Would you believe it, another group of people that hate lawyers…
If you are reading this then you probably already are one (or headed that way), and you may or may not be pleased to know that you have a head start when it comes to dating one…
Some fine examples of how lawyers use their skills of reason and logic to rip off clients without them clocking it. Or not as the case may be. The problem with the billable hour is that you can only sensibly have 24 of them in a day and that, you see, has its limitations.
Like other advisors, some lawyers find questionable ways to squeeze a bit of extra cash out of clients. Some are legal, some aren’t, but all will …
There are plenty of law graduates and qualified lawyers struggling to keep their legal career on track these days. We have heard some fairly desparate stories of application after application being knocked back. News that firms have instructed recruiters to search only from the ranks of the employed and not from the large pools of redundant solicitors is galling for those out of a job but not wholly surprising. With a surfeit of candidates to choose from it’s an …
Feel like tearing your boss a new one or wrapping a monitor round a colleague’s head. You probably need to step out and chill for a bit. But if you just want to have a strongly worded discussion about strategy or a robust exchange of ideas, then it might be ok to go right ahead; from the BBC:
New research suggests that companies would prosper by encouraging a robust exchange of ideas, even if this descends into a heated argument, …
We love a bit of ranking – a couple of interesting reports on the current shape of law firms have just come out. A joint research project between The American Lawyer and Legal Week found total revenues at the world’s 100 highest-billing law firms have crept up 1.7% from the previous year, from $78.53bn to $79.92bn. Average fee income for a Global 100 practice was $799.2m, up from $785.3m in 2008 but average profit per equity partner (PEP) was …
Some lecturers here may claim to use the Socratic Method of teaching but when it comes to crunch few go to the same lengths as American law schools. Law schools in the States commonly use the teaching method to stimulate rational thinking and to illuminate ideas from their students. All jolly exciting. What we are drawing attention to is the embarrasing moment that everyone encounters at some point in their educational and professional career which is not knowing the …
No we haven’t assigned anyone in the SolicitR team to become the Jeremy Clarkson of office tools. But we are known for occasionally straying away from a strictly legal menu. One of our readers sent us a selection of product reviews on Amazon that got hijacked by readers; this just happens to be the one we thought was most useful to lawyers:
Bic Cristal Ballpoint Pen, Medium Point, Black
Number of reviews: 188
Sample reviews:
i) All my life I have been scratching …
Laid off recently? Trying to retain some semblance of sanity by interacting with other beings during the search for jobs/endless days surfing the net. Here’s some useful tips to ensure that your local coffee shop proprietor doesn’t resent your presence as much as the homeless guy who sleeps in the doorway:
1. Always buy something, preferably more than you would if you weren’t using the space. Obviously.
2. Don’t be a table hog. When the coffee shop fills …
University and law school should have taught wannabee lawyers a few things at least. Amongst them you’d hope for a bit of case analysis, some litigation techniques and legal research skills, but they normally overlook one important area: the practical realities that exist within a firm.
Cynisism aside for a minute, most new associates love being lawyers, or at least should for a while , and generally their first and foremost goal is to become a great lawyer. Over …
Sometimes you come across questions that tempt the conclusion – if you have to ask then you probably already know the answer. You might consider this just such an example but being open minded souls here at Solicitr, we suspect that there may be more than one or two stoners that have either made it into the higher echelons of law or intend to sometime in the not-to-distant future.
This question was not posed to our good selves (it was …
Those in the regions may think this just confirms what they already knew; Londoners may smart a little or wholeheartedly agree with this result, but London has failed to make the top 50 most live-able cities. That is according to worldwide analysis by the Economist Intelligence Unit in which Manchester was the only UK city to make the top 50, slipping in at 46th place. London managed 51st place.
Canada’s Vancouver came first, Vienna in Austria …
Dress codes at work are one of those things that normally start out simple and easy to interpret but can easily degenerate into mayhem when indiduals get the opportunity for a bit of self-expression. This probably happened in the early days of dress-down Friday (for those old enough to remember that dawning) but over time stringent codes were deployed to restore order and keep things nice and simple.
So reviewing this experience – new dress category, inappropriate dressing, ‘practical guidance’ …
As the time approaches for the start of summer vacation schemes, the ones that are still going ahead at least, one or two students may be in need of some pointers. Granted these have a distinctly American flavour coming from the font of the Bitter Lawyer’s knowledge pool but they are delivered with the wisdom that comes from experience and provide a handy nine point guide. For all those that see their own vac schemes as distant …
25. It is illegal for a cab in the City of London to carry rabid dogs or corpses.
24. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.
23. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down.
22. In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon.
21. Under the UK’s Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don’t want …
It may be that you won’t get a lot of choice in the matter at the moment with firms swinging the axe all over the place and the recruitment market saturated with out of work lawyers. Each time we get news of redundancies, which is pretty regularly at the moment let’s face it, there is a nagging feeling that people need a bit of positive news. Whilst that is not always possible given the bigger picture, there is normally …
The grass is always greener as they say. The traditional view of paralegaling for many in the UK is as a stepping stone to becoming a fully qualified lawyer. However, that is not to say that there aren’t also plenty of satisfied paralegals out there who have no desire to become lawyers. When it comes to assessing who has the juciest leaves to chew, our North American cousins have come up with a new comprehensive ranking of jobs at …
Some of you will have had your Christmas parties already so we’re guessing that the damage has already been done or you managed to juggle the situation without too much trouble.
For everyone else, here is some lighthearted advice from ATL :
"Casino Themes . Casino-themed parties are landmines. People lose all reason when they hear that a "Dinner for Two at Rosa Mexicano " or an iPod Nano is at stake, and I’ve personally seen the power of fake money …
The first step in dealing with a problem is normally identifying that problem. Procrastination is something most law students (probably any students actually) will become well versed in by the end of their degree and its a habit that is difficult to break even when one starts work (how many files gather dust until a transaction actually begins in earnest??). With nearly everything being computer-based these days internet access is at our finger tips most of the time so …
With the end of the recent law fair season, eager students will have mountains of brochures and websites to wade through in the coming weeks. Whilst a copious amount of reading is nothing new to scholars of the law, it’s always useful to have an efficient method in place so you can get back to Guitar Hero and Pro-e.
Well if the tomes of Megarry & Wade don’t phase you in the slightest then you might not need to worry …
