Billable Hours
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Billable Hours, Crime, Prostitution, Quote of the Day
Lawyers Are Basically Really Successful Muggers
Successful closing argument plays on the jury's common sense and firm belief that lawyers are essentially crooks. -
Baseball, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Killing Lockstep, Money, Partner Issues, Partner Profits, Sports
Biglaw's Statistical Shortcomings
What are statistics like the billable hour worth, and how can they be improved? - Sponsored
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… -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Contract Attorneys, Crowell & Moring, Document Review, Job Searches
Contract Attorney Problems
All emails from contract attorneys should be filed under "there but for the grace of God go I."
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Biglaw, Billable Hours, Partner Issues, Practice Pointers
Why Face Time Is More Important Than Ever -- For Partners
Face time: it's not just for associates. -
Billable Hours, Boutique Law Firms, Small Law Firms
Where's the Beef: Law Practice Commoditization
What small law firms can learn from the high-end burger industry. -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Partner Issues, Practice Pointers
Why Face Time Is More Important Than Ever
Anonymous Partner offers some practical pointers about face time for young lawyers. -
American Bar Association / ABA, Bankruptcy, Bernie Madoff, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Federal Government, Gay, Gay Marriage, Law Professors, Law Schools, Lunacy, Money, Morning Docket, Small Law Firms, War on Terror
Morning Docket: 08.12.13
* Dewey know which Biglaw firms and ex-partners were sued by the failed firm’s bankruptcy estate? Sadly, they must all be asking, “Howrey going to survive now that Allan Diamond is on the case?” [Am Law Daily]
* You’d probably love to work as an associate on a 9-5 schedule with billable requirements so low you’d get canned anywhere else. There’s just one catch: You’d have a “proportionately lower salary.” [Daily Report]
* “Law professors and law deans are paid too much,” so the ABA is reducing tenure requirements for law school accreditation, which will make it easier for them to be laid off. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]
* The ABA also decided to cut law schools some slack in terms of graduates’ employment data, and it’s likely due to the U.S. News rankings reckoning. Say hello to the 10-months-after graduation jobs statistic. [National Law Journal]
* Following the Windsor ruling, the Social Security Administration is paying claims for married gay couples living in states where same-sex marriage is recognized. As for the rest, better luck next time. [BuzzFeed]
* Would-be senator Cory Booker has taken annual payouts from his former firm, Trenk DiPasquale, since he left. You may remember that firm’s name from the C&D letter seen around the world. [New York Post]
* Author John Grisham was so pissed his books were banned at Guantánamo Bay that he took up the cause of prisoners wrongfully accused, detained for years, and released without apology. [New York Times]
* Almost as if to add insult to injury, Bernie Madoff was allegedly involved in a love triangle with one of his employees who’s about to go to trial. Apparently having dirty money is a desirable trait in a man. [Reuters]
* Amanda Bynes is still in the psych ward on a 5150, and her mother was granted a temporary conservatorship over her cray cray kid’s financial affairs. Way to follow in Britney Spears’s footsteps. [CNN]
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Ask the Experts, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Career Center, Career Files, Lawyers, Pro Bono
From the Career Files: Biglaw Practice Today -- Damn The Torpedoes
Sarah Powell of Duke Law offers four benefits of working at a Biglaw firm: résumé gold, training, flexibility, and pro bono. - Sponsored
How Transactional Lawyers Can Better Serve (And Maintain) Their Clients
Sign up and join us for our CLE webinar. From importing your checklist to delivering the closing book, you can bolster client service throughout the… -
Ask the Experts, Billable Hours, Partner Issues, Staff Attorneys / Discovery Attorneys
The ATL Interrogatories: 10 Questions with Jeffrey Stone from McDermott Will & Emery LLP
Jeffrey Stone, co-chair of McDermott Will & Emery, participates in the ATL Interrogatories (sponsored by Lateral Link). -
Airplanes / Aviation, Biglaw, Billable Hours, California, Crime, Disasters / Emergencies, Gay Marriage, Law Schools, Money, Morning Docket, Partner Issues, Patents, Pranks, SCOTUS, Sexual Harassment, Supreme Court, Television, Trials
Morning Docket: 07.15.13
* Size matters when it comes to hourly rates. Because when you work in Biglaw, it’ll be all the more odious for your poor clients when you “churn that bill, baby.” [Corporate Counsel]
* Would you want this Cadwalader cad, a former mail room supervisor, at your “erotic disposal”? The object of his affections didn’t want him either, and she’s suing. [New York Daily News]
* In the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict, the NAACP is pressing for federal charges and a civil suit may be in the works. This trial isn’t over in the court of public opinion. [Bloomberg]
* This experience inspired George Zimmerman, fresh off his acquittal, to go to law school to help the wrongfully accused. If it makes you feel better, when he graduates, he’ll be unemployed. [Reuters]
* Here’s the lesson learned by Prop 8 proponents: If at first you don’t succeed at the Supreme Court, try, try again at the state level and base your arguments on technicalities. [Los Angeles Times]
* You do not want this patent troll — one of the most notorious in the country — to “go thug” on you. Apparently this is just another danger of alleged infringement in the modern world. [New York Times]
* Asiana Airlines is considering suing the NTSB and a California television station over the airing of “inaccurate and offensive” information (read: wildly racist) about the pilots of Flight 214. [CNN]
* Ariel Castro was slapped with an additional 648 counts in the kidnapping case against him, bringing the total to 977. Prosecutors are not yet seeking the death penalty. [Cleveland Plain Dealer]
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Biglaw, Billable Hours, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Money, Partner Issues
On Elephantine Mating And Alternative Fees
What's the similarity between discussions about alternative fee agreements and elephantine mating? In-house columnist Mark Herrmann explains. -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Boutique Law Firms, Money, Small Law Firms
Planning Your Law Firm: Projecting Income and Efficiency
There must be some way to figure out what your income will be when you start a firm, and Tom Wallerstein is here to help you do it. -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Holidays and Seasons
Summertime, And The Livin' Is Easy... Unless You Work At This Firm
Getting to work on time is an irrelevant conversation when people are busy working.
Sponsored
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
How Transactional Lawyers Can Better Serve (And Maintain) Their Clients
Sponsored
Generative AI In Legal Work — What’s Fact And What’s Fiction?
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
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Billable Hours, Boutique Law Firms, Small Law Firms
Skin in the Game: Mixed Hourly and Contingent Fee Billing
Keeping your client invested in the litigation makes for a better relationship. -
Akin Gump, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Canada, Environment / Environmental Law, Federal Government, Guns / Firearms, Law Schools, Morning Docket, Murder, Patton Boggs, Texas
Morning Docket: 04.18.13
* “[T]hese senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them” Yesterday, the Senate blocked gun-control legislation that could have saved lives, and Gabrielle Giffords, a victim of gun violence, wrote a powerful op-ed in reaction. [New York Times]
* DLA Piper won’t be churning that bill anymore because the firm managed to settle its fee dispute with Adam Victor, but it’s certain that the firm’s embarrassment over the overbilling incident will know no limits. [DealBook / New York Times]
* Ahh, best-laid plans: Kim Koopersmith, the first woman to serve as Akin Gump’s chair, never thought that she’d be working in a law firm. In law school, she wanted to work in public interest. [Bloomberg]
* You’ll never guess which firm has the best brand in Canada according to the latest Acritas survey, but that’s probably because you don’t care. Come on, it’s Canada. Fine, it’s Norton Rose. [Am Law Daily]
* Oopsie! Burford Capital claims that it would never have funded plaintiffs’ representation by Patton Boggs in the Chevron case if it weren’t for a partner’s “false and misleading” statements. [CNN Money]
* The wife of a former justice of the peace has been charged with capital murder after she confessed to her involvement in the slayings of Texas prosecutors Mike McLelland and Mark Hasse. [Reuters]
* Baltimore Law has a beautiful new building that cost $112 million. Just a thought: perhaps more of that money should’ve been spent putting the class of 2012 to work as lawyers. [National Law Journal]
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Biglaw, Billable Hours, In-House Counsel, Money, Partner Issues
Buying In: Suicide Pricing
Desperation breeds heavy discounting. How bad has it gotten? -
Billable Hours, Citigroup, Contract Attorneys, Money, Quote of the Day, Ted Frank
Billing That Much For Contract Attorneys Isn't 'Unusual' or 'Untoward,' It's Obscene
You will not believe the markup on the billable rates for contract attorneys these days. -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Money, Quote of the Day
Seeking Biglaw Billables: $1,150/Hour OBO!
In this day and age, even Biglaw bills can be discounted. -
Bankruptcy, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Books, Job Searches, Lateral Moves, Law Schools, Money, Partner Issues, Partner Profits
An Interview with Steven Harper, Former Kirkland Partner and Author of 'The Lawyer Bubble'
Should you go to law school? Is working in Biglaw still worth it? A former Kirkland & Ellis partner shares his thoughts. -
Adam Liptak, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Books, California, Crime, Deaths, Disability Law, Gay, Gay Marriage, In-House Counsel, Job Searches, Law Schools, Morning Docket, Murder, Sandra Day O'Connor, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Texas
Morning Docket: 04.01.13
* Can you DIG it?! Well, SCOTUS can’t, at least when it comes to the Prop 8 case, but perhaps that’s what the conservative justices planned all along. You can probably expect a judicial punt on this one. [New York Times]
* The case for cameras at the high court became even more compelling last week, because people just now realized that having to “spend money to see a public institution do public business is offensive.” Damn straight. [National Law Journal]
* Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s new book, Out of Order (affiliate link), didn’t exactly get a glowing review from the NYT’s Supreme Court correspondent, Adam Liptak. It’s a “gift shop bauble”? Ouch. [New York Times]
* Oh, Lanny Breuer, you tried to be all coy by saying you were interviewing elsewhere, but we knew you’d return to Covington. That “vice-chairman” title is a pretty sweet new perk, too. [Legal Times]
* DLA Piper’s bills may “know no limits,” but in-house counsel claim that while the firm’s emails were “flippant,” they won’t have an impact their already meticulous billing review. [New York Law Journal]
* The true love’s kiss of litigation: Bingham McCutchen’s Sleeping Beauty may have found her prince in Judge Vincent O’Neill Jr., because he ruled that the firm won’t be able to compel arbitration. [Recorder]
* It’s really not a good time to be a prosecutor in Texas. Two months after the murder of ADA Mark Hasse, DA Mike McLelland and his wife were gunned down in their home. RIP. [Dallas Morning News]
* Good news, everyone! The class of 2012 — the largest on record, according to the ABA — was only slightly more unemployed than its predecessors. Cherish the little things, people. [National Law Journal]