ABA Journal

How profitable are alternative fee arrangements, in practice?

Alternative fee arrangements have been a reality for lawyers and law firms for several years now. But are they profitable? The answer depends on whom you ask. It turns out that lawyers working in the trenches on actual matters and cases had somewhat different experiences with AFAs compared to lawyers…

Oct 1, 2014 10:38 AM CDT

How to shape your legal storytelling

I've taught at five law schools for almost 30 years now. Here's one takeaway from the experience: Law schools tip the storytelling practitioner's factually complex, often indeterminate and ambiguous world upside down. Our pedagogy drains the emotional life from the stories and human conflict beneath the surface of appellate cases—the pathos and drama often at the heart of the narratives that cases are built upon. This enables students to focus exclusively upon close legal analysis and parsing of doctrinal law.

Oct 1, 2014 7:00 AM CDT

How profitable are alternative fee arrangements?

Graphics by Jamie Gannon

Oct 1, 2014 3:10 AM CDT

10 tips for better legal writing

Throughout your career as a lawyer, you’ll be judged professionally on two main things: your interpersonal skills and your writing. Although the requirements of writing assignments will vary depending on your organization, your supervisor and your clients, here are 10 pointers that will improve your work product. 1) Be sure…

Oct 1, 2014 3:00 AM CDT

After playing his ACES, GC Jeffrey Carr sits out a round

Plenty of lawyers and law firms are on Twitter, but when it comes to making important announcements, the microblogging service has yet to catch on with the legal profession the way it has in other sectors. As such, my colleagues and I were surprised to see a tweet from Jeffrey…

Oct 1, 2014 2:50 AM CDT

How a series of attacks by a breakaway Amish sect became a landmark hate-crimes case (podcast)

The Amish religion is a branch of Christianity which adheres to a doctrine of simplicity, non-violence and forgiveness. How then did a breakaway group come to be implicated in the first federal trial which prosecuted religiously motivated hate crimes within the same faith community?

Sep 29, 2014 5:23 PM CDT

How do you describe to children what you do as a lawyer?

Your own children (or someone else’s) may have asked you what a lawyer is or what a lawyer does. Unlike many other occupations or professions, it might take more than one sentence to describe. So what do you say? Do you have different answers based on the age of the…

Sep 24, 2014 1:30 PM CDT

Cartoon poll: Which guilt-written-all-over-his-face caption fits best?

We had fewer entries for this month’s contest, but many gems in the mix of submitted captions. The following are the three staff favorites. Now it’s your turn to pick which caption will accompany this cartoon in an upcoming issue of the ABA Journal: • And Steve realized his trusty…

Sep 18, 2014 9:28 AM CDT

Do you work in a plush corner office, or nothing even close to that? Tell us about your workspace!

The law firm Paul Hastings said this week that while it plans to add up to 40 lawyers to its New York City office in the next few years, it will scale back its physical footprint there by 25 percent. Individual offices would be smaller, the firm said, and corner…

Sep 17, 2014 2:30 PM CDT

Do you have a fear-inducing cautionary tale about a legal mishap?

Last week, we noted a law review article positing that law professors’ use of fear-inducing cautionary tales (about making embarrassing or costly errors in briefs, etc.) is counterproductive. “Although some fear is productive and can motivate students to achieve,” article author and legal writing scholar Abigail Patthoff of Chapman law…

Sep 10, 2014 2:25 PM CDT

How do you provide client hand-holding if you run a virtual firm? (podcast with transcript)

Opportunities are growing for lawyers to practice law in digital spaces. But clients still want and need individual attention. If you have a virtual law practice, how can you provide the hand-holding necessary for clients?

Sep 8, 2014 3:55 PM CDT

Harper Lee, ABA Journal fiction prizes announced

John Grisham is a best-selling author who has seen many of his books become major Hollywood pictures. Jason Bailey is a first-time author who maintains a busy legal practice in western Colorado and only writes during his spare time. What do these two writers have in common? This year, they…

Sep 4, 2014 4:28 PM CDT

Tell us about your craziest classmate from law school

Nearly all students, from kindergarten through law school, have returned to classes at this point. In honor of that, we ask you to remember your time in law school—specifically, your fellow students. Tell us about your craziest classmate from law school, whether he or she was crazy smart; had crazy…

Sep 3, 2014 2:42 PM CDT

A lawyer’s value, hour by hour

Graphics by Jamie Gannon

Sep 1, 2014 8:10 AM CDT

We have a new look!

Welcome to the new ABAJournal.com. We’re excited to present a fresh new look and feel, with added functionality and easier navigation. This is a complete overhaul of our site, and we know we have many bugs to squash. We’ll be working on doing just that in the coming days, so…

Aug 30, 2014 6:21 AM CDT