ABA Journal

How clients’ backgrounds may shed light on their motivation for litigation

I once represented a shopkeeper whose husband died when he fell off the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge into the Delaware River. The police had declared it a suicide. An insurance policy on her husband’s life provided that if he committed suicide within the first six months of the policy, the insurance company…

Sep 1, 2015 2:10 AM CDT

Blogging is big with BigLaw firms

Graphic by Stephen Ravenscraft This article originally appeared in the September 2015 issue of the ABA Journal with this headline: “BigLaw Blogs: Content marketing blogging continues to grow among the nation’s largest firms.”

Sep 1, 2015 1:40 AM CDT

Linda Fairstein chats about her Alex Cooper series—and reveals an exciting new project (podcast)

In the hands of author Linda Fairstein, fictional sex-crimes prosecutor Alex Cooper has enjoyed a career spanning 17 books and almost two decades. Cooper's 16th adventure, Terminal City, was selected as one of the three finalists for the 2015 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. Fairstein spoke with the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles and shared some exciting news about a brand new project in the works.

Aug 26, 2015 4:23 PM CDT

Cartoon: Did someone say toxic tort? Tell us what’s happening in this legal-themed cartoon

Submit your proposed caption for the below cartoon for a chance to win our September contest and see your caption and credit printed in an upcoming issue of the ABA Journal. Submit the caption you think best fits the above cartoon by sending an email to captions[at]abajournal[dot]com with “September Caption…

Aug 26, 2015 3:34 PM CDT

What would you name your legal brew?

Updated: We recently stumbled on a crowdfunding page for the Denver-based Lady Justice Brewing Company. The Indiegogo page states that Lady Justice, started by three women (two are lawyers), will be a philanthropic brewery, with all profits from their enterprise “donated, through a grant-making process, to Colorado-based community organizations that…

Aug 26, 2015 1:05 PM CDT

Cartoon Poll: Which caption best fits this lawyer-in-a-time-machine cartoon?

In this month’s legal-themed cartoon of a lawyer taking a trip back in time, readers submitted more than 100 possible captions. After winnowing down the list, here are the staff picks. Now it’s your turn to vote for the winning caption that will appear in an upcoming issue of the…

Aug 19, 2015 2:13 PM CDT

Have you ever contributed to a crowdfunding venture?

This week, we noted a New York State Bar Association ethics opinion that articulated under what circumstances it would be ethical to use crowdfunding to finance the start-up costs of a law firm. The opinion was in response to an inquiry from recent law school graduates. So we’d like to…

Aug 19, 2015 1:22 PM CDT

Who do you think is the smartest judge in the United States?

Based on published rulings, speeches, interviews and other writings, or perhaps even personal encounters: Do you have an opinion on who our nation’s smartest jurist is? Do you always agree with the rulings of the judge you feel is the smartest? Is there a noteworthy opinion or other text by…

Aug 12, 2015 12:30 PM CDT

Who would be your dream client?

In the August issue of the ABA Journal, we talk to Tom Leavens, a Chicago lawyer who is general counsel for Pitchfork Media Inc., which is behind the Windy City’s annual Pitchfork Music Festival. “It’s totally cool,” Leavens says. “You would not believe the dad points I get for being…

Aug 5, 2015 1:45 PM CDT

How trials are more like plot-driven movies than character-driven novels

Character is crucial in most popular storytelling practices. Most especially, it is at the core of the modern novel. The late literary critic and novelist John Gardner observed that at "the center of all great literature is character."

Aug 1, 2015 6:50 AM CDT

The Bluebook’s 20th edition prompts many musings from Bryan Garner

About 10 years ago, I was finishing a book for a friend of mine in London, the late Sir Robert Megarry, when in his mid-90s his health began to fail. The book was his New Miscellany-at-Law (2006)—the third in a series of humorously erudite books that he began in 1955.

Aug 1, 2015 6:45 AM CDT

Meet the judge who has become a national sensation as ‘Bongo Lady’

By day, Malenda Harris Meacham is a busy solo family law practitioner and part-time judge in Hernando, Mississippi. By night she's become something of an air bongo sensation. That's right—an air bongo sensation.

Aug 1, 2015 6:45 AM CDT

ABA summit discusses new paths for providing legal services

The ABA’s National Summit on Innovation in Legal Services focused on new and innovative ways to deliver legal services to the people who desperately need them, and no ideas were out of bounds. The role of technology, the future of lawyers and law firms, new business models and regulatory reforms:…

Aug 1, 2015 2:20 AM CDT

Client survey shows nearly two-thirds are using alternative fee arrangements

Graphics by Stephen Ravenscraft This article originally appeared in the August 2015 issue of the ABA Journal with this headline: “Pleasing Alternatives: Client survey finds favor with fee arrangements.”

Aug 1, 2015 2:10 AM CDT

ABA cites health and well-being of asylum-seeking mothers and children

The ABA is urging the Department of Homeland Security to abandon current policies that the association maintains have resulted in unprecedented levels of immigration detention, including a return to the “failed practice of family detention.” The DHS, which ended immigration detention of families in 2009 except in exceptional circumstances, is…

Aug 1, 2015 12:35 AM CDT