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Understanding Your Duty of Care as a New Lawyer
By Anonymous • August 21, 2019 •Issues, Other Issues
As a new lawyer, you have a certain responsibility to your clients. Failing in that duty could leave you open to claims of professional negligence. It’s important to understand what professional negligence is, how it differs from ordinary negligence and what it means to you as a lawyer. Understanding Professional Negligence Professional negligence occurs when professionals fail to take proper care when working with their clients. In terms of your working relationships, clients expect you to keep them from financial, physical and/or emotional harm. If you fail to do this, you may be accused of breaching your duty of care.…
Because Culture Shapes our Differences
By ilise feitshans • August 21, 2019 •Issues, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination
One day when I was four or five years old my father took a baseball out of my hands saying that I should give it to my younger brother and step aside to the nearby sidelines to watch without getting hit by the ball because “baseball is not for girls” . That one sentence changed my life irretrievably forever. My father and my grandfather loved me dearly from before my first breath until their last breaths departed decades later, so it was not an act of bad intentions or conspiratorial meanness with some evil goal and certainly not hate. If…
What Is the Need for Professional Liability Insurance for Lawyers
By Arpita Arya • August 16, 2019 •Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
Professional Liability Insurance is one of the most crucial insurance coverages a law firm can carry. Although the responsibilities of a lawyer frequently involve defending their clients in court, lawyers themselves can become defendants when a professional lawsuit is filed against them. Their mistakes can result in their client's loss of money. It is the reason that you can sue them for professional negligence. This can also be called as malpractice insurance. It can pay for the cost to defend lawsuits against you and your firm. They also come to your aid when any judgments or settlements arising out of…
How To Network In The Legal And Compliance Field
By Alex Newman • August 16, 2019 •Issues, Mentoring and Networking
Networking has become the primary source of maintaining business connections and seeking business opportunities at national and international level. In the field of legal and compliance, Networking provides a good ROI in the form of name, fame, and business. With the help of Networking, communication among clients and employers has become boundary-less. On this, Houston attorney Joe Stephens mentions, “networking has done its job exclusively.” However, according to the law and order statistics, one in four attorneys do not give any attention to Networking. It allows their circle of potential employers to stay small and limited. It is a loss.…
Problems to Solve, or Tensions to Manage?
By Jenny Patten • August 11, 2019 •Ms. JD, Writers in Residence, Careers, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
A few days ago, I ran into a colleague that I hadn’t seen in a few weeks at our company café. As we caught up while standing in line to order our lunches, he commented on the fact that I carry two phones with me and asked why. I explained that I try to keep my personal and work communications separate, and this allows me to “put away” my work texts and emails when I’m spending time with my kids by physically placing my work phone in my purse for a few hours. I admitted that while this tactic had…
Using Law to Protect Children from Violence
By ilise feitshans • July 28, 2019 •Issues, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination
TO: Ms. Najat Maalla M’jid of Morocco Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children United Nations Secretariat New York City USA July 15 2019 STATEMENT OF INTEREST The Work Health and Survival project, founded in 1999 has addressed legislative questions in the USA the United Nations agencies and in several foreign nations at various levels of government. This testimony supports the Zero tolerance for Violence Against Children initiative of the UN SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL in New York City July 15 2019 On September 2015, the new global sustainable development agenda was unanimously adopted by the Member States…
Interview with Deborah E. Johnson, Entertainment & Sports Lawyer - On the Field: Women in Sports Law
By Tatum Wheeler • July 24, 2019 •Ms. JD, Careers, Other Career Issues, Law School, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life, Women and Law in the Media
Please welcome Ms. Deborah E. Johnson, an entertainment and sports lawyer from the Dallas area and Texas A&M University School of Law graduate. A solo practitioner for over five years specializing in entertainment and sports law, Ms. Johnson runs her own company, teaches government at a local college, and serves as in-house counsel of a construction company. Ms. Johnson has experience in diverse practice areas including compliance, education, juvenile representation, in-house practice, and transactional law. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me! Let’s get started. I enjoyed your post, How to Survive Law School, in which…
Protecting Client Information from Cybersecurity Risks
By Anonymous • July 08, 2019 •Issues, Other Issues
Lawyers, whether you have your own firm or are working in a firm, have an ethical obligation to keep client information confidential. Digital data, often stored online, is also the obligation of the firm. Law firms need to have security measures in place, starting with the very basics of password protection to using encryption. Password protection, especially for laptops, is required, but one report found that only 94% of lawyers in firms that have 10 – 49 attorneys have their laptops password protected. If the laptop is stolen and client data is on the laptop, a lack of a password…
The Lingering Effects of Student Loans on Women
By Jolevette Mitchell • July 04, 2019 •Issues, Other Issues
You might remember my colleague (who is also my bar exam coach and business coach) discussing her struggles with student debt. We got an inside look into life after law school – the pile of debt that comes knocking on our door every month just like the Red Queen. But unlike the Red Queen, which stops visiting after menopause, student debt can haunt us for years to come…even into retirement. Why are we women so inundated with this form of debt? Because women are still struggling economically. It is a known fact that economics works against women in almost every country- including the…