How much caffeine do you need to get through a workday?

Regular NPR listeners probably know that last week was Coffee Week, and that a number of coffee-related stories were featured on Morning Edition and NPR blog The Salt. One blog post from last week explored whether caffeine makes us better workers. The short answer is that the right dose of…

May 1, 2013 6:48 PM CDT

For the Word Lovers: A look at linguistic phenomena

How do you feel about hard words? You may think they’re dangerous because they turn off readers. That they’re boringly ostentatious. That they’re hopelessly pretentious. Yet technical terms undoubtedly have a place—not before juries, perhaps, but in the heads of those who appreciate words that denote ideas for which there…

May 1, 2013 8:00 AM CDT

Tech geeks gather to reinvent the law

They gathered without ties or adherence to a century-old model for legal services. Instead, those in the crowd of tech geeks at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., were linked by their goal—leading a law revolution. Forty speakers presented their visions of future law at ReInvent Law, a…

May 1, 2013 7:40 AM CDT

Lawyers say they like storing data online

For a profession sometimes criticized as being slow to change, the law seems to be flying into use of cloud computing for legal work. The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center’s 2013 survey of ABA lawyers shows a heady amount of satisfaction with online-based software solutions. Among this year’s findings in…

May 1, 2013 7:20 AM CDT

Slavery continues to haunt the modern world, but efforts to eradicate it are growing

Maria watched the expensive car roll into her small town in Honduras. Two well-dressed men stepped out of the vehicle. They walked toward Maria, 15, and two friends who were with her. The men said they were recruiting people to work in a textile factory in the United States. It…

Apr 27, 2013 12:58 PM CDT

With up to 20% of Am Law 200 ‘badly weakened,’ will more firms fail? (video)

A substantial percentage of the nation’s largest law firms enter the sixth year of the Great Recession “badly weakened,” and more firms are expected to fail, according to law firm consultant Kent Zimmermann of the Zeughauser Group. Their problems boil down to “too many attorneys for too little work,” he…

Apr 25, 2013 2:27 PM CDT

Are the Socratic method and lecture-based classes the best way to teach law students?

Should law school classes be more visual? This week, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog (sub. req.) took note of an upcoming essay for the Maine Law Review by Suffolk University Law School professor Shailini Jandial George that asserts that the law school lecture format needs a revamp. Although initiatives…

Apr 24, 2013 6:40 PM CDT

SCOTUSblog gets press credentials; eBay defamation case is dropped after bloggers turn up the heat

Last month, SCOTUSblog won a Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media–the first blog to ever do so. On Thursday, it announced that it had at long last, the Senate Press Gallery has granted its reporter Lyle Denniston a press credential. “The Supreme Court’s general practice, which we expect to…

Apr 19, 2013 1:29 PM CDT

How companies use social media to hire law firms (video)

A new survey from public relations firm Greentarget finds that in-house counsel are frequently using LinkedIn and lawyer blogs to determine who they will hire, John Corey, founding partner at Greentarget, tells Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia. But you won’t find those in-house lawyers in the comment sections of blogs or…

Apr 18, 2013 1:53 PM CDT

Are you living and working in your dream city? If not, where do you want to land?

This week, in a profile of DLA Piper co-CEO J. Terence O’Malley, the powerful partner shared why he wanted to end up in San Diego. “At Notre Dame, I kept track on the wall by my bunk of the consecutive days I had gone without seeing the sun,” O’Malley said.…

Apr 17, 2013 7:15 PM CDT

Paul Lippe: Pressing ahead and refusing to be terrorized

Editor’s Note: New Normal columnist Paul Lippe was running the Boston Marathon on Monday and offered his reflections Tuesday. I started the day Monday at the Concord re-enactment of the “shot heard round the world” at the North Bridge, marveling at the courage and resolve of the Minutemen in 1775…

Apr 16, 2013 5:16 PM CDT

Bloggers defend the brick-and-mortar law office; What if fathers had paid paternity leave?

At LexThink.1 at ABA Techshow last week, one memorable quip came from MyCase co-founder Matt Spiegel: “The office is dead,” he said. “If we can only advise clients by forcing them to come into our offices, we are destined to fail.” And in the last week, both Philadelphia lawyer Jordan…

Apr 12, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Survey: Strong consensus law firms need to change. But can they? (video)

A survey of the readers of the Adam Smith, Esq. law firm management blog has found that there is widespread agreement that law firms have to change their fundamental business models, consultant Bruce MacEwen tells Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia. But lawyers have real doubts that law firms will be willing…

Apr 11, 2013 4:35 PM CDT

What personal safety measures do you take at work, at home and in between?

The recent slayings of two prosecutors in Kaufman County, Texas, and other fatal courthouse shootings in 2013 have put courthouse security in the spotlight. But aside from what the courts you practice in are doing to protect you and your clients—what do you do to protect yourself? What personal safety…

Apr 10, 2013 8:30 PM CDT

‘Lawyer Bubble’ author discusses what the future looks like for today’s new lawyers

Apr 9, 2013 2:05 PM CDT