Clik here to view.
House Rules: Reinventing the Wheel
I often tell the story of my first assignment as a summer associate, to draft a one-page complaint. Two hours later, the assigning partner checked on me and saw that I was still stuck trying to get the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inside Straight: The Managing Partner On Billing Time
First, a shameless plug: Here’s an interview in which Ari Kaplan and I discuss “Inside Straight and the Impact of Getting Published on Professional Success.” (That’s Inside Straight, the book, not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Moonlighting: How Not to Network
You know that there are a lot of holiday parties going on when planning to hang at another one starts to feel like a burden. Even if there’s karaoke involved. This is what happens when bar associations...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From the Career Files: What to Consider When Considering an In-House Counsel...
Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from the ATL Career Center’s team of expert contributors. Today, in the second part of a two-part series, Casey Berman gives some practical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inside Straight: Do Big Corporate Clients Use Solo Practitioners?
A correspondent recently posed this question: I’m a litigation partner at a big firm. If I go solo, will my corporate clients continue to use me for their smaller matters? I’ll use this column to do...
View ArticleClik here to view.
House Rules: Conflicted Out
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Bull and S***. If you’re not slaving away trying to get last minute billing hours, you’re slaving away trying to support a crazed population of folks trying to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inside Straight: The Job That Kills The Humor
Years ago, I was a barrel of laughs. (Well, more of a barrel of laughs then than I am now, anyway.) When I was defending antidepressant-suicide cases, I barely resisted the urge to send in-house...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Moonlighting: Getting Business People to Listen to You
Holiday season is in full blast now, so what better time to discuss traditional end-of-year topics like performance reviews, gifting at the office, and what it’s like to advise business clients. Okay,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Tough Mudder
Marathons and triathlons are so passé. They’re just not thrilling enough; you need an endurance event that’s going to make you feel truly alive. Enter Tough Mudder, a 10-12 mile obstacle course...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inside Straight: Business Development At Firms Small Versus Large
A decade ago, I sat in the midst of hundreds of lawyers at a firmwide partners meeting. The managing partner explained that most of our revenue came from our 25 largest clients, and we should focus on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inside Straight: The Best Things I Heard in 2012
I’m a week late in reminiscing about 2012, but what can I say? I’m a step slow; you’ll just have to excuse me. These are some of the memorable things I heard during the last year. First, an employment...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Buying In: An Interview with an In-House Insider (Part 1)
Now that bonuses, year-end collections, and holiday parties are behind us, it is helpful to remind ourselves (early on in the new year) that it is (paying) clients that make everything possible for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
House Rules: The Truth About Getting Work From Me
In this new year, since there have been several columns of late of the “confessional” type, I thought I might join the bandwagon. Since the overwhelming majority of inquiries from readers regard how...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New Data on Hours, Billing Rates, and Corporate Legal Spending
What does 2013 hold for the world of large law firms? Let’s look into our crystal ball. Actually, scratch that. Making predictions is a tricky business. Sometimes we’re right — like when we predicted...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Moonlighting: What’s a ‘Business Issue’?
If you work as a corporate lawyer at a law firm, you aren’t usually making distinctions between legal issues and business issues. There are just issues. You spot all of the potential ones that you can...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inside Straight: Stop The Audit Letter Lunacy!
When I worked at a law firm, I knew that lawyers’ responses to audit letters — in which the firm confirms to auditors the status of litigation pending against a client — were a massive waste of time....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Biglaw: Welcome to the New Normal
The grass isn’t quite this green in the ‘new normal.’ In a piece from last month, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wondered: Is Growth Over? One could very easily take this question, posed with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Buying In: An Interview with an In-House Insider (Part 2)
Last week I spoke with an In-House Insider, a Biglaw refugee turned in-house counsel. You can see what our Insider has to say about the state of Biglaw and client relations here and below. As with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
House Rules: Standing Corrected?
I wrote last week about ideas to build a book of business. My main point was to start small and branch out from there. I mentioned how, as a young and naïve (ok, ignorant) associate, I was quickly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Moonlighting: How to Give Great Mock Interviews? Be a Jerk!
Think good deeds are only for good people? Every once in a while, an uncommon opportunity comes along in which even grinchy, ol’ meanies can contribute positively to society. On occasion, jerks are...
View Article
