ABA Journal

Unlikely allies join in a push to require warrants for access to digital communications

In the hyperpartisan world of contemporary Washington politics, it would seem unlikely that Republican anti-tax warrior Grover Norquist and liberal civil liberties groups like the ACLU would be fighting together on any issue. But one law has brought together Norquist and the ACLU, as well as tech giants like Google…

Apr 5, 2013 9:55 PM CDT

Global M&A deals may increase despite poor 1st quarter, says Sullivan & Cromwell partner (Video)

Despite the number of global mergers and acquisitions being down year over year for the first quarter, Sullivan & Cromwell expects deal work to increase this year because the phone is ringing more often at its New York office, partner Frank Aquila tells Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia. “A year ago,…

Apr 4, 2013 4:30 PM CDT

Have you ever accepted something other than cash for legal services?

In February, a lawyer on Solosez was asking for recipes as he had recently been paid for his services with 100 pounds of beef: “a couple dozen steaks, a lot of roasts, and the rest is ground beef.” He also noted that he’d previously been paid with an entire lamb.…

Apr 3, 2013 7:06 PM CDT

Coming to Techshow? Join us for Beer for Blawggers

Join the ABA Journal and LexBlog for the sixth year of celebrating law blogging and law bloggers at our 6th Annual Beer for Blawggers meetup Friday evening at ABA Techshow. Techshow attendees as well as law bloggers in in town but not registered for the show are welcome to raise…

Apr 3, 2013 1:45 PM CDT

Road warriors’ tips on keeping up with your cases (podcast with transcript)

Transcript Stephanie Francis Ward: What do you do when in the course of one day, you have an appearance, a deposition and a client meeting, all of which are in different locations? Reid Trautz: My mantra is “the more chargers, the better.” Stephanie Francis Ward: I’m Stephanie Francis Ward, and…

Apr 1, 2013 1:40 PM CDT

What judges really think about the phrase ‘May it please the Court?’

It is often said that May it please the Court is an obligatory phrase at the outset of an oral argument—and that any other opener suggests the oral advocate is unknowledgeable or inexperienced. But is that so? Does the phrase really so please the courts that its absence displeases? I…

Apr 1, 2013 7:58 AM CDT

Predictive coding is on the rise in courts

Last April, Law by the Numbers first appeared in the ABA Journal with a study of the effectiveness of technology-assisted review in e-discovery cases. For our first anniversary, we return to the subject with a study showing TAR and predictive coding are getting increased attention in America’s court system. Kroll…

Apr 1, 2013 7:20 AM CDT

Virtual law firm plans to multiply like magic

One part law firm and one part business entity, Washington, D.C.-based Clearspire aims to expand its nontraditional legal-services model across the country with the addition of 50 to 100 former BigLaw lawyers each year for the next five years. With brick-and-mortar outposts recently opened in New York City, Los Angeles…

Apr 1, 2013 7:00 AM CDT

Let law students ‘vote with their feet,’ Northwestern’s dean says (Video)

Northwestern Law School Dean Daniel Rodriguez says he supports a proposal under consideration in New York that would allow students to take the bar exam after two years of law school without getting a degree. Some fellow deans have told him privately that the idea is putting “the economic model…

Mar 28, 2013 3:35 PM CDT

What are your favorite lawyerly spaces?

Last month, we noted a couple who visited all 254 Texas courthouses and eventually married at one. “In a lot of ways, the courthouse is the keeper of local history, the center of local history, and all of them together make up state history,” Aaron Mason told the American-Statesman in…

Mar 27, 2013 5:05 PM CDT

Blogging gig: Comedy required, law degree optional; What data should law school rankings consider?

An item cross-posted at Lawyerist and the humor blog Bitter Lawyer announced this week that Bitter Lawyer is looking for a new editor. Lawyerist Media acquired the blog in 2011. “Since Bitter Lawyer is a humor website, you must either (1) be funny or (2) know funny when you see…

Mar 22, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Do you think that curtailing telecommuting is best for the bottom line?

It made headlines last month when Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced that those who had been working from home needed to start working from the Yahoo office. At the time, San Francisco State University management professor John Sullivan said Mayer’s conclusion about the benefits of collaboration is right, if the…

Mar 20, 2013 5:23 PM CDT

Fifty years later, how is the justice system living up to the Gideon ideal?

In June 1962, when the U.S. Supreme Court granted review of the handwritten pauper’s appeal from a Florida inmate named Clarence Earl Gideon, the court correspondent of the New York Times immediately knew he had a good news story on his hands. And, he thought, it was likely to be…

Mar 15, 2013 9:28 PM CDT

What’s the upshot of the Google Reader shutdown for bloggers and the rest of the (not) free world?

When Google announced that it was shutting down Google Reader, its RSS feed reader Legal Blog Watch’s Bruce Carton was, as he put it, part of the “1 percent of the world looked and reacted as if the veterinarian had just said that their dog had only a few months…

Mar 15, 2013 2:16 PM CDT

What words are you always seeing misspelled? What words do you look up every time?

The Bryan Garner on Words column from our March issue, “Why lawyers can’t write,” has been burning up the charts at ABAJournal.com. Garner mentions in this particular column that he personally has a practice of “asking secretarial candidates, who invariably describe themselves as good spellers, to spell three words—such as…

Mar 13, 2013 7:46 PM CDT