O’Neil: Litigating in a paperless environment
If you walked down the hallway of the average law firm in the year 2000, what would you see? Paper, and a lot of it!
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4 attorneys disrupt market by launching legal services company in Indianapolis
Seeing an opportunity in helping businesses and lawyers with discovery in an electronic world, Hamish Cohen and three of his attorney colleagues – Ray Biederman, Sean Burke and Jon Mattingly – launched Proteus Discovery Group.
What’s in a domain name?
New .law Internet domain names offer lawyers and firms a rare chance to create an online brand that conveys to consumers a prestigious, professional identity. Or, .law names might just confuse people.
Chief legal officers: cost pressures biggest issue
Chief legal officers say internal and external cost pressures were their biggest concern in managing their law departments this year, according to survey results released Tuesday by Altman Weil.
Can an on-demand lawyer startup transform the legal business?
John Suh is convinced that he can put lawyers back to work. In the past decade, the number of working lawyers has fallen by more than 50,000. Solo practitioners, the mom-and-pop shops of jurisprudence, have been in a death spiral for even longer.
Figuring out flat fees
A recent Indiana State Bar Association Legal Ethics Committee opinion says lawyers who charge clients flat fees considered earned on receipt shouldn’t deposit the fees in their Interest on Lawyer Trust Account, but should put the money in the firm’s operating account. Some lawyers aren’t convinced this makes sense.
Attorneys say juggling work and parenthood is worth the effort
Figuring out how to balance the demands of practicing law with the needs of a family is a struggle that female attorneys have long faced, but increasingly male attorneys also want to be able to take time for their families.
Sue Shadley memorial set for Nov. 7
A memorial service for trailblazing Indianapolis attorney Sue Shadley is scheduled for Nov. 7 at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.
Inside massive injury lawsuits, clients get traded like commodities for big money
For all the black robes and ceremony, the American legal system often operates more like a factory assembly line than a citadel of individualized justice. Now a legal dispute within a plaintiffs' law firm that organizes massive torts is threatening to pull back the curtain on the mechanics of high-volume litigation.
Has it become impossible to prosecute white collar crime?
For close watchers of the interactions between the Justice Department and the financial industry, the mistrial in the Dewey & LeBoeuf case was about more than just the fact that a handful of jurors were too overwhelmed by the evidence presented to reach a verdict. The mistrial, after four months in court and 22 days of deliberations, hints at a much deeper problem: Perhaps most financial crime has simply reached a level of such complexity that it's beyond the reach of the law.
Trailblazing lawyer Sue Shadley dies
Indianapolis attorney Sue Shadley, who made her mark in environmental law and was a founding partner in what became one of the city’s major firms, died Monday from Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Five for 5 at 25
As Indiana Lawyer marks its 25th anniversary, we posed five questions to five leaders in the legal community admitted to practice in 1990. Here’s what they had to say upon marking a quarter-century in the profession.
Trust and the troubled child
Estate planning attorneys occasionally draw the strong-willed client who wants to leave money to an heir – but only if the kid sobers up, quits getting in trouble with the law, gets a job, stops living beyond his means, or changes behavior in some other way.
Retzner: The family vacation home: harmony or chaos?
In most instances, vacation homes achieve the goal of family harmony. After the parents pass away, however, that family harmony can quickly turn to chaos.
Indiana law firms showcase local artists
Frost Brown Todd LLC has turned a portion of its 19th-floor suite into an art gallery. Every couple of months, the walls of the meeting area, conference room and adjoining hallways are adorned with a new collection of works by a local artist.
Confidence levels remain muted, partners say
If there’s optimism among law firm managing partners, it’s muted at best.
Dewey jury remains stuck over most counts against executives
A jury considering fraud charges against three former executives at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP remains deadlocked on most counts in its 18th day of deliberations.
Record pace for US law firm combinations continues
Law firm mergers show no signs of abating. That’s the takeaway from a report from legal consultant Altman Weil Inc., which tracks the number of combinations — both large and small – among firms.
Total legal spending up 2 percent, survey says
Total legal spending is up slightly – by 2 percent – according to HBR Consulting’s 2015 Law Department Survey. But, not surprisingly, outside counsel spending is flat compared with last year.
Brown: Can the gladiator make peace?
It is the concept of the peacemaker that so clearly expresses the role of the mediator.