Are you an attorney, looking for a job?
Consider an alternative legal career in state or local government.
An article on AttorneyJobs.com titled “State and Local Government Careers for Attorneys,” written by Nancy Carver, discusses the many options of working as an attorney in state or local government, a career path that perhaps many have not thought of before. (more…)
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It’s hard enough for a law firm or law department to keep track of its knowledge management right? So what about everyday, you and I, personal knowledge management?
You know, things like that jam-packed email inbox?
Sean Brady, information systems consultant at Vinson & Elkins, is leading two sessions this morning at the 2010 ILTA conference about personal knowledge management. They are titled “Managing Information Overload Through Personal Knowledge Management.” Michael McBride at Bricker & Eckler also is leading the sessions.
The program aims to address software and techniques to better manage information and become more efficient and effective in your work. The program description says “attendees will also explore the three components of good personal KM (aggregate, filter, share) and have a chance to try tools both inside and outside the firewall, including social media tools, that help manage information flows related to their professional lives.”
You can download the pdf of the presentation for more information.
in this video interview, he told us what he hopes attendees will get out of the sessions.
Brady’s views are his personal opinion and do not represent his firm.
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Are you an attorney, looking for a new job?
In a three-part article on AttorneyJobs.com titled “Informational Interviewing,” Donna Gerson writes that informational interviews enable attorneys seeking jobs to get a better understanding of jobs both within a firm or in an organization that presents a more nontraditional career path in the law.
Among other things, Gerson says informational interviews can help attorneys:
-Get information about what opportunities may arise in a given practice area or organization
-Learn about jobs and legal career paths you did not know existed
-Practice promoting your skills and accomplishments in a non-pressured environment
You can find Gerson’s three part article on the Career Resources tab at AttorneyJobs.com, part of Thomson Reuters.
That tab is among the new tools and resources just launched by AttorneyJobs, to provide additional assistance to lawyers across the United States who are looking for work. The content on the Career Resources page includes career development articles authored by leading career consulting firms and covers topics such as networking, interviewing skills, business etiquette and alternative legal careers. The page also has legal career advice and counseling, the Bar Guide – a continuously updated directory of state bar requirements and related information – resume and interview centers, and graduate law degree information.
AttorneyJobs.com also now offers a preview of job search results for all visitors. Attorneys and JDs can now preview the job title, practice area, city and state, and employer type (corporation, public interest/advocacy, college/university, government) without having to purchase a subscription to AttorneyJobs.com services.
And, the site now links directly to West LegalEdcenter online continuing legal education webcasts, covering subjects from the substance of law and legal skills, business skills, business management and more.
AttorneyJobs content also is accessible through Twitter and LinkedIn.
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How is it that some lawyers have “it” and some don’t, when it comes to being an effective communicator in the courtroom?
“Skilled advocates come naturally, they’re not often taught,” says Russ Herman, an attorney at Herman Herman Katz & Cotlar in New Orleans. “So it’s difficult for many lawyers and many students just to pick up.”
Herman says the lawyers who are best able to connect in the courtroom start by creating a storyline.
“The techniques of persuasion are all centered around the storyline,” Herman said. “A truthful, convincing, documented storyline upon which you build a story. And then you incorporate the techniques of persuasion… …You can fumble, you can mumble, but what you can’t be is disingenuous. You have to believe in the story you’re telling and the story you’re telling has to have truth.”
Nicole Hansen talked with Herman for the June 1 episode of the Legal Current podcast but he had so much great information we decided to bring you more of their conversation in this interview edition of our podcast:
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In the podcast, Herman talks about what works and what doesn’t work in the courtroom and provides some historical perspective on the techniques of persuasion.
He is the author of Courtroom Persuasion: Winning with Art, Drama and Science, 2d, published by Thomson Reuters, Legal.
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An interesting trend is emerging in Europe, and around the world, with the demand for an ethical index to measure the moral way companies are doing business. Christopher Elias writes about this in a post on Westlaw Business Currents titled “Corporate Social Responsibility: Ethics in the Age of Goldman.”
Elias says it’s not just about Goldman, Morgan Stanley and others, in terms of a “perception that financial institutions’ rampant pursuit of profit runs roughshod over ethical and moral values.” He says that factor, “together with fears of global warming is spawning a whole universe of ethical indices that is driving companies to be more socially conscious and allowing funds and investors to passively invest in ethically-minded companies.”
So why would a company want to be included in an ethical index?
Elias writes:
Part of the justification behind ethical indices is that they can encourage corporate responsibility by identifying companies that fall within and outside of set ethical parameters. The theory being that those companies outside of set parameters will adjust their behaviour to gain inclusion in the index.
Elias says that as “the ethical investment fund industry has grown, investors have been presented with an ever growing array of ethical investment options. Investors can modify their investment options depending on whether religious, ethical or environmental concerns are paramount in their minds.”
Yet, he writes, it might be difficult to measure the true impact of the change that ethical funds bring to the business community.
You can read the full post on Westlaw Business Currents.
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The Above the Law blog has a post today highlighting Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: The Essential Guide to Thriving as a New Lawyer, a book published by Thomson Reuters, Legal.
David Lat interviewed author Grover E. Cleveland about the book and the advice he has in it for new lawyers.
Cleveland told Lat new lawyers should:
“…do what you can to make yourself indispensable to more senior lawyers. In this economic climate, where some law firms are still looking to cut, you need to do what you can to make sure that there’s someone at the firm who will say about you in a meeting, “If so-and-so isn’t working for me, I can’t do my job.” That’s one sure way to make sure you stay employed. The way to do this is to anticipate other lawyers’ needs. Find a couple of areas where you are a superstar and will excel. It might be research. It might be technology, where younger lawyers have an advantage.”
By the way, we also talked with Cleveland, for this post on Legal Current.
Again, Cleveland’s book is Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: The Essential Guide to Thriving as a New Lawyer.
You also can learn more on Cleveland’s Web site.
Editor’s note: Cleveland also was featured by the ABA Journal on May 7.
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Companies of all kinds are apparently being a little more diligent when it comes to litigation risk in the 20F/40F filing season, as Jesse R. Morton points out in a post on Westlaw Business Currents titled “Global Disclosures: Litigation Risk.”
Morton examines several areas, including intellectual property, activity in developing legal regimes and the environment.
On IP, the post says IP-related litigation risks appear in many annual reports as companies describe the lawsuits and legal proceedings they are involved in. Also standard is “a disclosure that results of litigation are uncertain and occasionally result in materially significant losses.”
Morton closes by thinking about how disclosures are framed by companies, either as being confident, or not, in their legal proceedings:
Make no mistake about it—disclosing litigation risk is not an exact science, but as the plethora of examples show, erring on the side of disclosing may be the key.
You can read the full post on Westlaw Business Currents.
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For years, new lawyers at law firms around the world were entering a profession with a reputation for high starting salaries and fast opportunities for advancement.
As a New York Times article titled “No Longer Their Golden Ticket” pointed out earlier this year, new lawyers are facing a new reality:
“As the profession lurches through its worst slump in decades, with jobs and bonuses cut and internal pressures to perform rising, associates do not just feel as if they are diving into the deep end, but rather, drowning.”
The adjustment from law school to a law firm marks a make or break time for new lawyers around the world. It’s time to practice law, not study it. It’s time to understand how to manage the business aspects of practicing law.
It’s time to do all that, essentially, on your own.
West author Grover E. Cleveland likens it to being a baby shark in an ocean of big sharks. Now in an environmental policy position in Seattle, Cleveland draws on his own experience as a lawyer – most recently at Foster Pepper PLLC – as well as the new lawyer experiences of people in various roles and levels in the legal profession for his book, Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: The Essential Guide to Thriving as a New Lawyer.
I talked to Cleveland recently and he said being a new lawyer has always been a sink or swim scenario, but that the economic conditions around the globe in the last few years has only increased the stress.
“Because of the economy, law firms in particular are giving new lawyers fewer second chances so you have to show that you can practice law right from the start,” Cleveland said. “In addition, there also is an expectation that lawyers will be available almost 24/7, and the fact we now have clients across the globe in different time zones makes keeping balance and drawing boundaries even more difficult.”
I asked him about some of the biggest challenges facing a new lawyer right now and, as he explains in this audio clip, Cleveland says it’s still about how much a lawyer has to learn:
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Cleveland passed along three points for new lawyers to consider to get up and running right away:
1. Take charge of your own career: You have to realize no one is going to do it for you.
2. Be more diligent than you ever have: Be on the lookout for simple mistakes in document preparation. Even the smallest mistakes can have huge consequences.
3. Focus on anticipating other lawyers’ needs: Make yourself indispensable by knowing what the senior lawyers need and how you can help.
In addition to his own experience as a new lawyer, Cleveland said he got a lot of his examples of “war stories” in his book from colleagues and lawyers who work in a variety of firms, agencies and businesses. He even got a few after putting out the word on Facebook.
As taxing as it can be to start a career in the law, Cleveland says it’s worth it for those who learn to manage their work and their life.
“I don’t want to make it sound all drudgery,” said Cleveland. “It is challenging, but at the same time law is a very exciting, invigorating profession.”
Again, Grover E. Cleveland’s book is Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: The Essential Guide to Thriving as a New Lawyer.
You also can learn more on Cleveland’s Web site.
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Cases involving children, spouses and families can often be complicated when one country’s laws are involved. When those cases reach across borders and time zones the complexity increases.
Now an attorney who the media has often turned to for help in understanding a complicated international family law issue – like child custody – is offering his insight in a new resource to assist United States attorneys involved in family law and collaboration with family lawyers across the globe.
Jeremy Morley provides expert guidance in International Family Law Practice, published by West.
The topics Morley focuses on in his book include international marriage and divorce, international prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, international divorce planning, recognition of foreign divorces, international child support and custody, international relocation of children and international child abduction.
Morley has been involved in several high-profile international cases involving children and families in recent years. He’s also the co-chair of the International Family Law Committee, International Law Section, of both the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association.
More information on International Family Law Practice is on the West Web site. And, Morley has some more information on his work and his media clips on his Web site, international-divorce.com.
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At the outset of the session at the 2010 ABA TECHSHOW, “Advances in Knowledge Management,” Toby Brown defined KM as “being able to quickly find and access the knowledge you need.”
Brown, who works at Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston, Tex., in Business Development & Alternative Fee Arrangements, was joined for the TECHSHOW session by Kingsley Martin, owner of KIIAC in Minneapolis, Minn., and previously held positions in The Thomson Corporation and within West km.
Martin told the TECHSHOW attendees that his definition of KM is more along the lines of “practice support,” that is, getting the right tools to the attorneys to help them do their jobs and get the information they need.
Brown and Martin delved into some common mistakes that law firms make when starting out on the path toward building a KM environment that works best, including “doing KM for the sake of doing KM.”
“If you want to succeed at KM, I would say you flip things on their head and you don’t start with ‘What KM system are we going to buy?,’” said Brown. “You start with ‘What problem are we going to solve?’”
Martin and Brown summed up their session with four points of advice for firms implementing a KM system:
-Set clear business goals
-Align KM with those goals
-Align KM to profitability
-Don’t expect lawyers to change
Though, on that last point, Brown thinks there is now a stronger motivation for lawyers to change their point of view toward KM, and they are beginning to welcome opportunities to “nudge the culture” of a firm.
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Thomson Reuters, Legal, President & CEO Peter Warwick offered his perspective on the company’s approach to the current economic reality in a panel discussion, “Adapting and Thriving in a Challenging Economy”, at the Minnesota Venture & Finance Conference.
The launch of WestlawNext brings a significant advancement in the way professional legal research is done.
A discussion about online privacy and “The End of Forgetting,” with law professor Jeffrey Rosen.
