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
August 2013
Last 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…
What 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…
Big 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…
Hope 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…
Virtual 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…
Does 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…
Future 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…
Bruce Cameron’s Book, Becoming a Rural Lawyer and the Benefits of Small Town Practice
Just as a weekend in the country provides a respite from the hustle and bustle of city life, so too, Bruce Cameron’s book Becoming A Rural Lawyer, is a breath of fresh air from the heaps of impersonal and jargon-filled formulaic guides, blogs and books on starting or marketing a law practice. Though wonderfully…
Ed Poll’s Life After Law – A Wonderful Journey
My friend Ed Poll has written dozens of books and hundreds of articles. Life After Law: What Will You Do with the Next 6000 Days is, in my view, one of the best yet. Ed deals with the question that solos and smalls must eventually face: how do you know when it’s time to go…
