Question of the Week

What’s the Strangest Question You’ve Ever Been Asked at a Job Interview?

At the end of last week, the Employer Handbook found some posts on Glassdoor noting both the 50 most common interview questions and last year’s top 25 oddball questions. Among the oddballs: • “Would Mahatma Gandhi have made a good software engineer?” Asked at Deloitte. • “Room, desk and car—which…

Jan 11, 2012 5:30 PM CST

Where Do You Want Your Law Practice to Go In 2012?

It’s that time of year for a little soul-searching and goal-setting for the next 12 months, professionally as well as personally. Maybe you want a completely fresh start. This month’s podcast, “Hanging a Shingle: How to Start Your Own Law Practice” features three lawyers who left established law firms and…

Jan 4, 2012 6:59 PM CST

Do You, Like Santa, Routinely Choose to Work While Most Others Are Sleeping?

This week, we noted a Washington Post column in which the columnist chronicles the phenomenon of “midnight moms” who find themselves pulling late-night work shifts from home while their children sleep. A Latham & Watkins IT worker and “midnight mom” interviewed for the column who teaches an infant swim class…

Dec 20, 2011 6:25 PM CST

How Many Hours Will You Bill in 2011?

Burning up the charts on ABAJournal.com this week is a post about an associate who sued his former law firm, which he claims required its lawyers to bill 3,000 hours per year. The associate alleges he was fired because he couldn’t make that quota, which he says is unrealistic and…

Dec 14, 2011 5:50 PM CST

Have You Ever Had to Deal with a Web Attack Against Yourself or a Client? If So, What Did You Do?

Last week, we noted a story about a dental patient unhappy with a bill totaling nearly $4,800 suing to overturn a contract he signed banning him from criticizing his dentist. According to his suit (PDF), to “stifle any public criticism,” Dr. Stacy Makhnevich requires her patients to waive any right…

Dec 7, 2011 5:54 PM CST

Should SCOTUS Arguments Be Televised? If They Were, Would You Watch?

This week, we noted a New York Times column suggesting that despite the public’s tremendous interest in the U.S. Supreme Court case over President Obama’s health care reform law, the justices were unlikely to allow cameras in the courtroom. The justices “don’t like, in the modern age, that people can…

Nov 30, 2011 4:58 PM CST

How Soon Should Holiday Shopping Start?

The Hampton Roads, Va., Daily Press reports that this year, Target (as well as Macy’s, Best Buy and Kohl’s) announced that it would open at midnight on “Black Friday” for shoppers. And a petition started by at Change.org by a Target employee is protesting this move on behalf of workers.…

Nov 22, 2011 4:43 PM CST

If You Had Eight Months to Take a Trip by Yourself, Where Would You Go?

For the past eight months, we’ve been posting updates about former Sidley Austin associate George Tyler Coulson, who on March 11 began a walk from Delaware to San Diego. This week, we noted that he finally reached his destination last week, which was Ocean Beach Dog Beach in San Diego.…

Nov 16, 2011 6:20 PM CST

What Are Your Must-Have Gadgets, and Why?

Last month, Law Technology News wrote an article describing must-have software and gadgets for paralegals. Among the article’s suggestions: Google Docs, a Livescribe Pen and a list of six iPad apps. Practical Paralegalism blogger Lynne DeVenny saw the article and tweeted: “What are your must-have gadgets? Mine are my iPhone,…

Nov 9, 2011 7:14 PM CST

What Judge Would You Like to Watch on TV, And Why?

This week, we noted that the husband of Judith Sheindlin, better known as TV’s Judge Judy, has landed a role on a pilot for a scripted series. Gerald Sheindlin is a retired Bronx judge who also appeared on television as a judge on The People’s Court from 1999 to 2001.…

Nov 2, 2011 4:00 PM CDT

If You Could Create a Lawyer Superhero, What Would Be His / Her Name? Powers?

For our November issue, we asked pop culture writer and comic book aficionado Jesse Thompson for his picks of the top 10 lawyers in comics. Picks include She-Hulk, Batman’s Two-Face and some lesser-known illustrated lawyers. So this week, we’d like to ask you: If you could create a lawyer superhero,…

Oct 26, 2011 8:18 PM CDT

What Tasks—at Work or Home—Would You Outsource, If You Could? And What Would You Never Outsource?

Earlier this month, we saw a post at the blog Spend Matters on legal process outsourcing titled: “Outsourcing the Right Things for the Right Reasons.” The post discussed different imperatives a corporate law department might have for seeking to send work out: from reducing costs, to improving performance or competitiveness,…

Oct 19, 2011 5:00 PM CDT

Law School Grads: Take This Six-Question Survey on Finding That First Job

Readers had a lot to say in 120-plus comments on last week’s story about two law firms’ announcement that 15 more law schools will be sued over how they have been reporting their employment statistics. The same firms filed lawsuits against Cooley Law School and New York Law School in…

Oct 12, 2011 4:51 PM CDT

How Would You Change Your Law School’s Admission Policies?

This week, we noted a study that found that more than three quarters of the students at the nation’s top 20 law schools come from the top one-fourth of the socioeconomic population, and just 2 percent come from the bottom quarter. University of California-Los Angeles law professor Richard Sander said…

Oct 5, 2011 4:00 PM CDT

Would You Hire Someone Who Is Unemployed? Have You Ever Landed a Job Despite Being Unemployed?

This week, we noted a jobs bill supported by President Barack Obama that would allow unemployed people to collect damages for discrimination when would-be employers refuse to hire them because they are jobless. The bill would also bar ads that seek only candidates who already have jobs. This week, we’d…

Sep 28, 2011 6:35 PM CDT