Features

Lawyers look for the next blockbuster as literary agents

Lawyers who switched careers to represent authors are looking for the next blockbuster—and loving it. Their legal training helped them turn the page in a challenging profession.

Jan 1, 2019 12:15 AM CST

Ross Award winner sees the honor in public defenders’ work

Read the winner of the sixth annual ABA Journal/Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction.

Jan 1, 2019 12:10 AM CST

Guardians of the Sixth Amendment

Read the winner of the sixth annual ABA Journal/Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction.

Jan 1, 2019 12:10 AM CST

Still There in the Ashes

A public defender navigates her opioid-addicted clients through drug treatment court. Durham, North Carolina, lawyer Aleaha Jones was named runner-up in the sixth annual ABA Journal/Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction.

Jan 1, 2019 12:05 AM CST

Breakdown: Prisons, jails house mental health patients who’ve committed no crimes

Some states use local jail cells to hold mental health patients. New Hampshire stands alone in its legal treatment of mental health patients within state prison walls.

Jan 1, 2019 12:00 AM CST

But their emails! Some of the most contentious political issues are e-discovery disputes

The near-daily headlines relating to what had once been a fairly obscure set of federal laws has helped breathe new life into the field of e-discovery. Donald Trump Jr.’s meetings with Russians, Michael Cohen’s plea bargain, Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, Paul Manafort’s fraud convictions and an attempt at impeaching Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein all involve, at their core, electronic evidence.

Dec 1, 2018 12:40 AM CST

Web 100: Get informed, be entertained and maybe even transform your practice with tech

How so, exactly? For the first time, the ABA Journal’s extensive favorites list has added a web tools category that includes apps, subscription services and other digital solutions.

Dec 1, 2018 12:30 AM CST

Web 100: Blogs

Great legal blogs go deeper into practice niches than the mainstream legal press and share well-written personal insights. Here we’re highlighting 10 blogs that are new to our Web 100 list, 20 making a repeat appearance and five joining the Blawg 100 Hall of Fame.

Dec 1, 2018 12:25 AM CST

Web 100: Twitter

If Twitter is the tool to tweak the world’s conversation, the top tweeters in the Web 100 are strong talkers of few words. These 15 newcomers and 10 retweeter repeaters from 2017 run the gamut from nonprofits to profs to legal tech entrepreneurs.

Dec 1, 2018 12:15 AM CST

Web 100: Web tools

This was a breakout year for legal technology on the web, from subscription services to access-to-justice helpers. Our judges and readers all had their own favorites. Let us know about yours.

Dec 1, 2018 12:10 AM CST

Other People’s Money: Rise of litigation finance companies raises legal and ethical concerns

Litigation financing is third-party funding of legal cases. Legal financing companies provide a nonrecourse cash advance to litigants—usually plaintiffs—in exchange for a percentage of the judgment or settlement. It is not considered a loan but rather a form of asset purchase or venture capital.

Dec 1, 2018 12:05 AM CST

Blawg 100 Hall of Fame

The list of best law blogs has grown to 60, with five new additions for 2018.

Dec 1, 2018 12:05 AM CST

Cybersquatters have taken advantage of BigLaw mergers to beat those firms to the trademark registry

Chinese copycats have long bedeviled popular brands in fashion and consumer products, but cybersquatters in China now target major global law firms–registering names, especially well-known brand or company names, as internet domains, with the hope of reselling them for a profit.

Nov 1, 2018 12:30 AM CDT

Devastated by office chemicals, an attorney helps others fight toxic torts

After years of prosecuting hardcore criminals, attorney Alan Bell, then 35, took a private-sector job in South Florida’s newest skyscraper as he planned his run for the U.S. Senate. But starting in November 1989, he began suffering such bizarre medical symptoms that doctors suspected he’d been poisoned by the Mafia. He eventually discovered he wasn’t poisoned by a criminal but by his office building. His illness was diagnosed as being caused by exposure to toxic chemicals at work, and he became disabled in 1991. His rapidly declining health forced him to flee his glamorous Miami life to a sterile bubble in the remote Arizona desert for eight years. He lost his career and his marriage.

Nov 1, 2018 12:20 AM CDT

Why toxic torts are hard to litigate and win

In movies such as Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action, lawyers investigate a serious environmental problem and then sweep a jury off its feet with the force of their evidence. Environmental litigators say a case actually can take years because of the Daubert standard, which governs whether an expert witness’s opinion is admissible in court.

Nov 1, 2018 12:15 AM CDT