York Yearly Meeting, I very much appreciated Matt Reynolds’ article on Indian boarding schools, “America’s Lost Children,” June-July, page 42. Most of these…

Aug 1, 2022 2:30 AM CDT

6 storytelling do’s and don’ts for lawyers

Lawyers all over the world struggle with storytelling. To become better storytellers, lawyers need to leave the insulated world of legal practitioners and study what makes other professional storytellers—like novelists, journalists, advertisers and filmmakers—effective.

Aug 1, 2022 2:00 AM CDT