I had lunch with Mike Frasier yesterday, who said one of his clients wouldn’t let his firm store the client’s files in Dropbox. I’ve heard people say this before, but I’m wondering if it’s more prevalent. so, have any of your clients told you not to store their files in Dropbox?
Edit: For those of you whose clients say no, what’s their hangup?
This week the new DSM 5 was released. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition, is the latest incarnation of the manual used to diagnose psychological conditions. Over 100 new diagnostic disorders have been identified. For the first time, practicing law is classified as an “intellectual disorder.”
Summer is almost here, so you may find yourself on vacation with a chance to do some reading. If law school and lawyering haven’t made reading something you only do for money, you probably are looking forward to reading for fun. Or perhaps to learn how to be a better attorney. So I thought it worthwhile to ask my fellow Lawyerist writers to name a few of their favorite books about lawyering (or anything else).
Their responses are below. But since this is my post, I get to go first.
Keep Reading ⇒
With the rise of social media, lawyers have of course gotten into the fray, starting Facebook fan pages for their law firms, professional profiles on LinkedIn and personal social media accounts. Attorneys have to be extra careful to use social media in a way that won’t expose them to ethics complaints.
This post is for those studying for the bar exam as well as current practitioners. If you’re studying right now you won’t appreciate this example. But to the lawyers out there, tell me if this scene sounds familiar:
Opposing Counsel: Sir, did you ever have any conversations with Mr. Jones about the car accident? Witness: Yes. Opposing Counsel: What did Mr. Jones tell you? You: Objection Your Honor. Hearsay. Opposing Counsel: Your Honor, Mr. Jones is here to testify. Judge: Overruled.
Husband. Father. Occasional bagpipe player. Craft beer drinker and proud wearer of the bow tie (though it must have been casual Friday when this photo was taken). This is Minnesota consumer rights attorney Chris Wheaton. Wheaton represents people under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. He sues debt collectors who abuse and harass people who owe debt. In this interview, Wheaton tells us why he became a lawyer, describes a day-in-the-life in consumer rights practice, and gives some advice on starting a solo/small law firm.
Take note: If you’d like to be interviewed as part of this “day-in-the-life” series, hit us up in the comments. We’re looking for lawyers with interesting practices and interesting perspectives.
It’s time for our 4th annual Best Law Firm Websites. (Here are the results from 2010, 2011, and 2012.) Nominate your picks for best website right here, in the comments. All we need is a link to the website, although you’re welcome to add a note explaining why you think your law firm website nomination is the best (or explain why other nominations are the worst).
We will close nominations (and the comments) on June 15th. Our panel of experts will comb through the nominations to pick the 10 best, post them, and then you get to vote on the winner.
UPDATE: No nominating your own website, or websites you’ve designed. The goal is to find the best law firm websites, not to find the biggest self-promoter. If nobody is willing to nominate your website, we’re not going to consider it, either.
(image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodimullen/7182159418/)
I’m teaching a CLE with a colleague today, and I’m excited about both the topic and the presentation. Teaching a CLE, however, can be a lot of work. I have heard more senior attorneys wonder if the non-billable work (creating the materials, the powerpoint, and the presentation) is worth it. Will the CLE help their reputation? Their business? I have no idea, but I can speak first hand to benefits new attorneys can reap when they jump into the CLE-teaching arena.
Last week I dispelled some prevalent myths about solo attorneys.
Here’s another myth worth examining: young lawyers should take every piece of advice and immediately act on it.
Seeking input from other attorneys is a good idea. But blindly following external advice is a terrible idea.
Sometimes the best advice is to ignore everyone else and do what you think needs to be done.
Can’t get enough of Lawyerist? Good news! You can find Lawyerist (and our contributors) on Twitter. We also hang out in a few places on Google+:
Check out Niki’s Cloud Computing for Lawyers and Gyi’s Legal Marketing, too.
Also, please welcome Megan Zavieh to Lawyerist. She’s already written a few posts as a guest. They were pretty darn good, so we invited her to keep on writing. Megan handles ethics complaints for lawyers, and you’d probably call her practice a virtual one. So she’s got some interesting things to write about.
Megan’s posts will go up Wednesdays around 11, starting this week.
The original content within this website is © 2007–2013 Lawyerist Media, LLC.
![Nominate the Best Law Firm Websites (2013 Edition) [UPDATED]](http://lawyerist.com/lawyerist/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-popular-posts/timthumb.php?src=http://lawyerist.com/lawyerist/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/best-law-firm-websites-nominations-2013.jpg&h=90&w=90)
