Operations

Quite often, when I compliment when of my daughters on something she’s done well, the other will chime in “But mommy, aren’t I good at that too?”  My response, of course, is that praising one of my girls doesn’t diminish how I feel about the other. More frequently these days, I find myself in this…

According to this article, Law school to simulate big-firm environment, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law (2/5/07) will require all third year students to participate in a new Law Firm Program, described in the article as “a series of courses that simulates big-firm lawyering.”  The course has been developed with input from large firm…

Susan Cartier Liebel posts about how Gen Y women are saying no to biglaw because it doesn’t afford the kind of work life balance they demand.  I’ve posted on and written about this theme before, as well.  But what I don’t think I’ve emphasized sufficiently is that for women, starting a firm isn’t just a…

Via Stephanie West Allen, I learned about this article, Who Says Being A Lawyer Has to Suck? from a recent issue of San Francisco Magazine.  The article describes how Gen Y lawyers are making “lawyering something that doesn’t bore everyone to death at a party?”  And guess how they’re doing it?   By starting their own…

Both Eric Turkewitz of New York Personal Injury Law Blog and Nicole Black of Sui Generis have posted here and here on a number of large New York law firms that failed to comply with New York’s new advertising ethics rules by labeling their websites as “attorney advertising.” In this situation, I can’t say that…

Over at my Legal Blogwatch beat, I wrote about Cisco GC Mark Chandler’s speech taking big law firms to task for their “guild” mentality and lack of responsiveness to clients.  You ought to read the whole post, which excerpts the speech, but Chandler argues that companies like his are concerned about legal costs, want fixed…

The first document that I ever filed as an independent practitioner was a Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1).  By a bizarre stroke of beginner’s luck, I had been retained to serve as local counsel for a major casino which had been sued in federal district court in the…

I came across this Salary Chart for Solo Practitioners, updated as of January 21, 2007.  I can’t say that it’s all that scientific, since it sampled 244 respondents.  But for what it is worth, according to the chart, median salary for a solo 1-4 years out is $50k, 5-9 years, $80k, 10-19 years – 82k…