Pew Research Center study on men's and women's views Read More ...

List of Resources on International Commercial Arbitration from Georgetown and the D.C. Bar Read More ...

Report on discrepancies in law firm compensation Read More ...

2010 theme: Communities thrive @ your library® Read More ...

Online game to promote discussion of gender bias in academia Read More ...

With the economic downturn, the legal market has been in major turmoil. Reports abound that firms are reducing the number of first-associate positions and cutting costs in unprecedented ways. Read More ...

Given the current economic crisis, and the collapse of large firms such as Heller Ehrman and Thelan, there is growing concern over the future viability of billing by the hour for legal services. The New York Times has an article published today that describes the tension between clients and firms regarding billing practices. Although this is a long-debated subject, the present economic crisis is making it more pressing. Read More ...

The blog, Law Librarian Blog, poses a question about the future financial situation of academic law libraries. Given that private law schools have been particularly hard hit by the economic crisis, many working in law schools are speculating where budget cuts may be most felt. There is a concern that law library budgets across the nation will be reduced. Read More ...

A very disturbing report has recently been published by the U.S. Census Bureau which indicates a huge disparity in pay between men and women in legal professions. The average salary of males in a legal profession is $105,233 compared to $53,790 for women. Read More ...

There is a new law school student loan forgiveness program included in the Higher Education Opportunity Act signed by President Bush last week. The bill amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to establish a program where the Department of Justice absorbs student loans for those working as prosecutors, or public defenders, provided they work for at least three years. Read More ...

An article in today's Washington Post details the boom in U.S. legal work among Indian workers. The outsourced legal industry in India is growing at a rate of 60% a year, taking advantage of the 300,000 Indians who enter law school every year. Read More ...

The National Law Journal has recently published a study on trends within law employment Read More ...

New York Times article about some law firms' movement away from billable hours Read More ...

Resources on International Law Careers Read More ...

The Clerkship Notification Blog provides clerkship applicants with information about the hiring process. Read More ...

An article for interviewees about the importance of thank you notes. Read More ...

An article by Linda Greenhouse in today’s New York Times notes a precipitous drop in the number of female clerks working for U.S. Supreme Court justices this term: “Women Suddenly Scarce Among Justices’ Clerks” (August 30, 2006). Although almost half of U.S. law school graduates in 2005 were women, there are only seven women among this year’s 37 Supreme Court clerks, half as many female clerks as there were last year at this time. A chart accompanying the Greenhouse article ranks Justices according to each one’s percentage of female clerks since the year 2000. A majority of Justice Breyer’s clerks since 2000 have been women, 15 out of 28. Forty-six percent of Justices Ginsburg and O’Connor’s clerks were women during the same period. Justice Scalia has had two female clerks since the 2000-2001 term.

The latest issue of Law Practice Today has lots of useful articles, addressing topics such as the art of crafting timesheet entries, the 2006 discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the structural causes of associates’ dissatisfaction, and a quiz on proactive marketing. 

I seem to be drawn to articles dispensing advice this week -- here’s another good one:  Judge Victoria Gerrard Chaney just penned a great article on courtroom etiquette for the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Journal.  The article also includes some excellent advice from Nancy Kaiser for those who are making their first appearances in court.  Judge Chaney has a pretty extensive list of etiquette "don’ts":

• Don’t answer your cell phone or use your Blackberry in the courtroom. 
• Don’t engage in heated exchanges with opposing counsel in the courtroom -- work out your differences somewhere else rather than asking the judge to serve as referee.
• Don’t swig from bottles of water while addressing the court.  Judge Chaney sternly opines that "[u]nscrewing a water bottle, tipping it toward the heavens, and gulping may be acceptable after a jog or in your car but not in the courtroom, especially while addressing the judge on the record or arguing to the jury."
• When arguing motions, don’t read directly from the pleadings.
• Last but not least, don’t drive the court reporter crazy by talking over others in the courtroom or by speaking too softly or too quickly.

Thanks to WSJ’s Law Blog for the tip.

 

For those of you who are interested in clerking, I highly recommend an excellent article by Judge Ruggero Aldisert, Ryan C. Kirkpatrick and James R. Stevens III.  "Rat Race: An Insider Guide to Landing Judicial Clerkships" (Westlaw password required) gives students a blunt, realistic, and practical overview of the judicial clerkship application process.  The authors don’t sugarcoat their advice.  For example, the authors recommend that student applicants keep their cover letters short and sweet:

Unless you have some special interest in or connection with a particular judge, use the standard form letter. The cover letter is not the place to recount all of your academic and professional accomplishments or to discuss your summer work experiences; that is the purpose of the resume. If you are the editor of a journal or rank highly in your class, you may note those achievements. Other than that, however, the cover letter should be straightforward and short.

And for those students who are enthusiastic users of social software, the authors give this cautionary advice:

Most judges may be unfamiliar with the power of the Internet, but their clerks are not. This past year, when there was a free moment or two in the chambers, the law clerks "Googled" several of our applicants’ names and, lo and behold, they found a treasure trove of information omitted from the carefully-crafted application packet. What does this tell you, the applicant? Be careful what you put on personal web pages, web logs, or other Internet sites such as Friendster, because a clerk with a couple of minutes on his or her hands could be researching you. Although clerks may find it fun to circulate a link to your website around the office, you may not appreciate what knowledge of your party antics may do to your job chances.

Good luck to all of you who will be applying to judicial clerkships this year!  And if you need help researching your judges’ opinions or background, please stop by the reference desk.  We’re happy to help you with this part of the application process.

Now that I’m back from my two-week plus jaunt across the United States, I’ve been wading through my e-mail and came across a particularly pertinent article in the latest issue of the ABA’s Law Practice Today.  In her article, "Too Much to Do, Too Little Time?" Allison Shields recommends making a list of things that you shouldn’t do rather than a "to do" list so that you stop overextending yourself.  For example, attorneys can make a list of tasks that they should delegate to others so that they can concentrate on the most important tasks in their practices.  Attorneys can also use their "don’t do" list to remind themselves to avoid abusive clients and to protect their personal time by listing dates and times when they will not make themselves available to colleagues and clients.  Time-consuming marketing and networking activities that rarely yield new clients should also be added to the "don’t do" list.  I like Shields’ approach because it requires you to analyze your practice (or your job) and figure out the activities that are truly necessary and worthwhile and jettison the activities that aren’t worth it. 

The New York Times just published this article about the growing acceptance of flip-flops as acceptable footwear in the LA entertainment industry, which got me thinking: Will Hollywood's enthusiasm for flip-flops eventually mean that West Coast lawyers will be wearing flip-flops to depositions at some point in the next few years? Read More ...

I recently subscribed to Ellen Ostrow’s excellent newsletter, Beyond the Billable Hour, and I would recommend it for law students who are planning to join a law firm after they graduate.  The newsletter dispenses useful tips on career strategies and work-life balance aimed primarily at women attorneys, but there’s plenty of valuable information here for men as well.  Ostrow’s website also has a handy "Resources and Links" page that includes a lengthy bibliography on every aspect of managing your legal career.

The Wall Street Journal is publishing a summer-long Summer Associate Diary, which is available exclusively on WSJ Online to subscribers.  The series profiles four summer associates, working in a variety of law firm settings in cities across the country.  If you’re not a WSJ subscriber, you can find snippets of the Diary’s content on WSJ’s Law Blog as well.

Out of the Jungle recently featured an article from the Christian Science Monitor entitled, "It’s All About Me: Why E-Mails Are So Easily Misunderstood."  The article notes that the lack of facial cues and body language can make it quite difficult to determine whether the person who sent you a short e-mail is annoyed with you or just really, really busy.  E-mail is particularly tricky for attorneys -- in addition to worrying about whether their e-mails strike the right tone with important clients and with finicky supervisors, attorneys also have to worry about protecting attorney-client privilege and client confidentiality.  I would encourage those who are just beginning the practice of law to review Stephen Armstrong and Timothy Terrell’s recent article, "The Perils of E-mail," in the Spring 2006 issue of Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing (I’ll provide a link as soon as West loads this journal onto its website!).  Terrell and Armstrong give new lawyers a number of valuable tips on sending effective and appropriate e-mails to colleagues and clients.  And for those of you still in school, you may want to check out this New York Times article and a few professor blog entries about student e-mails from LawCulture, Discourse.net, and PrawfsBlawg. 

The ABA’s webzine, Law Practice Today, has some great articles this month on marketing your practice, using presentations as a rainmaking tool, staying motivated, stress management, and more. 

The Wall Street Journal featured an article last Tuesday about associate attrition from big law firms.  Paula Patton, head of the NALP Foundation, declares in the article that "[t]he rate of associate attrition we’re seeing today at big firms is the highest level we’ve ever seen."  For links to the article and an online discussion about the root causes of associate attrition, visit the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog.

This recent story by Law.com highlights a fairly common practice among law firms with offices scattered across the United States -- these firms may pay associates in smaller cities a smaller amount than they pay to associates in large metro areas.  It’s unlikely that any Bay Area law firm associates would find themselves on the less generous side of a firm’s salary scale, but it’s still something to think about if you plan to transfer within your firm to a smaller city or an overseas location. 

Law students don’t often think of law librarianship as a career choice while they’re in law school.  After all, to become a law librarian, you usually have to earn an additional graduate degree (a master’s in library and information science), and the pay for librarians isn’t anywhere close to a first year associate’s salary at a large Bay Area law firm.  However, law librarianship can be a great career choice for law school graduates who truly enjoy research and want a job with a slightly more manageable pace.  If you’re a soon-to-be law school graduate who isn’t sure if practicing law is for you, you might want to consider law librarianship.  There are some attractive fellowship programs that allow you to work part-time while you earn your Master’s in Library Science, such as this recently announced fellowship for aspiring law librarians at the University of Arizona:

The University of Arizona, School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) and the Law Library of the James E. Rogers College of Law offer a two-year fellowship in law librarianship for lawyers seeking to become law librarians. Successful applicants will work 20 hours a week in the law library while pursuing an M.L.S.

Requirements: 1) J.D. degree from an ABA accredited school; and 2) Admission to the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science.

Preference given to students with Spanish language skills.

SIRLS Application Process: Application for Admission to Graduate Study; written statement of Introduction; official Transcript from each college or university attended;
resume of educational and work experience; and two letters of recommendation.

Fellowship Application: Cover letter and resume. Cover letter should describe interest in law librarianship. Deadline April 1, 2006.

Send applications to:

Professor Mike Chiorazzi, Assoc. Dean Information Services
Law Library
University Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
1201. E. Speedway Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85721

Fellowship Information: The successful applicant will work 20 hours a week in the law library. The first year will focus on technical and access services, the second year will focus on public services. The salary is $11,000 a year, plus benefits and tuition remission. (In the current fiscal year the fellowship recipient would pay a program fee of $79 per semester and have the remaining tuition and other fees waived.)