Our latest Legal Current podcast looks into the leadership outlook for women in law firms. Our guest for that topic is Ida Abbott, author of Women on Top: The Woman’s Guide to Leadership and Power in Law Firms.
Also in the show, we bring you details of a video contest underway through Dec. 12 from FindLaw.com. It’s called “When Life Gets Legal.” And, you could win $5,000 for sending in a video that tells your story of how FindLaw helped you learn more about the law or helped you find a lawyer.
We’ve got those interviews, plus our regular segments including “Chaos in the Court,” and a sample of an original song from an employee that’s a tribute to the hard-working people of Thomson Reuters, Legal.
You can listen to the episode now or listen later.
We’re also on iTunes (just enter Legal Current in the search box).
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Send us a comment or suggestion for topics or interviews, that may end up in future episodes. Just leave a comment to this blog post or send an e-mail with your text or audio comment to contact@legalcurrent.com. You also can talk to us on Twitter, we are @legalcurrent.
Show notes for Nov. 15, 2010:
:00-1:05 Open
1:05-8:00 Interview/Women in law firm leadership
8:00-8:55 “On the Blawgs”
8:55-10:45 Interview/FindLaw contest “When Life Gets Legal”
10:45-11:20 “Headnote History”
11:20-12:20 “Chaos in the Court”
12:20-12:30 Closing
12:30-15:53 Employee song/”Rock You Reuters”
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
Audio | Company Current |
No Comments |
With mobile web surfing increasingly taking off, FindLaw, the most popular consumer legal information website, has launched Mobile FindLaw at m.findlaw.com.
It’s optimized for iPhone and Android smartphones, and is compatible with many popular mobile devices. Unlike other mobile websites which simply shrink their formats to fit a smaller screen, Mobile FindLaw is built to optimize the mobile user experience.
Mobile users can quickly and easily access the FindLaw Lawyer Directory, the largest online lawyer directory, and find a lawyer in their area by name, location or practice area. The Learn About the Law section features hundreds of informative articles on major areas of the law.
Mobile FindLaw provides law firms that advertise in the FindLaw Lawyer Directory the opportunity to be among the first to reach consumers who are actively looking for legal counsel and present helpful information about their legal expertise. You can read the news release for more information.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Technology and innovation |
No Comments |
Commercial litigation has evolved tremendously in recent years in the United States. Whether it’s the subject matter of the litigation or just the increase in the number of cases, there is a lot for lawyers to keep up with.
In New York alone, the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court has only been around since 1995 when there were just six judges in two counties. Today, New York’s Commercial Division has 24 judges in 10 of the state’s 62 counties.
On a recent visit to our headquarters in Minnesota, Robert Haig, author of the now third edition of Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts, told me he’s added 19 chapters to the 88 in the second edition. One of those topics is on the interplay between commercial litigation and criminal proceedings.
“Over the last five years there’s been an increasing number of examples where you have a pending civil litigation, a commercial lawsuit, but you also have a criminal investigation going on,” said Haig. “You have all kinds of interesting issues about discovery in the civil litigation, which is fairly broad, conflicting with the rights of the defendants in a criminal proceeding.”
The sealing of court records also is a trend in commercial litigation. Haig says confidential materials are often at the heart of the matter, including trade secrets, intellectual property rights or marketing or sales strategies.
In this video clip, Haig explains more of the current background for the newest edition of his book and how commercial litigation in a state stacks up to the federal courts, and what factors need to be accounted for in making the decision to bring a case.
Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts is a joint venture of Thomson Reuters, Legal, and and the New York County Lawyers’ Association.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
Comments (2) |
If you have been anticipating the app for the 9th Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary for the iPad and iPhone/iPod touch… the wait is over.
Also, anyone who currently has the 8th Edition automatically upgrades to the 9th for free.
The 9th Edition app has an updated user interface with internal hyper-linking between definitions, 2,000 more terms than the 8th Edition, audio pronunciations for more than 7,000 terms, and – on the iPad – a “Word of the Day” feature.
The app sells for $54.99 on iTunes.
Last year, the Black’s Law app was the first from Thomson Reuters, Legal, for the iPhone and iPod touch. Today we have several apps available for a variety of titles and purposes. You can learn more about them here.
Black’s Law Dictionary is edited by Bryan Garner and was established by Henry Campbell Black in 1891.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
Company Current | Products |
No Comments |
The Hildebrandt Baker Robbins Peer Monitor Economic Index (PMI) dropped two points in the third quarter of 2010. It measured a 52, down from 54 in the second quarter. A PMI of 65 or greater indicates strong law firm market performance.
Demand, as measured by billable hours, was down one percent in the third quarter compared with a year earlier. Worked rates increased by 2.1 percent in the quarter, marking some of the slowest rate growth seen by PMI. In addition, collected rates continued to hover near historic lows.
“It’s becoming more of a one size does not fit all type of a story,” said Mark Medice, program director of Hildebrandt Baker Robbins Peer Monitor. “It’s not like all of a sudden people can and should invest in their M&A practices in the hopes of a recovery there. But I think it’s going to be a little bit more about what are the particular markets, clients and strengths of any given firm and how they’re positioned to go forward.”
You can listen to Medice talk further about the latest PMI in this Legal Current interview edition podcast:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
PMI is a composite index of law firm market performance using real-time data drawn from major law firms in the United States and key international markets.
London declined slightly in demand, down two percent. Houston was the strongest major United States market, with demand up one percent in the third quarter. Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. were down one percent. New York fell three percent in the quarter. Los Angeles was flat, but has been showing improvement throughout the year.
Demand for litigation work was down one percent, a slight improvement from the previous quarter; IP litigation was down three percent. Transactional practices continued to show relative strength.
General corporate work was flat, M&A increased three percent, while tax work was up two percent. Bankruptcy work fell by seven percent compared with a year earlier. While still high by historical standards, demand for bankruptcy continues to drop as demand shifts away from counter-cyclical practices.
For more information about the PMI, and to review the latest PMI report, visit peermonitor.hbrconsulting.com.
You also can access the Legal Current podcast on iTunes (Enter Legal Current in the search box), visit our podcast page or get the podcast via email or RSS.
UPDATE: Mark Medice also has written about the latest PMI on the Hildebrandt Bakers Robbins Blog, LawVision.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Business | Industry trends |
No Comments |
Today’s law firms are increasingly under pressure from clients to provide greater value, transparency and predictable costs, including use of alternative fee arrangements.
This Wednesday, Nov. 3 at Noon Eastern, Hildebrandt Baker Robbins consultants Nathan Bowie and Alan Nathanson will conduct a free webinar on strategies and tools that firms can use to manage matters successfully and profitably.
Registration information is available on the Thomson Reuters Engage website.
Thomson Reuters Engage is the first comprehensive Engagement Planning & Management tool that helps law firms plan, budget and manage matters while helping firms maintain profitability. As lawyers lay out the engagement requirements and their approach, Engage leverages firm experience and previous matter history to seamlessly create comprehensive matter project plans and budgets.
In addition to the webinar, you can hear Jim Jones and Alan Nathanson of Hildebrandt Baker Robbins discuss the changing pricing environment that law firms face in this Legal Current podcast.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Legal Current podcast is available on iTunes (just enter Legal Current in the search box), visit our podcast page or get the podcast via email or RSS.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Business | Law firm business |
No Comments |
Is it possible to be happy and be a lawyer?
Some law students at Duke University School of Law are considering that question and the bad rap lawyers get in terms of job satisfaction in a course this fall titled “Well-Being and the Practice of Law.”
It’s a legitimate class and it goes beyond the concept of happiness. While it’s not the first of its kind, it is getting some attention. So we talked about it with the man leading the class, Dan Bowling, in our latest Legal Current podcast.
Also in the new episode is an interview about some trends in the practice of law and the opportunities those trends are providing legal professionals. Our discussion is with The Opportunity Maker himself, Ari Kaplan, one of our Thomson Reuters authors.
The complete show notes featuring all the topics, guests and timecodes for the audio file are listed below.
You can listen to the episode in the player here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Or, grab our podcast feed on iTunes (just enter Legal Current in the search box), visit our podcast page or subscribe via RSS.
We produce a new episode every two weeks – with occasional interview episodes dedicated to one topic in between – so we encourage you to subscribe to the podcast.
Also, send us a comment or suggestion for topics or interviews, that may end up in future episodes. Just leave a comment to this blog post or send an e-mail with your text or audio comment to contact@legalcurrent.com.
You also can follow us on Twitter, we are @legalcurrent.
Show notes – November 1, 2010
:00-1:15 Open
1:15-5:00 Interview/Well-being and the practice of law
5:00-5:55 “On the Blawgs”
5:55-8:30 Interview/Practice trends in law firms
8:30-9:30 “Headnote History”
9:30-10:00 “Chaos in the Court”
10:00-10:30 Closing
10:30-15:24 Employee song/”Skeleton Hill”
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
Audio | Company Current |
No Comments |
The latest Managing Outside Counsel Survey Report by the Association of Corporate Counsel and Serengeti Law is out. Serengeti is part of Thomson Reuters.
It is detailed in a press release by the ACC and on the Serengeti website.
Among the key findings in the 10th annual report, the ACC and Serengeti say:
-Although compliance is still a key focus, controlling outside legal spending has returned to the top spot during the past two years similar to the start of the decade.
-The need to drive efficiency is leading to more value-based policies to reduce overall legal spend. Policies requiring project budgets, client consent for firm staffing, early case assessments, the use of alternative dispute resolution, client ownership of work product and technology requirements have all increased significantly in the past decade.
-Although legal spending is taking a growing bite out of company revenues, law firms are getting a smaller share relative to corporate law departments.
-Due to the greater willingness of in-house counsel to assert their bargaining power, along with the weak economy, we not only are witnessing the smallest increase in hourly rates in the past ten years, but in-house counsel are also anticipating similar record low increases for the coming year.
-The study does show that the number of in-house counsel with little to no company resistance to alternative fees has increased by 16% in 10 years; firms with little to no resistance to alternative fees has increased 69%.
-In-house counsel are increasingly turning to more sophisticated tracking systems to carefully understand where their money is going.
The survey was released by the ACC and Serengeti last week at ACC’s 2010 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Business | Law firm business |
Comments (2) |
Throughout the legal profession, around the world, people in all kinds of roles and jobs are keenly aware of the swift advances in technology that have changed the way work gets done and how people interact.
Both within a company, and with customers and clients.
Technology trends were front and center at the 2010 ProLaw User Conference in New Mexico yesterday when Kelli Crane, senior vice president and chief information officer for Thomson Reuters, focused on three concepts affecting businesses.
Her presentation was titled “Technology Trends: Embracing Change and Preparing for the Future.”
Here are the trends she highlighted: (more…)
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Business | Industry trends |
Comments (1) |
(Photo courtesy: Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa)
Near the scenic backdrop of the Sandia Mountain, near Albuquerque, New Mexico, ProLaw is holding its 2010 User Conference this week at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa.
ProLaw, part of Thomson Reuters, has not held its own user conference since 2003. Judging by the turnout, many ProLaw customers were anxious to get together this week for networking opportunities and the educational sessions about ProLaw, a law firm practice management solution.
Elite President Kim Massana opened the conference Tuesday morning to a packed ballroom of close to 300 attendees. He was followed by ProLaw Vice President and General Manager Matt DeVoll who gave an update on the business and Elite ’s Chief Technology Officer Jeff Schuett talked about the importance of a technology platform to a software solution.
DeVoll talks about how the ProLaw User Conference is structured in this video:
Massana explains why the educational component of the conference is important for the attendees in this video.
I’ve posted a few more photos from the first day of the conference to our Flickr page.
The conference wraps up Thursday. You can learn more about ProLaw on its website.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
Company Current | Events |
Comments (1) |
The U.S. Constitution is one of the most powerful and impactful documents in existence. It literally touches every American’s life, and has since its creation in 1787. Recently, I had the opportunity to view the document first-hand as part of a new exhibit, “We the People: The First Official Printing of the U.S. Constitution,” sponsored [...]
Earlier this week, we released our 2011 Annual Report in an interactive format available online at thomsonreuters.com. Along with information on the company’s financial performance as well as business unit overviews, this year’s annual report contains a variety of dynamic content including interviews with our new business leaders as well as stories of how we [...]
We’ve got a great episode for you this month, kicking off with our “Chaos in the Courts” segment that, believe it or not, is yet another story about the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas. Since our March podcast, another person has fallen victim to the establishment’s trademark bypass burger.
Then in our “On the Blawgs” [...]
