Careers

Cooley law dean offers explanation for enrollment decline, sees possible turnaround

Enrollment at Western Michigan University’s Cooley Law School has dropped 52 percent from its peak in 2010, but things are looking up, according to its dean. Cooley had 1,880 students in the 2014-15 academic year, compared to more than 3,900 students in 2010, the Lansing State Journal reports. The drop…

Aug 19, 2015 7:14 AM CDT

Unconscious bias, exclusion from networks lead to dearth of minority law firm partners, prof says

Partners at some of the nation’s top law firms say they value diversity, but the pool of candidates is inadequate. The real problems, according to Stanford law professor Deborah Rhode, are unconscious biases that lead to assumptions that minority lawyers are less competent and a lack of cross-racial relationships. Rhode,…

Aug 18, 2015 10:22 AM CDT

Is competitive BigLaw similar to Amazon’s survival-of-the-fittest system?

A New York Times story on the grueling workplace environment for Amazon workers has the newspaper reaching to BigLaw for comparisons. The Amazon story told how the retailer pushed white-collar employees beyond their limits in a drive for innovation. Company founder Jeff Bezos believes that harmony is often overvalued in…

Aug 18, 2015 8:19 AM CDT

Police brutality cases are said to be a ‘cottage industry’ for plaintiffs lawyers

Police brutality cases have become a hot practice area for plaintiffs lawyers, according to lawyers who spoke about the cases at a National Bar Association conference last month. At one time, plaintiffs lawyers avoided police misconduct cases because of high discovery costs and difficulty overcoming immunity defenses, Law.com reports. Now…

Aug 18, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Civil rights icon Julian Bond dies at 75

Corrected: Former NAACP chairman Julian Bond died on Saturday at the age of 75. The Southern Poverty Law Center announced the death in this post by SPLC co-founder Morris Dees. Bond was the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, serving from 1971 to 1979. The cause of death…

Aug 17, 2015 7:05 AM CDT

American lawyer stabbed to death in his home in Venezuela

An expatriate American lawyer was stabbed to death Sunday at his home in Venezuela, in what his son, an attorney in the Miami office of White & Case, says may have been a botched robbery or kidnapping attempt. John Pate, who was in his early 70s, had lived and worked…

Aug 13, 2015 4:15 PM CDT

Harley rider focuses on motorcycle law in office at converted service station

A former traffic-court prosecutor, Kirk Fisher had envisioned an environmental law focus when he transitioned into private practice. He was even attending a post-law-degree graduate program in the subject at Vermont Law School. The recession and a chance encounter with a group of lawyers from an Arizona firm at a…

Aug 6, 2015 2:00 PM CDT

Who would be your dream client?

In the August issue of the ABA Journal, we talk to Tom Leavens, a Chicago lawyer who is general counsel for Pitchfork Media Inc., which is behind the Windy City’s annual Pitchfork Music Festival. “It’s totally cool,” Leavens says. “You would not believe the dad points I get for being…

Aug 5, 2015 1:45 PM CDT

Study urges end to gender bias in ‘thermal comfort’ at the office

Office thermostats are based on a formula devised for men, creating discomfort for women who are too cold and contributing to global warming, according to a new study. The formula uses the resting metabolic rate of a 40-year-old man who weighs about 154 pounds, the New York Times, the Washington…

Aug 5, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Lawyer with a ‘hoarder tendency’ opens antique store with law office in back

The former city attorney in Brunswick, Georgia, plans to continue practicing law while also selling collectible books and antiques. The lawyer, M. Lynn Frey III, will operate his shop, Barrister Books, along with his law office, Jacksonville.com reports. The law office is located in the back room of the business.…

Aug 4, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Paulette Brown announces ambitious plans as she assumes the ABA presidency

Introducing Paulette Brown, outgoing ABA president William Hubbard joked that Brown clearly has the strength and stamina to take up the presidency—because if you try to join her on her daily walks, “your ankles will burn like fire.” Brown, a partner at Locke Lord in Morristown, New Jersey, made good…

Aug 3, 2015 6:40 PM CDT

Bar licensing groups urged to tread carefully when asking about mental health

Over some opposition, the ABA’s House of Delegates passed a resolution Monday urging lawyer licensing entities to focus on behavior rather than diagnoses when asking about mental health. In the winter of 2014, the Louisiana Supreme Court and Vermont Human Rights Commission received Department of Justice letters advising them that…

Aug 3, 2015 1:46 PM CDT

K&L Gates chairman says partner departures are consistent with the firm’s ‘performance culture’

Most of the 90 partners who left K&L Gates in the last seven months were nonequity partners who left after a process of “rational” performance reviews, according to law firm chairman Peter Kalis. In an interview with Bloomberg Big Law Business, Kalis said K&L Gates has a performance culture and…

Aug 3, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

5 women with extraordinary careers honored by Margaret Brent Awards

Corrected: Women who have brought change to the legal profession by cutting paths that might ease the journey for those following can plot and plan all they want, but sometimes their achievements result not only from hard work and smarts but also how they respond to challenge and adversity. That…

Aug 2, 2015 7:35 PM CDT

What are the business costs of ignoring racial and gender diversity?

The benefits of having a diverse workplace are well-established. In fact, a lack of diversity can even have a negative effect on the bottom line. So why haven’t law firms taken account of the business benefits of diversity? That was the question a group of minority and female attorneys and…

Aug 1, 2015 6:54 PM CDT