Barrier Broken In Associate Billing Rate — See Also

Flatten the Research Curve

Flatten the Research Curve

Navigate the latest changes to federal and state laws, regulations, and executive orders; ranging from Banking & Finance to Tax, Securities, Labor & Employment / HR & Benefits, and more.

Navigate the latest changes to federal and state laws, regulations, and executive orders; ranging from Banking & Finance to Tax, Securities, Labor & Employment / HR & Benefits, and more.

Grandchildren: A Grand Opportunity To Create A Legacy

I hate this time of the year. It is neither the pollen, nor is it the erratic weather. And this year, it is not just because of COVID-19. For me, personally, March through June represents a period of personal loss, a season when I mark the anniversaries of the deaths of my mother, uncles, an aunt, a cousin, and all four grandparents.

As a trusts and estates attorney, I deal a lot with death, whether it is clients considering the disposition of their estates, counseling families upon the passing of their loved ones, or advocating for an heir’s interest in an estate. I should be comfortable with the topic, and I normally am, except that sometimes, during this season it gets to me.

Way before I ever practiced law and years before I ever knew what it meant to be an estate lawyer, I had four grandparents, at least for a moment. One grandmother died a week after I was born.  The next died when I was three.  My grandfathers died a year apart, and by the time I turned 13, I was grandparent-less. By the time I turned 30, I was motherless.

I am consistently jealous of adults with parents and grandparents and individuals blessed with the opportunity to bear the title “great” grandparent. The loss of a parent is immeasurable and from a planning perspective, grandparents’ estates can make for very interesting cases.

Unfortunately, many grandparents face illness which cause them to spend their lifelong savings on home and nursing care. Some grandparents may not have amassed significant savings as a result of their careers or life experiences. Others have earned and saved a lot and have the ability to give.

Generally, probate laws tells us that we are supposed to give our estate to our spouse and also to our children. Grandchildren take if their parent, a son or daughter,  predeceases their parent, the decedent. Often times, a last will and testament or the laws of intestacy will describe a distribution by stating per stirpes, per representation, or per capita. This marks the way the testator wishes to distribute the asset in the event of the death of a descendant.

But what about bequeathing to grandchildren?  I am privy to many client stories of disappointing children, but wonderfully redeeming grandchildren.  As Gore Vidal stated: “Never have children, only grandchildren.” Sometimes, testators with robust estates make bequests to their grandchildren. Sometimes they even make significant gifts instead of giving to their own children. At times the bequest is something tangible, a family heirloom or maybe it is more significant, a financial or business interest.

Although bequeathing to a grandchild makes a statement about one’s feelings toward the descendant, sometimes it causes friction. Assets given to a grandchild may take away from the children, a generation above. While sometimes this is due to estate and tax planning, for example in the form of a generation-skipping trust, often this is done simply because the grandchildren are adored, preferred, or the testator wishes to leave a legacy for them specifically. This may cause strife between parent and child. It may even cause a child to contest a last will in court.

When disinheriting or treating a relative differently than others, a “no contest clause” or “in terrorem clause” is included in a last will to dissuade the excluded beneficiary from contesting the will’s terms. This kind of clause warns that any beneficiary who participates in a proceeding to contest the will, will, as well as her children and grandchildren, forfeit any interest under the will. As one can imagine, there can be significant litigation among families with regard to last wills and testaments and no contest clauses.

Some grandparents feel that a bequest to a grandchild is not necessary because a grandchild’s parent is receiving and therefore the grandchild’s life will be enhanced. Obviously every case is different, however, a bequest to a grandchild under a last will is an affirmative statement as to the grandparent’s love and recognition. It is a permanent expression, preserved in the last will and testament that becomes a family heirloom in and of itself. Certainly for those lucky enough to become grandparents, incorporating grandchildren into one’s estate plan is a unique opportunity, no matter the size or constitution of the legacy. For certain it will ease the pain and sense of loss, when that generation has passed.


Cori A. Robinson is a solo practitioner having founded Cori A. Robinson PLLC, a New York and New Jersey law firm, in 2017. For more than a decade Cori has focused her law practice on trusts and estates and elder law including estate and Medicaid planning, probate and administration, estate litigation, and guardianships. She can be reached at cori@robinsonestatelaw.com.

Comedian John Mulaney’s Mom Is A Professor At A T14 Law School

I know by now that I’m known as John Mulaney’s mother. I thought I was done being known as somebody’s mother, but not so. I think it’s fun. It also makes [students] more likely to laugh at my jokes.

— Professor Ellen S. Mulaney of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, in comments given to the Daily Northwestern on the fame of her son, comedian John Mulaney, and how it affects her teaching. She teaches Torts, Legislation, and Basics of Contract Drafting. Mulaney’s father, Charles Mulaney, is a partner at Skadden.


Staci ZaretskyStaci 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.

You Guys Aren’t Gonna Believe This, But Argentina Defaulted On Its Debt

Court Tosses Florida’s Felon Disenfranchisement Law As Illegal Poll Tax

On Sunday, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle held that a Florida statute requiring felons to pay all fines and fees before casting a ballot amounted to an illegal poll tax and was also void for vagueness. The sweeping 125-page decision will likely be appealed to the 11th Circuit and eventually the Supreme Court dragging out a final ruling for months. Luckily, there’s no history of Florida voters wreaking havoc in a presidential election year, so this should all be fine.

AHEM.

In a 2018 ballot initiative, 64 percent of Florida voter passed Amendment 4 restoring the franchise to residents with felony convictions upon the completion of parole and probation. In this same election, with potentially one million Floridians disenfranchised due to prior felony convictions, Republicans Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott eked out wins of less than 40,000 votes.

Immediately the Republican legislature swung into action, enacting “enabling” legislation mandating the payment of all fees and fines before voting rights could be restored. With the near universal imposition of hundreds of dollars of costs on all criminal defendants, most of whom are unable to pay, this amounted to a de facto revocation of Amendment 4.

The Eleventh Circuit already enjoined Florida from disenfranchising voters who are genuinely unable to pay, but Judge Hinkle’s decision goes much further and seems deliberately tailored to withstand appeal.

In 2012, Justice Roberts classified the penalty for not purchasing health insurance as a “tax” in the case upholding the legality of Obamacare. Judge Hinkle explicitly relies on this logic to characterize mandatory court fees as “A tax by any other name” in violation of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment’s ban on poll taxes, differentiating court assessments from punitive fines or restitution. Particularly since those fees are set by statute, unrelated to the offense, and imposed on defendants who plead no-contest with no explicit judicial finding or admission of guilt.

If a state chose to fund its criminal-justice system by assessing a $10 fee against every resident of the state, nobody would doubt it was a tax. Florida has chosen to fund its criminal-justice system by assessing just such a fee, but to assess it not against all residents but only against those who are alleged to have committed a criminal offense and are not exonerated. As a measure designed to raise revenue to fund the government, this would be a tax even if exacted only from those adjudged guilty. The result is made more clear by the state’s exaction of the fee even from those not adjudged guilty.

Worse yet, Florida has no reliable system for felons to get an accurate accounting of fees owed. Here are two examples from the many named plaintiffs who could have been plucked from a ConLaw exam.

Mr. Mitchell was unaware he owed any amount until he registered to vote and received a notice from his county’s Clerk of Court. He now believes he owes $4,483 arising from convictions in Miami-Dade and Okeechobee Counties. The record does not show what amounts were included in his sentences. The MiamiDade Clerk of Court’s website includes a docket entry indicating $754 was assessed as costs. One cannot know, from this record, what amount the State asserts Mr. Mitchell must pay to vote. But Mr. Mitchell works at a nonprofit without salary; even if the amount was only $754, Mr. Mitchell would be unable to pay it.

Ms. Riddle was convicted of felonies between 1975 and 1988 in two different counties. She asked the Clerks of Court for copies of the records of the convictions, but she was told the Clerks were unable to find them. Ms. Riddle apparently owes roughly $1,800 in connection with later convictions, but the Clerk’s records do not match those maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Ms. Riddle is unable to pay that amount. Ms. Riddle does not know, and despite diligent efforts has been unable to find out, how much the State says she must pay to vote.

I’ll take “Void For Vagueness” for $600, Alex!

In an amicus brief to the Eleventh Circuit urging that court to uphold the right of states to condition voting rights upon ability to pay court fees, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah argued that the states “have a substantial interest in ensuring that they can continue to pursue the goal of re-enfranchisement alongside other important state interests like deterrence, retribution, and restitution.” In other words, if the court won’t allow them to limit the franchise to rich felons who are able to pay to get their votes back, then the they’ll be forced to bar all felons from voting.

Which may work at the Eleventh Circuit, which Trump just flipped by elevating two judges recently installed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on the state’s Supreme Court to the federal bench. But Judge Hinkle was unpersuaded by that logic, or Florida’s facially bad faith argument that the “enabling legislation” was a simple clarification, not an attempt to circumvent the will of the voters.

In 18 months since Amendment 4 was adopted, the State has done almost nothing to address the problem—nothing, that is, except to jettison the most logical method for determining whether the required amount has been paid and substituting a bizarre method that no prospective voter would anticipate and that doesn’t solve the problem.  The flaws in Florida’s approach are especially egregious because a person who claims a right to vote and turns out to be wrong may face criminal prosecution.

And now we wait to see what novel clusterf*ck will be visited upon the electorate in 2020 by the courts and the Sunshine State. They’ll have to work hard to top 2000’s hanging chads/Brooks Brothers riot/butterfly ballot debacle. Dig deep, Florida man, you can do it!

Opinion On the Merits [Kevin Leon Jones v. Ron DeSantis, No. 4:19-cv-00300-RH-MJF (N. D. Fla., May 24, 2020)]
’A game-changer’: Five takeaways from Sunday’s ruling on felon voting [Tampa Bay Times]


Elizabeth Dye (@5DollarFeminist) lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Legal Operations: Impact Makes The Case For Investment

The role of legal operations in corporate legal departments has been an increasingly popular topic in the industry for the past few years — and in our current economic state, justifying such a cost within a corporate legal department, at first glance, might appear to be more difficult in the near term. Are legal operations worth the expense?

A new report from Wolters Kluwer and ACC shows that in-house counsels and legal operations departments are critical to keeping companies competitive in these difficult times. While the study focuses on corporate legal departments rather than law firms, it is always good to have a pulse on trends affecting clients, and there are some good insights that might be applied to law firms, too.

Here are some of the key takeaways for corporate legal departments:

Legal operations professionals make a difference. Departments that employ at least one legal ops professional are more advanced across all 15 functional areas compared to those with no dedicated legal ops professional.

Not all functions are equal. There is significant variation in maturity levels across functions. Compliance and Financial Management are most advanced on average, while eDiscovery & Litigation Management and Innovation Management are least advanced.

Company size matters. Legal departments in large organizations report higher maturity levels on average. This is consistent when examining company revenue, number of staff, and legal spend.

Departments face diverse challenges in their maturation process. Budget limitations, leadership skepticism on the added value provided by legal operations, and general resistance to change hinder the efforts of legal operations professionals to advance maturity.

Best-in-class departments are in an advanced stage but still have room to grow. The top 10 percent of departments showcase an advanced stage of legal operations maturity, but none recorded being advanced across all 15 core functions.

Applicability to law firms. There are several observations that law firms should consider too when looking at this study of client legal operations.

Compliance and regulatory monitoring. First, as corporate legal departments become more efficient, firms will demand greater efficiency or improved outcomes from outside counsel. Let’s look at regulatory monitoring as an example. The top rated area in which in-house counsel are most mature is Compliance. Rethinking regulatory monitoring may be a consideration for a law firm as clients are effective in managing compliance activities. Clients are going to continue to expect more from firms when speaking or advising on regulatory compliance issues. So it’s important that regulatory changes that affect a client are at attorneys’ fingertips when a client reaches out.

Align law firm metrics to support client metrics. The clear value that corporate legal departments receive from legal operations is evident across all 15 functional areas of the ACC model. As a strategic operational goal, corporate clients may seek more alignment with their law firms as they pursue greater value, improved performance, and enhanced relationships. This may be achieved if the law firm understands and incorporates the operational goals of the corporate legal department into the management of their relationship. If a corporate legal client has a goal to incorporate key performance indicators (KPIs) that allow it to track, manage, and benchmark performance, then it will need data from its law firm partners. If the law firm can’t provide that information in the manner the client requires, or has inconsistent approaches across practice areas or offices, it could impact the relationship.

Consider adding or expanding legal operations. The addition of just one resource focused on legal operations in a client’s legal department can increase the maturity and effectiveness of operations. With law firms adopting legal operations too, those that have been slower to adopt may want to consider adding to this function. Looking across functions, standardizing core processes and sharing best practices may be more important than ever in helping law firms identify ways to be more efficient and effective in serving clients. Additionally, a legal operations function can help in surveying clients across industries and practice areas to help inform what is important and actionable by a firm to better serve clients. Law firm legal operations can also help analyze the relative profitability of different clients and matter types. They may also help to achieve corporate legal client alignment with their in-house counterparts.

The overriding theme of these survey results is that legal operations professionals drive impact even as the economy is facing an unprecedented challenge. Nobody wants to be spending money on additional overhead during a job-killing pandemic. This is certainly the case within our industry — but the report demonstrates that sustaining legal operations, or perhaps investing more resources in legal operations, will drive better results.

While it may be counterintuitive to start a law firm legal operations function, or add professionals to an existing legal operations department during a pandemic, the results just may be worth it. Corporate legal departments are sure to come out of the pandemic stronger and more efficient. Law firms will need to do the same, and perhaps a greater focus on legal operations will be part of that equation.


Ken Crutchfield is Vice President and General Manager of Legal Markets at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., a leading provider of information, business intelligence, regulatory and legal workflow solutions. Ken has more than three decades of experience as a leader in information and software solutions across industries. He can be reached at ken.crutchfield@wolterskluwer.com.

ON THE LABOR FRONT—Recalling Employees to Work in the COVID-19 Era [Sponsored]

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Weekly Legal Technology Roundup Focuses On Latest News

For the last few weeks, Bob Ambrogi has hosted a weekly panel discussion focusing on the big legal technology stories of the day. From tech industry news to law firms getting scammed online to the judiciary’s embrace of teleconferencing, a gathering of legal industry reporters discuss it all.

Think of it as The McLaughlin Group with less yelling and more eDiscovery.

I joined last Friday’s program along with some other familiar names: Nicole Black, legal technology columnist and legaltech evangelist at MyCase; Caroline Hill, editor in chief, Legal IT Insider; and Molly McDonough, media consultant, former publisher and editor-in-chief of the ABA Journal. Check it out. We’re having a good time figuring out how to bring folks a concise roundup of technology news. And stay tuned for future episodes.


HeadshotJoe 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.

Oldest Law School In America Appoints First Black Dean

Something that unfortunately got lost in the shuffle of non-stop layoffs and furloughs was William & Mary Law’s announcement of a new dean. When the nation’s oldest law school announces a new dean, it’s newsworthy enough, but when the school appoints its first black dean, it’s an important milestone in legal academia:

A. Benjamin Spencer, a nationally renowned civil procedure and federal courts expert and current professor of law at the University of Virginia, will begin at William & Mary Law School July 1. Spencer will be William & Mary’s first African-American dean of any school at the university, including the law school. His selection follows a national search to succeed Davison M. Douglas, who will return to the faculty after serving as dean for more than 10 years.

Professor Spencer, a Shearman & Sterling alum, has served on the faculty at UVA for the last several years, having worked at Washington & Lee and Richmond before that, and will assume the deanship of William & Mary coming off a year as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. He’s also an Army Reserve JAG Captain because why not add more to a crowded plate? The move to William & Mary is a homecoming in a sense for Spencer, who tells Black Enterprise that even though he’s a newcomer to the school, it holds a special place in his professional development:

Spencer said he is excited about the new role. “It was not until the hiring committee from William & Mary approached me back in 2003 that I gave any thought to becoming a law professor,” he said.

Now he joins the management side of the law school equation and gets a chance to put some of his past theories into practice. Spencer, as longtime readers may remember, became an Above the Law favorite way back in 2011 when he penned an article in the Washington Post calling on law schools to fundamentally reform themselves — with the assistance of a strengthened ABA accreditation process. You know, back when we imagined that the ABA accreditation process wouldn’t face well-funded right-wing assault at every turn.

While almost a decade old, Spencer’s article reads as prescient as ever, highlighting the role of technological advancement in revolutionizing the law firm business model and the need for regulatory changes to legal education and licensure:

Reforming admission to the bar should also be considered. For example, rather than making the bar exam a concentrated experience, the certification process could be extended over a period of years as with the various steps of the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam. Law graduates could be required to take an initial doctrinally focused exam followed by a probationary period during which they would work for less pay under the supervision of practicing attorneys. That, in turn, would be followed by an exam that tests their practice skills.

While the current debate centers around replacing the doctrinal exam entirely, this has some of the early markings of the “plus” part of diploma privilege plus — pushing out the licensing process to focus on apprenticeship and/or practical achievement. Obviously an individual dean is more restricted in action than a professor offering a sweeping reform vision, but it’s going to be interesting to see what Dean Spencer is going to be able to do with his hand on the rudder.

A. Benjamin Spencer selected to lead W&M Law School [William & Mary]
MEET THE FIRST BLACK DEAN OF THE OLDEST LAW SCHOOL IN THE U.S. [Black Enterprise]


HeadshotJoe 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.