Business of Law

Launched: ABA Offers Solos More Web-Based Resources

Solo and small-firm members of the American Bar Association will get more bang for their membership dollars as the ABA expands a new site offering resources targeted specifically to their needs. The Solo and Small Firm Resource Center, launched in January, is the result of the ABA’s renewed focus on…

Apr 1, 2012 7:50 AM CDT

Efficient E-Discovery

Related links: Full Study (PDF) Manual vs. Technology Assisted Review in E-Discovery Game

Apr 1, 2012 7:40 AM CDT

There Go the Jobs: Positions Behind the Bench Are Expected to Drop

Dreaming of leaving the manic, day-to-day practice of law behind and waltzing into the less stressful, more secure niche of the judiciary? Your odds of making that transition are diminishing (and perhaps because of that, your assumptions are likely flawed). Judgeships are disappearing at a higher rate than jobs in…

Apr 1, 2012 7:30 AM CDT

The Chain: LinkedIn Is More than Social Media for Lawyers

By all indications, LinkedIn is the social media platform most used by lawyers. It has specific guides and even apps targeted to lawyers. Yet many lawyers will say they only signed up for LinkedIn at a client’s urging and haven’t done much else. That a client urged you to use…

Apr 1, 2012 7:20 AM CDT

No Jerks: Some Firms Argue that Collegiality Pays

Some law firms have an official policy: No jerks allowed. Even if it means dismissing a lucrative partner or cutting ties with a client. After all, to those who take it seriously, the “no jerks rule” is more than a feel-good argument for the power of nice or an attempt…

Mar 1, 2012 8:50 AM CST

Data Diet: Feed Your Head with a Better Info Balance

Lawyers consume enormous amounts of information. My earliest memories of lawyers’ offices include desks piled high with advance sheets and legal magazines waiting to be read and routed on to other lawyers. Add in email, blogs, podcasts, social media and more—available anytime and anywhere by mobile devices—and it’s no wonder…

Mar 1, 2012 8:40 AM CST

Communing with Lawyers: The Benefits of a Firm Without the Bureaucracy

Stephen Furnari never set out to be a property manager. But a search to find a suitable setting for his expanding solo practice eventually led to oversight of a Manhattan commercial space that has morphed into a collaborative workspace for fellow lawyers. “The strength of what we do here is…

Mar 1, 2012 8:30 AM CST

Time to Be Gettin’ Business: Associates Should Gear Up Inside and Outside Networks

THE TIME TO GET ON THE PARTNER TRACK IS SOONER THAN EVER “You want a story? What happens to fifth- and sixth-year associates that have been told they won’t make partner? Because I might be there soon and I have no clue.” When New York City-based business consultant Kelly Hoey…

Mar 1, 2012 8:20 AM CST

Roll Your Own Software: Hidden Dangers on the Road Less Traveled

While app fever has sparked a renaissance in homegrown software, tech insiders caution that for law firms, going the do-it-yourself route is often a train wreck waiting to happen. Even so, Jason Turchin, a sole practitioner whose main office is in Weston, Fla., insists that “rolling your own” often makes…

Mar 1, 2012 8:10 AM CST

Making Time: Attorney Uses Hiatus to Create ‘Pace Runner’ for Billable Goals

The years 2009 through 2011 were productive times in the household of David Geerdes. First, he and his wife had a brand-new daughter, prompting a hiatus from Geerdes’ associate post at SNR Denton’s Chicago office. Then, between doting and diapers, he snatched enough time to write the code for a…

Mar 1, 2012 8:00 AM CST

Speaking Up: Helping Law Students Break Through the Silence of Depression

While vacationing with his family in the summer of 2005, Bill Treanor got the call every law school dean dreads. One of his most promising recent students, Fordham University School of Law grad Dave Nee, had taken his own life. “People were just devastated by his death,” says Treanor, now…

Feb 1, 2012 8:50 AM CST

Phone Homes: As Smartphones Go Viral, Attorneys Gain Freedom of Platform

Paraphrased, it could be an old song: How ya gonna keep ’em on the BlackBerry farm after they’ve heard Siri? Mobile devices have long been an everyday accessory for attorneys. The ABA’s 2011 2011 Legal Technology Survey Report (PDF) found that about 80 percent of responding attorneys said they regularly…

Feb 1, 2012 8:40 AM CST

Leaning in to Help: Program Helps Nonprofits Better Serve Immigrant Children

Seyfarth Shaw has brought Six Sigma to the nonprofit sector to help immigrant children who are alone in the United States. The law firm lent its expertise with SeyfarthLean—its process-driven methodology for the delivery and billing of legal services that borrows from the Six Sigma corporate management strategy—to Kids in…

Feb 1, 2012 8:30 AM CST

Got Disaster? Your On-Hand Technology Can See You Through

We saw quite a run of major disruptions recently and broke the record for billion-dollar natural disasters in 2011, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. So how can lawyers better use technology to cope in a time of emergency? Lawyers have never excelled at disaster recovery, but there’s…

Feb 1, 2012 8:20 AM CST

Siblings at Law: Sister-Brother Legal Team Plays to Each Other’s Strengths

When the fictional television brothers Frasier and Niles Crane attempted to open a joint psychiatric practice, sibling rivalry intervened and the effort was soon deemed hopeless. In real life, Seattle-based attorneys Mindy Ann Terence and Thomas Terence seem to have the formula for a successful sibling practice figured out. The…

Feb 1, 2012 8:10 AM CST