California Wildfire Victims Need Attorneys

Wildfires across the state of California have killed dozens of people and scorched thousands of acres.

Devastating wildfires are currently besieging Southern California, including the Thomas Fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, the Creek Fire in the Sylmar/Kagel Canyon area, and the Rye Fire in Santa Clarita. The fires have displaced hundreds of thousands of residents in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. It has been reported that electric company Southern California Edison’s local facilities are currently under investigation in relation to the cause of at least some of the fires.

In October, multiple fires blazed in Northern California, claiming more than 40 lives and destroying thousands of homes.

Lawyers currently represent hundreds of plaintiffs from Tubbs, Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, and Butte Counties who are holding PG&E accountable for their alleged role in causing the fires.

Many people who have lost their homes due to the wildfires are coming to a devastating realization. They thought their homeowner’s insurance policy covered them for their losses – but just the opposite is true.  As you know, many older policies don’t come close to providing the coverage these property owners need in order to pick up the pieces.

If your firm is fighting for the rights of Wildfire victims, you need to stand out from the crowd of other attorneys and attract potential clients with a legitimate claim that need your expertise to wade through the compensation process.

We can connect you with people suffering due to the Wildfires.  We have a flat fee, fixed cost program.  No pay per click or pay per call charges.

The cost is less marketing dollars than finding clients with radio or tv and far less expensive than PPC.

Contact BusinessCreator/ForLawFirmsOnly at 855-943-8736 for more information on how we can help you reach those California Wildfire victims that need your help.

https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/?p=4873

Facebook As A Marketing Tool For Attorneys

Facebook has emerged as a marketing tool with limitless potential. If you’re a Law firm looking for a lead generation source, you could benefit immensely from tapping into this social media platform. Image Courtesy of TechCrunch   If you’ve never thought of Facebook as more than a social platform, think again... your law firm could get a constant flow of qualified leads through Facebook. Want to find out how? Keep reading. Most businesses including law firms nowadays have a Facebook page, however, most of them don’t put in the effort to garner the benefits. Here are some tips that can help you expand the reach of your firm, using Facebook. Do Likes Matter? :  “Likes” on Facebook are nothing but the number of your audience. The more the merrier. The higher the number, the more people you can promote your business with. But to get likes and have people follow you, an engaging page is required. It’s similar to the quote “as you reap you shall sow”, the more engaging the content on your page the more people will like. You could also run a paid campaign to get your message in front of people outside of your immediate network. Posting Frequency: This is an effective way to stay ahead of the clutter on Facebook. The higher the frequency of your posts, the more of you the audience sees.  The best results have been observed from posting twice a day and maintaining a constant stream of posts. Visual Content: The way the world consumes content is becoming more and more visual. Pictures increase the appeal of your post and leave an impression on your audience.Therefore, incorporating pictures into your posts is highly recommended. Video content is another emerging trend which increases engagement on your FB page. Know your audience better with Facebook Insights: Facebook insight is a feature that helps you gain a deeper understanding of your audience. It offers information regarding the most liked posts, the location of your audience, details like the age group and gender of people that follow your Facebook page. This information will help you understand your target audience and make decisions on the type of content that you should be serving. Keeping the eye on the outcome: It’s a good idea to define the kind of results that you’re looking for from your social campaign. Gaining an organic following, that is without spending money out of your pocket… takes time and effort. If your goal is to have more people visit your website, FB lets you create custom buttons for a specific call to action. You can also promote discounts for first-time clients or a free consultation on your Facebook page. Measuring the results keeping your goals you set out to accomplish, will give you a better idea on areas where you could improve. Keeping these in mind will help your law firm get maximum mileage from their Facebook page. Like any other marketing channel, this isn’t a set it and forget it deal. You’ll have to constantly put in the effort to engage your clients, give out useful information, seek feedback and make them want to return to your Facebook page for more. In time you’ll start seeing the benefits of the diligent effort that you put in. Edward Kundahl, Ph.D., M.B.A. Ed can be reached at (or visit his websites) 855-943-8736 ed@forlawfirmsonly.com www.BusinessCreatorPlus.com www.ForLawFirmsOnly.com

https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/?p=4854

Call-Only Google AdWords For Attorneys

SEO or SEM For A Law Firm? 

Many law firm owners struggle with how, when, or if to use search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) to generate leads and grow their firm. While both tactics are beneficial, several factors need to go into the decision-making process—depending on each law firm owner’s goals and budget. SEO works best for law firms first starting out or establishing an online presence for the first time. When designing a website, getting your law firm on local listings, and creating social media pages for your law firm, SEO is the best strategy. It’s important to utilize SEO to show search engines that your firm’s information is consistent and prevalent across multiple platforms. You can also build SEO for your law firm by consistently publishing relevant content that is valuable to your audience. SEM comes into play when your law firm website is ready to “wow” customers and get them to contact you or make a purchase. Many law firms jump the gun too early and do not take the proper time to implement strong website design practices first. SEM uses paid search campaigns such as Google AdWords to show an ad for your firm when certain keywords are used by customers searching for your services. When your website is ready to receive and convert leads, you will want to track which keywords perform best, when is the best time to display your ad, which target audience converts best, and how much you can afford to bid for paid search leads. This can all be a lot to manage, but it’s necessary to succeed with paid search.

AdWords And Phone Calls-Call Only Campaigns

Call extensions let you add phone numbers to your ads, which can significantly increase clickthrough rates. When your call extensions show, people can tap or click a button to call your business directly. That means more customer engagement with your ads, and more chances for you to get and track your conversions. Call extensions are the easiest way to add phone numbers to existing ads. If you attempt to include a phone number elsewhere in your ad text, it may lead to the disapproval of the ad, so if you would like to include a phone number, it is best to use a call extension. You can also create call-only campaigns. The newer call-only campaigns take time to setup properly but can result in a much lower client acquisition cost. To get phone calls to your firm, set up a call-only campaign to encourage clients to call you by clicking or tapping your ad. With call-only campaigns, you bid to drive calls to your law firm instead of clicks to your website. You can set your ads to show only when your firm can take calls, so you won’t miss an opportunity to connect with your potential clients.  With these campaigns, you can use CPC bidding based on the value of a call to your business. You can also add your existing phone information to your new ads and attach select extensions to your call-only campaigns. Ads created in call-only campaigns are fine-tuned to show only on mobile devices that are capable of making calls. Taps on these ads will only generate calls — they won’t link to a website. These ads are very flexible with how they can appear. To optimize for mobile and enhance performance, your ads may not always show every line of text you enter when setting up your campaign. Likewise, select extensions, which are available for call-only campaigns, may also be hidden in order to make the most of the smaller screen space on mobile devices. If you feel that your small law firm is ready for SEM, make sure that you have the time and resources to dedicate to your campaign and your online presence. Your campaign needs to have the right keywords and descriptions, but also effective tracking and analytics so you can monitor performance and conversions. Remember, do not let your social media presence, content marketing, and website suffer at the expense of your ad campaign! One of the most important differences between SEO and SEM is that SEO takes time, whereas SEM provides more immediate results. You may want calls and clicks fast, but you must dedicate work to your online presence to motivate customers who click on your ad to give you their law firm. SEO and SEM work best when used together. When used properly, SEM can help your law firm achieve its lead generation goals. Enlisting the help of a professional can also be a wise investment.  BusinessCreator/ForLawFirmsOnly has a team of SEM Marketing Pros that can create and manage your Google AdWords and Facebook campaigns for you! Edward Kundahl, Ph.D., M.B.A. Ed can be reached at (or visit his websites) 855-943-8736 ed@forlawfirmsonly.com www.BusinessCreatorPlus.com www.ForLawFirmsOnly.com    

https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/?p=4796

New RICO Lawsuit Could Target Biglaw Firms — See Also

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/GnKXGhz7xL4/

The GRE Is Plotting To Take Over Law School Admissions — See Also

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/_CCODh0JSw0/

A Firm Actually Goes Over Cravath’s Head On Associate Bonuses — See Also

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/UQ1ckJ3gPRc/

5 Stories That Also Didn’t Win Their Conference Championship — See Also

BUD LIGHT AD HAS BROKEN THE FOURTH WALL: Joe explains how to write a C&D that also helps the corporate brand. Dilly, Dilly.

DAVID BOIES IS JUST IN THE BARREL RIGHT NOW: I feel almost like I need to remind people that David Boies, as far as we know, didn’t actually sexually assault anybody — his clients allegedly did. Then again, Boies doesn’t need me to defend him, he got paid quite enough to be the hatchet man for alleged sexual predators. Hope he’s enjoying the fruits of his labors. Kathryn explains the latest accusations here.

THE NEW YORK A.G. IS INVOLVED IN A HUGE PROSECUTION: If you want to get the cops, you have to get the prosecutors enabling them. I explain how NYAG Eric Schneiderman is trying to do just that.

JOHN DOWD CLAIMS HE WROTE THE TWEET WHERE TRUMP ADMITTED TO OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE: Not that I believe him. But the fact that a lawyer would even try to convince us that he purposefully incriminated his client just shows you where we are in this country. Joe explains.

PRE-LAW STUDENT LIVING IN A VAN TO CUT COSTS: No, this isn’t a sketch, it’s real life. But Staci will show you the sketch.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/33ZWwsIXI6k/

Write or Fade Away as a Designer

Every week a new article comes out preaching to designers the necessity of learning to code, sales, or . If you don’t learn one of these indispensable skills, your career is bound to crash and burn. Why? Because of the looming AI insurgence or some other whacky theory. While these articles may be accurate (in a very far future), the main reason we spill these warnings and encourage the learning of new skills is either to earn extra cash, feel more secure in our own job, or to avoid a sense of Imposter Syndrome. The real question should be: What skill provides the biggest gains for the least amount of effort? And the answer is: Writing. Don’t believe me? Just read what five top designers had to say about the importance of writing and the effects it’s had on their careers.

Eyal Zuri - Writing Doesn’t Have to Be Serious

Eyal Zuri is best known for Muzli, which was acquired by InVision, partially due to Zuri’s consistent blogging. He publishes around 16 articles a month after looking for new ways to grow Muzli. Zuri quickly realized that creating great content is an easy way to generate more traffic. This article generated a lot of buzz, causing significant growth in all of our channels. It’s funny, lighthearted, and not binding, which are keys to a good article. “I don’t really write. My articles are based on inspiration only,” Zuri said. “It allows me to create a relatively large amount of content that people love to consume.”

Paul Jarvis - Write to Boost Doing What You Love

After 20 years of designing, Veteran Designer Paul Jarvis spends most of his time writing and teaching today. This isn’t surprising, since writing has made him $400,000 in just 18 months. In fact, his most recent course sold out in minutes after writing just one newsletter. Jarvis made excuses for years before deciding to blog. “To be honest, I made every excuse in the book to not write for years. I kept telling myself I wasn’t a writer, so I had no business writing,” Jarvis said. “Then I realized that was a total BS excuse. All it takes to be a writer is to start writing. That’s it. So that’s what I did—starting my first book and a regular writing practice for articles. It snowballed from there, and now I spend as much or more time writing as I do designing.” So how does a designer, who isn’t a writer, become such a damn good one? Jarvis, who still doesn’t consider himself a good writer today, says “Just write for the audience you want to have.” “Help them with the things they struggle with, worry about or wish they knew more about. Don’t write for other designers unless they’re your target audience, and they probably aren’t,” Jarvis advises. According to Jarvis, his posts work because they aren’t specifically selling something. “My articles are entertaining and educational about a specific point, for a specific audience, so that I could paint a picture of what they were struggling with, help them in some small way, and then mention that if they needed further help, my paid courses were available.” Before Jarvis the teacher, Jarvis the designer wrote posts for potential design clients, like this one. “As my job changed to more of a teacher, articles that spoke directly to the pain I was trying to solve with the courses I teach help me sell those course - like this one (used for Chimp Essentials).

Nick Babich - Writing Brings Opportunities

Nick Babich, developer/designer hybrid, usually writes research-packed posts, based on his work experience. Babich tries to publish six articles, between five and seven minutes long, every month. Why between five and seven minutes? Because this way you only need to write the most important details, and also, because you don’t want readers to get bored. Like Jarvis, Babich’s writing has provided him with a multitude of opportunities, such as a speaking gig at Push Conference. “It was such an amazing event! I had a lot of inspiration and new ideas from this experience, and most of them will be in my future posts,” he said.

Matt West - Write About Passions That Outweigh the Fear of Writing

Matt West, author of HTML5 Foundations, tries to publish between two and three articles a month, but sometimes he goes for long periods of time without writing anything, when there just isn’t anything to share. While there are loads of books on how to improve your writing, West simply focuses on reading a lot. “Read the work of writers you admire, and pay attention to their use of language, how they structure sentences and how they present their ideas. You can learn a lot by simply surrounding yourself with great work.” For a while, West lost his passion to write, when writing became more of a chore. It wasn’t until he was presented with the opportunity to author a book on HTML5 that his desire to share his knowledge outweighed his dislike of writing. West recommends writing about topics you’re passionate about; not only will you do your best work, but you’ll also feel like you aren’t doing work at all. “Don’t try to please everyone, be opinionated, and stay focused on your core idea. If you put something out into the world, and nobody disagrees with you, then you’re probably not saying anything worthwhile.”

Andrew Graunke - Director of Design at Toptal

Toptal’s Design Director Andrew Graunke connects the world’s top designers with businesses looking to hire. Graunke’s favorite part of writing is how it allows you to connect with new people. “By proposing a new design for Crunchbase, I was able to open a public dialogue with Crunchbase CEO Jager McConnell, who commented ‘…loved your blog post! Lots of good ideas in there - many of which depended on us building the search/list functionality we just launched with Pro. Exciting times ahead!.’” While this may not seem like a huge deal to outsiders, it certainly does to Graunke. “The work I do takes buy-in from all parties, and even the smallest opportunities look like the biggest opportunities to me,” he said. “Will Jager McConnell leverage our Toptal network to build out design and dev teams? This one’s yet to be seen, and the hashtag’s on me.” These are just some of the examples of designers getting great results by writing. I couldn’t interview myself but I got my current job as the Lead Editor of the Design blog @ Toptal by one of the founders of Toptal reading one of my articles on Medium and reaching out to me.

Challenge yourself to write

These are just a few examples of designers reaping great results from writing. Now, it’s your turn. Perhaps you can begin by leaving a thoughtful comment on someone else’s article. From there, challenge yourself to write an article of your own. Then write one more and another and another. You get the picture. The most difficult part is starting, so don’t wait until you find the perfect idea. And don’t edit while you write, or you’ll drive yourself crazy. The more you write, the easier it gets. To get started, ask yourself: What point do I want to make? And just go from there. This post was written by Michael Abehsera, Designer for Toptal.
https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/?p=7707

Celebrate The End Of 2017 With Above The Law

If you haven’t made plans to join us next Thursday for our annual holiday party, then what’s wrong with you? Our parties are always a good time with free drinks, some food to nibble on, and the sympathetic ears of the ATL staff ready to hear all about your upcoming exam schedule or your grueling 2500-hour year.

We spend the whole year talking to you through our keyboards and we’re eager to thank you in person for reading.

This year we’ll be hosting at Axiom’s loft in SoHo, placing us in the happy middle ground between the Midtown and Downtown firms.

Here are all of the details:

When: Thursday, December 7, 2017
Where: Axiom, 295 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012
Time: 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Space is limited, so make sure you RSVP.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/Lg_zqI00is8/

Non-Sequiturs: 12.01.17

* A deep dive into the results of the July 2017 New York bar exam.

* Which lower courts are the major players?

* Should there be an independent investigation into the culture at NBC?

* Work in a male dominated office? How is #metoo changing things?

* How are law schools helping students deal with the stress of finals?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/Vv9LmGLDlmM/

How Is There This Much News ON A FRIDAY? — See Also

SO… MIKE FLYNN FLIPPED: Kathryn collects some of the best tweets here.

IT TURNS OUT, JAMES COMEY’S INSTAGRAM GAME IS STRONG: It appears Comey made an Instagram account just to troll Donald Trump? Kathryn explains.

DAVIS POLK MATCHES CRAVATH: It was unlikely but Davis Polk was the last major New York, white-shoe firm that might legitimately have topped Cravath, but they didn’t.

WHILE WE’RE AT IT, HERE ARE ALL THE BONUSES SO FAR: All the ones we know about, in one handy chart. Read and compare.

GENERAL COUNSEL PAY IS UP: But only for men. Women are making 31% less at bonus time. I express the appropriate outrage here.

---

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

Promoted

Sponsored Content

Free On-Demand Webinar Download Now Available!

Free On-Demand Webinar Download Now Available!

Download The Free On-Demand Information Governance Webinar Now.

Download The Free On-Demand Information Governance Webinar Now.

Above The Law

Promoted

Sponsored Content

I Failed The Bar Exam. What Are My Chances Of Passing the Next Bar Exam?

I Failed The Bar Exam. What Are My Chances Of Passing the Next Bar Exam?

Disappointing News Alert: According to the National Conference of Bar Examiners 2016 nationwide statistics, bar exam repeaters passed at a significantly lower rate than first timers.

Your chances of passing the next bar exam become much more challenging, but not impossible.

Marino Legal Academy

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/2N2pEi5hcW8/

Ethics opinions have to reflect the present and future—not the past

1. Home
2. In-Depth Reporting
3. Ethics opinions have to reflect the present…

Building the 21st-Century Law Firm

By Carolyn Elefant

December 2017

Shutterstock

One of the most enduring purposes behind the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and corresponding state ethics standards is to protect clients and the public from “overreaching, overcharging, underrepresentation and misrepresentation.” (See Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar, 1978.)

More than a century after the 1908 adoption of the association’s first set of guidelines, the ABA Canons of Professional Ethics, the clients whom ethics standards protect and the lawyers governed by them have changed drastically. Yet in substance and form, ethics standards remain stagnant—and the same lofty principles that once inspired the best in lawyers will soon render us irrelevant.

ARCHAIC RULES

In substance, today’s legal ethics standards are so utterly out of sync with the lifestyle, social conventions and technology savvy of today’s consumers that they actually breed mistrust.

Imagine an encounter with an alien that hails from a planet where placing one’s hands around a new acquaintance’s throat is intended as a sign of respect. Yet without this background, you’d understandably feel distrustful and threatened if greeted by a stranger who has a firm vise around your neck. The same is true of ethics standards in the modern world: They require lawyers to act in a manner that is so alien in today’s society as to arouse suspicion. Consider the two following scenarios.

Case 1: Penny Prospect, a mom seeking a divorce, arrives at your office for a consult. You think the meeting went well, but you never hear back. It turns out your instincts weren’t wrong—Penny was leaning toward retaining you—until she viewed your profile on LinkedIn and saw a disclaimer that states: “This profile is attorney advertising.”

In a decade of using LinkedIn (including as recently as that morning when she updated her profile in anticipation of searching for a higher-paying job), she has never seen a disclaimer like this. She knows LinkedIn’s user agreement prohibits advertising. Doesn’t this lawyer understand terms of service?

Penny’s concerns aren’t allayed when she clicks a link to the lawyer’s blog and once again sees “This blog is attorney advertising” underneath the blog caption. Penny doesn’t bother to read the posts; she assumes that if they’re advertising, they won’t be very valuable.

Penny wonders what’s wrong with this dude. He’s so caught up in promoting himself online that he won’t have time to handle her case. Ultimately, Penny heads to LegalZoom, which doesn’t have the same advertising disclaimers, and signs up for the do-it-yourself divorce package that includes attorney review.

Case 2: Noah Newbie is a recent business school graduate seeking to incorporate an online business. After the meeting, you hand him a 15-page retainer agreement and ask him to sign it and send it back with a check.

Noah leaves the office and tosses the retainer agreement into the trash can. He doesn’t understand a word of it. Plus, he’s always paid bills by credit card. He’s not sure that he still has a checkbook.

He decides to search his lawyer’s ratings online, but there’s not a client review or testimonial to be found. Because Noah always checks ratings before making a purchase, he’s disconcerted about why he can’t find any for his lawyer: Were they so bad she paid to have them removed?

Then Noah discovers a site called Avvo Answers, where he can ask questions about incorporating a business for $39. Noah searches for a New York lawyer. When he can’t find one, he discovers that several bars, including New York, have banned lawyers from doing business on Avvo. Apparently, it’s unethical for the site to take a cut of the $39 fee you pay to talk to a lawyer.

Noah doesn’t get it. Isn’t it a common online business model for the platform providing goods or services to take a cut of the sale? That’s how Etsy and Airbnb work—heck, Uber is killing it. Noah can’t believe this rule is really intended to protect clients. It’s probably a way to force clients to have to trek to a stuffy, old lawyer’s office and fork over $1,000.

It looks like his mentor, who heads a successful startup, was right after all: Noah is going to have to start his corporation at Rocket Lawyer by himself. Noah sighs, thinking it was easier to find his fiancée online through a dating site than it is to hire a lawyer.

REAL RULINGS, FALSE FEARS

These aren’t fantasy scenarios; they are based on actual ethics opinions. New York County Lawyers Association Formal Opinion 748 (2015) requires disclaimers in LinkedIn profiles. State Bar of California Formal Opinion 2016-196 treats a blog as advertising that’s subject to advertising rules if the attorney makes known their availability for service. And New York State Bar Association Ethics Opinion 1132 (2017) finds Avvo Answers and similar sites to constitute unethical fee splitting, as did a 2016 advisory opinion from the South Carolina Bar.

As these examples bear out, the parade of horribles that regulators envision—fee splitting with nonlawyers injecting their interest into the attorney-client relationship, testimonials and reviews that might dupe clients into hiring an unqualified lawyer, making objective and useful information online available through a LinkedIn profile or a blog without prominently labeling it as advertising (I’m stumped to figure out what kind of harm that could ever cause)—doesn’t intimidate today’s clients at all.

Most of today’s clients have seamlessly, thoroughly integrated social media and “sharing-economy” platforms, as well as online payments and content-based marketing, as part of their daily lives. They’ve acclimated to the cultures of each online universe they inhabit and grown adept at distinguishing between causal informational websites and biographical profiles, and chatty personal exchanges and paid advertising. So when lawyers can’t conform their conduct to these mores, they’re first viewed with suspicion or annoyance and, ultimately, ignored.

Read more ...

---

Carolyn Elefant is an energy and eminent domain attorney based in Washington, D.C. She says blogging at MyShingle “has given me a bird’s-eye view of the changes that have been roaring through the legal profession and an opportunity to chronicle and speak on these trends.”

This article was published in the December 2017 issue of the

ABA Journal with the title "Change the Rules! Ethics opinions have to reflect the present and future—not the past."

---

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abajournal/topstories/~3/2lVuxhiRq5A/legal_ethics_opinion_relevance

Chicago special prosecutor’s career nearly came to a premature end

1. Home
2. In-Depth Reporting
3. Chicago special prosecutor's career nearly…

Magazine Feature

By Erin Gordon

December 2017

Photo of Patricia Brown Holmes by Wayne Slezak

Patricia Brown Holmes was on top of the world. It was 1999, and she was living a dream that most attorneys never come close to experiencing. Less than two years prior, Holmes, at the age of 36, had become the youngest African-American woman to serve as an associate judge on the Circuit Court of Cook County. “Being a judge is considered the top of the profession,” she says. “I wanted to be at the top of the profession. I wanted that ring.”

Then she was told she might have only six months to live.

Diagnosed with lymphoma, her prognosis was grave. She could have drawn on her training as a lawyer to use what was left of her time to get her affairs in order. Instead, she drew on her other lawyerly skills and decided to fight.

“I tend to be tenacious and determined,” Holmes explains when recalling her death-defying recovery. “I’m the person you want to have around in an emergency because I’m not paralyzed. I tend to assess the circumstances quickly and accurately and then take appropriate action. But I’m constantly reassessing, listening and looking for new clues that may require a change in direction. I think those skills helped me survive cancer. I didn’t accept the prognosis. I assessed the situation and found ways to fight.”

Holmes credits her Type A personality and an experimental white blood-cell enhancer with saving her life. Since that challenge, she has served as president of the Chicago Bar Association and helped found the law firm of Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila.

Then, in July 2016, Holmes was appointed special prosecutor to investigate whether Chicago police officers involved with the highly charged 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald lied about another officer’s misconduct.

Colleagues say it’s no surprise that she got such an important and high-profile job. “She has unfailing judgment,” says Ronald Safer, who worked with Holmes at the U.S. attorney’s office and has been her law partner since 2005, first at Schiff Hardin and then at Riley Safer. Holmes is “brilliant,” adds Robert Riley, another partner, “but she also has tremendous common sense. ... Her voice is measured and insightful.”

Some of those directly involved in the McDonald case concur. Locke Bowman, a civil rights lawyer and professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law who petitioned for a special prosecutor in the case, says he was pleased with Holmes’ appointment. “She gets the issues and she’s unafraid to do the right thing. Her performance in office has confirmed our confidence in her.”

Although Holmes herself cannot comment on the McDonald matter, she says her team is moving the investigation forward “as expeditiously as possible, giving it the time, attention and care it deserves.”

“I can say I am approaching this case not as an issue of public policy but as a set of specific facts that need to be discovered, examined and carefully weighed,” she says.

This past summer, Holmes secured indictments for conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice against three police officers and successfully moved to remove the judge initially assigned to the case, whom some considered pro-police in similar excessive-force cases.

“The indictment makes clear that it is unacceptable to obey an unofficial code of silence,” Holmes said at the time. In late August, she added that the grand jury was looking at more individuals and weighing further indictments.

It’s not surprising, but her latest job has some serious detractors. “These charges are, in our minds, baseless. Our officers are being made the scapegoats,” said Kevin Graham, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, in a statement after the indictment. “How the special prosecutor can construe a ‘code of silence’ theory defies belief. How can officers be indicted based upon which witnesses they spoke to and which ones they didn’t?”

SENSITIVE SCRUTINY

Holmes was one of four candidates recommended for the special prosecutor position after a request by community groups and a member of McDonald’s family. That Holmes is getting paid comparatively little for her work on the case is consistent with her values, colleagues say. When asked how much she’s getting, Holmes declines to comment, except to say it is less than what she usually charges.

“There’s no upside for her,” explains Zaldwaynaka “Z” Scott, a Foley & Lardner partner who worked with Holmes at the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago. “She’s working at the lowest rate. But this case needed someone who could look at the evidence and work to be fair and honest and not just driven by emotion.”

It’s not the first time Holmes has been charged with leading a sensitive investigation. In 2011, she was appointed trustee of Burr Oak Cemetery, a historic African-American graveyard in the Chicago suburb of Alsip that declared bankruptcy after a scandal involving a grave desecration and reselling scheme.

It was a grim Halloween story: In 2009, the cemetery, the last resting place of jazz great Dinah Washington and civil rights martyr Emmett Till, was found to be reselling burial plots and either interring caskets above those already buried or removing remains to put new bodies in the plots. Prosecutors described a grisly scene where 1,500 bones of 29 people were strewn on cemetery grounds. A cemetery manager and three employees were convicted in the scandal.

But it was more than a job for Holmes. Her father’s grave marker and remains were likely among those removed, Holmes told the Daily Southtown, a suburban Chicago newspaper, when reinterment ceremonies were held in May 2016.

She told the newspaper she went to visit her father’s final resting place in Burr Oak, but was unable to find it.

“You figure, well, it has been a couple years—maybe things change. Maybe it looks different,” Holmes said then. She ultimately convinced herself that she had forgotten where her father, Andrew Brown, was buried. Then she heard about the grave-reselling scandal.

“I was like ‘Oh, my God, I didn’t just forget. I was right!”

Read more ...

---

Correction

Because of a reporting error, "You Only Live Once,” December, misstated that Patricia Brown Holmes and Zaldwaynaka “Z” Scott worked together on the case of U.S. v. Mohammad. They instead worked together on U.S. v. Emenogha, a multidefendant drug and money-structuring case.

---

Erin Gordon, a former lawyer, is a legal journalist based in San Francisco.

This article was published in the December 2017 issue of the

ABA Journal with the title “You Only Live Once: Chicago attorney and special prosecutor Patricia Holmes has done it all in her career—one that nearly came to a premature end.”

---

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abajournal/topstories/~3/WgQPQLW35Ls/laquan_mcdonald_prosecutor_patricia_holmes

In Non-Bonus News — See Also

FIRST, LET’S START WITH A BONUS STORY: Apparently if your firm stupidly followed to $180K, there’s a chance it’ll take that out of your bonuses. Here’s the miserly quote.

THERE’S NOTHING AS NON-NEWS AS A KARDASHIAN STORY: Kim Kardashian did something. Or cares about something. Or something. Read some Kardashian news here.

I ONCE DID AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN GIRSHAM WHERE HE EXPLAINED THAT HE THOUGHT THERE WAS A PRINCETON LAW SCHOOL: Then wrote a book where the guy went to Princeton Law School, then was informed of his error, then decided to leave it since it was fiction anyway. Point is, I agree that Princeton Law School would rank in the top-20 of any law school ranking based on “reputation,” because that’s how people think. Mark Herrmann explains.

YOU ARE ALL COMPLICIT: Well, at least you are all looking up what the word means. Complicit is the word of the year.

IN ACTUALLY IMPORTANT NEWS: This fight over the Consumer Financial Protection Board is real, and really interesting, and would be “fun” if it wasn’t fundamentally about Trump killing off an entire organization so that his business friends can more easily defraud the American people. Joe Patrice explains.

---

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/0AnEDWAHGyA/

LinkedIn Guidelines For Lawyers

As a law firm, there are a number of avenues which can help your firm build credibility online. From starting your own blog to answering questions on lawyer help forums. A platform that many businesses don’t seem to tap into is LinkedIn and we’re going to talk about it today. Most people mistake LinkedIn as a job search platform or a social network of sorts. But, what you might not know is that there are businesses which use this platform as a recurring source of qualified leads. Studies have shown in the past that LinkedIn is a very effective lead generator. Here’s how you can generate leads for your law firm using LinkedIn:

1)      Create a LinkedIn Company Page

There are currently a few million company pages on LinkedIn. Create a business page for your company with content that showcases your expertise. Things you should include on it are:

• Company Description – including the brand, services you provide, your achievements and affiliations.
• Names of Clients, especially big ones.
• Client Testimonials that will create social proof.
• Images, infographics, videos
• Regular posts with keyword-rich content

2)      Interact with the LinkedIn community

The more content you create and share to help, intrigue and inspire, the better it is for you. LinkedIn is a repository of professionals, executives, and prospective clients. Engaging them would mean you’re nurturing your network. Focus on the value you can provide, as that’s the sole driver of great content marketing. Word about your authority spreads really quick on a platform like LinkedIn and you could find yourself getting referrals or being introduced to a prospect before you know it. Especially if you’re connected with well-networked people or influencers. You don’t need to create all content from scratch. You can share appropriate industry updates, questions that’ll engage your followers in a conversation. Community participation on relevant topics by your firm or you also helps. Links to white papers, webinars, case studies etc. leading back to your website are also appropriate for gaining following.

3)      LinkedIn Groups

Join active LinkedIn groups with a substantial following in your area of expertise. Be a useful contributor to the discussion and also make a habit of sharing ideas/news and being helpful.

Some do’s and don’ts that you should keep in mind:

• Don’t make every interaction about marketing your legal services.
• Short and timely comments are better than long but occasional ones.
• Any value that you can provide as a knowledge expert in your field or any resources you share will position you as helpful and the go-to person.

4)      Local SEO

Most legal businesses have a certain geographic area of operation and cater to the local market. This makes local search engine optimization important. On your LinkedIn profile and posts include local keywords and links – like local community events, local client testimonials. A public LinkedIn profile also ensures visibility in search engines.

5)      LinkedIn Leadgen forms

You can also share sponsored content like a research study report you funded. LinkedIn has launched Leadgen Forms on smartphones, which effortlessly pulls data from prospective leads’ LinkedIn profile. Make these forms a part of your content. With these forms and with LinkedIn’s accurate profile data you can collect quality leads that are sure to give you a higher conversion rate. LinkedIn’s networking platform is used by a variety of people from executives of Fortune 500 companies, business owners to everyday people. There are unlimited opportunities that can emerge out of LinkedIn. Using the techniques mentioned above will help you create credibility and use this platform as a source of great leads. Edward Kundahl, Ph.D., M.B.A. Ed can be reached at (or visit his websites) 855-943-8736 ed@forlawfirmsonly.com www.BusinessCreatorPlus.com www.ForLawFirmsOnly.com

https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/?p=4670

HLS Alum Pat Miles On Mid-Size Legal Markets, Public Service, And His Candidacy For Michigan Attorney General

Patrick Miles

---

“I picked up the pen like Hamilton / Street analyst, now I write words that try to channel ’em / No political power, just lyrical power.” — Nas

Earlier this year, Patrick Miles, a former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, joined Barnes & Thornburg LLP. With the addition of Miles, Barnes & Thornburg becomes the first major law firm with three former U.S. attorneys who are African-American. Michael Battle and Roscoe Howard are the other two former U.S. attorneys at the firm.

Miles is a third-generation Grand Rapids, Michigan, resident. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1991, he returned to Grand Rapids to begin his legal career in the private sector.

In 2010, Miles ran for Congress, losing to the Republican nominee Justin Amash. In 2012, he was nominated and confirmed for the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan based in Grand Rapids. He tendered his resignation on January 30, the day Trump was sworn into office. This May, Miles joined Barnes & Thornburg. On September 28, he announced his candidacy for Michigan Attorney General.

This week, Pat Miles was generous enough to share his time and advice with our ATL audience. Having clerked in Grand Rapids for a couple of summers, I really enjoyed our shared passion and pride for the city. As a young attorney, I found his career and civic advice to be invaluable.

Without further ado, here is a (lightly edited and condensed) write-up of our conversation:

Renwei Chung (RC): You mentioned that most of your HLS classmates chose larger legal markets. Why did you choose to launch your professional career in a smaller legal market like Grand Rapids?

Pat Miles (PM): First, in law firm practice one needs an expertise and/or a client base to be a successful partner. Being from Grand Rapids was an advantage to do the latter. Second, I like the culture and life style of a medium size city and bar association. Third, I wanted to help Grand Rapids law firms become more diverse and inclusive.

RC: After 21 years in private practice, and almost five years as the U.S. Attorney General for the Western District of Michigan, what career advice do you have for current law students and young attorneys?

PM: Learn as much as you can from more senior attorneys, particularly the ones who are good writers. Also, follow your instincts and do the type of work you enjoy, where you enjoy doing it, rather than chasing a large paycheck.

RC: What drew you to public service?

PM: My parents instilled in me a sense of community service and giving back. I’m also drawn by the opportunity to help others and solve problems on a wide scale.

RC: On September 28, you announced your campaign for Michigan Attorney General. What motivated you to throw your hat in the ring?

PM: No job is better preparation for state attorney general than serving as a presidentially appointed U.S. Attorney. I thoroughly enjoyed being U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, particularly serving justice, protecting the public, defending taxpayers, and bringing law enforcement and communities together.

RC: Why should young people get involved in our civil service or political system?

PM: Every citizen should be involved in the political system through voting. Beyond that, working in the public sector is very rewarding. Working for the common good is very satisfying professionally.

RC: It was great chatting with you. Is there anything else you would like to share with our audience?

PM: As attorneys, we chose to serve justice and serve others. That is a calling we can be proud of regardless of one’s practice or where one practices law.

On behalf of everyone here at Above the Law, I would like to thank Pat Miles for taking the time to share his story with our audience. We wish him continued success in his career.

---

Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn. 

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/aXiR876mgNQ/

From The Career Files: Strategies For Succeeding As A Solo

Ari Kaplan interviews Nancy Mertzel, the former chair of Herrick Feinstein’s Intellectual Property Group, who recently founded Mertzel Law PLLC, a boutique IP law firm.

Ari Kaplan: Tell us about you background and the genesis of Mertzel Law.

Nancy Mertzel: I protect brand names and content. I help clients who have new products and new businesses register their trademarks, as well as enforce them once they’re established. I also perform copyright work and draft related agreements. I wanted to have a more direct relationship with my clients where there is no firm administration, reduced overhead, and I could just take care of people. That’s why I started Mertzel Law.

Ari Kaplan: What are the unique challenges that former large firm attorneys face in launching solo practices?

Nancy Mertzel: You are the marketing department, the tech department, and the HR department if you hire someone. When you’re in a large firm, there are people to do all of those things for you. If something isn’t working, whether it’s your printer, your telephone, or your computer, you are the one that has to get it fixed. Doing without those helpers in your work is definitely a challenge.

I thought other people might have concerns that I don’t have the resources that I would have at a large firm, but what I’m finding is that I’ve done so much of the work and I carefully review and supervise any work that anyone else does, so that clients want me. When they hired me at a large firm, they did so because they knew me or they were referred to me and they wanted to work with me. Now they can hire me without the firm and get the same thing without the overhead.

Ari Kaplan: How have your past experiences from an entrepreneurial perspective helped with your current endeavours, especially addressing some of the challenges that you mentioned?

Nancy Mertzel: I like technology. When I was in law school, I had a lot of fun with technology. I even did computer programming in college. I used to sell computers. I used to do consulting for people and help them with their computers whether it was a PC or a Mac. I bring my full self to my law practice. I’ve actually had to shut down the technophile in me over the past few years because it wasn’t helpful when I was in a larger firm setting as they already had solutions that we had to use, and they didn’t like the things that I came up with. Now, I can let that side of me flourish and pick and choose the tools that are going to enable me to be most efficient and take the best care of my clients. Today, it’s all cloud- and subscription based. My law firm fits in my backpack. And I can be anywhere and do the work that I need to do as long as I have a little bit of quiet and some electricity.

Ari Kaplan: How have you leveraged your knowledge in coding and IT consulting to create efficiencies in your new firm?

Nancy Mertzel: I think I’ve made good choices of tools to use in my practice. I’ve tested out a bunch of different programs and products, including practice management software and technology to keep track of my clients’ trademarks. When I sit down in front of a new program, whether it’s local or cloud-based, I can usually figure it out and I have the determination to find solutions if they are not apparent to me. I also like dealing with computer code and I have been fortunate to work on some really interesting lawsuits over the years involving software and source code.

Ari Kaplan: What are the key qualities for success in today’s market?

Nancy Mertzel: Being nimble, flexible, and authentic. Bring your true self to every encounter and every engagement. Relationships are so critical. The people you know will be your clients. So, it’s really important to nurture those relationships and develop new ones. You give, you receive, it all comes through if you do that and work hard at it.

Ari Kaplan: Do you have advice for new lawyers entering the profession seeking to achieve some type of work life balance?

Nancy Mertzel: New lawyers really need to get their training and they have to find a place where they’re going to develop those skills. It’s important that people navigate that individually. Have a recipe for it. There are times where you can say, “Look, I have to be at this. My work will get done at another time.” There are others where you’ll say, “I can’t go do that.  I need to be in my office or at my computer and be working.”

Each person has to struggle through those challenges. But over time, it gets easier. As you develop the confidence, skills, clients, and relationships, then you’ll be in charge of managing your own time. If you need to pick up the kids at 3:30 and get them fed and then work later at night, that’s what you do. That’s a solution that many working moms have come up with. Fortunately, we don’t have to go back to the office anymore to do that.

Ari Kaplan regularly interviews leaders in the legal industry and in the broader professional services community to share perspective, highlights transformative change, and introduce new technology and on iTunes.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/YefrKyFTh48/

You’re Invited!! Come To The Above The Law Holiday Party

The holiday season is nearly upon us, and it’s never too early to start making plans. We hope Above the Law will be the first ones on your list when you schedule your party destination plans! This year’s fête is at Axiom’s loft in SoHo.

Here are all of the details:

When: Thursday, December 7, 2017

Where: Axiom, 295 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012

Time: 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Space is limited, so make sure you RSVP. The whole Above the Law gang will be there… probably drunk before the thing even starts! You may also spy some of our finest columnists if you’re lucky. It’s a grand time every year, and we look forward to partying with you.

You know you want to come. Again, you can RSVP here to join in all the fun. We look forward to seeing you there!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/lOkI2SD-3i4/

Justice Is Investigating Harvard For Affirmative Action? Bruh, Bring It On!

Black people are ready for you, Attorney General.

I can’t speak for every African-American Harvard student or alum. But speaking just for myself (and, pretty much, every Ivy League black person I know), I’m unconcerned that Department of Justice is investigating Harvard University over its affirmative-action policies. If Attorney General Jeff Sessions is looking for some black people to kick around, PLEASE bring that mess to me and all my friends. We are smart. We are strong. We can defend ourselves from state-sponsored racism. I WELCOME the opportunity to deal with this Confederate chieftain posing as law enforcement, within the walls of our well-defended ivory tower.

African-American Harvard students are fully ready to stand on our “merits.” In fact, we’ve yearned and strived to be judged on our merits our whole lives. We’re not necessarily thrilled to be judged on merits according to the white man, as strained through the racially biased lens of his standardized testing. But if that’s the unrealistic standard, we’re ready for that battle too. Harvard blacks standardize test pretty well.

Seriously. Bring it the F on. Here’s every affirmative-action conversation I’ve had with a mediocre white man:

White guy: “You know, I probably could have gotten into Harvard too. But I guess I just wasn’t diverse enough.”
Me: “Yeah, well, uhh, there are lots of good schools. Where did you end up going?”
White guy: “SUNY Albany.”
Me: “Bruh, you need to get the F**K out of my face with that, before I apply the Second Law of Thermodynamics to your organic chemistry.”

Understand, nothing pisses off elite African-Americans more than this LUDICROUS argument from these intellectually weak white people that their lives would be better if they had just been born black. The constant, inane, prattle of mediocre whites screws some black people up for life.

Look, you can’t UNDERSTAND Clarence Thomas without understanding that he’s been told he’s only where he is because of his race for his whole life. That… damaged Negro has been so turned around by constant racial prejudice that at this point he’d rather make all black people fight in a cage so that the ONE who survived would be judged “worthy” by White America. Clarence Thomas is the tragedy of thinking that there is some way to earn the respect of the white man. He’ll die begging for something he should have been given at birth.

But most black people have made their peace with the fact that whites will always denigrate their credentials. Jeff Sessions can’t hurt me. I went to freaking HARVARD. Twice. I am UNASSAILABLE by the petty racism of a Klan sympathizer. Any cop can cut me right back down to a condition of a fugitive slave, but Jeff Session can’t do s**t to me.

And if I hadn’t gotten into Harvard, I’d still be here. Like most African-Americans who go to elite institutions, my parents sacrificed too goddamn much for me to be anything less than what I am. At the point where I had the educational background and training to even be competitive at a school like Harvard, my parents had done all the work necessary to put me in a position to succeed in life.

Black Harvard students are ready to compete on the global educational stage. Are white guys? Because if you really want to break elite college admissions down to test scores and GPAs, the people who are about to get crowded out aren’t people like me, it’s white people, particularly white women, who are about to lose. First Harvard will have to admit ALL the high-achieving Asians. Then all the high-achieving Jews (who tend to get screwed when schools look at geographic diversity). THEN Harvard will start admitting more international students: kids from Hong Kong and South Africa and India. Affirmative-action or no, Harvard is going to get its “diversity.”

I think sometimes white Americans forget that American high school education IS A JOKE on the international stage. Honestly, you think being the valedictorian from your public high school in Tennessee prepares you for Harvard? ARE YOU NUTS? Let me tell you something, out-competing QB1 in English Lit isn’t as impressive as you think.

There is a black girl right now in Johannesburg studying her way out of the slums, while your parents worry if you’re being given “too much homework.” YOU’VE GOT NOTHING ON HER, if we really want to make this all about the “merits.”

Yeah, African-Americans get the worst of what our bad educational system has to offer, so some of us will also lose out. If the Obama era proved one thing, it’s that white people would rather not have something than share it with minorities.

But let’s say Sessions boots out half of the African-Americans who would have gotten into Harvard. It’s not like those smart and high achieving black people will just recede in the ghetto. “I didn’t get into Harvard so now I sell crack” — said no one. If Jeff Sessions makes it harder for the bottom of Harvard University’s African-American class to get in… WE’LL JUST GO TO COLUMBIA.

Fools. You can’t STOP US.

I don’t care about affirmative-action for me. Clearly, I’d have been alright. And I don’t care about it for my kids. You’ll note that the Sessions Justice Department is apparently NOT investigating Harvard’s legacy admissions. What’s really going to bake the white man’s noodle later is when he realizes that Harvard has been admitting enough black people for long enough that second and even third generation “black Harvard” kids are starting to apply. MY black-ass kids are going to get in anyway. YOUR blonde-haired, blue-eyed dauphin will still be wondering “why does Hamlet have so many clichés?”

No, I care about affirmative-action because of this girl I knew from around the way. We grew up in the same town, she was smart and charismatic and a hard worker. But I had the blessing of a relatively stable two-working-parent household, while she grew up in foster care. I had any hint of my “lawn GUY-land” accent beaten out of me, she talked like Rosie Perez. I got a mediocre score on a practice standardized test when I was a sophomore in high school, and my parents reacted like I had been stricken with Morgellons Disease and sent me to the best “specialists” they could afford. She got the same mediocre score on the test years later, and her people reacted like she won the lotto. She went to community college (it was free!), I went to Harvard College (it was not). I went onto Harvard Law School, she went onto Touro Law School.

Last I heard, she was struggling it out, trying to pay off debts while working as a contract attorney. And I wonder, if she had gotten a little bit of affirmative-action help, if she had gotten into… Albany Law School instead of Touro, would her life be different? Would she be my key source at the ACLU right now, as opposed to somebody I’ve lost touch with?

Affirmative-action isn’t FOR me. It isn’t for Malia Obama. It’s for that minority who just needs a little bit of help, a little bit of a break, to help them overcome structural hurdles arrayed in front of her long before she was born. That is why affirmative-action has been the most effective social policy we’ve probably ever implemented.

Jeff Sessions wants to tear that all down, because helping black people is not his thing. I get that. But I’m happy that if he’s going to bring this fight, he’s bringing it to people like me and not people like my old friend. I’m ready for his ass. Black Harvard students are ready for his ass.

Keep your focus on us, Attorney General, and we’ll gladly shield who we can for as long as we can.

The Justice Department Is Investigating Harvard’s Admissions Practices

---

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/OSYo5g_l_l0/

Student Debt Defines A Generation Of Lawyers — See Also

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/lOFu2oNPUq8/

4 Ways to Maximize the Value of Reviewing Documents

I spent last week in my former hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Wisconsin Law & Technology Conference. An attendee at one of my panel discussions asked me how we conducted reviews. She is a government attorney and their resources to review documents provided by opposing parties is limited. That’s a problem that everyone faces, not just government attorneys.

In response to her question, I mapped out the process that we follow — one that allows clients to get the most value out of the review dollars they spend, but is very different than the standard first and second pass review. For those of you looking to shake it up, here are my four tips to maximize the value of your review:

1.  Organize the review by issue instead of by batch. Traditionally, reviews are batched out sequentially as in 1-500, 501-1000, etc. Instead, gain a firm understanding of the issues in the case, create a tagging structure for the various issues with sub-items under each issue, and then bulk tag by issue using search terms, doc types, and other variables that allow you to sort. It won’t be perfect — meaning that you won’t get all of the docs batched by issue, but you’ll allow your teams to help educate you on the search terms and types of docs that define the issue. And then your review team can provide you a summary of the issue in addition to you having documents tagged for relevance, privilege and issues. Yes, it takes longer, and yes, you need reviewers with subject matter expertise. Both are doable.
2. Hire great reviewers and train, train, train them in the substantive matters of the case. If you want to batch and review by issue, your review team has to understand the issues in depth. Talk to your review provider and get the best reviewers with knowledge of the subject matter. Pro tip — the best reviewers are not the one with the fastest per doc review rate. If that’s what you want, stick with the standard first pass review. Once you have a team, provide a written document of custodians with a general description of those custodians, then outline issues and the tagging structure with definitions so that it provides real guidance for them to tag. Hold a more in-depth training than the standard 1 hour “get started” meeting. Have a few hours, do it by video or in-person and really talk to them and answer questions. Then be available to answer questions for the first day or two, and meet with your QC folks to see where the problems are coming up so you can clarify with the team. As the attorney, you know what the strategy for the case is — get the most out of your review by keeping them focused on what you want to know.
3. Have the review team communicate during the review, and be a part of it. Your reviewers are lawyers and they are there to help you. Let them ask questions, clarify tags and issues and tell you what they are seeing. We use instant messaging and both our QC and Project Manager are on it. Use software that allows for tagging people (so the team can direct a question to the PM or QC Manager). We find that the IM tool can refocus our review very quickly by identifying additional bulk tags for issues and then we can re-run sets for review on the fly. It also speeds up the process.
4. Have your Issue Teams draft memos on what they are seeing as they review to give you a complete picture of an issue. There’s no sense in letting all the knowledge gained from reviewing documents go down the drain, but that’s what we do with a lot of first pass review. Instead, have those lawyers be lawyers and help you put together an overview of the issue. The memo should be shared among the team (you can use Office 365, Google Docs, or some other doc sharing service) and everyone should add to the same document. Have them do it stream of conscious — some use bullet points as they go, some write paragraphs at the end of a day. I ask our teams to stop one hour before ending for the day. They take the 45 minutes and summarize what they are seeing. It will end up being issue specific, but it will also give you insights into the data and how you can better refine the review for the next day. Then we spend the last 15 minutes on a group call reviewing stats for the day and answering any questions. The team feels like a team, and we get great information and much more in the results column for our clients.

Review isn’t going away, even with the advent of Computer Assisted Review or Technology Assisted Review. Judgment is made by lawyers and clients want that judgment at a price they can afford. These steps can help you achieve both.

To close, I want to wish each of you a fabulous and relaxing holiday this week. May you be surrounded by people you love and end the week renewed to come out and finish 2017 strong.  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

---

Kelly Twigger gave up the golden handcuffs of her Biglaw partnership to start ESI Attorneys, an eDiscovery and information law Firm, in 2009. She is passionate about teaching lawyers and legal professionals how to think about and use ESI to win, and does so regularly for her clients. The Wisconsin State Bar named Kelly a Legal Innovator in 2014 for her development of eDiscovery Assistant— an online research and eDiscovery playbook for lawyers and legal professionals. When she’s not thinking, writing or talking about ESI, Kelly is wandering in the mountains of Colorado, or watching Kentucky basketball. You can reach her by email at Kelly@ediscoveryassistant.com or on Twitter: @kellytwigger.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/VunvEo9xDoI/

Cali Bar Exam Results Aren’t As Rosy As They Seem — See Also

Sure, It’s Better Than Last Year: If you use interesting math, the California bar passage rate is up, but that’s still not great.

When You Absolutely, Positively Must Respond To A Dumb Letter: Let this be your inspiration.

You Must Read This Judge’s Awful, TMI Facebook Post: Be warned — it’ll make you angry.

The Trump Bump Is Real: And law schools are pretty happy about that.

Does It Matter If A Trump Judicial Nominee Lied To The Senate? Probably not.

Come Hang Out With Us: Time for the annual Above the Law holiday party!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/g9zBtSBkggc/

Non-Sequiturs: 11.17.17

* The Federalist Society is proposing a court-packing scheme because that’s what the Founders would have, you know, never wanted.

* A deep dive into Justice Kennedy’s likely role in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

* New York may not be having a constitutional convention, but that’s not going to stop the state’s chief judge from reforming its “byzantine” court system.

* Frugal or a failure to launch? You be the judge.

* One of the finest sentences of the week: “a free-speech advisory group at Ohio University ‘discussed the critical importance of transparency’ — and then unanimously voted to close its meetings to the public.”

* There really is nothing like Above the Law out there.

* Savoring the small moments that bring joy to a lawyer. We all need to find what keeps us happy and grounded. For me, it’s Trent Garmon’s writing.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/ZOyF-BuL5gQ/

Predicting Biglaw Bonuses — See Also

It’s Nearly Bonus Season: What kind of a payday do you think Biglaw will leave in the stockings of high-billing associates this year? Cast your vote now!

Everything You Need To Know About 401(k)s At Small Law Firms: Joe Patrice breaks down the numbers so you don’t have to.

Texas Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Dies: His family confirmed he committed suicide on Wednesday.

Holiday Parties Aren’t All Fun And Games: You actually do have to behave appropriately.

Forecasting Lateral Partner Moves: What will 2018 hold?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/AmlWV1XOAbI/

No, We Can’t Stop Using ‘Allegedly’ Just Because It Undermines Victims

Why would anyone still use ‘alleged’ after this?

In this morning’s Morning Docket, I linked to a Washington Post article that highlighted the awkwardness of characterizing Al Franken’s behavior as “alleged” when we’re staring at a photograph. Isn’t that image enough? What about his immediate admission (to his role in the photo at least — he claims to have a different recollection of other aspects of the account)?

What makes the piece thought-provoking is its focus on the impact words like “allegedly” can have on the perception of the women coming forward. The coverage doesn’t say they were harassed, it says they were allegedly harassed, and for many that qualifier is enough to erode confidence in the charges.

Many voices are calling on the media to change how it covers stories like Franken’s or Harvey Weinstein’s. They want qualifier terms like “allegedly” removed or at least changed. Still others claim the media only uses these qualifiers for victimized women, which isn’t true but that selective memory reflects the outrage over the stigmatization the term brings.

More than once I’ve personally heard the phrase, “those are just allegations,” as if allegations are lesser claims rather than potentially valid claims awaiting adjudication.

In the Washington Post piece, Professor Camille Hébert of Ohio State Law sums up the frustration:

“I’m a lawyer, and I understand why lawyers advise this sort of qualification, to try to avoid libel claims,” said Camille Hébert, a professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law who specializes in sexual harassment.

But, Moritz added, “these sort of qualifiers are incredibly frustrating for people like me and others, who advocate against sexual harassment and assault. . . . In this situation, at least, it seems to me that the media might be going beyond cautious and instead leaving the impression that we can’t even believe women’s claims of harassment and assault when our eyes and pictures provide proof that it happened. This leads to the impression that women’s claims certainly shouldn’t be trusted when there is no such documentary evidence.”

Diana Moskovitz at The Concourse is more direct:

To hear the keepers of the craft tell it, alleged is important because it signifies that the writer doesn’t know the exact, final truth. This is often true. They’ll argue that it’s important to show that what is said in cases is an allegation or an accusation and not a fact. They’ll assert that a source could be wrong, and that this hedge may prove important when, days later, reporters have to come back with different information and explain discrepancies. This is, they’ll say, America—the land of reasonable doubt, a very good legal concept we all can agree with. Report what you know, the saying goes. How can journalists be certain of anything if they weren’t witnesses to what happened? It is a sign, they’ll say, of scrupulousness, practically a sign of journalistic virtue.

Which is a load of shit.

This might be a good time to note that The Concourse’s former parent company was sued into oblivion. And while the immediate cause of Gawker’s demise had nothing to do with careless attention to the word “allegedly,” the fact that Peter Thiel felt defamed when Valleywag outed him was the real culprit. Thiel couldn’t win his case, but he could scour Gawker’s pages for actionable claims. He struck gold with Hulk Hogan’s privacy claim — he could have just as easily found some defamatory fact asserted without an “allegedly.” The challenges facing the media are real and can’t be cast aside with ease.

But Moskovitz does offer a solution to the “allegedly” conundrum that everyone should consider: use “said.” Report that women have said that Harvey Weinstein harassed them. It’s a true statement and doesn’t opine as to the truth of the matter. There’s nothing about it that exposes a publication to a defamation claim and if there’s any risk that this prevents women from being marginalized and ignored, then it’s worth adopting.

Unfortunately, while this is a valuable tactic today, it’s already doomed. Consider the NAACP and the UNCF. Two organizations that named themselves with words that were considered enlightened alternatives in their day, but that would be inappropriate today. Writing in Slate, Professor John McWhorter advances a theory that progressive terminology can only remain enlightened for so long — once language becomes accepted, the negative impulses behind the old phrasing import themselves on the new. In other words, how long until someone sneers, “Those are just things she said.”

That’s not a reason not to do whatever we can in the moment to avoid stigmatizing victims, it’s just an acknowledgement that “solutions” are not perfect.

Moreover, using “said” doesn’t solve the Franken question (not that Moskovitz was trying to — her post predates the Franken allegations). A picture can’t “say” something. Does it “show” something? Yes… though what does it show? Franken grabbing a woman’s breasts? Franken about to grab a woman’s breasts? Franken pantomiming grabbing a woman’s breasts? All of these are harassment, but consider the writer committing this to paper — can they go all in and say what the image “shows”? Not really, which is why they’ll say “apparently shows” or “seems to show,” and that’s right back to square one.

Even his admission doesn’t resolve the problem. He admitted to an inappropriate and unfunny joke. Sure, but what exactly was that joke? Without qualifiers, reporters can’t go beyond the four corners of that admission. Publications that offer more commentary than straight news can introduce hypotheticals — “assuming he touched her” — and argue the point, demonstrating the seriousness of the crime and tilting the balance of the piece just a little bit closer toward appreciating the gravity of the victim’s claims. But even that begins from the premise that the victim can’t be trusted on face and, ultimately, doesn’t fully repair the damage of qualifying language.

In the end, there’s no easy path around the libel laws. As Professor Hébert notes, the libel laws don’t provide much room for enlightened exceptions. It’s not like anyone likes to write or say “allegedly” all the time. It’s clunky and awkward and usually laughably superfluous. It’s there to keep the media reporting.

Talk is reasonably cheap on social media, where some are calling for established media outlets to buck the trend and stop hedging their reporting of sexual misconduct or face boycotts. That sounds noble in theory, but to side rhetorically with the person making the claims before the case is tried is taking on an awful lot of litigation risk in a challenging environment. A lot of outlets, in particular the small, non-corporate outlets who do a lot of the best coverage in the area will just stop writing about it at all to avoid enterprise killing litigation. Boycotting reporters working on these cases for choosing to cover themselves legally could result in a troubling chilling effect.

Waiting until a story has 30 sources may provide the confidence to go all in, but it’s rare that the floodgates open like that. More often it’s one voice going public that starts a process. If there’s no way for media to report the stories of those lone voices without being sued, we’ll never hear any of these stories.

Ultimately, the critical legal theory tradition has the right of it here. There is no single action that will fully repair the damage that defamation laws do to reporting on sexual misconduct, it’s a matter of recognition and constant vigilance. We need a populace that better understands that words like “alleged” and “accused” aren’t normative, they’re descriptive. Articles like the Post and Concourse pieces do the service of educating audiences about how libel laws work and why qualifying language gets put in stories in the first place.

Robbing the language of its stigma is more helpful in the long-run than trying to run headlong into the litigation risk wood-chipper.

A photo shows Al Franken touching Leeann Tweeden’s chest. Many media reports still say he ‘allegedly’ groped her.
Against Allegedly

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/hI0Iz1Mvexc/

You Gotta Be On Your Game — See Also

Biglaw Lawyers Are Charging Lots Of Money: So they always have to be on.

The Fallout Over Harvey Weinstein Continues: David Boies loses another client.

What Is Going On At Valpo Law? The school is considering its options.

Judicial Nominee Apparently Supports The KKK: Yeah, apparently there is somewhere lower to go than “ghost hunter.”

Ever So Slowly: The glass ceiling in the legal profession is being chipped away.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/LHnU3gq3laU/

Someone Needs To Invent ‘Global Pay Your Lawyer Day’

Can anyone tell me what happened on November 3^rd ? No, it wasn’t my birthday, was it yours?

Here’s what has happened on various November 3rds in history: Henry VIII became head of the Church of England in 1534; John Adams was elected the second President of the United States in 1796; Ulysses S. Grant became president in 1868, the same year that the first African-American congressman was elected; John W. Menard from Louisiana, Utah, elected Martha Hughes Cannon in 1896 as the first female United States senator, the same year that William McKinley won the presidency; in 1908, William Howard Taft won the presidency; in 1936, FDR won a second four-year term as President; Clarence Birdseye marketed frozen peas in 1952; 1953 saw the first coast-to-coast television broadcast in color; in 1957, Sputnik launched with an astrodog; LBJ won the presidency in 1964; and Bill Clinton won his first term as president in 1992.

November 3^rd should have been near and dear to lawyers: it was Global Love Your Lawyer Day, and no, I am not making this up.

How could we have missed this? We calendar court appearances, filing deadlines, deposition dates, birthdays, anniversaries, meetings, networking events, medical/dental appointments, holidays such as Administrative Professionals Day, anything and everything goes on the calendar. (Full disclosure, I still use paper calendars, and I chortle every time I have to wait for someone to boot up the calendar on the phone, while I stand there with paper and pen at the ready. Yes, I’m a dinosaur, but I’m a lot faster writing down appointments than someone who can’t type on a smartphone.) I digress.

Did you know that there’s an organization dedicated to promoting Our Day aka Global Love Your Lawyer Did?  I didn’t. Now I do. It’s the American Lawyers Public Image Association (ALPIA).

The website says that it’s “…the only association in the world whose sole purpose is to promote a positive public image of lawyers.” (Do you think that it has its work cut out for it?) Formed in 2000, the Association describes itself as a “non-profit organization with an international reach.” It’s the organization that promotes “Global Love Your Lawyer Day.” ALPIA suggested a number of different ways in which people could have shown lawyers some love.

One of the initiatives for Global Love Your Lawyer Day, according to the website,  is “… to ask lawyers to either perform one hour of pro bono work or donate the equivalent of one billable hour to their favorite charity.”

I thought the love was supposed to flow to the lawyer, not from. And how many billable hours have you written off? I guess “involuntary pro bono” doesn’t count.

Did you hear any lawyer jokes that day? Did any of your clients contact you by email, text, phone, or Harry Potter’s owl to thank you for what you were doing/had done on their behalf? Did you receive any gift baskets? A card? Any token of appreciation? (I think all lawyers would appreciate timely payment of outstanding invoices. That would probably show the most love.)

Did any client take you to lunch? Dinner? Even coffee?  Did any client make a donation to charity in your name?

Did you receive any love at all? I thought not.

So here’s my own list of how you can help your client to show you the love on the next Global Love Your Lawyer Day in 2018. Please feel free to rip off any and/or all of the suggestions to share with your clients. This gives you (and the clients) plenty of time to prepare:

1. Pay your outstanding bills, whether those bills are 30 days past due or months or even years in arrears. The lawyer works hard on your behalf; show him or her appreciation by paying those invoices. Lawyers have bills to pay, too. Contrary to what you may have heard or seen, not all lawyers drive luxury cars, live in luxury homes, and have luxury playthings that are way beyond the means of most of us.
2. Respond promptly to your attorney’s emails, texts, phone calls, or whatever form of communication the attorney is using. She’s not contacting you for schmoozing purposes; there’s something (or some things) that need to be discussed, handled, resolved. Verifications to be signed? Perhaps there’s a settlement offer out there?
3. Don’t be nasty with your lawyer. What good does that do you except piss off your lawyer and make communication difficult?
4. Pay your outstanding bills, whether those bills are thirty days or months or even years. The lawyer works hard on your behalf; show him or her appreciation by paying them. Lawyers have bills to pay, too. (Yes, I know this repeats most of #1, but I think the premise bears repeating and I am a dinosaur lawyer so I repeat things.)

The Twittersphere had some comments about Love Your Lawyer Day.  One of the informative ones: November 3 was also Sandwich Day, Cliché Day, Jellyfish Day, and Fountain Pen Day. Who knew? One Twitter poster asked whether every day should be Love Your Lawyer Day or should it just be when you need a lawyer? Is that a trick question?

How about a “Love Your Opposing Counsel” day?  That could be the one day when lawyers must be civil and courteous, even pleasant to each other. Stop whining; it would only be one day. No nasty emails, faxes, letters, or texts permitted.

If a lawyer spurned that love, a court could be creative about the nastiness and incivility. Instead of the normal monetary slap on the wrist, why not a much more imaginative and thoughtful sanction?

While this was not a lawyer that had to comply with the court’s order, it does suggest a new way to get an attorney’s attention. Do you think you could write 144 separate and distinct nice things about your opposing counsel? All those in favor of Love Your Opposing Counsel Day, please raise your hand.

---

Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abovethelaw/~3/4yJ0Q3fas4M/