Legal Current caught up with Ari for a chat about his LegalTech NY panel discussion “Advice from Counsel: Top Legal Minds in the Country Share their eDiscovery Tips.”

The feature article highlights a case study on the role of the Alternative Fee Manager, discussing existing and emerging roles for the AFA Manager and how AFAs aid in fee conversations with clients. 

Also in this issue is information on how women today are influencing leadership values, and an article on how to improve associate morale through career coaching. 

This great resource is available four times a year. Subscribe to the Practice Innovations Newsletter to receive an email when each new edition is posted.

You can listen to this interview edition of Legal Current podcast by clicking on the player below.

Susan Lambreth will be leading a two-day workshop on Legal Project Management in New York, March 29-30. More information is available here.  

We’re also on iTunes (just enter Legal Current in the search box).

If you have suggestions for podcast topics for us to focus on, or people to interview within the practice and business of law, send us an email to contact@legalcurrent.com.

That’s the focus of a recent post on Beyond the Bar titled “Learning to do the “necessary” from Charlie Rose, the director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy and professor at Stetson University Law School.

Rose writes:

My good friend and co-author, Jim Underwood, describes this as doing the necessary… So what is “the necessary?” It is the synergy created when your common sense, practical knowledge, and legal acumen combine to create a representation that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Read Rose’s full post on Beyond the Bar.

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.

Carver explains what kinds of career opportunities are available in state and local governments, as well as other important considerations, including:

-Why to work in state and local government as attorneys.

-How to find openings in state and local governments.

-Income variances based on locations.

You can find Carver’s article on the Career Resources tab at AttorneyJobs.com, part of Thomson Reuters.

Attorneys and JDs can search for alternative legal careers on AttorneyJobs.com and can now preview job search results without having to purchase a subscription to AttorneyJobs.com services.

The preview includes job title, practice area, city and state and employer type (corporation, public interest/advocacy, college/university, government).

AttorneyJobs content also is accessible through Twitter and LinkedIn.

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.

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.

“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:

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.

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.

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.