By Alara Chilton
You are an ambitious family law attorney who wants to increase your client base. After exploring several marketing options, you decide the best way to increase your business is to obtain client referrals by joining a professional networking organization. You consider several organizations and decide to request an application for membership to one that meets weekly and requires a $500.00 annual membership fee. Read More
By Shannon Bales
For many, the first use of trial presentation technology is trial by fire: they are thrown into a less-than-ideal situation. After all, everybody gets their start somewhere. The current tech reality in the courtroom is that lawyers seem to forget that going to trial is the most visible and high-stakes aspect of the work they do—and if the media are involved, their audience will go far beyond their clients and colleagues. Many lawyers simply do not have the commitment to technology used in the courtroom that they should have and it shows in the way they present their case and can create a negative effect on Read More
Part of California's new revised Rules of Professional Conduct is entirely new Rule 5.1(a) that addresses the responsibilities of a managing lawyer in a law firm.
By David C. Carr
Part of California’s new revised Rules of Professional Conduct is entirely new Rule 5.1(a) that addresses the responsibilities of a managing lawyer in a law firm. It provides, Read More
By Lawrence A. Huerta
One of the most difficult jobs of an advocate is making a strong opening offer that generates a reasonable counter-offer. There are no standard formulas, so how is a strong and realistic opening offer calculated? In the context of litigation, when should an opening offer be conveyed? Conventional wisdom is to open with an extreme offer to test the other party and to explore their flexibility. Unfortunately, if the opening offer is perceived as extreme, it can lead to an early breakdown in negotiations. Another piece of conventional wisdom is to make a “throwaway” offer without any reasonable expectation of launching a productive negotiation and for the primary purpose of probing the other party’s willingness to negotiate in a certain range. In 26 years of mediating litigated cases, throwaway offers have been the source of many early stalemates or, at the very least, extensive time devoted to bringing the opening offer into a reasonable range. In the worst cases, throwaway offers can poison an entire negotiation by negatively influencing all remaining counter-offers, including final offers. Read More
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