Bloggers defend the brick-and-mortar law office; What if fathers had paid paternity leave?

At LexThink.1 at ABA Techshow last week, one memorable quip came from MyCase co-founder Matt Spiegel: “The office is dead,” he said. “If we can only advise clients by forcing them to come into our offices, we are destined to fail.” And in the last week, both Philadelphia lawyer Jordan…

Apr 12, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Judge is appointed to replace slain DA: ‘There is danger’

The judge appointed to fill the term of the slain district attorney in Kaufman County, Texas, told reporters on Thursday she acknowledges the danger. Judge Erleigh Norville Wiley of Kaufman County is Gov. Rick Perry’s choice to fill the job held by District Attorney Mike McClelland, who was killed along…

Apr 12, 2013 12:02 PM CDT

Former Fried Frank lawyer launches greeting card company targeting urban youths

A former lawyer at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson in Manhattan has given up the job to launch a greeting card company targeting urban youths. Keisha DePaz, 30, is working out of her mother’s basement in Queens, report Forbes and the New York Daily News. At the law firm,…

Apr 12, 2013 11:15 AM CDT

Art imitates life for retired lawyer who wrote novel about lawyer with visions

Retired lawyer Jay Cooper downplays similarities between his published novel, Hammurabi’s Dagger, and the problems he is grappling with as he experiences the effects of a dementia. “It was a story, that’s all,” the 86-year-old Cooper says of his novel. He spoke with the Orange County Register about his disease…

Apr 12, 2013 10:45 AM CDT

Renowned trial lawyer, who won more than 100 verdicts over $1M, dies at 83

Richard Grand, a longtime Tucson, Ariz., trial lawyer known for his big wins and courtroom skills that other lawyers sought to emulate, died Sunday in San Francisco. He was 83 years old. A theater lover, he traveled as far as London to see shows with his wife of 61 years,…

Apr 11, 2013 5:00 PM CDT

Suit contends law firm barred female and male lawyers from being alone together

A Dallas lawyer claims in a lawsuit that her law firm undermined her work opportunities with a policy that barred female and male lawyers from being alone together, at work or outside the workplace. The suit by Kimberly Elkjer says her firm, Scheef & Stone, changed its policies a few…

Apr 11, 2013 12:43 PM CDT

Can Twitter land you a job?

Some job recruiters are using Twitter to find and research job candidates. And some applicants are using the social network to summarize their resumés in 140 characters or less. The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) offers some examples, mostly in media and marketing. The network-infrastructure firm Enterasys, for example, filled…

Apr 11, 2013 11:20 AM CDT

7th Circuit OKs $25K student-loan discharge for ‘destitute’ paralegal

A “destitute” paralegal who has made reasonable efforts to repay her student loan debt is entitled to a bankruptcy discharge of the remaining $25,000 or so despite the fact that she never enrolled in a federal income-contingent repayment plan, a federal appeals court has ruled. Reinstating a bankruptcy court’s determination…

Apr 10, 2013 6:20 PM CDT

As many law firms boost pay of top performers, Shearman reportedly takes a different tack

Many law firms in recent years have boosted the salaries of their star lawyers, creating larger gaps between the highest and lowest paid partners. Shearman & Sterling, however, is apparently taking a different tack, according to a published report. Reuters reports that Shearman is “bucking the industry trend” by reducing…

Apr 10, 2013 2:59 PM CDT

Ex-partner sues Thompson Wigdor for $600K; former colleague calls him ‘disgruntled and desperate’

A former partner who left Thompson Wigdor in 2011, after the firm was sanctioned over an employment case in which he was involved, has sued for $600,000 he says he is still owed. Scott Gilly says he is owed the money under the firm’s 2008 partnership agreement and a separation…

Apr 9, 2013 7:37 PM CDT

‘Lawyer Bubble’ author discusses what the future looks like for today’s new lawyers

Apr 9, 2013 2:05 PM CDT

South Dakota lures lawyers to rural areas with annual subsidies

Rural law practice will become more lucrative for some South Dakota lawyers under a new law passed last month. Lawyers participating in the pilot program will be paid $12,000 a year to work in rural areas, the New York Times reports. The lawyer will have to make a five-year commitment,…

Apr 9, 2013 12:43 PM CDT

March was a good month for legal-sector jobs, data indicates

The legal sector added 2,000 jobs in March, according to new data from the U.S. Labor Department. The number was the highest one-month gain in the sector in nearly a year, the Am Law Daily reports. The total number employed in the legal sector was 1,126,900 in March, a gain…

Apr 8, 2013 2:16 PM CDT

Nearly half of 2011 law grads can’t afford a house, law prof concludes

Bleak employment numbers are one way to measure the misery of law graduates. Another way: Determine the percentage of grads who make so little money in relation to their law school debt that home ownership is out of the question. University of St. Thomas law professor Jerry Organ has crunched…

Apr 8, 2013 11:25 AM CDT

‘Talking about work-life balance is fraud’ says ABA President Laurel Bellows

Work-life balance? Fuhgeddaboudit. For ABA President Laurel Bellows, a visit to a restaurant or a vacation with family always includes a work component. Bellows tells the Chicago Grid that she is “wired wherever I go,” including vacations. Even a meal at a restaurant can be a business development tool. “There…

Apr 8, 2013 11:00 AM CDT