Law firms are metrics-driven organizations, and the need for accurate metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) will only continue to increase as law firms answer the client's demands to re-tool service delivery and organizational structure. This need for metrics-driven analysis now extends to the firms' research services, a heretofore last bastion of resistance to technology and measurement.
Last August and September, we published a two-part article on the phenomenon called "manterruption." We commented on some important social research discussing men's pervasive tendency to interrupt women in group meetings or settings where the power stakes were high ("manterruption") and to appropriate women's ideas as their own ("bropropriation"). These posts triggered a torrent of response, some of which was gratifying to us and some of which was pretty bewildering.
2016 is in full swing and we will soon be conducting the 2016 Mattern & Associates Cost Recovery Survey. We've been conducting this bi-annual survey since 2004 and, during that time, it has become an industry resource for tracking the cost recovery practices of law firms across size and geography.
Data breaches and cyberattacks aren't new occurrences, but it can sometimes feel like they are. It's only in the last few years that we've seen these attacks make headlines more and more, increasing in both quantity and impact.
"There's math and technology involved? Count me out, that's why I went to law school." But the practice of law is not immune to technological advances, especially in the areas of research methodologies and, of course, electronic discovery. Furthermore, clients are continuing to focus on value, whether that is in seeking alternative fee arrangements or evaluating outside counsel on their efficient delivery of legal services.
Put yourself in a perspective client's shoes. You're in a bind and need a lawyer. What's the first thing you do? You ask someone you trust for a recommendation and visit the lawyer's website to learn more about him or her before making an initial call or appointment.
This article briefly summarizes the ACA's employer mandate and highlights the anti-retaliation provisions applicable to complaints of ACA violations. Next, the article summarizes the "Break Time for Nursing Mothers" law added to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by the ACA, and highlights the anti-retaliation provision applicable to this law. Last, the article suggests ways for employers to reduce the risk of employee retaliation claims.
In December, Cravath, Swaine & Moore circulated an internal memo setting associate bonuses according to the same scale set in 2014 by Davis Polk & Wardwell. First- and second-year associates will receive up to $15,000, while senior associates can make as much as $100,000.
The criminal fraud trial of three former executives of Dewey & LeBoeuf last year cast a spotlight on an arcane, often tedious but essential part of the operations of any big law firm: accounting practices.
Over the last five years, there's been a sea change caused by cell phones and tablets that affect how clients find lawyers. Today, most clients go online to find a lawyer. In fact, more clients searching for an attorney found one from Internet content than they did from referrals.
