The Red Velvet Lawyer

Some qualified good news.  Overall employment for 2012 law grads suggests an improving trend. The 2012 grads obtained more jobs than 2011 grads, but the class also had more graduates in it. Accordingly, the percent of employed fell to 84.7% from 85.7% the previous year.  The 2012 grads entered law school in the fall of 2009, and so the larger class size apparently indicates the choice of many college graduates to attend graduate school rather than face a job market deep in recession. The NALP Executive Director, James Leipold, stated: "I continue to believe that the Class of 2011 represented the absolute bottom of the curve on the jobs front . . . ." Many of the stories about job prospects for law school grads compare current employment rates to the pre-recession rate of 2007.  This comparison misrepresents the situation because employment that year represented a 24-year high of 91.9% according to NALP.   I compute the 20-year average (from 1988 to 2007), as ...

The June 2013 issue of the ABA Magazine features women who have ascended to the heights of law firm management.  It profiles seven women who currently operate as the managing partner in medium to ubber-large law firms.  Most of the women are in their late 40’s or early 50s, and they talk about the choices they made to get these positions in their firms.  I want to share some of their comments: Most importantly: Ask to take on the management responsibilities as your skills and credibility expand.  Don’t wait to be asked!  “Lean in.”  Do it consistently over a long period of time.  Actively create the future you want for yourself. Avoid any distractions from your top priorities.  Develop laser focus on your goals. Establish your credibility by being a very good lawyer who works hard.  Have a “dogged” work ethic. Build a lucrative book of business that gives you economic power within the firm. Show you have a “business mind” as w...

Hal Abramson, the author of   Mediation Representation: Advocating in a Problem-Solving Process , suggests that the following types of disputes or circumstances make mediation less desirable: ·         The party needs to establish binding precedent; ·         The party needs to deter future claims by establishing a “hard-ball litigation – no settlement reputation” (aka the Walmart strategy); ·         The party seeks validation or vindication by a person in authority who declares that the client was blameless, but the other party was a low-down, dirty SOB; ·         The party wants or needs to go for a litigated “jackpot” damage award, no matter the statistical chance of winning that award; ·         The parties are embroiled in a value-based conflict on which they see no room for ...

I've been discussing the "what" of mediation.  What kind of disputes are ripe for the process?  In my last posting found  here , I identified some very interesting disputes that a court or the parties have sent to mediation.               Hal Abramson, the author of Mediation Representation: Advocating in a Problem-Solving Process , suggests that certain types of disputes are especially amenable to mediation: ·         When the parties have conflicting views of the facts or law; ·         When a party needs to express strong emotions; ·         When a party craves the opportunity to be heard directly by the opposing party; ·         When clients or their lawyers can no longer effectively communicate with each other without the assistance of a skillful mediator; · ...

In 1999, Steven Keeva, the editor of the ABA Journal and author of Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life , had this to say about ADR: While alternative dispute resolution has made encouraging inroads over the last twenty years, the adversarial system continues to hover above ADR like an elephant over a chipmunk. I now suggest to my students that, in less than a decade, the metaphor has completely changed.  ADR is now the elephant hovering over the chipmunk of litigation.  For instance, a review of the ADR referral policies of the district judges in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri shows that the eight judges will refer almost all cases to mediation, especially if they present fact issues.  The judges do not make referrals when the cases involve: only questions of law; appeals from rulings of administrative agencies; habeas corpus and extraordinary writs; bankruptcy appeals; S...

This morning, I spent several hours reviewing the law blogs (or blawgs) that look interesting to me and adding them to this website so I could track them more easily.  The good news is you can track them more easily, too, by reviewing the list on the right side of this page. That list will show the name of the blog, the title of the latest posting, and how recently the author posted. For this research project, I used the list of 100 top legal blogs assembled by the ABA found  here .  I focused on the following categories: Legal News/Analysis Trial Practice Business of Law Marketing a Law Practice Careers/Law School Courts, and Legal Technology I hope you find this resource helpful.

I recently joined the ABA's Law Practice Management Section in an effort to support our graduates who will start solo practices because of the lack of opportunity in law firms and other traditional employers of lawyers in this recessionary economy.  I blogged about the day-long solo practice workshop the Appalachian School of Law offered this past spring  here .  I blogged about the employment prospects for new grads  here ,  here , and  here . This past week, I received the section's welcome packet and its May/June 2013 issue of the Law Practice Magazine.  The section focuses on the following four core areas: marketing, management, technology, and finance.  It provides section members with six issues of its "award-winning" hard-copy magazine, a monthly webzine, a bimonthly e-newsletter, and a legal technology blog.  It also focuses on the challenges women face as rainmakers and sells an impressive collection of books. The May/June issu...