It's the old "good news and bad news" syndrome. The bad news, of course, is that these tough economic times have led to more businesses filing bankruptcy. The good news is, that someone has to handle those bankruptcies and that "someone" is a law firm.
According to an article in the New York Lawyer, BigFirms such as Sidley & Austin, Skadden Arps...
Any paralegal worth his or her salt knows that the first thing you cannot do is to represent yourself as an attorney. Apparently, according to an article in The New York Lawyer, a lawyer and his paralegal thought otherwise.
According to the article, Pomper sent his paralegal/secretary Larissa Sufaru to a hearing in Somerset County (New Jersey) Family Part on May 5, 2006,...
Since this is hardly the first recession many of us have weathered, some of the articles we're reading could have been written in 2001 or in any of the other more infamous economically turmoiled times. However, the concerns may be the same but with regulation, more client awareness of what paralegals can do and increased utilization of paralegals, the stakes get higher each time. A...
Not everything is always public in a law firm. Particularly, whether the partner you are working for is an equity or non-equity partner. Paralegals don't always know or care, for that matter. But this volatile economy has caused new meaning to the word, KNOW. If you are assigned to work for a non-equity partner, you might want to check around and find out whether that...
Something we always suspected now has some scientific research backing it. According to today's National Law Journal, science is now helping us understand how juries make decisions in crime and punishment. The articles states that: "Researchers from Vanderbilt University used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines to chart brain activity as subjects were...
Taking advantage of this new era of social networking, a smart paralegal has identified a need and filled it. Robin Elizabeth Margolis, paralegal, realized that IP paralegals and e-discovery paralegals have positions that demand unique knowledge but no specialty associations existed to address their positions.
Using LinkedIn, Google Search, and other Internet tools, she formed two...
It used to be that Corporate America would not do the dastardly deed at holiday time. That is to say, layoffs would be put off until after Christmas. That way, even though you knew it might be coming, you could "act as if" and have a supposed normal holiday.
Nowadays, it seems as though firms are purging and scouring as fast as they can, holidays be damned. Today, Reed Smith, a...
Gloomy news! Brown Rudnick,Mayer Brown, Squire Sanders today all announced layoffs of staff including paralegals in San Francisco, Chicago and cities other than financially devastated New York. On the "good" side of things, Bryan Cave says no layoffs expected but no raises or bonuses either. Yikes! Mayer Brown lays off 55 staff, 33 attorneys; Squire Sanders asks 20...
Most definitely, e-mail is killing the art of the phone call.
But there is a new trend now that simply amuses me - and that is the sending of an e-mail to book an appointment to make a phone call. It used to be that if you needed to call someone, you would simply pick up the phone and call. If Mr. or Ms. SoandSo were in, they took the call (or not). You leave a voicemail and at some...
Oh, I'm almost ashamed to print this. But then again, it's not like it was my fault. However, when someone from the profession screws up so badly that it hits MSNBC, well, that's not good.
It seems that a juror who vanished during Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens' corruption trial told the judge Monday she lied about her father dying and flew to California to see horse...