Careers

These lawyers battle in the boxing ring as well as the courtroom

Lawyers know the rough and tumble of the courtroom, so they understand the beauty of the uppercut and the cross punch

Oct 1, 2015 8:55 AM CDT

John Roberts marks 10 years as chief justice by taking the long view

As the U.S. Supreme Court neared the end of its term in June, liberals and conservatives waited with great anticipation to see how Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. would vote in the two most contentious cases on the docket: the future of the Affordable Care Act and same-sex marriage.

Roberts, as he has sometimes done during his just-completed first 10 years as chief justice, managed to please and disappoint both sides of the political spectrum with his votes.

Oct 1, 2015 8:48 AM CDT

This Houston lawyer is now representing a death row inmate he reported on as a TV newsman

Earlier this year, Quinncy N. McNeal was surfing the Internet when he discovered that an execution date had been set for Rodney Reed, a Texas death row inmate convicted of the 1996 abduction, rape and murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. McNeal was shocked. Before becoming a lawyer, he had worked as a television news journalist in Austin and had investigated and reported on disturbing evidence that had been discovered after Reed's controversial conviction. McNeal had assumed that Reed would eventually be exonerated, not executed. Rallying the resources of his law firm, Mayer Brown, McNeal immediately jumped back into the case—only this time as a lawyer, not a reporter.

Oct 1, 2015 8:28 AM CDT

Lawyer’s life’s mission is to reduce racial conflict with cops

Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Akai Gurley. Tamir Rice. Walter Scott. Freddie Gray. Samuel DuBose. All names of unarmed African-American males killed during police encounters in the past 18 months. The string of high-profile fatalities stirred unrest and prompted marches and public outcries for reform.

Oct 1, 2015 7:45 AM CDT

LegalForce is looking for a few good apprentices

Raj Abhyanker's Trademarkia search engine has become a popular spot for inventors and entrepreneurs to learn whether their ideas have already been trademarked. Abhyanker estimates that Trademarkia draws 2 million visitors a month, 60,000 visitors a day or "one person every couple of seconds."

Oct 1, 2015 7:40 AM CDT

Starting associate pay of $160K is common—but not as common as in 2009

Graphics by Stephen Ravenscraft This article originally appeared in the October 2015 issue of the ABA Journal with this headline: “Salary cap? Starting associate pay of $160K is common–but not as common as in 2009.”

Oct 1, 2015 7:25 AM CDT

Attorney General Loretta Lynch praises ABA efforts in sentencing reform

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch says a program announced at the ABA Annual Meeting two years ago by then-Attorney General Eric Holder—reorienting the criminal justice system away from harsh mandatory sentences for minor drug offenses—has, with ABA help, “been a resounding success” through bipartisan efforts. Lynch received a standing ovation…

Oct 1, 2015 7:10 AM CDT

What the jobs are: New tech and client needs create a new field of legal operations

It's mid-March and I'm at the DocuSign conference at the Grand Hyatt in downtown San Francisco. It's a bustling gathering with a Fortune 500 vibe—room after room of people discussing various aspects of digital transaction management.

Oct 1, 2015 6:00 AM CDT

Meet the California public defender who is ‘shaking the Orange County legal system to its bedrock’

A longtime public defender in California known for his lengthy “eye bleeder” motions relied on his dogged determination to unearth what he says is a secret, orchestrated effort by police to place jailhouse informants near high-value defendants in Orange County. The lawyer, Scott Sanders, “is shaking the Orange County legal…

Sep 30, 2015 12:16 PM CDT

Allen & Overy, first UK Magic Circle firm to open in Toronto, is closing its office there

Only a year after Allen & Overy became the first of London’s leading corporate law firms to open an office in Toronto, the so-called Magic Circle firm is closing the Canadian outpost. The move follows the announced plan of founding Toronto partner Francois Duquette to take an in-house job at…

Sep 29, 2015 11:35 AM CDT

Latham tops Global 100 with $2.6B in earnings; revenue is up 4.5% overall

Beating out two perennial mega-firm rivals for the number-one spot among the Global 100, Latham & Watkins for the first time is the world’s largest law firm by revenue. Its $2.6 billion in earnings is the second-largest figure ever reported in the American Lawyer’s survey of the biggest global firms;…

Sep 29, 2015 11:00 AM CDT

Which states had the greatest growth in lawyer population?

Is Texas’ 28 percent growth in lawyer population over the last decade all that unusual? Stories in the Wall Street Journal Law Blog and the Dallas Morning News reported on the number, which represents the growth in the active lawyer population from 2004 to 2014. That compares to a 20…

Sep 29, 2015 7:47 AM CDT

Client shouldn’t be punished with judgment for no-show lawyer at arbitration, appeals court says

A lawyer’s failure to show up at an arbitration hearing should not result in a judgment against her client, a New Jersey appeals court has ruled. The unpublished Sept. 24 opinion (PDF) said the client, grape seller Giuliano S.R.L., should not have to “bear the brunt of counsel’s apparent confusion…

Sep 28, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Locke Lord chair is ‘bullish on Boston’ despite lawyer losses

Locke Lord’s Boston office has lost dozens of lawyers acquired as a result of a January merger with Edwards Wildman Palmer, according to a published report. Thirty-one lawyers have left the former Edwards Wildman office in Boston, including 10 partners, since the end of April, the Boston Business Journal reports.…

Sep 25, 2015 12:20 PM CDT

Six BigLaw firms join fellowship program for women re-entering the practice

OnRamp Fellowship, a program that places women who took hiatuses from practice with law firms and in-house departments, recently expanded its participants to include six new law firms: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Morrison & Foerster; Loeb & Loeb; Stoel Rives, Wiley Rein and Wilson Elser. According to Bloomberg…

Sep 25, 2015 11:20 AM CDT