Meet our 2013 Legal Rebels

Aug 30, 2013 10:20 PM CDT

Would losing the 3L year really reduce students’ costs? Bloggers discuss

Discussion of a two-year J.D. has picked up since President Barack Obama said in a speech at Binghamton University in New York that he thought “that law schools would probably be wise to think about being two years instead of three years.” He suggested that students would be better off…

Aug 30, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Law schools still ‘inaccurate’ on employment numbers, says law prof (video)

Ben Trachtenberg, associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia about how a recent set of disciplinary actions against law school administrators for misrepresenting employment data will impact the movement to reform legal education. See the video interview here.

Aug 29, 2013 1:50 PM CDT

What words or phrases do you think should be avoided in front of a jury?

Think jurors know what you mean when you use the term the court? Think again, says Chicago-based jury and communications consultant Theresa Zagnoli of Zagnoli, McEvoy & Foley. “In post-trial interviews with jurors who sat on a jury, they revealed that it took them three days to figure out that…

Aug 28, 2013 5:14 PM CDT

How one firm successfully recoups its costs; ‘Breaking Bad’ legal fan-fiction?

Attorney at Work asked lawyers from four different firms about their most effective cost-recovery methods. “The clients in one of our practice sectors especially do not appreciate being ‘nickel-and-dimed’ with charges for photocopy, fax, postage and online legal research. But these clients have no problem paying an ‘administrative fee,’” said…

Aug 23, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Why is BigLaw hiring while demand falls? ‘Economically it makes no sense,’ says consultant (video)

Bruce MacEwen, law firm consultant and publisher at Adam Smith, Esq., talks with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia about the current state of BigLaw–specifically, how billing rates can be rising as demand falls. After analyzing three recent reports by Wells Fargo, Citi and Peer Monitor, MacEwen is puzzled. “The numbers tell…

Aug 22, 2013 3:36 PM CDT

Who watches (or watched) your young children during the workday?

This week we noted a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who–after switching one child from a day care to a preschool on an urgent basis–spends all but 50 cents of each paycheck on child care. So we were wondering: Who watches your young children during the workday? Do you do it…

Aug 21, 2013 5:04 PM CDT

Rosa Parks’ attorney: ‘If the story would be told, I’d have to tell it’ (podcast)

Fred D. Gray was 24 years old when he defended Rosa Parks after she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in Montgomery, Ala. But the story you might think you know is not the full story.

Aug 20, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Law prof creates ‘experimental’ calculator for bar exam-takers to predict whether they’ll pass

Will you pass the bar? At WITNESSETH, University of Pepperdine law professor Robert Anderson has posted an “experimental bar passage calculator” to help recent bar exam-takers calculate their odds. “This bar examination calculator designed to predict the probability of passing a particular state bar examination based on LSAT, law school…

Aug 16, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

How boutique firms can take on BigLaw (video)

Michael De Chiara, founding partner at Zetlin & De Chiara LLP talks to Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia about guiding his boutique construction law firm through turbulent times in the legal profession. “As goes construction, as goes the U.S. economy,” says De Chiara. “We all know what happened in 2008. As…

Aug 15, 2013 5:52 PM CDT

Have you taken a personality test for a job or any other reason? If so, was it a useful tool?

Last month, we noted that some law firms are following the lead of their corporate clients and using personality tests to help them decide which potential hires would be the best fit for their firm. “The point here,” attorney and psychologist Larry Richard told the American Lawyer, “is to gauge…

Aug 14, 2013 4:52 PM CDT

‘My sentencing instincts suck,’ blogging judge admits, wishing ex-con-turned-law-student well

This week, we noted that Shon Hopwood—who wrote a rare winning certiorari petition to the U.S. Supreme Court while in federal prison for bank robbery and has since been released and entered law school—has been hired as a clerk for Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals…

Aug 9, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

BigLaw growth was ‘anemic’ for first half of 2013, reports Wells Fargo (video)

Jeff Grossman, a Senior Director at Wells Fargo Private Bank, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia about his firm’s new report on the state of BigLaw. The survey of 120 law firms saw revenue growth of 1.5% for the first half of 2013, compared to the same period of time…

Aug 8, 2013 4:00 PM CDT

How did you know it was time to quit your last job?

A post of ours from last month seemed to hit a nerve with readers by discussing what signals let you know that it’s time to quit your job. While it seems obvious a dissatisfied worker would start searching for a new gig, author and entrepreneur Daniel Gulati told Bloomberg that…

Aug 7, 2013 6:55 PM CDT

What you don’t learn about trial work in law school (podcast with transcript)

You're a newly minted lawyer and you're off to the courthouse for your first proceedings–and you have no idea what you're doing. What's a newbie lawyer to do?

Aug 5, 2013 1:29 PM CDT