Small Law


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    Room For Improvement: How To Hone Atty 'MarTech' Use

    Improving attorney adoption of marketing technology — otherwise known as "MarTech" — is a critical business need for law firms, but not enough lawyers have the skills needed to use such tools, platforms and software, according to an industry report made public Wednesday.

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    Pervasive Bullying In Law Is Impacting Young Attorneys

    A report released earlier this month cataloging the experiences of more than 6,000 Illinois lawyers found that one quarter say they have experienced bullying within the last year. Among the youngest lawyers, that number jumps to 39%.

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    NJ Judge Exits Disbarred Atty's Suits Over Ties To State Bar

    A disbarred New Jersey civil rights attorney persuaded a New Jersey federal judge to recuse herself from cases he has pending before her due to the "slim, but conceivable chance" of an appearance of impropriety stemming in part from her time as president of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

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    Approach The Bench: Judge Rosenthal Praises Zoom Hearings

    While U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal calls the pandemic a disaster that "discombobulated" the federal courts, she thinks there was also a silver lining to the experience.

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    Legal Marketer Sues To Halt New Pa. Atty Text Solicitation Ban

    A marketing company focused on soliciting criminal defendants on behalf of attorneys has filed suit in Pittsburgh federal court looking to overturn a new Pennsylvania ethics rule barring lawyers from using text messages to recruit clients.

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    How Certifications Became Ubiquitous For Privacy Attorneys

    As privacy has become a more prominent and popular practice area, many attorneys have turned to certifications offered by the International Association of Privacy Professionals to market their skills, with those in the field saying that the popularity is the result of privacy's rapid evolution and the ubiquity is unlikely to diminish.

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    Circuit Judge Rips Atty's 'Unearned Windfall' In Liability Case

    Although the Sixth Circuit has affirmed a decision awarding roughly $353,000 to a Texas attorney in a decadelong fee dispute over his representation of a client in a product liability case, one circuit judge expressed "extreme disapproval" over the lawyer's conduct in the matter.

  • Partner Sues Over Firm Breakup After $100M Conn. Verdict

    Ryan C. McKeen, the former CEO of a trial firm known for high-dollar verdicts, is wrongfully trying to arbitrate a dispute over the terms of the practice's breakup, his former law partner Andrew P. Garza alleged in a state court showdown between the two 50% owners and their families.

  • Denver Law Firm Faces Class Action Over Data Breach

    The former spouse of a Sherr Puttmann Akins Lamb PC client has launched a putative class action in Colorado state court alleging that sensitive information she provided to the Denver-based family law firm, including her Social Security number, ended up on the dark web following a data breach.

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    3 Factors Attorneys Should Keep In Mind When Using AI

    Attorneys who hope to leverage new artificial intelligence programs in their legal work should stay mindful of three rules of conduct from the American Bar Association dictating attorney competence, client confidentiality and billing procedures, according to a recently published paper from the International Association of Defense Counsel.

  • NY Firm Sued Over Botched $5M Art Collector Ch. 7 Dispute

    A family enmeshed in New York's art world is suing their former attorneys in relation to a dismissed bankruptcy proceeding with an art collector over a breach of contract, alleging the attorneys' incompetence lost them $5 million when they moved the case from state court to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.

  • Philly Attys Sued For Allegedly Botching Bias Lawsuit

    A malpractice suit filed in Philadelphia court alleges that attorneys at the Law Offices of Eric A. Shore did not properly manage a pair of federal employment discrimination cases for a power plant engineer, causing the dismissal of one complaint and a diminished jury verdict in the second.

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    Texas Firm Reynolds Frizzell Finds Strength In Being Small

    While it makes room to physically accommodate a growing roster, Houston trial boutique Reynolds Frizzell LLP is not angling to shed its small law firm status.

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    Mich. Firm Can't Get More Fees From Nassar Suits, Jury Finds

    A Michigan federal jury said Monday a personal injury firm already got what it was owed as local counsel for survivors of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar's abuse, rejecting the firm's claims against a Colorado firm for another $500,000.

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    Fla. Bar Insurance Biz Names First New Chair In Over 30 Years

    Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Co. will have a new chair for the first time since its launch in 1987 after its board of directors tapped a solo practitioner in Tampa as its next leader.

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    National Footprints Scramble Partner Pay's Link To Location

    Law firm partners' increasing pay often varies based on where those attorneys are located, a fact reinforced by a new study out Thursday, but experts say the relationship between compensation and location has become more complicated as more firms operate on a national scale. 

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    Insurers Have Long Used AI; Now Litigation Funders Want In

    As State Farm waded into the nascent field of "artificial intelligence" tools in the mid-1980s, its mainframe computers began to overheat under the strain of calculating the values of claims.

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    Milber Makris Expands Trial Capabilities With 15 Attys In NY

    Milber Makris Plousadis & Seiden LLP, a full-service civil litigation defense firm for the insurance industry, has expanded its litigation and trial capabilities with the addition of 15 attorneys from Zaklukiewicz Puzo & Morrissey LLP and Gartner & Bloom PC in New York.

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    Kessler Topaz Founding Partner To Retire At End Of Year

    One of the founding partners of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP announced this week he is retiring from the Radnor, Pennsylvania-based firm after more than two decades of representing clients in securities class actions.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    The legal industry had another action-packed week as firms prepared for increased lobbying activity in anticipation of the upcoming election, while lawyers nationwide came together to support a nonpartisan initiative focused on protecting the electoral process. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Kemp Jones LLP, Parker Nelson & Associates and Campbell & Williams lead this week's list of Law360 legal lions with back-to-back wins in ongoing litigation against a bankrupt "alkaline water" company.

  • 4th Circ. Backs Sanctioning Firm $1M For 'Defiance' Of Court

    The Fourth Circuit on Thursday upheld a roughly $1 million sanction against the law firm of New York plaintiffs attorney Paul J. Napoli for its purportedly frivolous filings in a battle with another firm over asbestos litigation client referrals, saying the firm's misconduct was in "direct defiance" of a Maryland federal court's authority.

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    Atty Jim Walden Launches Campaign To Be NYC Mayor

    Jim Walden of Walden Macht Haran & Williams LLP entered the New York City 2025 mayoral race this week as a new challenger to the recently indicted incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, running on a vow to fight corruption in the city.

  • Alex Jones Atty Laments Sharing Sandy Hook Families' Info

    The lead attorney in conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Sandy Hook Elementary School defamation trial in Connecticut acknowledged Thursday that he "erred" when he allowed a hard drive containing the plaintiffs' confidential records to be transmitted to other attorneys, an act that led to ongoing disciplinary proceedings that threaten his law license.

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    Ga. Bar Eyes Atty Guardrails On Use Of Third-Party Vendors

    A board for the State Bar of Georgia has said in a proposed ethics opinion that lawyers could be on the hook for the alleged misconduct of third-party vendors they use to request documents from a nonparty, such as medical records or bills.

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Expert Analysis

  • Law Firm Guardrails For Responsible Generative AI Use Author Photo

    ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools pose significant risks to the integrity of legal work, but the key for law firms is not to ban these tools, but to implement them responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, say Natalie Pierce and Stephanie Goutos at Gunderson Dettmer.

  • Opinion

    We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court Headwinds Author Photo

    Though the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.

  • Law Firms Cannot Ignore Attorneys' Personal Cybersecurity Author Photo

    Law firms that fail to consider their attorneys' online habits away from work are not using their best efforts to protect client information and are simplifying the job of plaintiffs attorneys in the case of a breach, say Mark Hurley and Carmine Cicalese at Digital Privacy and Protection.

  • Why Writing CLE Should Be Mandatory For Lawyers Author Photo

    Though effective writing is foundational to law, no state requires attorneys to take continuing legal education in this skill — something that must change if today's attorneys are to have the communication abilities they need to fulfill their professional and ethical duties to their clients, colleagues and courts, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona.

  • How To Find Your Inner Calm When Client Obligations Pile Up Author Photo

    In the most stressful times for attorneys, when several transactions for different partners and clients peak at the same time and the phone won’t stop buzzing, incremental lifestyle changes can truly make a difference, says Lindsey Hughes at Haynes Boone.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Support Gen Z Attorneys? Author Photo

    Meredith Beuchaw at Lowenstein Sandler discusses how senior attorneys can assist the newest generation of attorneys by championing their pursuit of a healthy work-life balance and providing the hands-on mentorship opportunities they missed out on during the pandemic.

  • Law Firm Cybersecurity Should Not Get Lost In The Cloud Author Photo

    A recent data leak at Proskauer via a cloud data storage platform demonstrates key reasons why law firms must pay attention to data safeguarding, including the increasing frequency of cloud-based data breaches and the consequences of breaking client confidentiality, says Robert Kraczek at One Identity.

  • Advice For Summer Associates Uneasy About Offer Prospects Author Photo

    There are a few communication tips that law students in summer associate programs should consider to put themselves in the best possible position to receive an offer, and firms can also take steps to support those to whom they are unable to make an offer, says Amy Mattock at Georgetown University Law Center.

  • How Law Firms Can Cautiously Wield AI To Streamline Tasks Author Photo

    Many attorneys are going to use artificial intelligence tools whether law firms like it or not, so firms should educate them on AI's benefits, limits and practical uses, such as drafting legal documents, to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving legal market, say Thomas Schultz and Eden Bernstein at Kellogg Hansen.

  • Keys To Managing The Stresses Of Law School Author Photo

    Dealing with the pressures associated with law school can prove difficult for many future lawyers, but there are steps students can take to manage stress — and schools can help too, say Ryan Zajic and Dr. Janani Krishnaswami at UWorld.

  • Can Mandatory CLE Mitigate Implicit Bias's Negative Impacts? Author Photo

    Amid ongoing disagreements on whether states should mandate implicit bias training as part of attorneys' continuing legal education requirements, Stephanie Wilson at Reed Smith looks at how unconscious attitudes or stereotypes adversely affect legal practice, and whether mandatory training programs can help.

  • Ditch The Frills And Start Writing Legal Letters In Plain English Author Photo

    To become more effective advocates, lawyers need to rethink the ridiculous, convoluted language they use in correspondence and write letters in a clear, concise and direct manner, says legal writing instructor Stuart Teicher.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Negotiate My Separation Agreement? Author Photo

    Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey discusses how a law firm associate can navigate being laid off, what to look for in a separation agreement and why to be upfront about it with prospective employers.

  • DoNotPay Cases Underscore Hurdles For AI-Fueled Legal Help Author Photo

    Recent legal challenges against DoNotPay’s "robot lawyer” application highlight pressing questions about the degree to which artificial intelligence can be used for legal tasks while remaining on the right side of both consumer protection laws and prohibitions against the unauthorized practice of law, says Kristen Niven at Frankfurt Kurnit.

  • For The Future Of Legal Practice, Let's Learn From The Past Author Photo

    At some level, every practicing lawyer is experiencing the ever-increasing speed of change — and while some practice management processes have gotten more efficient, other things about the legal profession were better before supposed improvements were made, says Jay Silberblatt, president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

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