Bonus News: But we need tipsters to help us stay on top of the latest!
New York Bar Exam Results: A school by school breakdown.
Partners Are Responsible For Bringing Work To The Firm: Or at least they should be.
Deutsche Bank And Donald Trump: Still making trouble for the lawyers involved.
Elon Musk has had a lot of fun with short sellers in his time, especially since they’re usually taking a bath betting against his religion-that-makes-a-few-cars-and-also-flamethrowers-but-not-enough-of-either-or-any-money. That being said, he’d still like to see them in prison.
Now, we know Musk—like any good cult leader—doesn’t take criticism or skepticism well, but perhaps he should focus on his own legal issues. And maybe go back to that whole not-tweeting thing.
— Imani Gandy, senior legal analyst at Rewire, with the reaction shared by a lot of people upon hearing the news that George Zimmerman is suing, inter alia, the parents of Trayvon Martin. Also on the receiving end of Zimmerman’s legal ire is Martin family attorney, Ben Crump; Florida prosecutors Bernie de la Rionda, John Guy, and Angela Corey; trial witness Rachel Jeantel; book publisher HarperCollins; the Florida Department of Law Enforcement; and the state of Florida. The lawsuit alleges widespread “witness fraud,” claiming prosecution witness Rachel Jeantel is “an imposter and fake witness” as detailed in the new film The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America.
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).
In an essay in the Wall Street Journal, a physician took the medical profession to task for its habit of providing laser-focused disease treatment, while essentially ignoring other needs of the chronically ill. Dr. Arthur Kleinman, a Harvard professor as well as a physician, says in “Treating Disease Is No Substitute for Caring for the Ill” that far too often patients with chronic illnesses are left to fend for themselves to navigate the system. “Disease demands treatment while illness calls out for care,” Kleinman says. He knows whereof he speaks; his wife had Alzheimer’s.
Those with chronic illnesses (nod in agreement if you are one of us, and, yes, I am in that category) often feel as if they are “chopped liver.” (It doesn’t matter whether you like chopped liver or loathe it, you get the point.)
You may be surprised — or maybe not — to read that half of adult Americans have at least one chronic disease.
I wonder if we treat clients in the same way that the medical profession handles disease. Do we hone in on the big money-making cases to the detriment of matters which, while not as lucrative, provide legal knowledge and advice that clients can use in ongoing situations?
I also wonder if clients look at us in the same way that Dr. Kleinman looked at his own profession while seeking help for his ailing wife. If he had trouble, imagine what it is like for us. It’s ironic that he was in the same predicament that nonmedical people face all the time when trying to figure out how to manage a chronic illness.
Lawyers are front and center for our clients when a crisis needs our immediate and all-consuming attention, but when the crisis fades or dies out, when we have won or lost, do we forget to pay attention to a client’s ongoing needs, however mundane they may be? I think a lot of us do, as we may well be more concerned with the big deal or the company lawsuit (and it doesn’t have to be a big company for corporate existence to hang in the balance. Exhibit A is a wage and hour judgment that can and does bankrupt a business).
We are more concerned with outcomes, with results, with numbers than with a client’s ongoing legal needs, prosaic or not so. It’s no surprise that what the client regards as nothing more than a legal hangnail can morph into something far more serious and business-threatening unless attention is paid.
Perhaps some chronic illnesses can be prevented (don’t smoke, drink in moderation, eat healthy, exercise, the usual litany of dos and don’ts), but not all. However, we as lawyers can practice preventive law if the client understands the cost-benefit analysis.
It is, essentially, the client’s risk assessment. How to explain that to the client with the hope that the client is willing to prevent future legal troubles? And if the client is willing, but the lawyer’s response is of the “We’ll get to it when we can” variety — in other words, putting the matter in the “stall box” — then how does the client feel? I think the chopped liver comparison is spot on.
How do we instill in clients the concept that preventive law is good business? How do we instill that in ourselves as well?
Sometimes it’s too late to prevent the damage, and all that the lawyer can do is stabilize the situation and minimize whatever damage has already been done, to triage. Not an easy task.
Early every January, my tax organizer arrives from my CPA (shudder). The first few pages compose a checklist, asking about any changes since the last year. How many lawyers do something similar for their clients? I would hazard a guess that it’s not enough. How many lawyers use such a checklist as a business development tool? I would imagine not many.
Just like physicians, we focus on solving problems. But, as Kleinman points out, we often just give our clients the bare bones, if that, of what they need.
Many times customers would come into a bank branch, plop down a bunch of documents without a clue as to what they meant or how to use them in their businesses. They expected the branch to give them the advice they sought from lawyers and didn’t get. Not our job, we told them. It is the job of the lawyer to explain what they have and why. It’s like having a chronic condition that needs care but doesn’t get it.
I don’t think that clients get the attention they need. It may be better for the lawyer to wait until a matter blows up, but is that the way it should be? We are in a helping profession, so let’s help and not leave them to navigate by their lonesome.
Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 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.
According to a new survey conducted by Legal Cheek, associates in the London offices of U.S.-based Biglaw firms are working themselves to the bone, regularly averaging 12-hour days. At which white-shoe firm do associates have the longest workdays?
Hint: If you’re expecting to receive a year-end bonus that will “shatter the market,” you’d better be prepared to work hours that will shatter any concept of work-life balance.
See the answer on the next page.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
With a late Thanksgiving, it’s hard to believe that we’re already two days into December – and just three weeks away from the start of holidays. So if you were planning on ordering and sending out personalized holiday cards, time is growing short. And believe it or not, that’s actually a good thing.
I don’t want to sound Grinch-like, but personally I’m not a big fan of holiday cards – either sending or receiving. As for sending, I rarely plan ahead and for me, the end of the year is usually hectic with family responsibilities and work matters that need to be finalized. As for receiving, the majority of cards that come my way are utterly generic – with the name of the firm or company printed inside so at times, I can’t even figure out the actual person responsible for putting me on the list. And the hand-signed cards aren’t much better either. They rarely contain personalized notes and as such, evoking images of the firm’s staffers forced to stay after hours huddled around a conference room table scarfing down cold pizza as they affix their John Hancock to an assembly-line stream of cards.
Still, it’s always nice to end the year on a strong note – and so I’ve for other ways to mark the holidays. And one of my favorites has become the holiday phone call where I’ll pull together a list of contacts who I haven’t checked in with and pick up the phone to wish them a happy holiday. And even though my sole purpose in making the calls is to reconnect and either congratulate them on a recent accomplishment or thank them for their help, holiday phone calls almost invariably lead to invitations and business referrals.
In contrast to most types of marketing where even the most hardened of us can feel a little desperate, the holiday phone call always makes me feel good. Most people – though initially surprised – are genuinely pleased to hear from a colleague reaching out with no motive other than to spread cheer or share gratitude. And because that’s really the point of the holiday call, there’s no pressure – no quota to fill or sale to make.
So if you decide that you’d like to try making holiday calls, here are some tips:
If you enjoy sending out holiday cards, by all means, continue your firm’s tradition. But if you want to give something meaningful like the gift of renewed connection and personal gratitude, pick up the phone and make some holiday calls. In the short run, they’ll make you feel good and in the long run, they are the gift that will keep giving throughout the year.
Legal department operations have shifted over the last decade to reflect a broader, global drive toward more efficiency. In-house legal teams are taking a multi-pronged approach to accomplish this goal of becoming more efficient to contribute to overall organizational profitability: They are onboarding specific people as well as technology solutions.
Improving Efficiencies with People and Technology
According to the 2018 Legal Department Operations Survey, nearly 15 percent of respondents reported having zero full-time employees on the legal operations team. In 2019, the survey shows that almost 95 percent of respondents now have at least one full-time employee dedicated to legal operations, demonstrating the growing focus on this function of the legal department. And the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) has cited the benefits of legal ops professionals specifically in establishing operational strategy and overseeing the department’s technology roadmap.
Emerging technologies are the second major force impacting legal departments, with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing at the core of many solutions-creating efficiencies. The 2019 Legal Department Operations Survey shows that half of the respondents plan to address their contract management technology over the next 12 months, and almost 60 percent plan to evaluate their document management technology.
The Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Legal Operations Team
This blend of bringing on both humans and technology to make legal departments more efficient may come as a surprise to those who have listened to the rumors surrounding AI’s supposed replacement of human legal professionals. While technology won’t be replacing humans in the legal department any time soon, it will increasingly aid departments’ humans to be more productive.
One of the most significant opportunities for legal departments to implement technology to improve operations is contract management. The International Association of Contract and Commercial Management issued research showing that improving contract management can increase corporate profitability by nearly 10 percent annually. Implementing a contract lifecycle management (CLM) system helps legal operations not only contribute to such an increase in revenue, but to streamline the management of each contract so volumes of vital contracts remain error- and risk-free. CLM software helps organizations integrate automation into the lifecycle of a contract so humans aren’t burdened with repetitive tasks, contracts are secure through software-based storage, and approvals happen more quickly.
The Impact on General Counsel
The role of the general counsel is also shifting in the wake of expanding legal operations, and one of the effects is integrating the in-house legal team with the rest of the business to understand various issues faced by other departments. Overall, it’s clear that legal department expansion not only offers general counsel the ability to become a more strategic member of the business, but it intertwines legal into the rest of the business as a whole.
To optimize your legal department for this change, bring the right people and the right technology into your business. Consider exploring technologies such as contract lifecycle management software to offload repetitive tasks and leverage automation. Your future legal operations team will be the most efficient it can be.
For more, download Legal Department Operations: A Guide for General Counsel.
Biglaw associates, were you hoping that another firm would swoop in and offer more bonus money, forcing other firms that have already matched to up the ante?
Sorry, but if you thought that Sullivan & Cromwell would rescue the market from the same bonuses that have been handed out year after year — and perhaps even offer spring bonuses like back in the day — your hopes have officially been dashed. After weeks of waiting, SullCrom’s black bonus box has been smashed open, and the firm is matching standard market bonuses.
Based on the deluge of tips we received, it looks like S&C has done exactly what the rest of the Biglaw market has done, matching the bonus scale set by Milbank last month. Needless to say, associates at the firm are a bit miffed — there’s not even any extra cash being offered for high billers. This seems to be representative of the comments we’ve received from associates at the firm:
We were expecting a match, but really would have gone a long way to give a bump for high billers. We’re basically below market. I billed a crazy number of hours in last 12 months and would easily qualify for extra at other firms.
At least SullCrom is paying out its bonuses on December 18, so associates will have some good cheer deposited into their bank accounts before the holidays.
If you still have something to say about your S&C bonus, feel free to sound off by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog). All complaints (or praise) will be kept anonymous — and could find its way into an update to this story.
Remember everyone, 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 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 all of your help!
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
(Image via Getty)
We allowed our father to pass with as much dignity as is possible under the relentless assault of advancing dementia. There was no debate over whether to stop the clock and restore what was possible. He would be allowed to complete his journey on his terms. We had no choice but to come to terms with the nature of death and dementia. The vibrant, charismatic, funny dad in words and actions would not return.
That is not to say there were no debates over ongoing palliative care. I remember being selfish and demanding over medication that could prolong alertness. That was not about comfort and quality of life. It was about me. There was an uptick, but it did not last long. It was as the doctors and the hospice care team told us it would be. A gradual roller-coaster downward. A series of plateaus and declines until there was only deterioration.
I, however, became obsessed with each stage of the process. I googled mottling of the skin and learned that it is generally a sign of impending death. I asked about it each time I visited. I wanted to see the mottling. I wanted to know at what point swallowing became impossible. There would no longer be food. No intravenous feeding. Only morphine. The caregivers assured me that the body also compensates. It produces its own form of opiates. There is no pain.
I sat and watch the morphine drip as the wasting process continued with the lack of food. The dad of my past now relegated to memory. The man I loved in the bed, features unrecognizable. I researched and researched as if that somehow would give me the ability to turn back the clock. I would be the expert, not the doctors and nurses. The Dunning-Kruger Effect borne of not wanting to let go.
If successful in my search, he would once again be sitting with us at dinner. Coaching me in Little League and teaching me to drive in Schenley Park. There were so many times I wanted to scream to the nurses what I had learned and tell them what we should do differently to prolong his life. Life?
How should I define that? His chest moved up and down. His heart pumped blood. He sporadically blurted out names from the past. He spoke with his deceased brother and parents. He was alive as science defines it. For the most part, it was tears and quiet. The smell of the various liquids and lotions used to ease the transition. Kisses on the forehead. Whispering in his ear. Letting him know that his greatest fear in death would not be true in life. His sons would continue to love and take care of each other. We would also take care of the people he loved.
In the end, that was his concern. All he wanted was to know was that the people he loved would be okay without him. He did not want science to prolong the inevitable. We knew that. He did not have to tell us.
Each morning his vitals declined a bit. When I left for a July business trip, I knew that any day could be the last. I walked out of my door, crossed the street, over to his place. I again sat in the chair. I asked if this would be the day. The caregiver told me he was stable. My sister-in-law and her sister came by. I rested my head on his shoulder. I whispered that it was okay to let go. We would take care of each other. He had done a great job with his sons. I got up to leave, and to my surprise, he said, “Where are you going? Stay longer.”
I didn’t remember the last time he spoke that much to me. I replied, “just stretching, Dad.” I sat back down and held his hand. I got up to leave again. He said, “I love you, Brian.” I can only speculate that he knew the end was imminent, mustering up every ounce of strength to vocalize his love. For me, those last words will always be the voice of the dad telling me to hold the steering wheel with both hands.
I went on my business trip. He hung on. The next Wednesday, early afternoon, I got the text from my brother. “It’s happening Brian, get over here.” I got dressed and ran faster than my artificial hip had ever permitted. I burst through the front door. He was gone. We hugged. We cried. I kissed him on the forehead one last time. I spoke in his ear one last time. It was not a pretty death. It was not a movie. It was brutal to watch and be a part of. Our love of our father demanded that we do so. It was not about us.
This coming week, the entire extended family will get together for the first time since his passing for the “unveiling,” as is the Jewish tradition. We will not talk about the awfulness of dementia. We will talk about the laugh. The charisma. The driving lessons. We will recite my dad’s favorite saying when he picked up the check for every single meal or pushed casino chips over to me when I went bust at the blackjack table.
“Wait Until You Get My Bill.”
Dementia is ugly. We dealt with it the best we could. We allowed our dad to live his final months on his terms. That is what he wanted. That was his bill to us. We paid it the only way we would, with love. Always love.
I love you, Dad.
Brian Cuban (@bcuban) is The Addicted Lawyer. Brian is the author of the Amazon best-selling book, The Addicted Lawyer: Tales Of The Bar, Booze, Blow & Redemption (affiliate link). A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, he somehow made it through as an alcoholic then added cocaine to his résumé as a practicing attorney. He went into recovery April 8, 2007. He left the practice of law and now writes and speaks on recovery topics, not only for the legal profession, but on recovery in general. He can be reached at brian@addictedlawyer.com.