Careers

John Gibeaut, award-winning ABA Journal writer, dies of cancer at 61

John Gibeaut, an award-winning senior writer for the ABA Journal, has died of cancer. He was 61 years old. An honors law graduate of Florida State University, he worked for well-known newspapers in that state and the storied City News Bureau of Chicago before earning his law degree in 1995.…

Aug 9, 2013 5:55 PM CDT

Bert Early, former ABA executive director, dies at 91

Bert Hylton Early, who led the American Bar Association from 1964 to 1981, died Sunday at the age of 91. Early, a West Virginia native, was a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, serving as a first lieutenant. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1949,…

Aug 8, 2013 7:30 PM CDT

‘Strategic flirtation’ study finds it’s more common at law firms with competitive cultures

“Strategic flirtation” is more common at law firms with stereotypical masculine cultures that emphasize competition, ambition and assertiveness, according to a survey of 281 female lawyers. The more masculine the culture, the more strategic flirting takes place, the study found. Yet, masculine cultures were less forgiving of flirts than feminine…

Aug 8, 2013 12:15 PM CDT

‘Opt-out’ professionals go back to work, but for some it’s a struggle

Sheilah O’Donnel was one of the women profiled in a 60 Minutes story about high-achieving women who stayed at home to raise their children. O’Donnel was making $500,000 a year as a top member of Oracle’s sales force when the strains of work and caring for two young children began…

Aug 8, 2013 11:05 AM CDT

Jailhouse lawyer who wrote winning US Supreme Court cert petition will soon clerk for DC Circuit

A decade ago, Shon Hopwood was a convicted bank robber serving time. Hitting the books in the prison library, he honed his legal skills and wrote, on behalf of a fellow inmate, a rare winning certiorari petition to the U.S. Supreme Court that a former U.S. solicitor general who later…

Aug 7, 2013 7:44 PM CDT

50 best law firms for women named; more have women in top rainmaker ranks

Women are among the top rainmakers at an increasing percentage of law firms named as most hospitable for women. Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers today released their list of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women. Seventy-eight percent of the firms on this year’s list have one or more women…

Aug 6, 2013 1:55 PM CDT

Lawyer, 65, opens own solo firm, says ‘I should have done it 25 years ago, but couldn’t’

Corrected: A former dairy farm manager, Mark Breneman always wanted to be a lawyer. For decades, working as a financial planner seemed as close as he could get to his lifelong goal. But in his 50s, he found a way to begin attending classes part-time at Hamline University School of…

Aug 5, 2013 5:55 PM CDT

Are Baby Boomers to blame for the lousy lawyer job market?

The median age of lawyers has jumped from 39 in 1980 to 49 in 2005, suggesting that the bad job market for new lawyers may be attributable to demographic factors rather than permanent changes in the job market, a law professor says. Writing at Witnesseth: Law, Deals & Data, Pepperdine…

Aug 5, 2013 1:42 PM CDT

What you don’t learn about trial work in law school (podcast with transcript)

You're a newly minted lawyer and you're off to the courthouse for your first proceedings–and you have no idea what you're doing. What's a newbie lawyer to do?

Aug 5, 2013 1:29 PM CDT

More July jobs reported for the legal sector after two months of losses

The legal sector gained 2,800 jobs in July after losing 4,800 jobs in May and June. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its seasonally adjusted preliminary data on Friday, the Am Law Daily reports. The May and June figures initially showed a loss of 6,500 jobs, but those numbers have…

Aug 5, 2013 1:12 PM CDT

Civil rights lawyer Julius Chambers dies at 76

Julius Chambers, who led the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund from 1984 to 1993, has died at the age of 76. Chambers had suffered a heart attack in April, according to the Charlotte Observer, and was in declining health, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund said in a…

Aug 5, 2013 11:58 AM CDT

Muslim woman taking bar exam endures miscommunication about her headwear

Corrected: As she was taking the Massachusetts Bar Exam on Thursday, a Muslim woman was handed a note by a proctor informing her that she would have to remove her hijab because prior written approval of religious headwear is required, the legal blog Above the Law reports. The unnamed woman,…

Aug 2, 2013 7:48 PM CDT

Blogger says farewell to tech expert who treated solos with respect, not like ‘desperate morons’

Ross Kodner, a legal technology expert who died this week at age 52, could have set his sights on large firms and large paychecks, Carolyn Elefant wrote at My Shingle. “With his talents and energy, Ross could have easily abandoned the solo and small firm community to focus on helping…

Aug 2, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

‘You Hate My Job’ radio series features bankruptcy trustee

Which jobs do Americans love to hate? A series airing on public radio stations highlights two of them: traffic officers who hand out parking tickets, and bankruptcy lawyers. The program at Marketplace.org features an interview with bankruptcy trustee Edward Wolkowitz, who says bankruptcy can provide relief from collector phone calls…

Aug 1, 2013 10:50 AM CDT

Letters: Women’s work

WOMEN’S WORK I am very proud of my former firm, Holland & Knight, for its Rising Stars program (“Do Women’s Initiatives Work?” June). But it is very simple to give women gender equity. Pay them and value what they do that brings equitable value to the firm. Pay is equity.…

Aug 1, 2013 9:30 AM CDT