Question of the Week

What Does Your Work Space Say About You?

Last week, we noted that Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley keeps giraffe figurines on her desk. Why? “No two have the same spots, and they stick their neck out,” she told the Boston Globe. Coakley is also inspired by her desktop photo of Eleanor Roosevelt and a quote from the…

Jun 8, 2011 4:50 PM CDT

Is It Confusing When Lawyers Change Their Names After Marriage? Did You Change Your Name?

Last week, we noted in a post that fewer married women—lawyers included—are keeping their maiden names. In the 1990s, 23 percent of women kept their names; in the last decade, only 18 percent did. Of course, it’s not always that cut and dried. Some women change their name personally but…

Jun 1, 2011 5:47 PM CDT

What Legal Issues Have Your Clients—Or You and Fellow Troops—Encountered as Soldiers or Veterans?

The American Bar Association recently launched ABA Home Front, a website created to provide military service members and their families with information on a variety of legal issues. (ABA President Stephen Zack also talks about the ABA’s three-year-old Military Pro Bono Project in his June column.) A number of readers…

May 25, 2011 4:00 PM CDT

How Do You Deal with Persistent Phone Solicitors?

In last week’s column about starting a new law firm, Valorem Law Group founding member Patrick Lamb touched on having to deal with vendors and how to keep them from eating too much of one’s time. “I still get a call every month from some firm selling corporate artwork,” he…

May 18, 2011 4:15 PM CDT

Have You Ever Witnessed a Meltdown in Your Office or in Court? What Did You (Or the Judge) Do?

This week at Divorce Discourse, North Carolina family lawyer Lee Rosen wrote about what to do when you find yourself with an angry client in your lobby. “This is not an extraordinary happening in a family law practice,” he writes. “If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s going to happen soon.…

May 11, 2011 4:30 PM CDT

Do You Ever Notice Copyright / Trademark Infringement? Does It Bother You?

You’re missing out if you haven’t visited Regretsy—a blog that for the last year or two has found humor in products sold, and how said products are sold, on Etsy.com, a Web store that features (allegedly) handmade and vintage goods. Among Regretsy’s 30-some categories is Copyright Infringements, which points to…

May 4, 2011 4:00 PM CDT

Bring Your ‘A’ Game, Readers: What Are the Most Annoying Business Cliches?

This week, Valorem Law Group co-founder Patrick Lamb wrote about the “mumbo jumbo” that he encounters in vendor pitches. He quoted from an ironic radio ad for The Private Bank to make his point: “Let’s touch base to arrange a little face time so we can appear fully engaged. Let’s…

Apr 27, 2011 6:28 PM CDT

In Your City, Where Do You Find the Lawyers Who Lunch?

This week, the Miami Herald did a short feature story on La Loggia Ristorante—an Italian restaurant right across from the Miami-Dade County Courthouse—and the lawyers who fill the place every weekday. The combination of the primo location and quality food “has created a micro-culture here, with diners staking claim to…

Apr 20, 2011 4:58 PM CDT

What Was Your First Computer?

This week, the 25th annual ABA Techshow took place in Chicago. In an effort to party like it was 1986, a technology museum of sorts was set up for the occasion. The artifacts, which were on display during the silver jubilee reception on the first night of the conference, included…

Apr 13, 2011 7:14 PM CDT

Etiquette Query: Will You Always Send an Email Before Picking Up the Phone?

We noticed a tweet from Above the Law blogger David Lat this week apologizing to a tipster: “Sorry to the tipster who just called—I was a little curt—but you interrupted my lunch. Please email or text instead. Phone = Evil. —DL” He followed it up with another tweet linking to…

Apr 6, 2011 6:06 PM CDT

Has Social Media Tightened Your Writing Style?

Last week at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, Greg Lambert noted a New York Times op-ed from a college English professor who sees value in very short compositions. “My ideal composition class would include assignments like ‘Write coherent and original comments for five YouTube videos, quickly telling us why…

Mar 30, 2011 3:43 PM CDT

How Formal or Informal Are You in Your Interactions with Your Clients?

This week at Going Paperless, Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor associate Molly DiBianca gives a shout-out to a Paris partner at the law firm Bird & Bird who doesn’t share her “hesitancy to make [his] comedic debut via Outlook” and who wrote a very frank out-of-office autoreply message that was…

Mar 23, 2011 5:10 PM CDT

Has a Case or a Client Ever Made You Fear for Your Life?

We have posted a couple of sad stories in recent weeks about lawyers who have been killed apparently in the course of their work on divorce cases. Last month, a California lawyer was shot along with her divorce client in a diner during a court recess, allegedly by the client’s…

Mar 16, 2011 9:33 PM CDT

In Your Experience, Are Performance Reviews Objective and Fair?

Last week, we noted a op-ed by a management professor in which he panned the use of supervisor-conducted performance reviews as a way to evaluate employees. “In my years studying such reviews, I’ve learned that they are subjective evaluations that measure how ‘comfortable’ a boss is with an employee, not…

Mar 9, 2011 5:31 PM CST

Have You Ever Been Offended by a Rejection Letter? What Did It Say?

We recently heard from a reader who wondered how it could ever be in a law firm’s best interest to send out anything but a kind rejection letter. “Nice rejection letters accomplish the same thing (a rejection) but offer goodwill and a better reflection on the law firm,” she wrote.…

Mar 2, 2011 6:26 PM CST