I'm not a smoker and I'm not in favor of people who smoke around me. My lungs don't need it, what with living in L.A. and all. However, this story from law.com raises a couple of legal questions. A paralegal who defied a new policy at work that banned smoking breaks for hourly employees was fired legally, a New York appeals court ruled Thursday. Karen Kridel had worked for a Rochester...
Lord have mercy on us all!! The inevitable has happened. A law firm has actually hired a paralegal in order to attract new international business. Yes. I know. Miracles do happen in Legal Land. A press release today sent by Goff and Wilson, a comprehensive immigration law firm with offices in New Hampshire and France, announced the recent hiring of Christine...
Sherry Zimmerman, a paralegal with the Sheriff's Office in Yuma, Arizona is reaching out to the legal community. Married 36 years to Wayne Zimmerman, a retired sergeant from the Arizona Department of Public Service, they await anxiously at the Mayo Clinic for a heart transplant for her husband. According to the YumaSun.com, there's a Wayne Zimmerman Benefit Raffle under way, sponsored by...
Ropes & Gray has just hired its first e-discovery counsel, according to an article today in The National Law Journal. The firm has hired former Ungaretti & Harris partner Shannon Capone Kirk to lead its electronic discovery litigation practice group. Kirk was previously chairwoman of the electronic discovery litigation practice group and a litigation partner at the Chicago-based...
Despite the daily news feedings of the economy's doom and gloom, there's actually good news for paralegals out there in LegalLand. ALM Research and the International Paralegal Management Association together announced the results of the 2008 Compensation Survey. Surveying 285 law firms and 78 law departments, representing a total of 14,216 paralegal positions, the study, conducted by...
Just the kind of news we don't want to hear. A judge sentenced a paralegal to 16 months in prison for embezzling more than $600,000 from a West Hartford law firm, the New York Lawyer reported today. Karen Davis-Jenkins was found guilty of taking more than $600,000 from the Law Offices of Jefferson D. Jelly from 1997 until May 2005. The law firm is a sole proprietorship and employs up to...
This just in from The Cowen Group: Despite the grim news we posted here in yesterday's Estrin Report regarding the worst legal field layoffs since 2004, The Cowen Group has issued a press release with good news for law firm technology positions: "Despite deep and ongoing layoffs in many other industries and the legal sector at large, our research shows job growth in the legal...
It's not looking too good when the Labor Department announces large layoffs in the legal field. Most of the time, the legal field is either not mentioned or is pretty quiet when job sector information is announced. That's all changed. According to The AmLaw Daily, the U.S. legal service sector lost 1,100 jobs in May, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics released last...
I love it when I come across valuable information that someone has taken the time to put together in order to give us the best. Genie Tyburski, law librarian at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll and publisher of the legal-research resource The Virtual Chase, has compiled her list of 10 Essential Web Sites for Litigators. Leaving out common sites such as Google, Lexis, Nexis,...
Some folks just can't catch a break. The New York Lawyer reported that major law firms are expected to layoff more associates and staff whether or not the economy picks up - or so they would like you to believe. Only one firm, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, said it had anything to do with the economy. Calling the layoffs "redundancies and inefficiencies", the present tough...