You At Work

Microsoft Word is a complex application, so much so that most of us use only a fraction of its capabilities. But you don't have to spend all your waking hours becoming a bona fide Word ninja to extract a lot more productivity out of it. Here are ...

In the practice of law, dates and deadlines are the currency in which lawyers traffic. As filing dates and appearance dates pile up, the likelihood of missing one increases exponentially — with dramatic results. At best, you’ll lose your case. ...

Lately, thinking creatively about the practice of law has been a theme running through my professional life. While we are a relatively stodgy profession, many avenues for legal innovation exist. From applying new technology to a traditional ...

I’m often asked by friends and clients alike: “What advice do you have for holiday or end-of-year parties?” The first thing that comes to mind is "Don’t get drunk!" — but if you do, have a designated sober driver or use a car service to get home ...

You spend the whole day in court, or in meetings and conferences with clients. And what do you have to show for it? A legal pad filled with scribbles, a few random thoughts on sticky notes — and more scribbles on the back of an envelope because ...

Our own Merrilyn Aston Tarlton recently wrote here about five ways solos can find time for law firm retreats. And on that score, ...

Clients often ask me, “Roy, what’s the biggest mistake solo practitioners and small firm owners make when considering their retirement/succession strategies?” My answer? Attorneys permit their office situation, specifically a lease obligation, ...

Well, the short answer is: Read William Henderson's ABA Journal article “What the Jobs Are.” It’s hard to improve on Bill’s excellent work. But I’ll offer some complementary thoughts here. By 2026, we should be coming to the end of an ...

Alternative Business Structures (ABS) is the innocuous label given to one of the most important, yet ignored, issues facing the legal profession today. It is the debate whether or not to change our ethics rules to allow non-lawyer corporate ...

The 2016 Futures Conference featured a crowd of wonderful speakers with provocative ideas. The theme, “What Will Law Look Like in 2026?” brought out some deeply interesting ideas. We asked four conference speakers to summarize their ...