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Here at Kinney Recruiting we want to provide associates tips on making the best impression via video. With COVID-19 interrupting our daily lives, we need to change our habits slightly. If you need to change jobs you still can, but you’re going to do your first interview via video.  So get ready, here are our tips.

At Kinney, we’ve had years of experience with hundreds of international moves, and those often involve initial interviews via video. So, we have seen a few things. Some of this is not the most obvious stuff, but it’s well tested.

First, use your phone, not a computer camera.  Most phones have much better cameras than laptops these days. The video interview software, or Skype, invariably comes with a phone app option. Use it.

Second, putting the phone arm’s-length away is best. 

Third, you must have a flawless internet connection. If your router is acting weird, go to a friend’s house who has things set up better. It’s never good when the quality sucks and there is a lag in communication or a break in the video stream; your performance could be flawless and you won’t get credit for it. See No. 6.

Fourth, focus on the lighting. It doesn’t need to be crazy, but don’t just allow overhead lamps to illuminate your face. If you do, you will have the shadow of your nose, long or short, crossing your lips. It’s ugly.  We have dealt with this in various ways, but just having a few candles around your phone to give nicer light can help. That said, don’t set a fire accidentally. This is not the time to learn how to use candles. Other options are to have your laptop open with a white screen up. Or, better yet, use two laptops, one to the left and one to the right of your phone.  Just make sure they don’t sleep in the middle of the interview. Having half your face go dark in the middle can be a nightmare.

Fifth, don’t put the phone on a table and sit with your face two feet above the table.  Your counterpart will be looking up your nose. Instead, find a shorter chair, or a taller perch for the phone. You want to look eye to eye with people you are meeting for a video interview.

Sixth, pay attention to the connection and roll with technical difficulties. If there is video lag, don’t try to jump in and make a clever comment. Wait until the other person stops talking.  Similarly, if you are the sort of person who tends to talk a lot – and a lot of lawyers are – then you need to remember that if you are doing most of the talking in an interview, you are not doing a good job. So, pay attention to the flow of the conversation and try to pass the ball back to your counterpart. Engage them on something they like and let them get rolling on it. Are they talking about the size and quality of their deals? Then, say how you are amazed with the quality of their practice; interject briefly that you saw the XYZ deal on their bio and you had a connection to that deal through whatever angle. It does not take a lot of words to demonstrate competence.. Is your counterpart quick to mention that their kids are playing football this year?  You (or your brother/sister) were serious sportsmen in high school and it led to you think it was a very important part of your development. Don’t belabor the point, just roll with it.

Seventh, if you are taking notes, tell the counterpart that’s what you are doing so you don’t look distracted. But don’t take notes in an interview. The interview is where they decide whether they want to hang around you all day. No need to play the gunner.

Eighth, dress the part, even for the video. Don’t wear sweatpants with your suit jacket either. Should you need to get up for some reason, you’ll make a fool of yourself. And you’ll always know you’re wearing sweatpants.

Ninth, if you have the most modern phone, you might not need this tip, but use airpods or some sort of tested solution so that the audio is the best it can be. Speakerphone echo is a lost opportunity to sound like you have control of things. Likewise, if there is background noise a lot, because fire trucks come by your window often, find another place to go.

Finally, ignore any of the above problems that appear to be happening on the other end. We can’t fix our clients’ issues as well as we can our candidates’.

If you are working with us, we will do our best to help you fix any issues. We have a lot of experience at this. Get in touch and we’ll let you know if we think you can pull it off!

I know this is a very difficult and uncertain time for all of you. The law school has been working around the clock to ensure the health and safety of our community, and we have been collaborating with the university and its public health experts as the situation unfolds. …

Please know that we are with you during this difficult period. … It is my top priority to ensure the health and safety of our community. Thank you for your patience and flexibility during this unprecedented and challenging time.

— Dean Heather Gerken of Yale Law School, explaining in an online message to students and staff that the school’s spring break would be extended by a week’s time, and then classes would be held online until April 5. Yale is one of many law schools to have moved to an online learning environment during the coronavirus outbreak.

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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.

eDiscovery has evolved a great deal over the past decade, and it’s now how lawyers are able to quickly comb through the troves of data that are involved in large-scale litigation. Today’s eDiscovery software allows lawyers to review documents efficiently, using advanced analytics while collaborating with their teammates.

Everlaw, the leading eDiscovery software-as-a-service platform, recently published a white paper offering an in-depth analysis of user behaviors and trends from 2019-2020. Here are just a few things that were gleaned from the study:

• Automation and efficiency are integral to helping law firms and corporations handle ediscovery needs.
• Collaboration is becoming increasingly important in the face of a complex, global world.
• Advanced analytics enable legal teams to accelerate review and identify the most valuable information in complex troves of documents.

Want to learn even more? Fill out the form below to view the paper now!

For the past 10 years or so, founders of early-stage startups have been increasingly turning to convertible notes and convertible equity instruments to structure investment rounds, particularly for their first capital raise. While some in the angel investment community have argued that it would be best if founders did fewer convertible note rounds and more equity deals, it’s important to consider why the convertible note structure has made such a big splash in early-stage financing world in the first place. What are the primary benefits for founders and their investors to opt for a convertible note offering over a stock offering? In future posts, we will consider the key deal terms to consider for your convertible note offering but first let’s look at the key benefits of the convertible note structure to determine if it is right for your company.   

If you’re a founder, you might be thinking “what’s wrong with simply selling, for example, 10% of my company to an investor in exchange for $100,000 to get us off the ground?” This raises the first issue that convertible notes are intended to solve, and that is the problem of valuation. Let’s suppose your company is pre-revenue, still working on the beta version of its product, or perhaps looking for that first enterprise customer. Does it make sense to slap a $1,000,000 post-money valuation on the company at this stage? Perhaps, but what if you end up getting a lot of traction with that $100,000 and raise a Series A round at a $10 million valuation 2 years later? Your first investor is going to be ecstatic, but you’re going to have some serious seller’s remorse for giving away such a large chunk of your company for what you now realize was an extremely low valuation.

The primary advantage of a convertible note is that it allows founders and investors to postpone the valuation discussion to another day. Convertible notes convert into equity based on the valuation of the company’s next equity financing round. So, using our example above, instead of the investor getting 10% of the company in exchange for the $100,000, the investor would convert into the round that valued the company at $10 million at, for example, a 20% discount. From the founder’s perspective, the company was able to use the $100,000 to gain the proper traction to justify a higher valuation and avoided the dilution from selling equity at a $1 million valuation. Meanwhile, the convertible note investor is satisfied because he is being compensated for taking the extra risk of coming in early with a discounted purchase price in the new round. While other investors are willing to pay $1.00/share for the company’s stock, the investor is being treated as purchasing that same stock for $.80/share. 

The second reason traditionally used to justify convertible notes is simplicity. Returning to our example where the founders want to sell a 10% equity interest in their company, what are the terms of this initial $100,000 investment? Is the company selling common shares or preferred shares? If the company sells, will the sale proceeds first go to return the investor’s money or will the founders and the investor split all proceeds 90/10? What happens if the company raises capital on better terms in the future? Will the investor receive those better terms or have an opportunity to participate in the new offering to avoid dilution?

Issuing a convertible note in lieu of company stock once again allows the founders and the investor to postpone these decisions until the company’s next equity financing round. The convertible note investor will simply convert into the class of shares offered in the next equity financing and generally receive those same rights (with certain exceptions). Given this simplicity, a convertible note offering is generally cheaper than putting together an equity financing round. With that said, however, it is important to remember that both types of offerings involve the issuance of a security, and you will need to consult an attorney in both cases to ensure compliance with federal and state securities laws. In addition, the angel financing community has matured to the point where there are generally agreed upon terms for first-money convertible note offerings and first-money equity offerings, which reduces the negotiating complexity for both types. Therefore, while it is generally true that convertible note offerings are more simple to put together, the costs are not always that distinct from equity offerings, and outside factors – like who your investors are and the amount of negotiating leverage they have – will play a significant role in the overall complexity of the project.  

There’s no doubt that convertible notes have been a nice addition to the early-stage financing landscape, particularly for founders since it allows them to raise capital efficiently and without granting the rights typically reserved for preferred stock investors. Although convertible notes postpone discussions regarding company valuation and preferred stockholder rights, these decisions must be made at some point. Therefore, convertible notes are best viewed as a bridge to get the company in the best possible position for a larger round of equity financing.

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This article is for general information only. The information presented should not be construed to be formal legal advice nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship.

Case Status, a Birmingham, Ala.-based client relationship management and marketing platform for law firms, is announcing today that it has received Series Seed II investment funding of $1.5 million from Atlanta-based venture investment firm BIP Capital.

The company says that the funds will be used to support its continued growth, including the hiring of additional personnel and the development of new feature sets for specific practice areas.

Case Status allows lawyers to provide clients with real-time visibility into the status of their matters from their mobile devices. The platform also helps lawyers grow their firms by making it easy to obtain reviews and referrals from current clients.

Lauren Sturdivant

This news comes almost exactly one year after I last wrote about Case Status, when it had just received $750,000 in funding from the Alabama Futures Fund.

Case Status was cofounded in 2017 by Lauren Sturdivant, a former personal injury attorney, and Andy Seavers, an entrepreneur.

While practicing, Sturdivant saw firsthand the difficulty of keeping her clients up to date. When she was unable to find a product that did that, she decided to leave her firm and build one herself.

“It’s fascinating that in a world where you can track everything — from Amazon packages to the status of your pizza order — there was no way for clients to track the status of their case, one of the most important things going in their lives,” said Sturdivant, now the company’s CEO.

Last year, Case Status shifted its pricing model, going from per-user subscription pricing to per-case pricing. Firms pay a one-time, flat fee per case that they can pass on to clients.

Case Status integrates with AbacusLaw, CasePeer, Clio, and Filevine.

BIP Capital invests in both early-stage and growth companies. Its areas of focus include enterprise SaaS, healthcare IT, digital media, development tools, and marketing technology.

“We’re excited to partner with Case Status to resolve a common but critical pain point between lawyers and their clients — a dearth in regular communications,” Mark Buffington, CEO of BIP, said in a statement.

‘Case Status,’ App that Automates Client Communications, Receives Venture Funding

Step one in any litigation is actually knowing who you’re appearing in front of. Well, not really. Step one is probably advising a potential client of his or her rights and executing a retainer agreement, but knowing who you’re appearing in front of is high up on the list.

In the Southern District of Texas, attorneys for plaintiffs Marvin and Shirley Williams in their lawsuit against Avon failed to clear this important hurdle, addressing a draft motion to Judge Keith Ellison even though the case will be heard by Judge Andrew Edison. It’s an understandable mistake, except they spell and pronounce their names differently.

Rather than flying off the handle at the error as some more egocentric trial court judges have been known to do, Judge Edison responded with a gentle but firm benchslap with a heavy dose of self-deprecation:

Plaintiff’s counsel prepared this draft order and obviously confused me with U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison. I appreciate the compliment, but want to make sure the parties understand that Judge Ellison and I are two completely different people. Judge Ellison clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court; I once visited the Supreme Court on a tour. Judge Ellison was a Rhodes Scholar; my mom thinks I should have been a Rhodes Scholar. Judge Ellison graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard; I don’t know what those big Latin words mean.

Along the way to granting the motion, Judge Edison even offered some free writing advice about the importance of getting to the point in writing with an extreme markup of the draft.

A tip of the hat to Judge Edison for showing us all that just because judges have an important job, it doesn’t mean they can’t have a sense of humor about themselves.

(Check out the order on the next page.)

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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.

Well, don’t we all feel better? Are you not reassured by the President’s little fireside chat last night?

No? HUH!

Funny enough, the stock market is also a bit dyspeptic this morning. After President Trump’s eleven-minute, scripted address to the nation, his aides spent the rest of the evening cleaning up a series of catastrophic factual errors that exacerbated the panic over COVID-19. You can watch the whole thing here, if you’re feeling masochistic.

Naturally Trump opened by patting himself on the back for “the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history” and then crapping on China and the E.U., claiming that “a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe.” In normal times, we might not refer to our allies, who are, lest we forget, suffering and dying, as vectors of contagion. But in normal times, we’d probably give them a heads up before announcing a travel ban on national television.

These are not normal times.

To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight. These restrictions will be adjusted subject to conditions on the ground. There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings.

Naturally, this set off a panic in Europe, where Americans and lawful permanent residents abroad raced to pay whatever it cost to get on the last plane out of Saigon De Gaulle, since the president very clearly said Americans weren’t getting back in without “appropriate screenings,” whatever that means.

Except, whoopsie!

It’s cool, you guys. The airlines will get right on those refunds … NEVER.

Trump continued:

These prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing. These restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom.

Now, to the untrained observer, that might sound like Trump is cutting off imports from our biggest trading partner, effective immediately. But when he said “anything coming from Europe to the United States,” what Trump meant was only people.

Clearly those losers at the FTSE and the DAX, both of which dropped about 10 percent yesterday, really need to clean their ears! Did they not hear the president when he decreed that “This is not a financial crisis, this is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome together as a nation and as a world?” Silly Europe!

Third time’s a charm?

Earlier this week, I met with the leaders of health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all copayments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing.

Uhhhh, nope.

“The leaders at the White House for Tuesday’s industry meeting agreed to waive copays for testing not for treatment. Treatment is being considered a covered benefit in accordance with a person’s plan,” Kristine Grow, spokesperson for America’s Health Insurance Plans told CNBC’s Eamon Javers.

Meanwhile, we still have nowhere near enough tests to diagnose how far the virus has spread, and Mitch McConnell is refusing to pass Nancy Pelosi’s plan because “it proposes new bureaucracy that would only delay assistance.” Which seems to be code for, you guessed it, abortion.

Anyway, this is all fine.

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaay?

Remarks by President Trump in Address to the Nation [WH.gov, March 12, 2020]

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Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Earlier this week, Quinn Emanuel shuttered its New York office after one of the firm’s partners tested positive for coronavirus, enacting a work-from-home policy for all of its attorneys and staff. A day later, Faegre Drinker closed its offices worldwide and enacted a similar policy, if only for a short time, due to a coronavirus scare. All the while, attorneys and staff at other Biglaw firms were left wondering why their firms hadn’t taken any action yet when the technology is available to let them to do their jobs from safe spaces.

As luck would have it, another Biglaw firm has finally decided to allow its lawyers and staff to work from home — and the way they’re doing it is pretty interesting.

Yesterday, Weil Gotshal sent out a memo to let everyone know that the firm’s coronavirus policy had been updated to require mandatory work-from-home sessions on alternating weeks. To accomplish this, the firm will be split into two separate groups, with smaller groups venturing into the office every other week. The firm’s goal here is to minimize the risks of anyone contracting coronavirus through this social distancing program. Weil’s policy will be in effect until further notice.

Here’s an excerpt from the memo, which is available in full on the next page:

Work from Home:  Group A & Group B

Effective, Monday, March 16th, the Firm will assign all attorneys and administrative personnel into two groups:  Group A and Group B.  These groups will alternate working from home on a weekly basis (i.e., Group A will work from home the week of March 16th, Group B will work from home the week of March 23rd, etc.).  This is mandatory and may be adjusted as required outside the United States.  By Friday, March 13th, assigning partners and/or practice group leaders (for attorneys) and managers/supervisors (for administrative personnel) will inform members of their teams of their respective group assignment.

Any administrative staff member who believes that they cannot perform some or all of their regular job functions from home should consult with their immediate supervisor, who will be managing work flow and may be able to provide alternative projects.

Is Weil simply too big to have all of its personnel work from home at the same time? The firm has more than 1,100 lawyers and an untold number of staff. While this isn’t the perfect solution to the coronavirus exposure problem, at least Weil is doing something about it by offering all of its employees this option.

Congratulations to Weil Gotshal on being one of the first Biglaw firms to offer a way for its employees to continue working while staying safe during a pandemic.

What is your firm doing to protect lawyers and staff from coronavirus? Please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “Coronavirus Response”). Stay safe.

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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.

Thanks to the global pandemic that is the coronavirus, it’s beginning to look a lot like 2008. The stock market plummeted for the second time this week, both times triggering circuit breakers to suspend all trading. Law schools have canceled in-person classes and have shifted to online coursework, some for the rest of the semester. Some law firms have shuttered offices, with others encouraging attorneys to work from home until further notice.

All of this upheaval got us to wondering what would happen to Biglaw summer associates. Of course, as noted by the American Lawyer, Biglaw firms have already interviewed law students and selected their incoming summer classes.

“We did our hiring for the summer [and] fall months and months ago,” said David Greenwald, managing partner at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson. “That’s locked and loaded.”

Same for Washington, D.C.-based tax boutique Caplin & Drysdale, although the timing was closer.

“[On campus interviews] just finished, and the summer offers are out,” said firm administrator John Riggleman. “Three weeks back, it probably would have had a greater impact.”

But if the coronavirus sticks around, could we be facing a situation where upcoming summer programs are possibly postponed or canceled outright?

“On summer programs, while there may be some cancellations, I would be surprised to see mass cancellations due solely to COVID-19 concerns,” said Zeughauser Group consultant Kent Zimmermann. “The bigger issue in my mind is what happens to the macroeconomy. If there is a sustained macroeconomic downturn and it depresses demand for legal services, similar to what happened after Lehman Brothers, firms may cut back on their summer programs and other expenses, similar to what happened as a result of the financial crisis and its impact on the broader economy and the negative impact of that on demand for legal services.”

While some think they’re “going to get through this just fine,” law students who thought their careers were mapped out are growing increasingly worried. To that end, a Reddit post that has since been deleted detailed $24,000 payouts for law students from law firm that allegedly cut its summer program due to the coronavirus outbreak.

While we genuinely hope that things will work out, we are but a few weeks into what could be a very long journey when it comes to containment of the coronavirus and a potential recession that could drive the legal market into chaos.

Is your firm planning to hold its summer associate program as planned, despite coronavirus concerns? Please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “Coronavirus Summer Associate Program”) and let us know. Stay safe.

How Coronavirus and a Bear Market Could Upend Law Firm Hiring [American Lawyer]

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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.

Just in time for Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, Lawline’s fourth annual installment of our Top Women Faculty List puts a spotlight on some of the most amazing legal minds we have the pleasure of working with. These attorneys are at the top of the game in their practices – which range from health law to immigration to IP, and everything in between – and also masters of pedagogy. Online CLE can be a tough format to teach, but these superstars are making an impact on attorneys across the country. Our top women faculty are on the front lines of changes in technology, immigration, and more, providing practical, actionable advice that attorneys can implement immediately to grow in their careers. The women on this list taught some of the most-watched, highest rated programs Lawline produced in 2019 – and we are incredibly proud that we provided the platform for them to shine.

Without further ado, it is our pleasure to introduce our Top Women Faculty of 2019: