ABA Journal

In what ways have you been underestimated, and how do you deal with that?

Being underestimated can be extremely frustrating, especially when you’re a new lawyer trying to drum up business, as Katie Kizer and Amanda Graham discovered while starting their own criminal defense firm. “Other lawyers will call us ‘honey,’ ‘sweetie,’ ‘darling,’ ‘the girls,’ ” said Graham. “It can be very difficult to…

Jul 10, 2013 4:45 PM CDT

Police use of SWAT tactics has gotten out of hand, says author (podcast)

In this podcast, Balko explains how his investigations led to his new book, "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces," and what the militarization trend might mean for the country.

Jul 8, 2013 6:15 PM CDT

How did America’s police become a military force on the streets?

Are cops constitutional? In a 2001 article for the Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal, the legal scholar and civil liberties activist Roger Roots posed just that question. Roots, a fairly radical libertarian, believes that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t allow for police as they exist today. At the very least, he…

Jul 3, 2013 9:30 PM CDT

Should firms start the hiring season for law students later? (video)

Jay Grushkin, hiring partner at New York’s Milbank Tweed, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia about how the hiring season has changed since the recession in BigLaw began in 2008. Elite law schools have moved their on-campus recruiting weeks earlier and earlier, in efforts to give their students the best…

Jul 3, 2013 2:45 PM CDT

How do you get through the day after a losing verdict?

Seattle plaintiffs attorney Karen Koehler came out on the losing side of a jury verdict recently and reflected on the loss, and more pointedly, on how lawyers cope in such situations. She wrote at her blog, the Velvet Hammer, about the day after. First and foremost, she consoled her client.…

Jul 3, 2013 1:00 PM CDT

SCOTUSblog founder shares tips for business development and marketing (podcast with transcript)

If a potential client invites Thomas Goldstein for a meeting, he makes sure he can discuss the issues of their case–without any notes–for at least one hour. That works much better than glossy marketing materials, or focusing the discussion on this firm, says the U.S. Supreme Court lawyer. He speaks with ABA Journal reporter Stephanie Francis Ward in this month's podcast.

Jul 1, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Letters: Blocking Access

BLOCKING ACCESS Regarding “Fading Past: Are digitization and budget cuts compromising history?” May: A couple of other access-to-justice considerations are important as well. PDF documents are not generally accessible to screen-reading software unless properly tagged and formatted. As libraries, courts and governmental entities switch to digital formats, they need to…

Jul 1, 2013 9:49 AM CDT

Shrinking legal spending: Corporate clients cut back on outside representation

A survey of in-house law departments shows corporate clients netting major savings by using certain tactics to reduce spending on outside law firms. Huron Consulting Group’s 2013 report, the Huron Legal Impact Benchmarking Survey, found participants realizing up to 54 percent lower external legal spending as a percentage of company…

Jul 1, 2013 7:29 AM CDT

Is it macho for lawyers to put in long hours? ‘Too soon to tell’ about W&L curriculum, prof says

Last week, at the Careerist, Vivia Chen took notes a survey noted by Hastings College of Law professor Joan Williams at Harvard Business Review Blog finding that while 9 percent of mothers work more than 50 hours per week, 29 percent of fathers do. “Why the sizable gap? Williams suggests…

Jun 28, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Weil Gotshal layoffs are start of a wave, consultant says (video)

Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ announcement this week that it is firing 60 associates and 110 support staffers and cutting the pay of about 30 partners is the start of a wave of such downsizings, according to law firm consultant Bruce MacEwen, publisher of the blog Adam Smith, Esq. The cuts…

Jun 27, 2013 4:29 PM CDT

Does wining and dining clients get you work?

This month’s ABA Journal shares 50 simple ways you can market your practice—and most tips are fairly simple and low-cost. But earlier this month at Above the Law, Aon VP and Chief Litigation Counsel Mark Herrmann noted that many lawyers and firms spend quite a bit of cash on client…

Jun 26, 2013 4:15 PM CDT

Law firms say they want ‘practice ready’ grads—but who are they actually hiring?

Washington & Lee University Law School’s decision to emphasize practical skills in the 3L year and subsequent enrollment surge was called the “biggest legal education story of 2013” by Indiana University law professor Bill Henderson. And “National Jurist named the school’s faculty as among the twenty-five most influential people in…

Jun 21, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

18-year low for law grad employment (video)

James Leipold, executive director for the National Association for Law Placement, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia about his organization’s annual report on the job market for law school graduates. NALP has found that law firms are using more technology, and so hiring fewer lawyers, and that’s unlikely to change…

Jun 20, 2013 7:11 PM CDT

Have you ever been dressed down for your work attire choices? Was the criticism fair?

Summer is here, and so are the annual complaints about lawyers dressing too casually for work or for court. A judge in Tennessee announced that he plans to offer specific suggestions to female attorneys about attire in an upcoming bar newsletter. And men have not been spared: A partner at…

Jun 19, 2013 3:44 PM CDT

Language gives us ways to remain honest and tactful—and to preserve client confidences

In a poignant episode of David E. Kelley’s Boston Legal—a TV show in which lawyers frequently run afoul of ethical rules—a lawyer represents a man who seeks his son’s umbilical fluid, kept from birth, as his only possible cure for a terminal illness. His ex-wife won’t turn it over. In…

Jun 14, 2013 9:13 PM CDT