It could mark one of the biggest changes for lawyers joining the profession since the first U.S. bar examination was given in Delaware in 1763 — a single bar exam aimed at standardizing attorney credentials nationwide. Next year, at least 10 states are expected to switch to the Uniform Bar Exam, and 22 other jurisdictions [...]

One refuge for many contract attorneys has been direct employment as a staff attorney at a number of firms that adopted the “staff attorney” model for document review and temporary work.
But as Above the Law has continued to report, one casualty of the economic recession could well be the position of staff attorney.  They have reported [...]

 
 
The summer and Labor Day holidays are over, and so we are off.
 
The ILTA conference (our coverage is here) held two weeks ago was an eye-opener on new trend lines, jobs for contract attorneys, etc. — especially the amount of Federal government work in the pipeline and the surge in work in Europe.  We’ll have more on ILTA later [...]

In July 2009, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft put 34 associates on an involuntary sabbatical.  Now, as reported by Above the Law (click here) the firm is offering to hire them back as contract attorneys, with possible hourly pay between $45 and $65. 
The web site Law and More (click here) follows up with two major issues [...]

There has been much discussion recently about the emerging litigation support profession.  The profession has evolved over the last 10 years right along with the growth of electronic discovery. Estimates indicate that there are over 10,000 litigation support professionals (LSP) in the U.S.   They operate at the intersection of law and technology, helping to steward ESI through processing, analysis, [...]

Orrick Herrington dumped lockstep associate promotion on Wednesday and began assigning associates to one of three tiers within its partner track.  The Orrick move comes as all BigLaw firms face immense client pressure to control costs.
This has also led Orrick and other firms to add significant numbers of staff attorneys to do more routine work [...]

In Part 1 of our Trends series (click here) we provided some brief observations on trends we see in the contract attorney market and e-discovery market based on our conversations and meetings over the last few weeks.   In Part 2 (click here) we concentrated on going solo/freelancing,  and building a website/blog. 
Here in Part 3 we will discuss raising your profile, [...]

 
In Part 1 of our Trends series (click here) we provided some brief observations on trends we see in the contract attorney market and e-discovery market based on our conversations and meetings over the last few weeks. 
Here in Part 2 we concentrate on going solo/freelancing,  and building a website/blog.  In Part 3 this afternoon, we discuss how [...]

We spent the last 3 weeks in Chicago, D.C., LA and NYC.   We met with Posse List members, law firms, e-discovery companies and staffing agencies, as well as a few in-house corporate legal departments where we have contacts, plus a few Federal government contacts.
What follows are some brief observations on trends we see in the [...]

San Francisco’s legal business is holding up against the recession a lot better than other major cities’, according to first-quarter data collected from about 100 large firms by Hildebrandt Peer Monitor.   Nationwide, demand for legal services dipped 8 percent in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the same period a year ago. Demand dropped [...]