Question of the Week

How Has Your Law Career Evolved This Decade?

We’re approaching the start of a new decade and have a natural impulse to look back. The National Law Journal focused on what it believed were the top 25 legal stories of the decade, including the beginning of war on terror, the highs and lows for first-year associates and lawyers’…

Dec 22, 2009 5:15 PM CST

Do You Get a Holiday Party, Time Off or Nothing?

We’re in the height of holiday party season right now and the celebration range is wide: Mark Lanier had about 7,000 guests over for a Bon Jovi concert on Sunday, Tex Parte Blog reports, while Weil Gotshal & Manges rocked the conference room. Even unemployed lawyers and legal staffers got…

Dec 16, 2009 7:44 PM CST

Could an Employer Detect Your Political Leanings from Your Resumé?

This week, a New York Times ethicist weighed in on a hiring lawyer’s query about whether it was ethical to favor job applicants who were not members of the Federalist Society over those who were. The Times’ Randy Cohen came down against taking political views into consideration. However, he checked…

Dec 9, 2009 5:45 PM CST

Is Your Office Supporting Any Charities This Holiday Season?

Many law firms and corporations like to give back to causes close to the members of their staffs. And at this time of year, as billings are collected, checks to charities are cut. And the legal profession makes other efforts to do good: A University of Illinois law professor recently…

Dec 2, 2009 8:32 PM CST

What Have You Had to Become an Expert in to Win a Case?

We read in last week’s issue of Legal BisNow about a new hire at Arnold and Porter who is tasked with, among other things, helping lawyers at her new firm understand both the practical and legal principles of cases. Lisa Blatt, a former assistant solicitor general, shared an example from…

Nov 23, 2009 4:25 PM CST

Has Being a Lawyer Presented Any Dating Challenges?

“To find a partner through online dating is not so easy: to date a lawyer can be much more difficult.” That’s part of the press release pitch for DateLawyer, a new dating site for lawyers “as well as others who are interested in singles in the legal industry.” (While DateLawyer…

Nov 18, 2009 8:27 PM CST

How Sick Do You Let Yourself Get Before Taking Time Off?

This season more than any in recent memory, coming to work while sick is nothing to sneeze at. With the spread of the H1N1 virus, we’re seeing doctor’s offices with masks for those in the waiting area, public transit stations equipped with anti-bacterial gel and public health warnings against showing…

Nov 11, 2009 9:01 PM CST

What’s the Weirdest Evidence You’ve Seen Presented in Court?

During a dinner conversation recently with a newly elected judge, we learned that defendants often, and unexpectedly, whip out their cell phones with photographic proof of whatever point they’re trying to argue. Talk of cell phone evidence jogged our memory about this “Case Oddity” post from the blog Defending People,…

Nov 4, 2009 6:24 PM CST

What Inappropriate Halloween Costumes Have You Seen at the Office?

We received a press release last week with a warning to employers to be careful about costume parties at which workers dress up in ways that could wind up as litigation nightmares. “Employees should have a work environment free of obvious or not-so-obvious harassment,” advises Steve Miller, who practices with…

Oct 28, 2009 7:02 PM CDT

In Law School, How Many Hours Per Day Did You Study?

This week, we noted the Princeton Review’s data on how many hours per day on average students at each of its 172 ranked schools spend studying. Villanova University School of Law topped the list: Allegedly, students there spend an average of 7.5 hours per day hitting the books. So we…

Oct 21, 2009 5:37 PM CDT

How Does the Practice of Law Need to Change in the Next Five Years?

This week, we’re asking some of the most creative minds in the legal profession—who’ve been posting and chatting live during 24 Hours of Legal Rebels—this question: How does the practice of law need to change in the next five years? Their answers are coming in 24 installments over Oct. 14…

Oct 14, 2009 6:46 PM CDT

What Was Your Most Memorable Law School Class Session?

This week, we noted Tom Cruise’s surprise visit to an entertainment law class at Harvard Law School. Cruise slipped in about 30 minutes after his lawyer, HLS alum Bertram Fields, started a guest lecture. And eventually a number of students tipped off by text messages and e-mails entered to see…

Oct 7, 2009 8:26 PM CDT

Do U Think Acronyms R an Epidemic?

This week, a California appeals judge took issue in an opinion with lawyers’ descent “into an alphabet soup of jargon-based acronyms” in their briefs. From a footnote in Judge David Sills’ opinion: “Consider, for example, this sentence, committed on page 32 of the appellant’s opening brief: ‘In June 22, 2000,…

Sep 30, 2009 7:05 PM CDT

When Confronted with Incivility, How Do You Handle It?

This week, we wrote about a federal judge in Philadelphia who ordered an attorney who cursed and called his opponent names during a deposition to both attend a CLE course on “civility and professionalism” and sit down to dinner with his adversary. The feuding lawyers told the Recorder they thought…

Sep 23, 2009 6:29 PM CDT

What’s on Your Professional ‘Bucket List’?

This week, ABAJournal.com noted how retired lawyer Jerry Loughran was able to scratch an item off of what the New York Times characterized as his “bucket list”: Being a ball person at the U.S. Open tennis tournament. “Like many older Americans, he had a few things he wanted to get…

Sep 16, 2009 5:06 PM CDT