Question of the Week

What’s Holding You Back from Going Solo?

Next week, the Legal Rebels ‘09 Tour will be visiting an expert on going solo. On Tuesday, Sept. 15, an ABA Journal team will talk to Susan Cartier Liebel, the solo practice evangelist who founded Solo Practice University, a website providing support and resources to those practicing alone or in…

Sep 9, 2009 8:59 PM CDT

What E-Mail Practices of Co-Workers, Clients Drive You Nuts?

An accountant in New Zealand was fired over her “confrontational” use of formatting—type that was red, boldface, all-caps or combinations of the three (a la Ellen Barshevsky, one commenter noted)—in e-mail messages to her co-workers. Her employer asserted that her messages caused disharmony in the workplace. But she fought back,…

Sep 2, 2009 7:55 PM CDT

What Unusual Amenities Do Your Firms/Offices Have?

We’ve been enjoying a series of Legal Bisnow newsletters featuring “Cool Cribs.” There’s one item with photos of Venable’s rooftop bocce ball court. And we’ve written before about the basketball hoop in Bartlit Beck’s Chicago office and the climbing wall at the firm’s Denver digs. This made us wonder how…

Aug 26, 2009 8:05 PM CDT

What’s Your Favorite Way to Break the Ice When Networking?

We heard about some tips this week from a careers coach who advises lawyers on ways to get the conversation rolling when they’re out to network and build relationships. We were intrigued by the tips, which include going to a networking event with a few ice-breaker questions in mind. This…

Aug 19, 2009 8:08 PM CDT

Do You Do Work on Your Laptop in Cafés?

Maybe it’s because of the economy, maybe it’s their gnawing desire to have that table at the window for themselves, but trend-watchers are seeing more and more restaurant-goers and coffeeshop regulars settling in not just to eat or drink, but to work or surf. This has some in the New…

Aug 12, 2009 9:43 PM CDT

Which Books Can’t You Live Without?

We noted this week that retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter is moving away from his beloved Weare, N.H. Souter’s neighbors there told the Washington Post in May that Souter may someday write a history of the town. What led him to buy a more modern home in…

Aug 5, 2009 7:45 PM CDT

What Advice Do You Wish You’d Been Given Before the Bar Exam?

It’s bar exam week across the United States, and recent law grads have spent the last few months of their lives trying to figure out exactly what questions will be put to them and how to answer them all correctly. Hindsight is 20/20, and general advice from those who have…

Jul 29, 2009 3:19 PM CDT

What’s the Craziest Thing You’ve Seen Someone Do While Driving?

News reports this week got us to thinking about the dangers of multitasking while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. One report by the New York Times noted that drivers talking on their cell phones are just as likely to have an accident as someone with a blood alcohol…

Jul 22, 2009 6:20 PM CDT

What Would You Have Asked Sotomayor at her Hearing?

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been center stage this week (perhaps you’ve caught our confirmation hearings coverage). On the day before the hearings, the New York Times asked some legal names—from former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (now a poli sci professor at Texas Tech University) to University of Wisconsin law…

Jul 15, 2009 5:32 PM CDT

Do You Expect to Learn Anything From the Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings?

Endorsements and protests of Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor are pouring in as Senators ready their opening statements and strategic questions for the woman who President Barack Obama has chosen to replace retired Justice David H. Souter. The hearings, which tend to run between four and five days, are rare…

Jul 8, 2009 6:11 PM CDT

Briefs and Oral Arguments: What’s Worst of the Worst?

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia can always be counted on to let you know what he really thinks. And even though you think lawyers would bring their A game to oral arguments and briefs they put before Scalia (he did write the book on the art of persuading judges,…

Jun 30, 2009 2:56 PM CDT

Do You Check Your PDA During Meetings?

The ubiquity of BlackBerrys and iPhones is still new enough that etiquette lines regarding their use have not been drawn. The New York Times says that two major Hollywood talent agencies ban BlackBerry use at meetings, while a New York talent agency has a green policy instructing that meeting notes…

Jun 24, 2009 7:10 PM CDT

What’s the Most Bizarre Memo You’ve Ever Received?

In these times, any BigLaw memo with strong or strange language makes its rounds on the blogosphere. And as a result of this phenomenon, ABAJournal.com readers know that a London partner of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton thinks that out-of-office autoreplies should state the hour that the lawyer is next…

Jun 17, 2009 7:00 PM CDT

Can Offering Work Flexibility Help a Firm’s Bottom Line?

Any outcry made over billable hour demands put on law firm associates has lately been drowned out by the chorus of laid-off lawyers and just-graduated law students wondering what realistic career options they have. In a post last week, magazine editor and law blogger Jordan Furlong noted this turn of…

Jun 10, 2009 9:04 PM CDT

Roll Call: What Time Did You Get to Work Today?

Until this week when comments started rolling in on a story about a New York City BigLaw partner instructing lawyers to be in the office no later than 9:30 a.m., we had no idea that morning start time was such a touchy subject. On our Facebook page, Jen Weissburg notes,…

Jun 3, 2009 6:12 PM CDT