Paralegal News: Legal Tech and Career Development
Every month, every week, even every day new content surfaces with helpful tips and tricks to support growth in your paralegal career. You’re busy taking care of the demanding tasks of organizing a case, chasing down transcripts, and scheduling important events to ensure the outcome your client deserves. Finding the time in your busy day to stay current on news and legal insights is daunting.
You honestly just don’t have time.
So, we’re here to help you. Every month, we’ll compile some of our favorite articles to help guide you to be a better, more informed paralegal.
Read on.
Towards A More Holistic View of Legal Tech
Lawyers, as consumers, are more likely to consider and evaluate software as a standalone product, based on the task for which it was designed. Lawyers are less likely to consider how that product fits into their broader workflow or with other technologies used in that workflow. Legal tech companies, as vendors, likewise tend to focus their development on their product and the particular purpose it addresses, without much thought about the broader context in which lawyers will use the product.
Top 12 Reasons Why Associates Switch Law Firms
Many junior to mid-level associates report that they’re happy with their respective law firms. Some don’t understand why their peers are considering lateral moves. After all, it is a hassle, and why would I want to start over getting to know and proving myself to the new firm? The answer is career progression. Lawyers in charge of their own careers don’t just assume that everything is great until it’s not. Take a look at these top 12 reasons why associates make lateral moves and ask yourself if any of these scenarios may apply to you.
Attorney Discipline Matters: A Fool for a Client?
Each lawyer who receives a letter has a choice: Respond on their own, get a lawyer friend to help, hire a lawyer to write the response for them, or hire a lawyer to offer counsel and support while responding on their own. We’ve all heard the adage that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. When it comes to attorney discipline matters, there are certainly times when this is true. However, there are also many times when a lawyer is perfectly capable of representing himself effectively. How do you know whether your case requires outside assistance?
Six Features Every Law Firm Website Needs
our website is one of the most important marketing and business development tools you have. The primary purpose of your website is two fold: 1) to help potential clients find you; and 2) once they find you, to tell them about you and what you do. Whether a small or large firm, there are 6 website features that are crucial to generating more leads: Mobile, Contact Info, Attorney Profiles, Practices Areas, Testimonials and Reviews, and a Blog.
Counseling Through An In-House Crisis
Early in my in-house career for a hospital organization, I was approached by an entry-level manager who informed me her laptop had gone missing. Worse yet, given her position in the organization, her laptop contained thousands of patient medical records. As in-house lawyers, our job is often to be the voice of reason in an uncertain time.
5 tips from a BigLaw partner on ‘making it work’ in real life
Making it Work is a new column in partnership with the Working Mother Best Law Firms for Women initiative in which lawyers share how they manage both life’s challenges and work’s demands. Joanna Horsnail is a partner in the Chicago office of Mayer Brown with a focus on complex design-and-construction transactions. She received the firm’s 2015 Diversity Champion Award and serves on the boards of the Anixter Center, Cabrini Green Legal Aid and the PURA Syndrome Foundation. Horsnail gave a TEDx Talk in 2016 about her journey with her younger son.