Question of the Week

Has becoming a lawyer changed how you go through day-to-day life?

“Before I was an attorney, the world was riddled with rainbows and butterflies. Bad people only lived on Melrose Place, and nobody habitually lied or cheated,” Florida lawyer Jennifer Burby writes at her Champagne Supernova blog. “Being a lawyer has opened me up to the world of the worst.” Burby…

Jun 1, 2016 1:35 PM CDT

What is your sign-off on professional correspondence?

How formal should you be in business letters? This month, legal writing authority Bryan Garner takes on what he considers to be appropriate salutations and sign-offs. Garner offers a number of appropriate—and grammatically correct—sign-off suggestions. Among them: “If the relationship is very formal and deferential, stick with ‘respectfully (yours),’ or…

May 25, 2016 12:00 PM CDT

How do you handle phone calls from potential clients?

The ABA Law Practice Division’s Social Media, Legal Blogs, and Websites Interest Group recently shared “shocking” results from a law firm client intake study. The group made hundreds of telephone calls to law firms and analyzed 17,000 inbound calls to law firms. It found that less than 10 percent of…

May 18, 2016 12:26 PM CDT

Is cursing common in your workplace?

This week, we noted a story about a defense lawyer who faced a contempt proceeding after cursing under his breath—too quietly for the court reporter to hear, at any rate—while a prosecutor was arguing at a sentencing hearing, and then again after the sentencing hearing. Craig Weintraub apologized for the…

May 11, 2016 2:00 PM CDT

Do you have a will?

At this point, it’s been widely reported that Prince died this past April 21 without a will. But while Prince’s estate is extraordinary in its intellectual property value, it’s fairly ordinary for someone to die without a will. Statistics from recent years show that more than half of Americans do.…

May 4, 2016 12:00 PM CDT

Is nonlawyer ownership of law firms long overdue? Or a bad idea?

This week, we noted that until Monday, May 2, the ABA is seeking comments on an issues paper that considers the risks and benefits of alternative business structures allowing nonlawyer ownership of law firms—which is currently permitted in the United Kingdom, Australia, and to a limited extent in Washington, D.C.…

Apr 27, 2016 4:34 PM CDT

What are some tech tools that have changed your law practice?

“You can’t be afraid” of tech tools, says Monica Bay, a freelance writer and a fellow at Stanford’s Center for Legal Informatics in a Legal Rebels Trailblazer podcast. “They’re going to make things easier, faster and more transparent.” Bay is happy that the legal profession is embracing technology in recent…

Apr 20, 2016 2:00 PM CDT

What class do you wish were offered at your law school?

Bar exam prep classes have become part of the curriculum at some law schools—and positive results indicate those classes might be here to stay. Belmont University College of Law in Nashville, Tennessee, started offering such a class. The school posted a 94 percent passage rate by its first-time takers on…

Apr 13, 2016 1:50 PM CDT

Do you work seated at a desk in an office? If not, why not?

This week, the California Supreme Court interpreted a state wage order to mean that “all working employees shall be provided with suitable seats when the nature of the work reasonably permits the use of seats,” ruling against defendants such as CVS Pharmacy Inc. and Wal-Mart. And the April issue of…

Apr 6, 2016 1:45 PM CDT

The Bluebook: Tell us how you really feel, readers

Judge Richard Posner’s disdain for The Bluebook has been well-documented. In a 2011 Yale Law Journal article, he admitted not having ever read it in detail. And that was an older, 511-page edition. The current 20th edition, released in May 2015, is 560 pages. “560 pages of rubbish,” is how…

Mar 30, 2016 1:00 PM CDT

How much did you pay in law school tuition?

This month, U.S. News & World report published not only its rankings of the nation’s law schools but data about the tuition and fees charged by these schools. The law school with the most expensive annual tuition? Columbia Law School, which charges $62,700 per year. The least-expensive route to a…

Mar 23, 2016 2:33 PM CDT

Are associates at your firm allowed to present arguments in court?

This week, Above the Law reported on an order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal from the Northern District of California. “With no fewer than six post-trial motions set for argument next week, surely an opportunity can be made to give those associates that contributed mightily to this difficult case…

Mar 16, 2016 2:20 PM CDT

What legal advice would you give to a client who won the lottery?

This week, it was reported that a Pennsylvania district judge—on senior status—who won a $291 million Powerball jackpot still plans to hear cases. “You got to do something in life,” James Stocklas told lehighvalleylive.com. “I won’t work as often, but if the court is in a jam, if they need…

Mar 9, 2016 12:30 PM CST

What strange disturbances have you witnessed in the courtroom?

It was reported at CNN and elsewhere that the lights went out during U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments Tuesday. “I knew we should have paid that bill,” Chief Justice John Roberts said to those assembled. Arguments continued during the outage, which lasted around four minutes. This week, we’d like to…

Mar 2, 2016 10:00 AM CST

Do you think there should be an LSAT cutoff score for law school admission?

Last month, we noted that data shows that lower LSAT scores and declining bar-pass rates have been going hand-in-hand in recent years. Jerry Organ, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis who looked at the score data, anticipates a continued decline in median…

Feb 24, 2016 12:25 PM CST