What do you get when you combine the writing talents of two lawyers, one from New York and the other from Mexico? Staring at Strangers of course, a new blog authored by New York lawyer David Leffler and Jennifer Rose, a lawyer and writer based in Mexico. Leffler and Rose share their observations of life
How Not To Price
Over at Legal Blogwatch, I posted about a case of outrageous billing by Debra Opri, attorney to Larry Birkhead, who claims to be father to Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter. Exhorbitant charges included thousand dollar dinners where Birkhead wasn’t present, substantial cell phone roaming charges and even expenses for personal laundry. The 112 page
Another large firm lawyer goes solo – and it’s all about the [lower] rates
One of the unintended consquences of the expansion of large law firms is that this trend may drive more lawyers to start their own firms. Think about it – though large firms hope that increased size will foster economies of scale and result in savings, there’s still a whole lot of overhead involved in running
Don’t Slash and Burn, Just Slash
Used to be that career advice tended towards the absolute. Women at biglaw were basically advised that if they weren’t willing to work 80 hour weeks after having kids that they’d have no future at the firm. So many left entirely, not recognizing the possibility for a happy medium. And on the listserves that I
Attention: RFP FOR PRO BONO SERVICE BY SMALL LAW FIRM. Honestly, do you think a large firm would respond?
Imagine that your law firm issues the following Request for Proposals:Busy solo practitioner seeking large firm to partner on pro bono matters for small, walk in clients with no funds to retain an attorney at full rates. Firm must turn these clients down in the absence of pro bono support. Matters include messy family law
Is Small the New Big: A Reprisal, Two Years Later
If you hang around the blogosphere long enough, you’ll bump against the same themes but with a different spin. Back in June 2005, I first posted on whether small is the new big, applying some of the themes from Seth Godin’s book of the same name. This week the discussion on small as the
GAL – I Knew Him When….And So Did Many Others
Finally, Enrico Schaefer has revealed himself as the Greatest American Lawyer. I’ve known Enrico for a while now, ever since he sent me an email in the early days of My Shingle before he launched his successful law firm and blog. And in April 2005, I met Enrico at the first LexThink conference and
No, I Don’t Hate Biglaw If It’s A Passion
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
Teaching What It’s Like to Work For Biglaw: Seems Like a Silly Idea, But Not For the Reasons You’d Think
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
Biglaw Associates Find Happiness in Solo Practice
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