Business Development

Federal judge fed up with ‘fiddle-faddle’ requires lawyers to meet for lunch; how did it go?

Lawyers who met for lunch upon the orders of a federal judge have submitted their report as directed.

Jan 21, 2025 2:17 PM CST

Lawyer v. Attorney: Are all titles created equal?

Updated: “Tomayto,” “tomahto”—what’s in a name? In the legal field, the distinction between an attorney and a lawyer could be a big deal, despite the fact that few attorneys or lawyers even know the difference.

Jan 6, 2025 8:53 AM CST

Launch into 2025 with our Mind Your Business roundup

As you gear up for a productive 2025, check out our Mind Your Business advice from the past year. Mind Your Business, which launched in 2020, is a way for legal professionals to offer each other practical practice advice.

Jan 2, 2025 3:30 PM CST

CEO Roundtable With Ari Kaplan: Legal industry CEOs reflect on vibrant 2024, look ahead to 2025

Ari Kaplan recently spoke with the following CEOs in his annual Ari Kaplan Advisors CEO roundtable about the opportunities of 2024 and the expectations for an industry in perpetual change in 2025.

Dec 17, 2024 8:44 AM CST

Car-racing costs can’t be deducted by lawyer as marketing expense, 10th Circuit rules

A solo personal injury lawyer can’t count the costs of car racing as a marketing activity, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

Dec 11, 2024 8:48 AM CST

Associates at this BigLaw firm can choose one of 3 billable-hour budgets

Steptoe is adopting a new compensation system next year that allows associates to choose one of three different tracks based on hourly targets.

Dec 9, 2024 3:19 PM CST

Overall partner promotions shrink slightly, including for BigLaw firm that promoted 200 lawyers

A slightly lower number of partner promotions this year by Kirkland & Ellis is in keeping with the trend; new-partner class sizes in BigLaw have decreased an average of 4% this year, based on partnership announcements so far.

Dec 3, 2024 8:56 AM CST

Moms in Law: Millennials demand work-life balance more than their predecessors, but challenges persist

Millennials tend to emphasize a healthy work-life balance when choosing employers. That includes lawyers with young children. According to a 2023 ABA study, 61% of the mothers surveyed said they experienced demeaning comments about being a working parent, compared with 26% of fathers. But a growing number of young lawyers are pushing back.

Dec 1, 2024 12:00 AM CST

Want to help rural Alaskans with their tax needs? Volunteers sought for pro bono

The ABA is looking for volunteers to go to Alaska. The ABA Section of Taxation recently launched its Alaska Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Project, a pro bono initiative that will take six attorneys to prepare tax returns in remote villages in the state.

Nov 25, 2024 1:56 PM CST

Court reporting and the evolution of legal support

Ari Kaplan recently spoke with Greg Hong, the co-founder and CEO of Steno, a tech-enabled provider of legal support and court reporting services.

Nov 15, 2024 9:40 AM CST

The Career Evolution: Making strategic moves within the law

The legal job market is robust. And within all those professional journeys there are two types of searchers: those lawyers seeking a job change and those seeking a career change. If you’re in the market, it’s important not to conflate these two paths.

Oct 10, 2024 10:25 AM CDT

Top factors that contribute to burnout among legal professionals

Ari Kaplan recently spoke with Bill Potter, the vice president of presales engineering at Nuix, a leading investigative analytics and intelligence software provider.

Sep 23, 2024 2:10 PM CDT

Artificial Intelligence in Litigation: Streamlining deposition summarization and analysis

Generative artificial intelligence tools for legal professionals have been a large part of my focus in this column. Since 2017, I’ve written about all different types of software and have been covering AI tools. After the general release of ChatGPT in November 2022, one of my top priorities has been to include generative AI products designed for legal professionals.

Sep 20, 2024 9:55 AM CDT

These law firms are tops for midlevel associate satisfaction; how were their tech ratings?

BigLaw’s midlevel associates have spoken. The top law firm for midlevel associate satisfaction is O’Melveny & Myers, according to results from the American Lawyer’s 2024 Midlevel Associates Survey published by Law.com.

Sep 5, 2024 12:02 PM CDT

ILTACON 2024: Selling legal tech’s monorail

Last week’s ILTACON, an annual conference sponsored by the International Legal Technology Association felt a lot like The Simpsons episode "Marge vs. the Monorail," where the smooth-talking Lyle Lanley sells the town on the idea of a flashy but questionable monorail. Lanley's famous opening line, "You know, a town with money's a little like the mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it and danged if he knows how to use it," kept coming to mind during the event’s numerous presentations.

Aug 26, 2024 9:58 AM CDT