Question of the Week

Which legal causes would you devote your practice to, if you could?

This week is Pro Bono Week, the annual event during which the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service calls attention to the increasing need for pro bono services and recognizes the lawyers who step up to meet it. Maybe you do some pro bono yourself—or maybe in…

Oct 28, 2015 11:30 AM CDT

What do you wish had already been invented?

The power of love is a curious thing. The decades-old Back to the Future films are so beloved that Oct. 21, 2015, was declared Back to the Future Day” because that is the future date to which Marty McFly travels to save his children in the 1989 film Back to…

Oct 21, 2015 2:35 PM CDT

What would you pick for your campaign song?

It’s election time, which means it’s time for candidates to start getting in trouble with musicians for using their songs at campaign events. This week, it was Donald Trump’s turn, as the presidential candidate’s campaign team sparred with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler over Trump’s use of the band’s 1973 song “Dream…

Oct 14, 2015 3:49 PM CDT

Do you connect with strangers on LinkedIn?

Last week, lawyer-blogger Robert Ambrogi wrote a rant about LinkedIn. He said he thinks that the time he has had to spend lately dealing with useless content and puzzling attempts from strangers to connect is making him disenchanted with the platform. “Maybe there’s a sort of law of diminishing returns…

Oct 7, 2015 1:10 PM CDT

What misused word or phrase do you hear or read most often?

We all have our pet peeves about language, and frequently the most grating ones are misused words or phrases. For example, the word literally is often used to indicate the intensity of the speaker’s statement, rather than literally meaning literally. Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker’s book The Sense of Style:…

Sep 30, 2015 1:35 PM CDT

Do you have certifications or advanced degrees besides your JD?

At Divorce Discourse, North Carolina lawyer Lee Rosen discusses pursuing additional credentials. “When I started practicing law, I wasn’t a Board Certified Family Law Specialist,” Rosen wrote. “Then I practiced family law for five years, took a bunch of CLE courses, and applied for certification. I got it and was…

Sep 23, 2015 12:10 PM CDT

Who would you want to check out of a ‘Human Library’?

Fifteen years ago a Danish nonprofit started the first “Human Library,” the Good News Network reports. At a Human Library event, volunteers give themselves a book title based on their own attributes—like Iraq War Veteran or Orphanage Boy—and visitors can “check out” the volunteers for a 30-minute conversation. “The purpose…

Sep 16, 2015 12:15 PM CDT

What’s your newest piece of technology?

Apple had one of its many press conferences this week, briefing the world on its latest tablet, smartphone and watch technology. Some of us like to have the latest and greatest of everything; others of us hold fast to our old technology until it dies. This week, we’d like to…

Sep 9, 2015 2:45 PM CDT

What are you doing when you get your best ideas?

This week, we took note of a judge who finds inspiration—legal inspiration, even—while swimming. “I’ve made some of my best law decisions right there in the pool,” Judge Robert Beach told the Tampa Bay Times. “I’ve got all this time by myself, nobody is interrupting me and I’ll be thinking…

Sep 2, 2015 2:36 PM CDT

What would you name your legal brew?

Updated: We recently stumbled on a crowdfunding page for the Denver-based Lady Justice Brewing Company. The Indiegogo page states that Lady Justice, started by three women (two are lawyers), will be a philanthropic brewery, with all profits from their enterprise “donated, through a grant-making process, to Colorado-based community organizations that…

Aug 26, 2015 1:05 PM CDT

Have you ever contributed to a crowdfunding venture?

This week, we noted a New York State Bar Association ethics opinion that articulated under what circumstances it would be ethical to use crowdfunding to finance the start-up costs of a law firm. The opinion was in response to an inquiry from recent law school graduates. So we’d like to…

Aug 19, 2015 1:22 PM CDT

Who do you think is the smartest judge in the United States?

Based on published rulings, speeches, interviews and other writings, or perhaps even personal encounters: Do you have an opinion on who our nation’s smartest jurist is? Do you always agree with the rulings of the judge you feel is the smartest? Is there a noteworthy opinion or other text by…

Aug 12, 2015 12:30 PM CDT

Who would be your dream client?

In the August issue of the ABA Journal, we talk to Tom Leavens, a Chicago lawyer who is general counsel for Pitchfork Media Inc., which is behind the Windy City’s annual Pitchfork Music Festival. “It’s totally cool,” Leavens says. “You would not believe the dad points I get for being…

Aug 5, 2015 1:45 PM CDT

How would you #ChangeTheLawIn5Words?

This week on Twitter, a trending hashtag has been #ChangeTheWorldIn5Words. Tweeters share their five-word ideas and add the hashtag to their tweets. Some answers the Twittersphere has come up with so far: @KaiJamesHayes: Find the cure to cancer. @medicalaxioms: Stop making stupid people famous. @Popehat: “President Trump, repeat after me…

Jul 29, 2015 12:55 PM CDT

What was the most interesting case that you’ve ever worked on?

To Kill a Mockingbird, the book that not only inspired the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction but also inspired many readers to pursue law as a career, is back on the best-seller lists. This enduring classic centered largely around a single case: Atticus Finch’s criminal defense of Tom Robinson,…

Jul 22, 2015 12:50 PM CDT