ABA Journal

What Are Your Must-Have Gadgets, and Why?

Last month, Law Technology News wrote an article describing must-have software and gadgets for paralegals. Among the article’s suggestions: Google Docs, a Livescribe Pen and a list of six iPad apps. Practical Paralegalism blogger Lynne DeVenny saw the article and tweeted: “What are your must-have gadgets? Mine are my iPhone,…

Nov 9, 2011 7:14 PM CST

Sealing the Deal: How to Negotiate Fee Agreements

You’ve identified a target client, made a good connection, and they say they want to hire you. But no fee agreement has been signed yet. ABA Journal Podcast moderator Stephanie Francis Ward discusses ways to ethically seal the deal, with lawyers from a variety of practice areas.

Nov 7, 2011 9:44 PM CST

Around the Blawgosphere: Above the Law’s ‘Contrarian’ Writer; Blogging Under the Marketing Influence

Changing of the Guard This week, Above the Law introduced The Practice, a small-firms column by Miami criminal defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum—which presumably replaces Small Firms, Big Lawyers, which was written by Boston solo-turned-consultant Jay Shepherd and ran from February through September. What Tannebaum says he’ll be writing about, in…

Nov 4, 2011 1:49 PM CDT

What Judge Would You Like to Watch on TV, And Why?

This week, we noted that the husband of Judith Sheindlin, better known as TV’s Judge Judy, has landed a role on a pilot for a scripted series. Gerald Sheindlin is a retired Bronx judge who also appeared on television as a judge on The People’s Court from 1999 to 2001.…

Nov 2, 2011 4:00 PM CDT

Letters: Rebel-Rousers

Rebel-Rousers What I liked about this year’s crop of Legal Rebels (September): Two were not lawyers. Too often we forget how important paralegals and other nonlawyer legal workers are. Glad to see some get some recognition. What I didn’t like: Not one of them was doing anything remotely close to…

Nov 1, 2011 9:50 AM CDT

ABA Support for a Proposal to Reduce Immigration Cases Finally Pays Off

For years, the ABA called for the federal government to make greater use of prosecutorial discretion as a way to reduce the number of people going into the immigration court system. Finally, it appears someone was listening. In August, a joint task force of the departments of Homeland Security and…

Nov 1, 2011 6:20 AM CDT

Veteran Investigative Journalist Allen Pusey Named E&P of the ABA Journal

Veteran investigative reporter and editor Allen Pusey has been named editor and publisher of the ABA Journal, the flagship publication of the ABA and the world’s most widely circulated legal periodical. The appointment, announced to staff late Thursday, is a promotion for Pusey, who joined the ABA Journal as managing…

Oct 31, 2011 5:34 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Lawyer Bloggers and Disclaimers; The ‘Ten Crack Commandments’ in Practice

Legal Blogging v. Advertising Late last week, the Virginia State Bar ruled that Richmond, Va., lawyer Horace Hunter, who posts at Richmond Criminal Defense News, sometimes about his own cases, must add a disclaimer to his blog to indicate that it’s advertising. Some legal bloggers are trying to figure out…

Oct 28, 2011 1:51 PM CDT

If You Could Create a Lawyer Superhero, What Would Be His / Her Name? Powers?

For our November issue, we asked pop culture writer and comic book aficionado Jesse Thompson for his picks of the top 10 lawyers in comics. Picks include She-Hulk, Batman’s Two-Face and some lesser-known illustrated lawyers. So this week, we’d like to ask you: If you could create a lawyer superhero,…

Oct 26, 2011 8:18 PM CDT

McElhaney: The Burden of Reasonable Doubt

The young lawyer was right in the middle of final argument when he had one of those awful moments of self-awareness and wondered if he would be able to finish what he was saying. Everything had been going along just fine when all of a sudden he felt the rush…

Oct 21, 2011 11:50 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Smartphones and Dumb Moves; Axiom, Clearspire Big Competition for Solos?

What Firms Compete Best with Solos? At My Shingle, Washington, D.C., solo Carolyn Elefant says that she knows where she stands when she’s competing with the Am Law 250 for corporate work. “I know that in most cases, what brings clients to my door to begin with is that I’m…

Oct 21, 2011 1:59 PM CDT

What Tasks—at Work or Home—Would You Outsource, If You Could? And What Would You Never Outsource?

Earlier this month, we saw a post at the blog Spend Matters on legal process outsourcing titled: “Outsourcing the Right Things for the Right Reasons.” The post discussed different imperatives a corporate law department might have for seeking to send work out: from reducing costs, to improving performance or competitiveness,…

Oct 19, 2011 5:00 PM CDT

Law School Grads: Take This Six-Question Survey on Finding That First Job

Readers had a lot to say in 120-plus comments on last week’s story about two law firms’ announcement that 15 more law schools will be sued over how they have been reporting their employment statistics. The same firms filed lawsuits against Cooley Law School and New York Law School in…

Oct 12, 2011 4:51 PM CDT

How Would You Change Your Law School’s Admission Policies?

This week, we noted a study that found that more than three quarters of the students at the nation’s top 20 law schools come from the top one-fourth of the socioeconomic population, and just 2 percent come from the bottom quarter. University of California-Los Angeles law professor Richard Sander said…

Oct 5, 2011 4:00 PM CDT

SCOTUSblog Founder on How to Start Your Own Appellate Practice

Have you ever dreamed of opening your own appellate practice? The 2011 U.S. Supreme Court term opens Oct. 3, and along with the government lawyers and big firm attorneys, many solo and small firm practitioners will be entering the doors at 1 First St. ABA Journal Podcast moderator Stephanie Francis Ward talks with two lawyers about how and why they built their own appellate practices.

Oct 3, 2011 9:01 PM CDT