Thursday, December 19

Tag: corporate culture

What to Do If You’re Suffering From Lawyer Burnout | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice
21Dec By adminNo Comments
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What to Do If You’re Suffering From Lawyer Burnout | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice

When attorneys suffer from burnout, they may not know what to do. On the contrary, they may look around at overworked colleagues and conclude that no one has time for well-being. That was the consensus of 4,450 Massachusetts attorneys surveyed for a 2023 study conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago with Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, a nonprofit promoting attorney well-being. Of the attorneys surveyed, 77% admitted having experience with burnout.These don’t seem to be fleeting experiences, either. According to Bloomberg Law survey data, lawyers feel burned out about half of the time. And it becomes more serious the longer it persists.Workplace environments impact burnout, and law firms should do more to improve firm culture. But there are steps individuals can take on their paths ...
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How Law Firms Can Create Positive Workplace Culture | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice
6Dec By adminNo Comments
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How Law Firms Can Create Positive Workplace Culture | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice

When law firm leaders make changes to create a more positive, productive culture, those upgrades can improve employee sentiment and the company's bottom line. Company culture is an issue every firm leader should be addressing as law firms are known to be unforgiving environments, and many attorneys buckle under the strain. The good news is that firms that have taken steps to improve the workplace culture have learned lessons that can benefit the larger legal community.The Catalysts for Cultural ChangeThere’s usually a reason why a law firm decides this is the time for change in workplace culture. That inflection point will guide the process in enacting change.For example, Clark Hill, one of the nation’s 200 largest firms, acquired several smaller firms around the country. Following that, ...
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What Does ‘Of Counsel’ Mean? | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice
6Nov By adminNo Comments
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What Does ‘Of Counsel’ Mean? | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice

Like most companies, law firms have a hierarchy of naming conventions that apply to the individuals who work for them. These titles typically range in ranking from paralegal to associate to partner.Most titles have straightforward meanings, but the title "of counsel" is used to reflect a multitude of employment arrangements. In general, it is typically applied to lawyers at a law firm who are neither associates nor partners.Under the American Bar Association Formal Opinion 90-357, "of counsel" is an appropriate title for a lawyer with a law firm when “the relationship between the two is a close, regular, personal relationship and the use of the title is not otherwise false or misleading.”When to Categorize a Lawyer as 'Of Counsel'Generally, a working relationship between a lawyer and a la...
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What Is a Nondisclosure Agreement? | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice
18Oct By adminNo Comments
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What Is a Nondisclosure Agreement? | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice

Approximately 57% of U.S. workers have some version of a nondisclosure agreement, or NDA, with their employers, while 70% to 88% of American firms require employees to sign them.According to a team of researchers at Syracuse University and the University of Maryland, there is about a 40% to 50% chance that if an employer asks an employee to sign an NDA, it's also asked them to agree to a noncompete contract or another agreement restricting the worker's ability to seek future employment. And on the flip side, almost every company that requires employees to sign a noncompete contract or other restrictive agreement also requires them to sign an NDA. Nevertheless, NDAs, also known as confidentiality agreements, have been given less scrutiny than other restrictions on workers.But NDAs are rece...
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What Is a Noncompete Contract? | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice
5Oct By adminNo Comments
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What Is a Noncompete Contract? | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice

Within the U.S. workforce, researchers estimate that nearly 30 million workers are bound by noncompete contracts that prevent employees from holding jobs where they would compete against their former employers. Approximately 38% of Americans will have a “noncompete” (as they’re referred to in legal parlance) at some point in their careers. In May 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reviewed the impact of noncompetes, finding evidence that few employees negotiate or reject these contracts, and many workers don’t fully understand the provisions. Jurisdictions with more noncompete enforcement have lower job mobility, reduced wages and lower entrepreneurship.Concerned about the impact these agreements have on workers, dozens of states regulate these contracts in some way. Four sta...
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What Is ‘Big Law?’ | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice
7Sep By adminNo Comments
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What Is ‘Big Law?’ | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice

The term “Big Law” refers to the nation’s very large firms, as defined by the number of lawyers, size of revenue and number of offices. Big Law firms are also “at the top of their practice,” says Jim Jones, who served as managing partner at Arnold & Porter and is now a senior fellow at Georgetown University Law School’s Center for the Study of the Legal Profession.To identify those firms, most in the legal community start by looking at American Lawyer’s annual list of the nation’s largest firms, which is considered law’s equivalent to the Fortune 500.American Lawyer began publishing its list in 1986. Comparing the lists of then and today, it’s clear that Big Law has become big business.In 1985, the top firms on American Lawyer's list, now commonly referred to as the "Am Law 100," had ...
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How to Run a Law Firm | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice
25Aug By adminNo Comments
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How to Run a Law Firm | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice

Even the nation’s leading attorneys may wonder how to run a successful law firm.In fact, in June 2023, law firm advisors Patrick McKenna and Michael B. Rynowecer released a survey of 250 law firm leaders, the majority of whom work at the nation’s most prestigious firms. The survey revealed that most firm leaders (59%) had no job descriptions. Most weren’t trained for their positions, while only 11% had any formal evaluation of their performance.At the survey’s conclusion, McKenna and Rynowecer wondered how those same lawyers would respond to clients who allowed a multimillion-dollar corporation to be run by executives with as little experience as the lawyers themselves had.So, if you're wondering how to run a law firm, here's what to know.Is a Law Firm an Organization?A law firm is “a loo...
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How to Navigate Work-Life Balance at a Law Firm | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice
10Aug By adminNo Comments
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How to Navigate Work-Life Balance at a Law Firm | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice

For lawyers, work-life balance can mean many things. For example, some understand “work-life balance” to describe spending time with their family or raising children. For others, work-life balance may apply to spending time on any activity outside of the office.Some experts suggest an alternate term: work-life conflict. It’s not about achieving parity between your career and the rest of your life, these experts say. Instead, it’s about recognizing the tension between the two.For attorneys, this new term may resonate because lawyers know conflict. They know its costs and the value of a good resolution. And they know it’s better to prevent conflict than clean up its aftermath.Are Law Firms Stressful?To a certain extent, law firms are stressful because the practice of law is stressful. Law i...
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What to Know About Diversity and Inclusion at Law Firms | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice
3Aug By adminNo Comments
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What to Know About Diversity and Inclusion at Law Firms | Explore Law Firms and Legal Advice

While representation for women and people of color at law firms has grown, experts say the legal industry as a whole has more room for improvement when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. In fact, women will likely soon comprise the majority of associates at law firms, according to the 2022 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms from the National Association for Law Placement. Right now, however, women account for only about a quarter of partners. The percentage of people of color that are law firm associates has increased from about 20% in 2010 to about 28% in 2022. But they only account for about 11% of employees at the partner level.What Is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?DEI is an acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion. In corporate America, it has become a catch-all term...
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