Articles

Making Rain: When a room full of strangers freaks you out

As most good rainmakers know, it is all about networking, and sometimes this means talking to people who are total strangers. It can be daunting to attend an event that your firm is sponsoring or a conference that your target market attends and be expected to “go out there and make new friends.”

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Companies need to draft ‘bring your own device’ policies

While the convenience of handheld, portable computers enables employees to peruse email, communicate with clients and review documents without being tied to the office, the “bring your own device,” or BYOD, trend is creating tensions between how much access an employer can have to the worker-owned device and how much privacy an employee can expect.

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Federal judge, managing partner keep jazz on the radio in northwest Indiana

Each week longtime friends Bill Satterlee, managing partner at Hoeppner Wagner & Evans LLP in Valparaiso, and Kent Lindquist, senior judge for the Bankruptcy Court in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, share their mutual love of jazz by recording a two-hour show that airs Sunday nights on the local public radio station.

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ABA releases tool to assess cognitive impairment

To help attorneys who are concerned about the intellectual fitness of another lawyer or judge, the American Bar Association has recently released a cognitive assessment tool. The “Working Paper on Cognitive Impairment and Cognitive Decline” is a questionnaire designed to give attorneys guidance in determining whether a partner or friend is just having a bad month or is suffering from something more serious. It also provides recommendations for talking to a colleague who is exhibiting troublesome behavior.

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Task force: Keep pro bono hours anonymous

A task force at the recommendation of the Indiana Supreme Court recently looked at five areas concerning pro bono work and the reporting of hours, including whether attorneys' reported pro bono hours should be disclosed publicly.

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Early education efforts expose youth to various careers in law

Harrison Ndife and his peers gathered at the end of a long week to kick back, talk shop and do a little networking. A rising sophomore at Terre Haute South High School, Ndife had just completed the Summer Legal Institute along with 39 other eighth-graders and high-schoolers. They learned what it will take for them to become lawyers and where their place in the profession might be.

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Starting salaries increase slightly for 2013 law grads

The median starting salaries for 2013 law school graduates rose slightly to nearly $62,500, according to data released by NALP Thursday. More grads also found jobs nine months out of school, but the unemployment rate rose due to the increased size of the graduating class.

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Solo and Small Firm Conference puts focus on future of law

With a focus on “The Future of Law” and highlighted by a healthy dose of ethics and a look at coming changes and challenges, the Indiana State Bar Association’s Solo and Small Firm Conference at the French Lick Resort drew the second-largest crowd in the event’s history, organizers said.

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Guarding against undue influence

Changes in a person’s will and estate plan that vary from equal distribution of assets among heirs, as favored by law, should raise red flags, elder law attorneys say.

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