ABA Journal

ABA Journal

3414 ABA Journal ABA Journal articles.

Software company CEO discusses the importance of being customer-centric

Ari Kaplan recently spoke with Eric Thurston, the president and CEO of SurePoint Technologies, a provider of client management, practice management and financial management software to law firms nationwide.

Optimizing Legal Workflows: Enhance firm efficiency with online process servers

In 2023, work is accomplished in very different ways than in years past. Because of pandemic-related technology adoption, familiarity with cloud computing and remote work tools has increased dramatically.

Through overseas currency exchanges, California deputy DA helps online romance scam victims get their money back

In the criminal justice world, pig butchering refers to bacon—but not literally. Instead, it’s a term used to describe scamming someone online out of all their money through promises of romance and cryptocurrency windfalls, says Erin West, a prosecutor in the Santa Clara County, California, district attorney’s office.

The ABA needs ideological diversity to ensure its future

A generation ago, nearly half of the lawyers in the United States were members of the American Bar Association. Today, that number is probably closer to 20%, if not lower. This decline is often attributed to an unwillingness of young attorneys to join civic organizations. Or perhaps lawyers no longer see tangible benefits from membership. Or maybe the dues are too high. All of these explanations ignore the elephant in the room—and I mean elephant in the figurative and political sense. The American Bar Association consistently skews to the political left. And this progressive mandate alienates conservative lawyers.

5 ways to scale in-house resources in the face of an economic downturn

After years of unbridled hiring, a growing number of tech companies recently have made headlines with layoffs and recruiting slowdowns. In-house counsel jobs, especially at tech companies, are not exempt.

Lawyer explores English family’s ties to Nazi Germany in ‘The Mitford Affair’

When it comes to taking on stories about larger-than-life women, lawyer and author Heather Terrell, who writes under the pen name Marie Benedict, has a long track record.

Examining NBC’s new ‘Night Court’ and new judges

I’ve never given much thought to being a judge. Sure, the idea comes to mind every election cycle, and I’ve been approached by a few individuals a couple of different times regarding throwing my hat in the ring. Still, I’ve never taken the notion seriously. First of all, I love my job as a criminal defense attorney. Secondly, as tough as it is to advocate for the legally damned, I think adjudicating someone to legal damnation would be more challenging.

What the Silicon Valley Bank failure means for our financial institutions

A partner at the Am Law 100 law firm Ballard Spahr talks to the ABA Journal about the Silicon Valley Bank failure and what it means for the larger financial sector.

Why you should unlearn certain valuable legal skills

Much has been written about the mental health crisis in the legal profession. Certainly, external factors like billable hours and client demands play a large role in creating anxiety and stress in the profession; but there are also internal factors created by “thinking like a lawyer” that deserve more focus.

Shaping the Future of Law: Legalweek 2023 recap and analysis

During the recently completed Legalweek 2023, artificial intelligence dominated the conversation. Not everyone agreed on how legal professionals should—or could—use it. But no matter who you talked to, one thing was certain: The legal landscape will undergo a significant transformation due to the recent and rapid advancements in AI.

Stanford Law’s free speech teachable moments

I am a lawyer, First Amendment scholar and an endowed journalism and electronic media enterprise and leadership professor at a major research university. Given these multiple professional identities, my thoughts on a recent headline-grabbing incident at Stanford Law School cannot be summarized by a pithy tweet, which is the coin of the realm in the social media world.

‘Never Far From Home’ chronicles lawyer’s journey from NYC projects to Microsoft executive offices

Bruce Jackson grew up shuttling between Brooklyn and Manhattan public housing projects in New York City. His journey led him to Hofstra University and then the Georgetown University Law Center. He ditched a white-shoe firm job to launch a career in entertainment law and represented some of the hottest hip-hop and rap artists in the 1990s.

Retired patent attorney who helped nab ‘Golden State Killer’ recounts her remarkable journey

In September 1998, a landscape worker clearing brush near I-85 in Mebane, North Carolina, came upon the skeletal remains of an unidentified child under a towering Howard Johnson’s sign. Despite law enforcement efforts, the youth remained nameless for two decades. He was simply known as “the Boy Under the Billboard.”

Chemerinsky: Oral arguments conclude with important free speech, civil rights cases

This month, the U.S. Supreme Court will conclude oral arguments for the October 2022 term. Two of the cases to be heard, one constitutional and one statutory, seem particularly important. They concern the First Amendment and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Taking Sides

Parental alienation happens when one parent engages in behaviors that cause a child to reject the other parent for no legitimate reason. It can become the subject of fierce debate in high-conflict divorce cases when one parent claims the other parent intentionally turned a child against him or her.

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