Category: Legal News

Join the Legal Executive Institute for the 20th Anniversary of Law Firm Leaders – October 8-9 at The Pierre in NYC

When: OCT 08 – 09, 2015
Where: New York, NY – The Pierre

Join us this October as the Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute proudly presents the 20th Anniversary of Law Firm Leaders at The Pierre Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

Continuing the forum’s unrivaled tradition of industry-defining content and professional networking, the 2015 program offers a comprehensive update on the state of the legal profession and the ongoing challenges affecting law firm leadership throughout the AmLaw 150.

This year’s key topics include:

  • Restoring Professionalism to the Practice of Law
  • Leading Change: A Presentation from Heidi Gardner, Lecturer on Law & Distinguished Fellow, Center on the Legal Profession, Harvard Law School
  • The Meaning of Client Relationships in the 21st Century
  • Data Privacy & Cybersecurity in the Global Law Firm

Call to register: 1-800-308-1700

Or click here to email and we will contact you.

Attend the 20th Annual Law Firm Leaders Forum Oct 8-9 in NYC – Brought to you by the Legal Executive Institute

When: OCT 08 – 09, 2015
Where: New York, NY – The Pierre

Join us this October as the Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute proudly presents the 20th Anniversary of Law Firm Leaders at The Pierre Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

Continuing the forum’s unrivaled tradition of industry-defining content and professional networking, the 2015 program offers a comprehensive update on the state of the legal profession and the ongoing challenges affecting law firm leadership throughout the AmLaw 150.

This year’s key topics include:

  • Restoring Professionalism to the Practice of Law
  • Leading Change: A Presentation from Heidi Gardner, Lecturer on Law & Distinguished Fellow, Center on the Legal Profession, Harvard Law School
  • The Meaning of Client Relationships in the 21st Century
  • Data Privacy & Cybersecurity in the Global Law Firm

Call to register: 1-800-308-1700

Or click here to email and we will contact you.

Up for the Challenge: Harnessing Our Power to Lead – 2015 NAWL Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon July 16, 2015

Join over 800 leading women lawyers from across the United States and abroad at our 2015 Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon held at the Grand Hyatt New York on Thursday, July 16. NAWL will recognize and honor leading lawyers who have made a significant impact to improve and diversify the legal profession, as well as NAWL members who, through their time and effort, have made exceptional contributions to fulfilling NAWL’s mission. In addition, you will have the opportunity to participate in interesting substantive programming along with plenty of networking opportunities.

WHEN

July 16, 2015

WHERE

Grand Hyatt and Grand Central, NYC

Register today!

Key Elements of Lawyers’ Professional and Personal Satisfaction Identified

George Washington Law Review has published “the first theory-guided empirical research seeking to identify the correlates and contributors to the well-being and life satisfaction of lawyers.” A New York Times blog boiled it down: “Lawyers With Lowest Pay Report More Happiness.”

In short, a lot of lawyers were surveyed in a scientific way. The ones with the prestigious jobs and the high incomes reported lower senses of well-being and satisfaction than less “successful” peers in public service roles. Outrageously, making law review was reported to have ZERO correlation with happiness in later life.

Three elements in professional life were most closely identified with life-satisfaction. They are a sense of competence, a sense of autonomy and a sense of connectedness to others. The study says that for many lawyers (most, I suppose), careers in larger law firms do not deliver these.

Competence, autonomy and connectedness, are the pillars of Self-Determination Theory, a field of study among psychologists for more than 40 years. This new study is the first to test lawyers as a group. Turns out, lawyers test the same as everybody else. They are happiest in settings where they experience competence, autonomy and connectedness. (Disappointingly, we are no different from “non-lawyers.”)

The three factors themselves are worth attention. Notice how they line up with (i) the core principles of legal ethics, (ii) commonly encountered values of many law firms, (iii) often-identified 21st Century social skills, (iv) the capabilities of 21st Century technology, (v) attributes of Millennials in the workplace, and – mirabile dictu – (vi) observations that might be made about North Carolina lawyers practicing in the 19thCentury.

This causes me to hold up these elements as “design principles” for next-generation law firms. That is, they might be taken as elements to be fostered in the law firms we will need in the aftermath of the Great Unbundling of legal services now under way. They also suggest directions for thinking about lawyer retirements.

ARTICLE BY Edward C. Winslow III of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP
Copyright © 2015, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP

InsideCounsel Super Conference – May 11-13 in Chicago: Early Bird Registration Ends on the 30th! Register now for exclusive NLR Discount!

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All NLR readers get an exclusive $150 discount off current rates through April 30th.
Register today!

The 15th annual Inside Counsel SuperConference, May 11-13, 2015 in Chicago is the can’t miss conference for legal professionals.

SuperConference 2014 played host to a diverse and senior level audience of participants:

  • More than 80 In-House Counsel experts comprised our speaker faculty – GCs, AGCs, and executives
  • More than 80% of attendees were In-House Counsel
  • More than 65% of attendees were senior level and above

The annual InsideCounsel SuperConference, for the past 14 years, has offered the highest value for educational investment within a constructive learning and networking environment. Legal professionals will gain the opportunity to elevate the quality of their performance and learn ways to become a strategic partner within his/her organization. In two-and-half days attendees earn CLE credits, network with hundreds of peers and legal service providers and hear strategies to tackle corporate legal issues that are top of mind throughout this comprehensive program. SuperConference is presented by InsideCounsel magazine, published by Summit Professional Networks.

This week – Register for ABA National Institute for New Partners – April 17 in Washington D.C.

ABA Nat Inst New Partners April 17 2015 Wash DC

If you are a new partner or are on the cusp of becoming a new partner, register today for the ABA’s National Institute on New Partners.

At this unique one-day Institute, you will:

• Network with new partners throughout the country, comparing and contrasting their firm’s business and professional development practices with your own.
• Learn from top practitioners as they divulge key considerations for new partners, from ownership issues to pitfalls, finances to business development.
• Meet and socialize with your colleagues during breakfast, lunch and concluding reception. All for the cost of about one billable hour!
• Hear from our distinguished Invited Keynote speaker Ted Olson, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  Among other accolades, he was selected by Time magazine in 2010 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and he is one of the nation’s premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates.  He has argued 61 cases in the Supreme Court, including the twoBush v. Gore cases, Citizen United v. Federal Election Commission, and Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case affirming the overturning of California’s Proposition 8 banning same sex marriage.
• Receive 4 hours of CLE credit, including 2.75 hours of ethics credit.

Register now!

Join the ABA for their National Institute for New Partners – April 17 in D.C. – Register Today!

ABA Nat Inst New Partners April 17 2015 Wash DC

If you are a new partner or are on the cusp of becoming a new partner, register today for the ABA’s National Institute on New Partners.

At this unique one-day Institute, you will:

• Network with new partners throughout the country, comparing and contrasting their firm’s business and professional development practices with your own.
• Learn from top practitioners as they divulge key considerations for new partners, from ownership issues to pitfalls, finances to business development.
• Meet and socialize with your colleagues during breakfast, lunch and concluding reception. All for the cost of about one billable hour!
• Hear from our distinguished Invited Keynote speaker Ted Olson, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  Among other accolades, he was selected by Time magazine in 2010 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and he is one of the nation’s premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates.  He has argued 61 cases in the Supreme Court, including the twoBush v. Gore cases, Citizen United v. Federal Election Commission, and Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case affirming the overturning of California’s Proposition 8 banning same sex marriage.
• Receive 4 hours of CLE credit, including 2.75 hours of ethics credit.

Register now!

Register for the ABA's National Institute for New Partners – April 17, 2015 in Washington, D.C.

ABA Nat Inst New Partners April 17 2015 Wash DC

If you are a new partner or are on the cusp of becoming a new partner, register today for the ABA’s National Institute on New Partners.

At this unique one-day Institute, you will:

• Network with new partners throughout the country, comparing and contrasting their firm’s business and professional development practices with your own.
• Learn from top practitioners as they divulge key considerations for new partners, from ownership issues to pitfalls, finances to business development.
• Meet and socialize with your colleagues during breakfast, lunch and concluding reception. All for the cost of about one billable hour!
• Hear from our distinguished Invited Keynote speaker Ted Olson, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  Among other accolades, he was selected by Time magazine in 2010 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and he is one of the nation’s premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates.  He has argued 61 cases in the Supreme Court, including the twoBush v. Gore cases, Citizen United v. Federal Election Commission, and Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case affirming the overturning of California’s Proposition 8 banning same sex marriage.
• Receive 4 hours of CLE credit, including 2.75 hours of ethics credit.

Register now!

Register for the ABA’s National Institute for New Partners – April 17, 2015 in Washington, D.C.

ABA Nat Inst New Partners April 17 2015 Wash DC

If you are a new partner or are on the cusp of becoming a new partner, register today for the ABA’s National Institute on New Partners.

At this unique one-day Institute, you will:

• Network with new partners throughout the country, comparing and contrasting their firm’s business and professional development practices with your own.
• Learn from top practitioners as they divulge key considerations for new partners, from ownership issues to pitfalls, finances to business development.
• Meet and socialize with your colleagues during breakfast, lunch and concluding reception. All for the cost of about one billable hour!
• Hear from our distinguished Invited Keynote speaker Ted Olson, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  Among other accolades, he was selected by Time magazine in 2010 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and he is one of the nation’s premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates.  He has argued 61 cases in the Supreme Court, including the twoBush v. Gore cases, Citizen United v. Federal Election Commission, and Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case affirming the overturning of California’s Proposition 8 banning same sex marriage.
• Receive 4 hours of CLE credit, including 2.75 hours of ethics credit.

Register now!

Law School Applicants Drop 50% in Last Decade; Class of 2010 Provides Insights Into Reason for Decline

The Rainmaker Institute

According to a report just released by the Law School Admission Council, the number of people applying for law school in the Fall of 2015 as of March 13 is less than half of the number of people who applied to an accredited law school for the Fall of 2005 — 41,136 vs. 95,800.

Another study just out from Ohio State University’s Michael E. Moritz College of Law professor Deborah Jones Merritt, who examined the job prospects for new lawyers admitted to the Ohio bar in 2010, reflects the stark realities facing recent law school grads:

  • Overall unemployment rate is 6.3%

  • 40% work for law firms

  • 20% currently work in jobs that require no law degree

  • Percentage of solo practitioners is up significantly from graduates a decade ago

This chart from Merritt’s report details the employment status for the Class of 2010 nine months and 55 months post-graduation:

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Merritt found that many law school graduates might have difficulty finding legal work because of geographical constraints. She reports that two-thirds of the students seek bar admission in the state where they attended law school, and three-fourths stay within the same region as that school.

Gender also has a role to play, according to Merritt:

  • Men are more likely to work in private practice or business

  • Women are more likely to work in government, public interest and academia

  • Men outnumber women in solo and small firm practices

  • Four years after passing the bar, 58% of male lawyers were in private practice vs. 45% of female lawyers

This data may be welcome news to current practitioners who see the glut of graduates taking a toll on market rates for legal services and who struggle daily with increased competition. What’s your take?

ARTICLE BY

Stephen Fairley
The Rainmaker Institute