Managing a Law Firm

Top tips from Reid Trautz, Sharon Nelson, John Simek, Catherine Sanders Reach and Marc Metheny.

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the South by Southwest Interactive Track in Austin, Texas. This conference focuses on business and social media. I came away from the week with my head buzzing with ideas. Among them were concepts from ...

I'm lazy, and that’s a trait I try to take advantage of whenever possible. How? By relying on every software automation function available to me. If the software will do my work, I'm darned well going to let it. Not only is it faster (leaving me ...

Staff members do a tremendous amount of work for your firm, and they interact directly with clients in numerous ways. And by the way, Model Rule 5.3: Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistants is in play. So you will be on the hook for any ...

Studying for the LSAT’s, more years ago then I care to count, I recall learning about "if-this-then-that" statements. These were the questions geared toward testing our understanding of logical concepts and our analytical reasoning skills. Who ...

ABA TECHSHOW 2013 starts this week in Chicago, April 4-6, so for this "Product Beat" we have a preview of some wares being demonstrated in the exhibition hall—including highlights from announcements released just in time for the conference. If ...

When you're an associate receiving positive feedback for your intelligence, diligence, and impeccable work product, it's hard to fathom the need to start learning an entirely different set of skills for the later phases of your career. But ...

I sat in court recently listening as the plaintiff’s monotonous lawyer droned on about trivial irrelevancies. I watched the judge pretend to pay attention while most likely checking his Twitter feed. The few others in the room nodded off ...

A shocking number of ethics complaints stem from a very simple problem: lawyers not communicating with their clients. Clients pay for our time and effort, and they deserve to hear from us. Plus, our ethical obligations require that we be in ...

It was a 40-timekeeper firm with four name partners. For a long time, a senior partner had been giving his top clients massive volume discounts on top of rate discounts, and then staffing his matters with only the most senior staff. He racked up ...