Practicing law is stressful. Stress breeds anxiety, depression, problem drinking and other challenges to being a well-adjusted, successful lawyer. Help can come from many areas, such as friends, family and medical professionals. An American Bar Association-backed task force report recommends law firms should be squarely in this remedial mix.
“It’s only minimal competence.” This well-meaning phrase is meant to reassure bar examinees that, though the exam is difficult, you only need to pass it, not receive a high score. Despite the minimal competence standard, bar examinees still stress about the exam. As a recent examinee, I want to share how three significant changes surrounding the bar exam in the past 20 years have contributed to examinee stress.
In this issue, we’re launching a new column from Don Hopper about law firm succession planning. And speaking of the future and succession planning, we’ve got a succession plan in place here at Indiana Lawyer.
I want to let you know about a fun evening coming up on Oct. 6 at the Crane Bay Event Center. Like last year, when famed Indianapolis attorney Jim Voyles was roasted to benefit Indianapolis Legal Aid Society, Indy Mayor Joe Hogsett is stepping up this year to take the heat for the same great cause.
Read a first-person account about one lawyer’s struggle with alcohol addiction and help received through JLAP.
You may or may not be aware of it, but at JLAP we are sensitive to the reality that a lot of people feel pretty crummy right after the holidays. We talk to lawyers a lot about how they are feeling and our observations are that despite all the advice on how to avoid feeling stressed during the holidays, more people struggle after the holidays than during the holidays.
Six years have passed since Indiana sued IBM over the failed $1 billion contract for the computer giant to modernize a punch-card-era system for determining welfare eligibility. After the contract was famously canceled, IBM blamed the state, the state blamed IBM, and they’ve been fighting in court since.
A proposed overhaul of Admission and Discipline Rule 23 contains some good ideas among the 108 pages of side-by-side comparisons of the old and the new. But the proposals would do little to deprogram the Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission’s culture of confidentiality or boost public confidence in the agency that polices Indiana attorneys.
If you voted for President Barack Obama in 2012, sorry, but your vote no longer counts. That’s effectively what the Republican members of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary said in a Feb. 23 letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
As we complete a long, complicated year, my great judge journey leads me to a wish list. While wish lists are not uncommon for gift-giving season, or the start of a new year, this one is intended for regular rumination.
After 27 years in the trenches of civil litigation, most on behalf of injured plaintiffs, it is still shocking to see the blind eye that some judges turn toward even the most egregious violations of the discovery rules.
Note my musings on friend Larry Reuben on the occasion of the spring opening of the Riviera Club pool.
Indianapolis attorney Lawrence M. Reuben, who created a strong legacy of community activism, died Sept. 11, 2015. He was 67 years old.
If you have not had an opportunity to take our survey, please take a moment to do so at www.theindianalawyer.com/survey-2015.
As we approach the 228th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution this Sept. 17, we might consider where civic literacy is taking place.
The requirement for candor toward the tribunal is set forth in Indiana Rule of Professional Conduct 3.3, and it qualifies the attorney-client privilege.
A formal opinion recently issued by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility sheds light on what materials belong to the client.
Mobile device scanning doesn’t take long to learn and helps when you wish you had a copy machine nearby.
The 7th Circuit has issued a series of additional opinions, shedding more light on the goals, scope and limitations of conditional release.
Retaining your important data exclusively on the hard drive of your computer is a recipe for disaster. To assist you, there are myriad subscription data backup services available today, such as Carbonite and iDrive.