Practice Management

Clifford Chance: Laid-Off 6 Akin to Contract Attorneys

Once upon a time, even major law firms routinely hired associates with the expectation that they could become partners. While no fairy tale, that expectation is now something of a relic of legal history, as yet another account of modern-day practice makes clear. In the wake of recent news that…

Nov 12, 2007 10:04 PM CST

Hollywood Outsourcing Higher-End Legal Work to India

Even with the millions that a successful movie can make, Hollywood producers are watching their legal costs. So, instead of having high-priced U.S. law firms handle all of their entertainment matters, some reportedly are starting to send some relatively high-end legal work to attorneys in India. While outsourcing “back office”…

Nov 12, 2007 9:15 PM CST

‘Dismal’ Diversity at Big Dallas Firms

More than a decade ago, the men at the helm of the biggest and best-known law firms in Dallas pledged to a major effort to recruit more minorities. But attorneys of color still represent only a small fraction of those who work there–less than five percent of equity partners, reports…

Nov 12, 2007 7:39 PM CST

Lawyer’s File Cleaning Prompts Call to TV Station

A Colorado lawyer has admitted he threw old files in a garbage dumpster behind his office building that contained personal information. A victim of identity theft called CBS4 of Denver to complain after he spotted files containing Social Security information behind the Greenwood Village office building, CBS4Denver.com reports. W. Dan…

Nov 12, 2007 7:30 PM CST

‘Attorney at Blah’: JD Earns Extra $20/Hour in Doc Review

CORRECTED: The job is similar, but the pay is different: temp work, in something akin to document review, without a law degree, is dull, thankless work that earns $10 an hour. With a juris doctor degree and a bar admission, temp work brings in $35 an hour–enough to earn a…

Nov 9, 2007 10:44 PM CST

Ace Private Equity Attorney: Super-Smarts Aren’t a Job Requirement

Charlie Geffen readily admits he’s something of a workaholic. But, the British lawyer says, it doesn’t take an academic whiz to be one of the world’s most successful private equity practitioners. Instead, diligently learning the rules is what it takes to get through law school, and, especially in his practice…

Nov 9, 2007 4:58 PM CST

‘Green’ Industry: Environmental Law

For those seeking a “green” career, law practice offers an increasing number of opportunities. In a list of 10 industries with “great green potential,” the current issue of E magazine ranks as No. 5 the field of environmental law. (Other fields, such as land use and planning, which is also…

Nov 8, 2007 10:19 PM CST

Weirdest Case? You Be the Judge

As the world’s oddest laws are being discussed this week by one British newspaper, another, not to be outdone, has created a column about the world’s weirdest legal cases. Among them, according to the inaugural edition in the London Times: A German lawyer collected a statutory fee of 440,000 euros…

Nov 7, 2007 8:28 PM CST

BigLaw Firms End Mandatory Retirement

Another BigLaw firm has just announced that it will end its mandatory retirement program for lawyers, following a high-profile $27.5 million settlement in a law firm partner age discrimination case and an ABA recommendation against such policies. Effective immediately, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis will no longer require its…

Nov 7, 2007 6:13 PM CST

Sea Change in Legal Secretary Job Duties

A sea change from the way law practice was conducted when senior lawyers learned the ropes means that the traditional job of legal secretary will, within the foreseeable future, be a relic of legal history. But, in the meantime, today’s legal secretaries must perform not only the job they used…

Nov 7, 2007 1:13 AM CST

Va. Attorney Charged with ‘Embracery’

A Virginia civil rights attorney is now defending an unusual criminal case in modern-day America. Accused of improperly attempting to influence an Albemarle County grand jury, Deborah Wyatt is charged with five misdemeanor counts of embracery, an English common-law crime that dates back to the Magna Carta and was incorporated…

Nov 7, 2007 12:41 AM CST

Law Firm Plans Real-Life Practice at Virtual ‘Second Life’ Office

Bridging the gap between a fictional 3D world on the Internet known as “Second Life” and real life, a United Kingdom law firm reportedly has opened an office there not simply to play at law practice or recruit clients but to perform real-life legal functions. “Many of our clients have…

Nov 6, 2007 11:37 PM CST

Law Firm Launches Web ‘Chat Service’ for Potential PI Clients

For potential clients who need a personal injury lawyer, setting an appointment and going to an attorney’s office for an initial consultation can be a daunting process. But a British firm hopes to encourage the solicitor-shy to come to them by offering an Internet “chat service” that gives potential clients…

Nov 6, 2007 10:35 PM CST

A Little Internet Savvy Goes a Long Way

You’ve probably heard of the MySpace social networking Web site. But what about Xanga, Bebo and Orkut? Though seemingly esoteric to many over 30, these public Internet sites are familiar territory to the younger generation. And, more so than their elders, the young people of today are likely to connect…

Nov 6, 2007 1:04 AM CST

Nice Work: DOJ Lawyer’s Alleged Beach Gig

As a hearing loomed in a voting rights case against the city of Boston last summer, Susana Lorenzo-Giguere, a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice, came up from Washington, D.C., to oversee it personally. But then she allegedly spent much of the summer with her family on the beach…

Nov 5, 2007 11:51 PM CST