Author: TSA Press

It’s sometimes hard to remember that Paul Cravath and George B. Case and Leo Gottlieb were all real people. Their names have hung on the doors of their respective firms for so long that they seem almost mythic. But every one of those lawyers faced a moment where they had to plan for their firm to go on after they finally hung up their practice.

Boies Schiller and Flexner isn’t as old as those firms, having only been founded in 1997, but the firm finds itself at the crossroads that those other firms did in more sepia-toned eras planning the transition of the firm from one helmed by the names on the door. It’s a process that has already shifted a lot of the day-to-day management to a committee, but just yesterday the firm took another big step on this journey by announcing that the firm will vote to name two new managing partners, suggesting the firm has keyed in on the pair that will take on full firm leadership when Boies and Schiller decide to retire.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Boies Schiller this week named for the first time managing partners who don’t have their names on the door. The two new leaders, New York-based Nicholas Gravante Jr. and London-based Natasha Harrison, have been tapped to guide the firm into its second generation.

When asked about the announcement, Boies explained, “I think where we are with two new managing partners who have the support of the entire firm, and who are both able to drive the firm’s commercial success and committed to the firm’s culture, validates the way we have approached the transition.”

Gravante told the Journal that his priority will be reorienting partner compensation to encourage more hustling for new business. It’s a natural shift now that the firm is less dependent on servicing cases brought in by the named partners and more dependent on the next generation.

Not that either Boies or Schiller seem in a hurry to leave the practice. The Wall Street Journal coverage hinted that some might chafe against a transition process with no clear endpoint:

The slow-moving transition, spearheaded by Messrs. Boies and Schiller, has frustrated some partners internally, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Um… this seems like the sort of thing you don’t want to rush. For his part, Boies said “because we started early, we have had the luxury of moving slowly and getting it right.” That sounds like the right idea, especially with a firm going through its first major transition. The third or fourth generation can afford to swing seamlessly to a new regime, but the first move requires some real care.

But with a new regime coming into place, the firm is prepared for the day that will probably come sometime in the next decade.

David Boies’s Law Firm Names Likely Successors [Wall Street Journal]

Earlier: David Boies Dishes On Firm’s Transition Strategy

---

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

I find it noteworthy that a swath of people I consider, for the most part, to be highly intelligent need be reminded of something as elementary as the importance of balance in one’s life. But sure enough, my colleagues and I apparently need self-help gurus to let us know that we need to unplug from our devices in order to be our best professionally and personally. This is likely because one of the most important attributes to success in our field is a strong work ethic.

While our profession may not be one suited for some of the more experimental concepts in work-life balance, it still could heed lessons from other fields: less but better is a description of billable hours that would be universally embraced by our clients. “Sure, that sounds great,” you may be saying, “but it’s easier said than done.”

These may well be redundant suggestions, but a gentle reminder never hurts, especially when you’re juggling more cases than you have appendages: be sure to get outside for at least part of the day whenever possible, even if it’s just a ten-minute walk around the block to stretch your legs, unplug from your devices at the end of the day to decompress and make some time for yourself, and perhaps consider getting a pair of blue light glasses to reduce the strain on your eyes for those days spent extensively researching and drafting on screens.

I’ve never had the privilege of meeting Mordecai “Mordie” Rochlin, but I would love to know his secrets to longevity. I note that he does wear glasses, and they very likely could be blue light glasses. I would also note that even Mr. Rochlin’s retirement was an act of balance, deciding that he would spend four days a week at his weekend house and spend the other three days practicing law.

I myself am often guilty of lacking balance from time-to-time either having lunch delivered to squeak a few more minutes into my day, working through weekends, and keeping up hours some weeks to keep pace with juggernauts. But as a partner at my firm recently told me over coffee, “I don’t think anyone saw Monet painting on a Sunday and said, “why are you painting on a Sunday?”

The partner, who had invited me out just to touch base generally as he’s known to do, went on to reference the Malcolm Gladwell book, Outliers: The Story of Success, a book which I am thankfully familiar with. He reminded me of the chapter on The Beatles in which Gladwell says:

The Beatles ended up traveling to Hamburg five times between 1960 and the end of 1962. On the first trip, they played 106 nights, five or more hours a night. Their second trip they played 92 times. Their third trip they played 48 times, for a total of 172 hours on stage. The last two Hamburg stints, in November and December 1962, involved another 90 hours of performing. All told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year and a half. By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, they had performed live an estimated 1,200 times, which is extraordinary. Most bands today don’t perform 1,200 times in their entire careers. The Hamburg crucible is what set the Beatles apart.

While unplugging, decompressing, and carving time out for one’s self are all important, they are only important to the extent that they make us better individuals and professionals. They are all great supplements to compliment the underlying reality of our profession: that hard work wins the day and hard work takes time.

---

Timothy M. Lupinek is an attorney at Balestriere Fariello who represents companies and individuals in state, appellate, and administrative courts of Maryland. He focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation with thousands of hours of civil, criminal, and regulatory trial experience. You can reach Timothy at timothy.m.lupinek @balestrierefariello.com.

One of the most difficult things about the explosion of legal technology is that it is a full-time job just to know what’s out there and how to find solutions that work for you and your firm or legal department. Although there are many solutions for document review, conducting thorough vendor evaluations continues to be a challenge.

What if there were something out there to help you navigate the ever-expanding field of eDiscovery vendors? Everlaw is proud to present the 2019 eDiscovery Buyer Guide, a blueprint that will help guide you through the sometimes complicated process.

Click here to download the white paper to learn the most thorough approach to ensuring that an eDiscovery solution will meet the overall needs of your organization.

You know what associates like? Money. You know what else they like? When the powers that be at a Biglaw firm actually notice and appreciate all of the hard work they’re putting in. That’s why we are seeing a new trend emerge in year end bonuses, where firms give extra money — on top of the market scale bonuses — for big billers.

Today Winston & Strawn announced year end bonuses matching the market scale set last month by Milbank, and detailed below. But what is extra exciting is that associates who “substantially exceed” the firm’s 2,000 hour productivity benchmark will get extra money in recognition of all the hours they logged this year.

The bonus scale at Winston is:

Class of 2019 – $15,000 (pro-rated)
Class of 2018 – $15,000
Class of 2017 – $25,000
Class of 2016 – $50,000
Class of 2015 – $65,000
Class of 2014 – $80,000
Class of 2013 – $90,000
Class of 2012 – $100,000
Class of 2011+ – case by case

Read the full memo on the next page.

Remember — we can’t do this without you, dear readers! We depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we also use for all salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish. Thanks for your help!

---

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Lateral Link is pleased to recognize two of our Principals on their 10-year anniversary with the company. We appreciate you both, Gloria Cannon and Scott Hodes, for making Lateral Link a better place over the past decade.

“Not only have you both played a big role in our continued success, you both have also served as invaluable resources for our clients and candidates. You both have led our collective efforts and overseen our team in making thousands of successful placements. Please join me in recognizing both Gloria and Scott.  And here is to another 10 years together,” said Mike Allen, CEO and founder of Lateral Link.

“Ten years ago, after several years of law practice, I made the exciting career change to legal recruiting and was fortunate enough to join a team that is the best in the business. I have learned a tremendous amount during that time from some of the smartest people I know, and I haven’t looked back. Most importantly, I have done my part in satisfying our clients’ needs, while at the same time making our candidates’ lives better. I consider myself blessed to have spent the last ten years with Lateral Link.”

“After recruiting for several years for another national search firm, I remember first meeting Lateral Link’s founder, while we were both participating on a panel for LAALRA. I was initially hesitant about joining Lateral Link since so many other search firms have come and gone over the years.  Luckily, I found myself eventually joining Lateral Link, and I have never regretted that decision. In looking back over my past ten years at Lateral Link, I am extremely proud to be part of this amazing company. Every day I am impressed with the high caliber and professional quality of the work that Lateral Link handles. I work with an amazing group of individuals who take great pride in what they do, and I believe it shows in the deals and placements that Lateral Link handles. I truly believe that Lateral Link is the best recruiting firm in the business, and I feel very fortunate to be part of the Lateral Link team!”

---

Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices world-wide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click ::here:: to find out more about us.

To do a thorough job with grading takes time. Professors who see all exams as formative assessment will include a lot of comments, which take time to write. Conscientious professors also want to make sure they are grading everyone consistently. This is especially challenging in a big class of over 100 students. So, faculty will often go back and re-grade exams that they did first, to make sure that the grading is fair.

— Allie Robbins, assistant dean for academic affairs at the City University of New York School of Law, told Law.com some of the details as to why grading law school exams takes so long. She also went on to note the impact this can have on students who are stuck waiting on exam grades, “I do think it is a big stressor for students not to have their grades for so long, particularly after the first semester, since everything in the beginning of law school is so new and overwhelming.”

You may have noticed something of a steady stream of posts from us on the topic of a “Taco Tuesday” trademark held by the chain Taco John’s. Taco John’s has used this descriptive trademark to bully all kinds of other restaurants into not advertising their own taco Tuesday offerings, while also leaving alone the vast majority of small purveyors of tacos on Tuesdays. The ubiquity of Taco Tuesdays is mostly what has everyone confused as to why Taco John’s is acting like Taco Jerks: the term is descriptive and, even if it weren’t, fully generic at this point.

It was enough to, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, get LeBron James involved. You see, just like dragons, LeBron loves tacos. And he likes promoting his own consumption of tacos on Tuesdays and he very much thinks that everyone should be able to use the phrase as they please. To that end, LeBron took to the Trademark office pretending to want to trademark “Taco Tuesday” for himself when he was actually hoping to get denied due to the generic and descriptive nature of the mark… which is exactly what happened. We said then that it was now only a matter of time before someone decided to go on the offensive to take Taco Tuesday back by inviting Taco John’s to issue a threat so that this hero group could point to the Trademark Office’s denial of LeBron’s trademark, with the ultimate goal being invalidating the Taco John’s trademark.

Well, that has now happened. The Orange County Restaurant Association has gone all in, going so far as to by the tacotuesday.com domain.

Now joining the effort is California’s Orange County Restaurant Association, which recently bought the domain TacoTuesday.com. Why OCRA? Well, its members know a thing or two about a good taco—and the domain presents a great marketing opportunity for them, founder and president Pamela Waitt told the Orange County Business Journal.

“That’s part of our agenda here, is to really illuminate the Orange County restaurant industry, which can be challenging when you’re sandwiched between Los Angeles and San Diego,” Waitt said.

But she notes that there’s also a bigger goal at play: OCRA hopes to open the phrase up to everyone else, creating a resource for taco culture in general. In a news release, Waitt characterized the group’s role as “peacemaker.”

OCRA can characterize itself however they like, but this is pretty clearly a shot across the bow at Taco John’s, practically begging the chain to issue a threat or file suit. If that occurs, OCRA would likely seek declaratory judgement that its use does not infringe due to the generic nature of the trademark, which would get the ball rolling on invalidating the trademark.

The association plans to relaunch the website next spring with 500 listings of taco shops in five states, providing the listings for free to restaurants. OCRA says it will make the domain “an umbrella brand for taco events, social media activations, media tours, guest chef interviews, and an opportunity to foster strategic partnerships, corporate citizenship, philanthropic giving, and beyond.”

None of which really requires having a domain name of tacotuesday.com, except if the organization wants to promote itself through the news, poke Taco John’s in the eye, or both.

So maybe, just maybe, our long national taco nightmare will come to an end soon.

Restaurant Association Looks To Take Back Taco Tuesday For The People

More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt:

Hungary Has Fined Facebook For ‘Misleading Consumers’ Because It Promoted Its Service As ‘Free’
AT&T Said Trump Tax Cuts Would Create Thousands Of Jobs. Instead, AT&T’s Laying Off Thousands.
Be Careful What You Wish For: TikTok Tries To Stop Bullying On Its Platforms… By Suppressing Those It Thought Might Get Bullied

The holiday season is upon us, and yet again, you have no idea what to get for the fickle lawyer or law student in your life. We’re here to help.

We’ve got an eclectic selection of fantastic legally themed holiday gifts for you to choose from, so settle in by that stack of documents yet to be reviewed and dig in.

We have so many offerings this year that we’ve categorized everything so you can either peruse the whole post or click on the link below to jump directly to the category that you think best suits your shopping mission:

Books
Apparel & Accessories
Games
Food & Drink
Desk Toys & Office Decor
Movies & Television
Luggage

(Disclosure: When available, we have used affiliate links.)

Books

Do you have a reader on your hands? Of course you do, you’re buying for an attorney! Grab a nice book to curl up with this holiday season — or to read on their next flight to some far-flung deposition.

Former Acting SG and current Hogan Lovells litigator Neal Katyal (with Sam Koppelman) just released Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump, a straightforward account of the mounting evidence against the president. You can check out an ATL interview with Katyal about the book here.

My Mom, The Lawyer is a children’s book from Michelle Browning Coughlin, founder of MothersEsquire, a nonprofit organization devoted to gender equity in the legal profession. All proceeds benefit MothersEsquire in its mission.

With the movie set to be released this month, this is a good time to check out Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson’s 2015 account of the Walter McMillian case. I’m not sure “spoilers” applies to non-fiction, but if you’re buying for the type that wants to see the movie cold, just get the book and they can read it later. Speaking of movies, Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo is already out, and you can read all about that legal battle against DuPont in Exposure.

You’d think a lawyer wouldn’t need a book like this, but then you hear the positions the SG’s office is willing to take these days and realize everyone could use a refresher, like How To Read The Constitution and Why by CBS Legal Analyst Kim Wehle. Eric Foner also has a historical look at The Second Founding charting the effort to remake the Republic.

Finally, two entries charting the epic failures of the system and the delinquent efforts to right the ship. Rachel Denhollander’s What Is A Girl Worth? discusses her role in breaking the silence surrounding USA Gymnastics and its years of covering for Larry Nassar. Ronan Farrow covers some of the same ground in Catch & Kill: Lies, Spies, and the Conspiracy To Protect Predators

apparel & accessories

RBG has gotten the Goddess Coin treatment over at Awe Inspired. Dissent Pins also sells a line of pins and necklaces in honor of the justice and Etsy offers some cute Supreme Court pins as well.

ESK Esq. has a whole line of apparel for the lawyer out there including a stylized view of glorious Blackacre of Property Law fame and an International Shoe logo for Civ Pro nerds. If you’re buying for a law student this season, consider this Lawyer-Loading shirt or this shirt featuring the refrain of law students everywhere.

Here’s a shirt for every good Sunny fan who knows the benefit of a solid education in Bird Law. Here’s a Nelson & Murdock shirt for the comic book set — I’m still searching for a Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway shirt for the fan that wants to be really obscure.

There’s even a shirt for the office holiday party.

Here’s a Legal Pad Bow Tie. Is the lawyer in your life a nerd or a complete nerd? Because if it’s the latter, then you absolutely have to buy this legal pad bow tie, the perfect sartorial statement against the kids and their damn computer note-taking.

What better stocking stuffer than… stockings.

Games

Looking for a diversion from billable hours?

The LAWSUIT! board game makes a fantastic holiday gift for clients, lawyers, friends, and family. The game’s setting is the day-to-day operation of a law firm where players bring fictitious lawsuits with whimsical premises, and can elect to settle or appeal cases.

Makers of the official chess set of the Supreme Court Historical Society! Approach the Bench makes great gifts for attorneys, law students, or anyone in the legal profession. They offer courtroom-themed chess sets, Judge, Blind Justice, and Attorney bottle stoppers, ornaments, and lawyer, Judge, and Blind Justice chocolate bars!

FOOD & DRINK

This wine bottle holder is so delightfully weird that it comes all the way back around into awesome. There’s some serious detail work on this thing.

Or for the more honest out there, we have this World’s Okayest Lawyer Mug.

What better way to get into the holiday spirit than to enjoy some holiday spirits? Caskers, founded by Harvard Law grads, curates all varieties of the best craft spirits from around the world and offers discounts of up to 40% of retail prices.

Teak & Twine offers gift boxes for all people and occasions. While everything is customizable, here are a few suggestions for curated boxes that the folks there suggested:

• For the attorney who has everything, The Tuxedo: Sophisticated and classic, this gift features elevated edibles.
• For your top clients, The Foodie – The most mouth-watering of our gifts and our top corporate seller.
• For the hardworking law student, The Dream Job – A fine notebook and coffee: law school essentials!

Do we have puns? Sure! And another one. Even this stretch of one.

Chocolate Text lets you send chocolate messages to anyone you desire. Personally, I’d go for “You’ve Been Served.” You can also order a “Selfie Tin.” Simply upload a picture and Chocolate Text places it on a tin of your choice of sweet treats. The perfect place for that photo of your favorite lawyer shaking hands with a Supreme Court justice or walking up to get their degree.

Is a lawyer having a good day or a bad day? This wine glass will let everyone know. Meanwhile this wine glass explains why the lawyer is drinking today.

Finally, a Zazzle user has a take on the ubiquitous “Keep Calm” motif, with these “Keep Calm and Call A Lawyer” candy jars.

Desk Toys & Office Decor

Lawyers spend most of their lives behind their desks, so why not spice them up a little? Sure they might appreciate a framed picture of their loved ones, but these thoughtful trinkets might make for better conversation pieces.

This is a cute business card holder of a female lawyer sitting at her desk — making it very meta. This glass card holder can be personalized.

And then there are Funko Pops. You know, those big head toys that seem to be everywhere these days. They even make Golden Girls Funko Pops now, which seems like the border of market saturation. But there are some legal Pops out there like this one of Matt Murdock or this lawyer She-Hulk one. There’s a Citadel-dwelling Lawyer Morty from Rick and Morty. And, obviously, there’s Saul Goodman and Jimmy McGill. For that matter, Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer.

It’s not exactly meant for the desk, but this is a nice decorative touch for the office. It’s a framed copy of the patent artwork for the gavel. Specifically, U.S. Patent 2,755,833 — also known as the Hollow-Headed Gavel With Telescopic Handle Section.

Someone at CafePress has a billable hours clock available to mix decor with some wit.

movies & Television

Lawyers may not have a lot of free time, but when they have a chance to catch up with the world, they can thank you for providing them something fantastic for their viewing pleasure.

Like the complete series of Law & Order. If you wanted to know what twenty season bundle of disks looks like, well there you go.

Speaking of series, the complete runs of Perry Mason, Matlock, and Ally McBeal are all available. Personally, I’d take the various seasons of Harvey Bridman or Better Call Saul though.

There was a stellar RBG documentary last year that you can pick up. We reviewed the film here.

Classical movie buffs might appreciate this 50th Anniversary Edition of 12 Angry Men or an opportunity to revisit Atticus Finch before he became a racist in Go Set A Watchman. On the ridiculous side, perhaps they’d enjoy Al Pacino’s turn as Satan in Devil’s Advocate. Then there’s the greatest courtroom film of all time, My Cousin Vinny.

Luggage

The essential gift for a traveling lawyer! The ScanFast Briefcase from Mobile Edge is a TSA-compliant laptop bag that allows the traveler to keep their laptop inside their bag while passing through TSA security checkpoints. This makes traveling with your laptop simple while keeping your laptop secure.

For a less standard design, check out this option (which also comes in three other color combinations). The bag is still TSA-compliant and boasts rich pink suede and brown faux-leather exterior highlighted by a bright color-accented satin lining. A matching shoulder strap, separate zippered workstation for files, and a trolley strap for rolling luggage included. Carries a Lifetime Warranty!

Seriously, peruse all of the MobileEdge offerings while shopping.

If you come across any more cool holiday gift ideas for attorneys, send them our way! We’re always looking to add more to the annual guide.

---

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

For my final piece of this series on the world of LegalTech, I sat down with Jason Boehmig, CEO of one of the big success stories of LegalTech VC funding. His company, Ironclad, is a contract management and automation platform used by heavy hitters Dropbox, Glassdoor, and others. Boehmig generously gave of his time to share the story of his company’s founding and growth, and, as we spoke, I found myself drawing different lessons from each stage along the way. I’d like to share that story with you, in hopes the lessons apply well to the world of law firm management.

The Value Of Investment

It helps to start out knowing that Jason Boehmig wasn’t the prototypical 25-year-old law school graduate. He began his career on Wall Street working for Lehman Brothers in the mid-2000s, during the time the financial world was coming to recognize the value of marrying quantitative data to real-world experience. He recalled seeing an MIT computer scientist sitting on the trading floor with a 30-year trader, building a model together, creating something between them that was better than either could have created on their own.

Following Lehman’s collapse in 2008, Boehmig pivoted away from finance, enrolling in law school and teaching himself to code. He wound up an associate at renowned Silicon Valley tech firm Fenwick & West, working under the famous Ted Wang. Wang did something plenty of high-powered firm partners would find unthinkable: He allowed Boehmig to use a percentage of his billing time to work on improving the practice. Boehmig spent hours coding up productivity tools, trying to improve contract workflow and figure out ways to automate the day-to-day contracts that needed attention but weren’t valuable enough to merit a full attorney review.

Had Boehmig been required to simply bill his 2,200 hours and go home, Fenwick would have made marginally more money. Instead, by investing in developing its processes, Wang and Fenwick uncovered a massive opportunity to add value for their clients. The opportunity was so rich, in fact, Boehmig quit his day job to pursue it full time. My takeaway: breakthroughs don’t just happen. If a firm wants to distinguish itself from the pack, it has to spend the time and treasure in the short-term to search for and secure long-term gains.

Find A Way To Try

After leaving Fenwick, Boehmig had a vision for streamlining contract review. He soon had a co-founder, Ironclad CTO Cai GoGwilt, a computer scientist from MIT. With two techies and a good idea, I would have thought the next step would be to start coding for a few months and build a prototype. I would have been wrong.

Instead, Boehmig and GoGwilt started Ironclad as an entirely no-code system. Ironclad’s first customers paid a small fee and received an email address. The customer copied that email address any time they were working on a contract, and Ironclad provided bespoke advice and assistance in drafting and revising the contract. By first doing everything manually, Boehmig and GoGwilt were able to determine where they could make their biggest automation advances using real-world data, rather than intuition or educated guesses.

As lawyers, we’re used to preparing arduously, never letting a document escape our computer unless every sentence, clause, and comma is a polished gem. But there’s no better way to learn than to actually try something. If you want to test an idea, get it up on its feet as quickly as possible to see what does and doesn’t work (spoiler: usually almost none of it will work). Try, iterate, and try again.

Work Your Way Towards A Vision

 Their hustle started to pay off. Boehmig and GoGwilt attracted seed funding from Y Combinator, bought a slew of IKEA furniture, and kept attracting customers. They iterated through new ideas quickly, validating what they could and scrapping what didn’t work. They had a series of useful tools and hacks but needed to understand what they should be building toward.

What they ultimately realized was that neither they, nor most of their customers, had an ambitious-enough vision. Customers had varied, niche needs. Some needed contracts to sign up Instagram influencers to push their products. Others needed NDAs for sales agreements. Franchises needed to streamline new franchisee onboarding.

Ironclad had tools to help with all of these, and customers were happy with the tools that helped them, but Boehmig and GoGwilt realized that having 50 separate tools wasn’t what they needed. If they wanted to grow, they needed to develop a single system capable of handling every one of these diverse tasks, no matter the complexity. Vision is important. Understand where you’re going, even if you don’t yet know how you’ll get there.

 People Are Everything

Dropbox was when the fun started. Ironclad convinced the file-sharing giant to give them a pilot, which turned into a full-fledged relationship. Ironclad was soon in line for Series A funding, which it secured through Steve Laughlin at Accel. Boehmig connected with Laughlin on a shared philosophy: that a company’s people are a far bigger contributor to its success than the product it sells. Laughlin had been CEO of RelateIQ, a company known around Silicon Valley for the unusually strong team bonds within it. Accel’s funding helped the company grow on the balance sheets; Boehmig credits Laughlin’s shared focus on building the company’s culture for helping it mature internally.

The focus on personnel continued onward as the company grew. Series B went through Jess Lee of Sequoia Capital, one of the biggest and baddest names in VC funding. Series C went through Ali Rowghani at Y Combinator Continuity, bringing it back to the fund that gave Ironclad its initial seed. In each instance, Boehmig raved about the buy-in and passion of the company’s new partners. People come first. Plenty of lawyers can perform a given job. The only way to make magic is to have talent that care about each other and their shared goals.

Onward And Upward

With the holidays coming up, this will be my last column of the 2010s. I hope you’ve found something to take with you into the new decade, some resolution or glimmer of a good idea that will help you make your corner of the legal industry better. It’s been a long 10 years for the profession, and the next 10 promise to be just as full of challenges, opportunity, and surprise as the last.

---

James Goodnow is an attorney, commentator, and Above the Law columnist. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and is the managing partner of NLJ 250 firm Fennemore Craig. He is the co-author of Motivating Millennials, which hit number one on Amazon in the business management new release category. As a practitioner, he and his colleagues created a tech-based plaintiffs’ practice and business model. You can connect with James on Twitter (@JamesGoodnow) or by emailing him at James@JamesGoodnow.com.

Who ever said that lawyers weren’t creative people? Oh, that’s right, everybody.

But maybe we’re all just overlooking the talent in our midst because we’re too busy billing hours and fielding client calls. The folks at Edelson PC have decided to lean into their creative talent and launched Edelson Creative, a platform to “produce and host creative content generated by the firm and its artistic partners.” No one has ever accused Edelson of not being creative — they hired an actor to screw with their summer class in what remains one of the great legal industry trolls of all time — now they’ve got a dedicated home for their work.

And they’ve kicked it off with a rap video that’s… super impressive.

The song was written and performed by Edelson partner Ari Scharg, with intake specialist Ayssette Muñoz providing additional vocals.

The song is called “Non-Compliant” which is also the name of Edelson’s new podcast, promising “an unconventional approach to exploring current and emerging issues relating to the law, sports, politics, and art.” The first episode features Vanderbilt Law School professor Brian Fitzpatrick explaining why class actions are actually the most conservative solution to police the marketplace.

The lyrics for those who can’t watch right now are:

Ari:

Lawyers act like kings till we run up on they thrones
Caught em sleepin on they phones, snatch they rings up watch em fold
Watch em as they shiver when the freeze out never stop
Cooked our own beat cause none fresh enough to cop

They say we’re non-compliant but to be completely honest
Our defiance is a science and we’re here to start a riot
Effectuate change through our brain wave compartments
One holds the focus, one that holds explosives
One just got a note in it that says this firm the dopest
One asks [beep] what his legacy’s best hope is

Edelson PC man we might be
Like the new young Nick
Meets the new Rafey
Meets the new Big Prof
Meets the Kid Sydney
Meets Ben like Rich
Meets Ben like T
Meets me, on the street when I see [beep]
Meets Jay Beast, ain’t nobody setting 3’s like he, Blat

Aya:

Don’t tell us what to do
And don’t tell us what to say
The only way we work with you
Is get the fuck out of our way

You don’t own us
Don’t try to change us in any way
You don’t own us
You’re one small move of a bigger play

Ari:

History repeats itself and this how it goes
Plaintiff lawyers hurt the class more than they clients know
When lawyers do their deals with fees the only goal
Ted Frank investigate then lawyers get exposed

While the Chamber spends on tort reform and spreads propaganda round
These credit monitoring deals are driving values down
After this we’ll prolly stand down and never flex again
Tell [beep] and [beep] that they might finally get a win

I’m just playin
I hope this hurts cause this is true shit
Wonder if my counterparts tell their fam the truth of it
Do their friends know they get paid to surreptitiously
Close hospitals in minority communities?

Well my fam do, and this is true
Instead of cops and robbers my kids play us and you
Maybe your excuse is that you have too much ambition
But now your dignity is on a milk box missing
Shox!!

Aya:

We’re young and we love to be young
We’re free and we love to be free
To live our life the way we want
To say and do whatever we please

You don’t own us
Don’t try to change us in any way
You don’t own us
You’re one small move of a bigger play

Earlier: This Firm Hired An Actor To Play The World’s Worst Summer Associate

---

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.