Every time I fly through Reykjavík (okay, technically Keflavik, but you get the idea), I think of these two guys.
Continue Reading Perestroika, Glasnost, and a Safer and Saner World
Perestroika, Glasnost, and a Safer and Saner World
Law firm sherpas
About six months ago, I hopped on a conference call with some colleagues who asked me to deliver the keynote address for the annual convention of the National Docketing Association.* The people the organizers expected to attend are the professional staffers– mostly non-lawyers– who make sure that those magic litigation machines called “law firms” run efficiently. In short, they’re the support people in firms and court clerks’ offices who make sure lawyers can be lawyers—and that clients can win– by handling the processes that really don’t have much connection to legal analysis. Processes that drive lawyers nuts.
Continue Reading Law firm sherpas
My advance payment rationale
One of the toughest issues lawyers have to discuss with their clients is money– particularly the fees kept by or paid to the lawyer.
Tort plaintiffs are aghast that the lawyer would keep a third of the damages awarded (or even half if it goes up on appeal). Billable hours are still the coin of
DIY it in-house, or outsource it?
My family is populated on both sides by blue-collar workers and farmers, going way back to the Old Country (ie: various parts of northern Europe). Part of the ethos I gained from all four of my grandparents is “fix the damned thing yourself.”
Put another way,
Subcontracting… for the Firm’s Benefit
New Orleans, Louisiana— I’ve written previously about my insistence that lawyers should outsource their international work. I’ve also modified my thinking a bit, at least as far as nomenclature of the idea, opting instead to call it subcontracting. At ClioCon this morning, Clio’s CEO, Jack Newton, offered a brief synopsis of his
VE Day and the French Awakening
Very few of us alive today remember the elation of May 8, 1945. My parents weren’t even born yet, and my grandparents are no longer alive to tell the story. But
If you have the opportunity, take it.
This morning at about 10:20 eastern time, I had the overwhelming honor of being sworn into the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. I don’t post this completely non-Hague-related news to brag. Rather, I post it to encourage every lawyer who
Why should you outsource your international work? Version 3.0*
Another real lifer here… why should you outsource your international work instead of keeping it within your firm’s cloistered walls? Simple. Because your clients will be better off if you go outside. Because you don’t know what you don’t know—and what you don’t know can’t be ascertained from a Westlaw search.
Bear with me.
Treaties, Denunciation, and Trump’s Foreign Policy
[Published 24 hours before Inauguration.]
Calm down, folks. No President can just cancel a treaty, so cool it.
Many of my liberal brethren are beside themselves at the thought of the Trump Foreign Policy Juggernaut running roughshod ’round the realms, tearing up treaties (don’t practice your alliteration on me). Many security hawks and
The Golden Opportunity of Efficiency
Ah, bar association Christmas parties… such fun. No, really, I do enjoy them.
Last month, over a glass of heavily spiked eggnog, a friend introduced me to a senior partner from a big firm that happens to be one of my clients. An excellent client, actually, so I thanked him for the firm’s business and