Archive for August 2013
Why New York’s Recent Ethics Opinion on LinkedIn Shows the Folly of Regulating the Minutia of Social Media
Lawyers’ ethical obligations when using social media may be summarized in a single graphic: Yet rather than invoke the simple litmus test of whether a communication is deceptive to a reasonable viewer to evaluate lawyer advertising, disciplinary committees feel compelled to spill thousands of words analyzing the ethics of each and every feature of each…
Read MoreLast Picture Show
Earlier this morning, I snapped my last first-day-of-school photo of my older daughter who today begins her senior year of high school. While she’ll have many more first days in college, I won’t be there to document them before she leaves for that first class. And I won’t be there with a favorite meal prepared…
Read MoreWhat Does Obama’s Two Year Law School Program Mean for Solos?
As you’ve probably heard, in a recent speech, President Obama endorsed cutting law school down to two years, with students spending their final year gaining work experience clerking or practicing at a firm. Eliminating the third year of law school would reduce the overall cost for students, many of whom now graduate with debts of…
Read MoreBig Data, Small Law Firms
In the year since I wrote about big data opportunities for small law firms at Clio’s Small Firm Innovation Blog, the legal profession’s interest in big data has exploded. According to a May 2013 ABA Journal story , law firms are using big data to determine which cases are likely to be an easy win,…
Read MoreHope to Meet At the Clio Cloud Conference 2013 – Get Your Discount Here
I’m very excited about attending the Clio Cloud Conference 2013 in Chicago on September 23-24, 2013. I love Chicago, of course, but I’m also excited about the panel of speakers that Clio has lined up – along with the relief of being able to attend a conference without having to come up with a presentation…
Read MoreVirtual Firms on the Decline – Why??
According to the 2013 ABA Legal Technology Survey, virtual law practices are on the decline , reports Bob Ambrogi at his Law Sites Blog. The decrease isn’t particularly significant; the number of lawyers who describe their practice as virtual declined from 7 to 5 percent between 2012 and 2013, while the number of lawyers providing…
Read MoreDoes Your Law Firm Have a Compliance Program – and How Ethics Rules Discourage Them
Although many law firms advise corporate clients on compliance, few firms have compliance programs in place observe Compliance strategists Donna Boehme and Joseph Murphy in this terrific piece, Inconvenient Truths About Law Firm Compliance. That law firms are subject to ethics rules is no excuse, contend Boehme and Murphy. Legal ethics rules didn’t deter the…
Read MoreFuture Fridays: Who Will Be Legal Ethics’ Carl Malamud?
Looks like ABA Legal Rebel, Carl Malamud, leader of the “free law movement” is at it again. This time, reports the Washington Post, Malamud has been busy posting building codes that govern at his website, PublicResource.org. Trouble is, the building codes — enacted by state and local law — incorporate industry-developed standards which are protected…
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