For those of you who are not aware of the annual Electronic Discovery Survey, George Socha and Tom Gelbmann have produced this highly valuable ranking of vendors for six years. Now, they have announced that it has become so valuable that clients sometimes choose a vendor based strictly on the survey without regard to doing their due diligence i.e., carefully analyzing the services or products,...
<img src="http://www.blawg.com/claimscript.aspx?userid=estrinlegaled@aol.com&LinksID=2219"> KNOW, The Magazine for Paralegals has published its first issue and names the 9 Most Influential Contributors to the Paralegal Field. This prestigious acknowledgement was based upon contribution over the years to the paralegal community. The receipients are: Tom O'Connor,...
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...