Columns
414 ABA Journal Columns articles.
The Survivor Squad podcast introduces a topic that I haven’t encountered before: victims associating and empathizing with other victims about their status as victims. From my position, it’s compelling but somewhat biased.
Aug 14, 2023 11:47 AM CDT
Although they did not receive the headlines of the most high-profile decisions of the October Term 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two important cases concerning the law of the workplace. One involved the duty of employers to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs and practices. The other concerned when a union can be held liable for the economic consequences of a strike. Each is likely to engender a great deal of litigation.
Aug 1, 2023 3:00 PM CDT
It’s fascinating to monitor how American courts interpret legal instruments. Do they go by the words, or do they let other considerations influence their decisions? That is to say, are they textualists or nontextualists? Regardless of how you see the merits of that issue, you might try your hand at these problems that American courts have decided since 2017.
Aug 1, 2023 2:10 AM CDT
In 1982, as a healthy 29-year-old with a brand-new JD, I joined a Washington, D.C., law firm handling class action tort litigation. Workdays there were fast and furious. Sixty-hour work weeks were the norm, but I was young and hungry, the work was stimulating and I leaned in.
Jul 28, 2023 12:07 PM CDT
Barbie has been living in the real world for a long time. Because of the doll’s colossal success since its introduction in 1959, countless lawsuits have gone through the courts as the doll’s maker has sought to enforce its rights and protect her image.
Jul 25, 2023 9:36 AM CDT
Unless you’re hiding under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard about generative AI tools like ChatGPT. The potential efficiency gains these tools offer legal professionals are mind-boggling—and possibly career-changing. If predictions are correct, many aspects of legal work will be impacted by generative AI, and some functions may even be replaced in the years to come.
Jul 24, 2023 11:21 AM CDT
Ari Kaplan recently spoke with Connie Brenton and Jeff Franke, the founders of LegalOps.com, a membership community providing legal operations and other professionals with resources and events, including an inaugural conference in October.
Jul 24, 2023 8:33 AM CDT
Is ignorance often bliss for laypeople having contact with the legal system? I have noticed that nonlawyers enjoy a much more relaxed attitude with the judicial environment than we lawyers do. We get uptight, bending over to display reverence while the laypeople have no such qualms, doing what comes naturally, expressing themselves with complete candor.
Jul 20, 2023 3:09 PM CDT
“Generative AI systems are made up of billions or even trillions of parameters trained on vast amounts of data, and their complexity makes their outputs notoriously difficult to explain. But can complex generative systems undergo meaningful audits?”
Jul 17, 2023 8:12 AM CDT
In the last days of the October Term 2022, the court, in a series of 6-3 decisions, moved the law significantly to the right. But unlike the prior term, there also were some significant surprises from the conservative court.
Jul 13, 2023 1:45 PM CDT
The United States has a long and despicable history of removing Native American children from their families. As Justice Neil Gorsuch observed, “there was mass removal of Indian children from their families during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s by state officials and private parties.” This horrific practice actually began almost 150 years ago.
Jul 5, 2023 11:08 AM CDT
Growing up far from the big city in Delmar, New York, I did not know many lawyers, and I certainly knew of no lawyers to emulate. Back then I would have never dreamt of becoming a managing partner in a successful law firm. But here I am, thanks to the sound advice from mentors who saw my potential and helped me forge my way.
Jun 29, 2023 8:56 AM CDT
Ari Kaplan recently spoke with Lydia Flocchini, the chief marketing officer at SurePoint Technologies, Debbie Foster, the CEO at Affinity Consulting, and Laura Wenzel, the global director of product marketing at iManage.
Jun 26, 2023 8:47 AM CDT
As lawyers in 2023 navigate the business challenges of running a profitable law firm, the value of time-tracking technology is clear: The more time captured and invoiced, the more revenue is generated.
Jun 26, 2023 8:45 AM CDT
En garde! Shall we mediate? For the past few years, a common buzzword has been alternative dispute resolution—and specifically, mediation. What is that really all about?
Jun 22, 2023 8:51 AM CDT
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