ABA Journal

What’s Your Favorite Way to Break the Ice When Networking?

We heard about some tips this week from a careers coach who advises lawyers on ways to get the conversation rolling when they’re out to network and build relationships. We were intrigued by the tips, which include going to a networking event with a few ice-breaker questions in mind. This…

Aug 19, 2009 8:08 PM CDT

Do You Do Work on Your Laptop in Cafés?

Maybe it’s because of the economy, maybe it’s their gnawing desire to have that table at the window for themselves, but trend-watchers are seeing more and more restaurant-goers and coffeeshop regulars settling in not just to eat or drink, but to work or surf. This has some in the New…

Aug 12, 2009 9:43 PM CDT

Which Books Can’t You Live Without?

We noted this week that retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter is moving away from his beloved Weare, N.H. Souter’s neighbors there told the Washington Post in May that Souter may someday write a history of the town. What led him to buy a more modern home in…

Aug 5, 2009 7:45 PM CDT

Scenes from the ABA Annual Meeting (Slideshow) #ABAChicago

All Photos by REP3 More on the Annual Meeting ‘09 here: Why is #ABAChicago in our Annual Meeting headlines? Check out our hashtags post: “ABA Annual Meeting 2009 on Twitter” ABA Journal’s Annual Meeting coverage at this link. ABA Annual Meeting site. Interactive updates on the Annual Meeting from ABA…

Aug 2, 2009 2:32 PM CDT

ABA Annual Meeting 2009 on Twitter #ABAChicago

If you’re writing about the ABA Annual Meeting—taking place July 30 through Aug. 4 in Chicago—on Twitter, we encourage you to include the hash tag #abachicago in your tweets to make them easier for others to find. What’s Twitter? Twitter is a free microblogging and social networking service that enables…

Jul 29, 2009 3:47 PM CDT

What Advice Do You Wish You’d Been Given Before the Bar Exam?

It’s bar exam week across the United States, and recent law grads have spent the last few months of their lives trying to figure out exactly what questions will be put to them and how to answer them all correctly. Hindsight is 20/20, and general advice from those who have…

Jul 29, 2009 3:19 PM CDT

What’s the Craziest Thing You’ve Seen Someone Do While Driving?

News reports this week got us to thinking about the dangers of multitasking while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. One report by the New York Times noted that drivers talking on their cell phones are just as likely to have an accident as someone with a blood alcohol…

Jul 22, 2009 6:20 PM CDT

Have You Seen an Online Comment Cause Professional Woes?

Recently, some management-side employment lawyers spoke up and recommended that as far as praising or panning underlings on LinkedIn, supervisors should stay neutral. As Mitts Milavec partner Carolyn Plump put it, if employers “say something negative, there could be a lawsuit. If they say something positive, there could be a…

Jul 21, 2009 5:47 PM CDT

ABA Journal Launches ‘Legal Rebels’ Project

In these times of great economic chaos lies great opportunity. The legal profession is not just struggling through a recession, but also undergoing a structural break with the past. There is growing consensus that the profession that emerges from this recession will be different in fundamental ways from the one…

Jul 21, 2009 2:59 PM CDT

What Would You Have Asked Sotomayor at her Hearing?

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been center stage this week (perhaps you’ve caught our confirmation hearings coverage). On the day before the hearings, the New York Times asked some legal names—from former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (now a poli sci professor at Texas Tech University) to University of Wisconsin law…

Jul 15, 2009 5:32 PM CDT

Do You Expect to Learn Anything From the Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings?

Endorsements and protests of Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor are pouring in as Senators ready their opening statements and strategic questions for the woman who President Barack Obama has chosen to replace retired Justice David H. Souter. The hearings, which tend to run between four and five days, are rare…

Jul 8, 2009 6:11 PM CDT

The Journal’s Sea Change

I write to compliment you on your excellent article on the Alaska fishing industry and its accident record, “The Cemetery Sea,” May. The extensive research writer Lynda Edwards did made your article informative, interesting and readable. Your article far exceeded the usual ABA Journal articles, which lack depth and background…

Jul 2, 2009 4:00 AM CDT

Briefs and Oral Arguments: What’s Worst of the Worst?

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia can always be counted on to let you know what he really thinks. And even though you think lawyers would bring their A game to oral arguments and briefs they put before Scalia (he did write the book on the art of persuading judges,…

Jun 30, 2009 2:56 PM CDT

Do You Check Your PDA During Meetings?

The ubiquity of BlackBerrys and iPhones is still new enough that etiquette lines regarding their use have not been drawn. The New York Times says that two major Hollywood talent agencies ban BlackBerry use at meetings, while a New York talent agency has a green policy instructing that meeting notes…

Jun 24, 2009 7:10 PM CDT

Should There Be an Expectation of Permanent Anonymity Online?

Earlier this month, there was a big brouhaha over the outing by Ed Whelan, at Bench Memos, of the online persona ‘Publius.’ Publius turned out to be South Texas College of Law professor John Blevins, who blogs at Obsidian Wings. Discussion and outrage across the Web focused on Internet netiquette…

Jun 23, 2009 5:48 PM CDT