Ideas & Tips

This article, Winning As Your Own Lawyer, NY Lawyer (9/15/05) reports on one of the unusual instances where a lawyer represented himself before a disciplinary board – and won!  From the article: In 2002, Ziegler took over the defense of a robbery charge against a member of a family he had represented for years, even…

Associate:  Can I take a look at the certificate of incorporation for my research assignment? Partner:   No! You don’t really need to know the facts.  Just do the research I asked for! I’m just guessing about the partner-associate partnerese dialogue that might have ensued as part of the preparation of The Opinion Letter That Could…

Matt Homann of Non Billable Hour has run his cost benefit analysis and gives us his conclusions here: Poor health and strained family relations are both “business expenses” I’m unwilling to pay. Are you willing to pay that price?

This article, Payback for Bad Service, Connecticut Law Tribune (8/29/05) caught my eye for several reasons.  The article reports that a North Haven, Connecticut attorney, Bruce Killion has has been ordered to pay his former clients more than $25,000 for shoddy representation.  The clients had retained Killion to represent them in a slip and fall…

Ah, the joy of being host of a Blawg Review during the last week of August which is a time of endings (summer) and beginnings (school).  So I’ve got a built in theme:  Endings, Beginnings and the Transitions and Crossings in Between.  I’ll list posts by theme but I’m going to be brief with links…

It’s always bittersweet when I read articles like this one,  Work Family Divide Keeps Numbers of Women Low, Rachel Osterman (8/20/05) about women attorneys leaving firms because they find them incompatible with raising a family.  Without sounding too much like John Roberts, I’m all in favor of attorneys – male or female – who choose…

A reader who’s currently employed but actively planning to start a firm recently posed the following question to MyShingle: How do I announce to my current employer my intentions to start a firm and leave on friendly terms but still take the clients whom I’d like to take with me (assuming the client wants to…

Ann Israel, a biglaw recruitment attorney who writes a column for New York Lawyer typically responds to questions about how to make partner or what’s the best law school to choose.  It’s rare that she gets a question like  this one from an attorney wondering whether he should go solo after his first year out…