Sometimes it's just the small things that matter.  When workdays stretch into worknights and the pressure to meet the quota for billable hours grows, lawyers and paralegals at the firm of Perkins Coie can often expect a little bonus. The firm actually has a "Happiness Committee" that surprises lawyers and staff members with lifestyle perks to keep morale up and takes the pressure...

Law firms may be more in dire need of a Chief De-Stress Officer but Nixon Peabody announced that it has appointed its first Chief Sustainability Officer.  This week the firm appointed Carolyn S. Kaplan, an attorney in Nixon Peabody's energy and environmental practice, to the new role of Chief Sustainability Officer. The law firm says Kaplan is the first attorney to hold this position in the...

For those of you who are dismissing the idea of paralegal regulation, now's the time to sit up and take notice!  Recently, Florida enacted a voluntary Registered Paralegal Program that regulates who can be called a paralegal.   The program requires 30 hours of continuing legal education requirements every 3 years. To become a Florida Registered Paralegal, a person must be...

According to an article in the Los Angeles Paralegal Reporter (originally printed in the Los Angeles Daily Journal) by Stacey Hunt and Michael R. Jencks, attorneys and paralegals need to sit up and take notice of three recent decisions out of the Eastern District of California.  These cases are some of the first in the state to deny or reduce paralegal fees for the paralegals' failure to...

Aaron Kubey is the new executive director-president of the National Theatre of the Deaf, which has gone through financial crises, leadership changes and relocations in the past few years. Kubey, a paralegal in a New York law firm, is currently artistic director of the New York Deaf Theatre. Kubey takes over the position Nov. 5 at the 40-year-old organization, now based in West Hartford. He...

With soaring associate salaries in BigFirms reaching $160,000 per year for first years, something had to give.  McDermott Will & Emery, a 1,000 attorney firm, announced it was creating a new class of associates.  Instead of turning to contract attorneys or sending its grunt work overseas, McDermott has decided to bring in 15 lawyers with a few years of experience who do not want to...

Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP, has released its Fourth Annual Litigation Trends Survey of more than 300 corporations within the U.S. and U.K.  This report is the largest conducted of business litigation matters.  According to the survey, while litigation between employers and employees did not dissolve completely, it did taper off.  Seventeen percent of the respondents reported...

Declining law school enrollments have had a positive effect on the paralegal field.  A new salary survey issued by Robert Half Legal predicts that the demand for non-lawyers with competent skill levels is in higher demand, forcing salaries to increase in 2008. Executive Director Charles Volkert said some law firms are building up practice areas, while corporate legal departments are...

An article today in The Jerusalem Post revealed that 40 new Israeli women paralegals worked long hours on an $8 billion U.S. real estate deal.  The training sponsored by the Development Center for the Employment of Haredim, (an Orthodox sect of Judiasm that bypasses modern secular beliefs), a branch of the ministry, and the Joint-Israel, is a result of an increased effort by the Israeli...