Inside Straight
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Biglaw, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues, Practice Pointers
Inside Straight: The Mutual Menace Of One Bad Partner
Suppose your firm has one incompetent partner, and our joint has the misfortune to be working with that person. This guy consistently misses important issues. He sends us briefs that read (as did one draft I recently received): “In response to ALR’s motion to dismiss the OC, [plaintiff] added an allegation in the FAC that […] -
Books, In-House Counsel, Shameless Plugs, Trials
Inside Straight: Oxford University Press Publishes Great New Treatise!
Yeah, I’m shameless, but I repeat: Oxford University Press has just published a great new treatise! I recently popped open a box and held in my hands an advance copy of a new treatise published by Oxford University Press: Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate link), by yours truly and my former partner […] - Sponsored
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm. -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel, Trials
Inside Straight: Showing, Not Telling, That You're Competent
When we write briefs, we show — we don’t tell — the reader that we win. Thus, we do not tell the reader: “This case is barred by the statute of limitations,” which is mere assertion. Instead, we show the reader why we win: “The accident in which plaintiff was hurt occurred on June 1, […]
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Biglaw, Birthdays, Blogging, In-House Counsel, Litigators, Partner Issues
Inside Straight: Happy Birthday To Me!
I’m one this week! Happy birthday to me! Though it feels like only yesterday, I published my first column at Above the Law on November 18, 2010. I’ve published two posts every week since then (except when Monday holidays excused my labors), so I’ve cranked out about 100 of these little ditties over the last […] -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: I've Written a Brochure For You!
In this column, I’m presenting you with a gift: I’m ghost-writing for you a law firm brochure. I hereby grant all copyright interest in my brochure to you. Feel free to reproduce the following brochure, print it up, attach your firm’s logo, mail or e-mail the brochure to clients and potential clients, and wait for […] -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: Who Are You Again, And What Are You Talking About?
I saw this all the time at law firms: I’d be in the middle of preparing to argue an appeal — reading key cases, studying the excerpts of the record, and thinking about likely questions from the bench. My mind was completely engrossed in what I was doing. And someone would walk into my office […] -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel, Legal Ethics, Litigators
Inside Straight: Learning From My 360-Degree Review
Here’s proof that I view my readers at ATL as family: In this post, I’m going to share with you the results of my recently concluded 360-degree performance review and tell you how I plan to improve my personal job performance. (That may not be quite as sexy as pictures of naked judges, but you […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Litigators
Inside Straight: What Would General Counsel University Look Like?
I posted last week about the idea of providing training intended to give lawyers wings — to teach lawyers the skills, and give them the experiences, they need to leave their firm or corporation and move forward on a career path elsewhere. If you thought that was a good idea — if you thought that […] - Sponsored
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
ChatGPT ushers in the age of generative AI – even for law firms. -
Facebook, In-House Counsel, Labor / Employment, Social Networking Websites, Technology, Twittering
Inside Straight: Why Your Four-Month-Old Social Media Policy Is Obsolete
Four months ago, you revised your company’s policy on employees’ use of social media. The policy said all the right things: When employees use social media, they should respect the rights of others and treat people with dignity; obey the company’s code of business conduct; maintain corporate confidences; and so on. Unbelievably, some recent communications […] -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel, Job Searches, Kids, Litigators
Inside Straight: Things My Son Said
In-house columnist Mark Herrmann reflects on some of the things he's discussed with his son about the law as he's grown older. Unsurprisingly, Mark's son is now in medical school.... -
General Counsel, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: Train To Stay, Or Train To Go?
It’s hard to create career paths for in-house lawyers. It’s easy to describe the career path for a junior lawyer at a law firm (even though the path may be illusory for many): Work hard and well and become a partner; work harder and better and become a richer and more powerful partner. Retire. Die. […] -
In-House Counsel, Job Searches, Litigators
Inside Straight: The Land Of The Bobbleheads
We recently had to hire a new lawyer to help with our litigation in the United States. Not surprisingly, that got me to thinking: What are we actually looking for in lawyers that we hire? Some companies litigate their own cases in-house, writing their own briefs, taking depositions, and trying cases. If that’s your company’s […] -
In-House Counsel, Litigators
Inside Straight: Lost In Translation
In-house counsel columnist Mark Herrmann is begging for help here: If you have global responsibilities and are routinely dealing with documents created in languages that you don't speak, how do you assess outside counsel's skill at communicating?
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Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
If 2023 introduced legal professionals to generative AI, then 2024 will be when law firms start adapting to utilize it. Things are moving fast, so…
Sponsored
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
The rise of remote work has dramatically reshaped the relationship between Lawyers and Law Firms, see how Scale LLP has taken the steps to get…
Sponsored
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
ChatGPT ushers in the age of generative AI – even for law firms.
Sponsored
Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use.
Sponsored
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm.
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In-House Counsel, Litigators
Inside Straight: In-House Counsel's Three Clients
There’s a six-year-old trapped inside of me, pounding on the inside of my skull and screaming to get out. (Many of you would say that the quality of these columns proves that I don’t manage to keep the kid fully contained. Yeah, well: It’s a good thing you’ve never heard any of my jokes.) My […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues, Rudeness
Inside Straight: The Rule of Equal Dignity
Years ago, I saw a memo written by a law firm partner who was renowned for mistreating junior partners, associates, staff, and lost children who wandered in the front door looking for their parents. But this memo showed a whole different personality. The memo was directed to a practice leader who had solicited comments about […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Litigators, Partner Issues
Inside Straight: My Wistful Day
In-house columnist Mark Herrmann is fast approaching the two-year anniversary of his move in-house, and he doesn't often look back wistfully on his former life as a partner at one of the world's largest law firms. But last Tuesday was different. Last Tuesday, the general counsel of an international company called him, and he started to reminisce about his Biglaw days.... -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: The On-Boarding Process
Two comments from folks who recently moved in-house prompt this post. The first comment came from a guy who spent more than ten years with an Am Law 100 firm before moving in-house: “When I was reading the newspaper on Sunday, I realized something. Before I moved in-house, I never truly understood ‘Dilbert’ and the […] -
Depositions, Email Scandals, In-House Counsel, Litigators, Rank Stupidity, Screw-Ups
Inside Straight: Avoiding E-Mail Stupidity
There’s one guy in your outfit who understands the need not to write stupid e-mails: That’s the guy who just spent all day in deposition being tortured with the stupid e-mails that he wrote three years ago. That guy will control himself. He’ll write fewer and more carefully phrased e-mails for the next couple of […] -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel, Interview Stories, Litigators
Inside Straight: Interviewing To Retain Outside Counsel
Your company was just named in a new complaint, and there’s no obvious choice of counsel to defend you. What do you do? You ask around internally to see whether any of our lawyers has worked with good counsel in the jurisdiction. Perhaps you ask a trusted outside lawyer or two for recommendations. You narrow […] -
In-House Counsel, Litigators, Money, Practice Pointers
Inside Straight: Projecting Defeat
During my 25 years litigating at law firms, I fretted about two words: “winning” and “losing.” (As one old-timer put it: “They don’t pay you twelve dollars a minute to lose.”) Now I’m in-house, and I’m still fretting about two words: “probable” and “estimable.” What happened? The accounting rules require corporations to take a reserve […]