Understand Your Rights. Solve Your Legal Problems
So, you’ve got like 10 exams coming up, your stress levels are high and keeping calm and composed seems impossible. Plus managing the whole thing is getting really hard. To ease the process, here Lawyer Monthly hears from Francine Ryan, lecturer in law and member of the Open Justice team at the Open University, who gives her top tips on managing the exam preparation.
Law is a competitive field and to ensure good marks it is important to prepare well. Exams are an opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned over the course of your studies and, although they can seem daunting, with the right preparation and practice you will succeed.
Firstly, you need to know what type of exam you are taking. As a law student it is likely over the course of your studies you will take a variety of different types of exams.
Essay and problem question exams
These are probably the most traditional law exams, asking you to complete a set number of questions in two or three hours. The mistake that many law students make when answering these types of questions is writing everything they know about the legal topic as opposed to answering the question asked. Planning and practice is critical to success.
Multi choice exams
The proposed SQE exam includes a variety of question formats, single best answer, extended matching questions and multiple-choice questions. The revision requires learning a lot of information. Generally speaking for each question there will be several answers which are plausible but not right and a couple which look correct. Time must be taken to narrow the choices and work out which is the correct answer. These types of exams require you to work at speed, so it is important you give yourself plenty of opportunity to practise beforehand.
Blended exams
Some exams will have a combination of multiple choice, short answers, essay and problem questions. In any type of exam, you can choose which order you answer the questions, a good strategy is to start where you feel most confident as this will encourage you and settle any nerves.
Exam success is determined by effective revision, the first step is to create a realistic timetable that breaks your revision into manageable chunks. Simply re-reading your notes or cramming the night before is not a good strategy, you need a methodical approach which includes condensing your notes into revision cards, creating plans for answering essay and problem questions, going through past papers and practising answering questions under timed conditions.
Learning cases and statutes is an important part of revision, but the ability to remember lots of different cases and statues in isolation is not helpful, you need to relate them to a legal topic so in the exam you can refer to the principles to support the points you are making. An examiner will give you very little credit for simply including a list of cases that touch upon a legal topic.
Many students feel nervous before taking an exam but that is actually a good thing because you produce adrenalin which helps sharpen your mind. Being over anxious is not helpful as it may impact on your performance so here are some suggestions to help control your nerves. The day before the check where you are going and how you plan to get there so you are not panicking on the morning of the exam. Take a bottle of water and a small snack with you, you don’t want to become dehydrated or your blood sugar to fall. Have a few notes with you which you can glance over before you go in to reassure you.
It sounds obvious but remember to breathe! Take controlled deep breaths if you start to feel anxious. If it is an essay and problem question exam, plan how you will divide your time for answering each question and make sure you stick to it! Read the questions several times to make sure you have clearly understood what is required and star the ones you think you will answer. As you read the questions you can jot down key points, cases or statutes that pop into your mind. Plan your answer first. It is tempting to start madly writing but you will produce a much clearer and more coherent answer, if you spend a couple of minutes organising your thoughts.
If it is a multiple-choice exam, answer the easiest questions first. Don’t rush because you want to avoid making careless mistakes or marking the wrong box. Go back and answer the more challenging questions. If you have time, check over your answers to make sure you have answered every question and marked the correct box. If you are running out of time just guess- there is a statistical chance that you may be right!
Avoid having a post mortem and berating yourself for forgetting a point, instead reward yourself for all your hard work. A few days later it is good idea to capture your thoughts on your revision strategy and exam technique, to think about whether you would do anything differently in the future. If you have a series of exams make sure you have lots of breaks, get plenty of sleep and eat well.
Good luck, exams can seem daunting but with good preparation you will get the results you deserve.
The American Bar Association’s accreditor of law schools is proposing to eliminate the requirement that ABA-approved law schools secure scores for a “valid and reliable” test for incoming classes as long as other measures indicate the school has “sound admission policies and practices.”
At its meeting in Boston on Nov. 3rd, the Council for the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar took the significant first step toward accepting one of the options proposed by its Standards Review Committee by putting the proposal out for “notice and comment.”
The proposed change emerged after a spirited discussion during the council’s near 5½-hour open session. At the meeting, council members considered a number of proposals and recommendationsfrom its Standards Review Committee. At its two-day meeting, the council also considered school accreditation matters behind closed doors consistent with its rules that require confidentiality.
Under a preliminary timeline, the earliest the proposal (known as Option 1 under Standard 503 in this memorandum) could affect first-year law students would be for classes starting fall 2019. Under the proposal, an admissions test remains one of the factors that a school can consider, along with grade-point average and other indicators of future performance. Schools would still have to report publicly results for each test they accept.
Any test change would signify a radical departure in law school admissions as the LSAT, administered by the separate Law School Admissions Council, has become a staple of law school admissions procedures since it was first administered nearly 70 years ago in 1948. In the past two years, however, several schools have announced they would begin accepting the GRE as an alternative admissions test. Current Standard 503, which covers admissions procedures, only requires a “valid and reliable test” be used in the admissions process. That standard remains in effect until any change takes place.
Pamela Lysaght, chair of the council’s Standards Review Committee which offered the change, said the current standard is “rather toothless” because it does not include any minimum test score or other required threshold. She said if the change is enacted, law schools would still be reviewed for “outcome issues” under Standard 501, which would be changed to say, “a law school shall admit only applicants” who appear capable of completing a legal education and being admitted to the bar.
Lysaght and Barry Currier, the managing director of the section, both stressed that under the proposed change the council could direct any school to require an admissions test as “remedial action” if, for instance, a low bar passage rate, attrition or other facts suggested a school was accepting less capable students.
The council is recognized as the national accreditor of law schools by the U.S. Department of Education. Under its rules, changes in standards, such as to Standard 503, would be reviewed by the ABA House of Delegates, which next meets in February 2018. The House could concur or ask that a change be considered. But the council retains the power to move ahead with any decision after two considerations by the House.
Two other major changes were also considered by the council, and it decided not to proceed on either for now.
The council again considered its previously adopted change to bar passage Standard 316. In February, the House of Delegates rejected the council’s request to make Standard 316 more straightforward and simple. Now, the standard considers first-time bar takers, statewide score averages and five-year “ultimate” bar passage rates. Council Chair Maureen O’Rourke, dean of Boston University School of Law, termed the current formula as “byzantine.”
The council has embraced a two-year ultimate bar passage rate of 75 percent of those who take the bar exam, which is typically administered by states twice a year. While the council first voted 9-8 to take that proposal to the House in February, it reconsidered in light of the closeness of the vote. Instead, the council will explore how best to get more support from legal education stakeholders who oppose the change. Some critics fear the change would have a disparate impact on law schools with significant numbers of minority students, whom studies have shown traditionally don’t do as well on standardized tests, which is also a concern of the council. But a survey in which nearly half of the 204 ABA-accredited schools voluntarily replied suggested the change might not be a major problem to meet.
The council also rejected a Standards Review Committee proposal to revise Standard 403 (see Appendix B) to allow for more adjunct faculty members in the second and third years of law school. Advocates said this would provide more faculty flexibility and allow innovation, and lighten the regulatory burden. But other council members expressed concern that too many adjunct faculty members would dilute the law school experience.
In other action the council:
For more information on the council meeting, including reports and recommendations, click here.
(Source: ABA)
Nailing an interview is hard, but getting an interview in the first place is where it all starts. Shari F. Lesnick, is a Career and Professional Development Coordinator at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School where she focuses on career coaching and employer outreach. Here Shari talks to lawyer Monthly about the key stage of job hunting in the legal sphere, resume building and securing an interview.
In today’s hiring market there are multiple online websites where you can blast out your resume in the hope that somewhere someone happens to look and selects you for that coveted interview. While the “send and wait” approach might work for other professions, law students and newly admitted attorneys should follow a tailored approach. Below are four tips to get your resume out of an inbox and position you to secure an interview.
Be Selective. A few years ago a luxury men and women’s handbag company expanded their market and placed product not only in their stores but in department stores and outlet malls. Instead of seeing an increase of sales, the brand became diluted and sales dropped. So too will the value of your resume plummet if you embark on the “mass mailing” approach. The legal community is close knit; hiring partners talk to each other. You don’t want to be known in your community as the person who sent his/her resume to every firm in your county. Be selective and have focus. If you choose to cold call law firms, make sure your resume reflects that you are a good match for the firm. Narrow your first round of cold call submissions to 5-7 places.
Be Mindful of What the Employer Seeks. The luxury handbag manufacturer ultimately switched focus back to their original customers. They were mindful of what their core customers wanted. They closed many of their outlet mall stores and department store mini-shops. Every job seeker must read the job posting carefully and be mindful of the employer’s requirements. Do not apply to positions where you do not meet the employer’s basic qualification – your current status. A law school graduate in most cases should not apply to a position that seeks a first or second year law student. A law student should not apply to a position that seeks a newly admitted attorney. If you have been practicing for one year it would be a waste of your time and the employer’s time to apply to a position that requests 3-5 years of experience. Be mindful and pay attention to what the employer seeks in their job posting. The specific requirements indicate what the firm needs right now. Focus your time and energies on positions where you meet the basic requirements and submit a resume that is tailored for those employers.
Tailor Every Resume Submission. When the luxury handbag company mass manufactured their product people lost interest because what was being offered wasn’t unique any more. Everything was the same and nothing stood out. It is not advisable to submit a one size fits all resume. Take the time to study each prospective employer. Review the attorney biography section of the website. Analyze what types of people the firm hires. What do you have in common with the other attorneys? What similar law school experiences do you have with them? What prior work experience do you have that the firm could use? After you have carefully studied the prospective employer, first revise your resume to reflect all the similarities you have in common. Next, reflect on what unique specific skills you have that the prospective employer would value. Ask your friends, other attorneys, professors and career services advisors what they know about the firm. Seek their input on your final resume draft.
Be Patient. The luxury handbag company didn’t have an overnight turn around. While the new point of sale strategies were being launched, the company embarked upon multiple customer engagement efforts. They reached out to a redefined market base and networked on social media, print advertising, industry events, and through partnerships with “tastemakers”. While you are selectively submitting your tailored resumes don’t be passive. Attend networking events that are compatible to your strategic resume submissions. If you seek a career in family law it wouldn’t make sense to focus your networking efforts with the insurance defense bar section. While you are proceeding with your resume submission efforts, continue self-marketing and personally engage with individuals and organizations that are compatible with your job search focus. Be patient, your selective self-marketing could ultimately lead to a personal introduction to an employer to which you previously submitted your resume. Stay connected to the people who are connected to the firms with whom you want to interview.
By following these tips coupled with strategic networking, your resume will resonate with employers and position you to secure the interviews you seek.
With National Pro Bono Week taking place as of yesterday, Francine Ryan, lecturer in law and member of the Open Justice team at the Open University, talks to Lawyer Monthly about Pro Bono work, getting involved, and the values behind Pro Bono legal work.
National Pro Bono Week takes place from 6th to 11th November 2017, it is an annual event in its sixteenth year, sponsored by the Law Society, the Bar Council and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx). It unites the legal profession in a celebration of the commitment and dedication to supporting individuals, charities and local communities.
National Pro Bono Week is a great opportunity to highlight the incredible volunteering provided by law students and legal professionals in their communities. Lawyers are often maligned by the media and yet the value of free legal advice provided by solicitors in 2015-16 was estimated at 1.8 million hours[1] . National Pro Bono Week promotes and raises awareness of pro bono and hopefully inspires more people to get involved and encourages the expansion of pro bono across the legal sector.
What is pro bono?
Pro bono means for the ‘public good’ and for lawyers it is the provision of free legal services to those who cannot afford to pay. There are a number of ways lawyers are involved in pro bono from volunteering in Law Centres, supervising law students in law clinics, or providing free representation in court.
How can you get involved?
Legal professionals and law students can all take part in National Pro Bono Week as there are events happening across the country. So, if you fancy channelling your inner quiz master you can take part in the Great Legal Quiz on November 8th which is fundraising for legal advice charities or if you want to be inspired listen to Edgar Cahn’s ‘Pro bono reflections of a civil rights veteran’ on 9th November.
Law students should check out the Student Pro Bono Conference at the University of Manchester on Saturday 11th November. This is a fantastic opportunity to find out more about pro bono and network with legal practitioners involved in delivering pro bono legal advice.
There is more information on National Pro Bono Week at www.nationalprobonocentre.org.uk with details of the events that are running during the week.
There will be lots of media coverage in National Pro Bono Week showcasing the commitment of the legal profession and many law schools to providing free legal services. It also provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the access to justice crisis and the plight of many vulnerable individuals who are without legal representation because of the significant reduction in the availability of legal aid.
Pro bono is more than National Pro Bono Week
National pro bono week is all about celebrating the valuable pro bono work provided by the legal community but it is also about fostering a sense of commitment to supporting access to justice. It is an opportunity to highlight the importance of pro bono to local communities.
Law students should relish the chance to get involved in pro bono. Law schools offer a variety of ways students can support individuals, charities and community groups by providing free legal advice in clinics, delivering Street law presentations or working on a miscarriage of justice project. For example, at The Open University law students provide an online legal advice clinic.
Cuts to legal aid have had a devastating impact on vulnerable individuals and although pro bono should never be a substitute for legal aid, law students have an increasingly important role to play in the provision of legal advice and public legal education to ensure access to justice.
Pro bono offers a fantastic opportunity for law students to support their local community but also to develop professional skills that will be invaluable in their legal career. Participation in pro bono will hopefully ensure law students develop an ongoing commitment to being involved in pro bono projects.
So, this week, reflect on how you can get involved in pro bono by engaging in events through National Pro Bono Week and beyond. Don’t forget to tweet about what you’re doing or what is going on in your local area #WeDoProBono.
[1] https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/Support-services/Practice-management/Pro-bono/National-Pro-Bono-Week/
At some point during their education, each and every law student, regardless of geography or concentration, will come face-to-face with the same question: what type of law do I want to practice? Here Kenneth Cutshaw, President and CEO of GCG, continues Lawyer Monthly’s series on law school and legal careers by discussing the global-based steps each budding international lawyer should consider alongside their legal specialization.
Some will know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, what practice area interests them. Others may take internships in the hopes of narrowing down their options. But while the fields of practice are nearly endless – corporate, financial, IP, class action, defense – there is one thing each has in common: the practice of law, in all its forms, is increasingly global in nature.
It is truer today than ever before: we live in a global economy, so whether or not a young lawyer intends to practice international law, there is a strong likelihood that, throughout the course of her career, she will face matters of international significance or, at minimum, cases that require some knowledge of the international legal landscape.
It is advisable for all law students and young legal practitioners to prepare for the practice of international law. This can be achieved through a deliberate approach to course scheduling, careful selection of internships, diversifying early professional experiences, expanding one’s personal knowledge base through literature, and ensuring the expectations and realities of international legal practice are aligned.
Course Scheduling
In addition to required international legal courses, law students should prioritize courses in international business, intercultural communication, and foreign language to prepare for success in the global legal sphere. They should aggressively seek out opportunities that broaden their experiences with people of myriad backgrounds. For example, consider studying abroad or participating in clubs that welcome and help international students adjust to life on campus. The goal is not necessarily to be fluent in several languages upon graduation, but to be prepared for – and sensitive to – differential cultural practices and ideas that might arise during the course of one’s legal career.
Choose Internships Carefully
There are few resources more valuable to law students than their internship experiences, so choosing them carefully and thoughtfully is critical. Do your research to ensure that any law firm you join has a proven track record of success and a strong international reputation. Internships often turn into job opportunities, so aligning yourself with a firm whose international presence is established is key both to your professional development and to your future prospects.
Diversify Early Professional Experiences
As a young lawyer, it can be easy to get pigeonholed into one practice area within the firm, and if that isn’t satisfying your appetite for international experience, take matters into your own hands. Carve out 1-2 hours per week to “volunteer” your time with a partner or mentor within the firm whose caseload is international in scope. Not only will this demonstrate your drive and initiative, it will diversify your professional experience, making you more marketable later in your career.
Read, Read, Read
Law students and young legal professionals are very busy people, and it can be challenging to make time for anything leisurely in nature. That said, one of the best investments you can make in your future as an international legal practitioner is simply reading. Read about anything – biographies of esteemed historical figures, the manipulation of financial markets, the rise and fall of the Greek empire. At the end of the day, deviating from your day-to-day schedule will afford you the opportunity to broaden your perspective, which will only serve to make you a more capable lawyer, international or otherwise.
Align Your Expectations
Before committing to any area of practice, law students should do their due diligence to ensure their expectations align with the realities of the job. There are unique challenges for international practitioners, including substantial travel requirements and the need to keep unconventional hours to serve clients in different time zones. The more informed you are at the outset of any career endeavor, the greater the likelihood you will be successful and find your work enjoyable.
Judicious law students, even if their chosen practice area lies outside of international law, will prepare for a law career that, at one point or another, could become international in scope. Those who have systematically challenged themselves to diversify their course load, extracurricular activities, and early professional experiences will always be one step ahead of their peers and, as lawyers, there is no better place to be.
Even as adults, half of us still don’t know our rights as tenants, our landlords skirt the law, and we end up out of pocket or unjustly evicted. So how are younger generations supposed to fare? Here Leon Ifayemi, CEO and Founder of SPCE, explains the student rental market and the essentials students need to be aware of.
Ask anybody about their university experience and amidst stories of eccentric lecturers, infamous nights on the town and class romances, you’ll no doubt hear a few horror stories about the trials and tribulations faced when looking for and living in private accommodation. For first year students living in residential halls, the transition from university accommodation to the rental market can often be a trying experience.
No longer able to rely on the services readily on offer from on-campus support, students are flung into an alien environment where they must navigate landlords, agencies, mountains of paperwork and, perhaps most importantly, find a house whose location, amenities and charm make it a fitting place to live.
The student rental market is a complicated beast which is why it is extremely important for you to understand your rights as tenants. According to a recent survey of more than 400 landlords across the UK, only 1% say students are their favoured tenants. This is a shame given that university students are often misrepresented in the press – portrayed as loud and inconsiderate tenants more interested in indulging in life’s pleasures than bedding down and studying.
In reality, it is wrong to stereotype students as party animals; in fact, almost all students are backed by their parents as guarantors, meaning they are far less likely to be unable to meet their rent or pay for any damages during their tenancy.
Students should no longer been seen as a last resort for a landlord, but instead must be recognised as a demographic of renter requiring greater support. Living away from home, they are often unaware of what to look out for, and ignorant of the rights they possess as a tenant. Looking back to my days as a student ambassador, one of my duties was to connect students with landlords and rental accommodation.
Almost immediately, you would see groups of students hastily signing leases in the fear that they could lose out on a property, without properly assessing the conditions of the house or reading the fine print of the contract. The worst thing you could possibly imagine is to move into a house in September only to discover soon after that is has damp, a faulty boiler and poor insulation.
It’s important for students to realise that their rights as tenants can vary according to which part of the UK they reside in, with some variation between England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Nevertheless, protection laws exist across each jurisdiction to ensure that landlords must deliver accommodation that satisfies certain conditions.
Before moving into a house, it’s wise to put a few hours aside to properly review the state of the property. Check for signs of dampness, make note of any previous damage to the property such as marks on the wall and stains on the carpet, and test that the locks are in good shape. There’s no harm in being thorough, particularly if you want to receive your full deposit back at the end of the tenancy.
Students must also be aware of the laws governing the return of their deposit. The landlord must return your deposit within ten days once the amount refunded has been agreed upon. If the landlord refuses to send the full deposit back, or seeks to make deductions to compensate for damage to the house, students are in a position to dispute by using the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service. Through an independent review of the case, the ADR ensures students can resolve any problems without having to go to court.
The student letting market has been traditionally marred by issues of communication between landlords, letting agencies and students. Thankfully, innovations in the digital space are having a positive impact on the student rental market, with new apps enhancing accessibility and streamlining the process so that there is greater transparency. By embracing such proptech solutions, both landlords and tenants will benefit from a superior rental experience.
We have had the pleasure of hearing from Howard Nations, who has served an amazing career in the legal industry. He has been practising for over 50 years, and this month he speaks on his journey to specialising in law, what prepared him for his successful career, and his most interesting cases.
Did you always know that you wanted to be a lawyer?
There was never any doubt about being a lawyer. It was, I was influenced when I was nine years old; it was 1947. There was a man who used to have the little Shetland ponies; I used to go down and ride the ponies all the time and help him take care of them. Well this fellow was getting called away for 90 days of National Guard duty or military reserve duty and needed somebody to take care of his horses, and I offered to take care of them for a dollar a day, to which he agreed. When he comes back after 90 days and he said, “thanks a lot, kid”. I replied: “Yeah, what about my 93 dollars?” And he said, “I don't know what you're talking about.”
Well, fortunately I had gotten it verified with the auctioneer who ran the stables, and so I went to my grandfather who took me to a lawyer. I told him the story that this guy had promised me a dollar a day for 93 days and how I did the work and now he wouldn't pay me. The lawyer listened to me for a while and wrote some things out by hand; we walked across the street to the Courthouse, we went in and had an immediate hearing. He said, “okay, kid, tell the judge your story.”.
The judge called the auctioneer by telephone and asked him, to which the auctioneer said: “Yeah, I heard him say that, he did promise him.” The judge awards me $93, and then he tells the auctioneer if it's not paid by Saturday, then to sell those horses at auction and give me the money.
But what impressed me more, was he awarded me $93 and he awarded my lawyer $250. And I was thinking, “wait a minute, I worked 93 days, I got $93. The lawyer heard about this this morning and this afternoon he got $250.” I asked Ernest McDonald, who was my lawyer: what do you have to do to be a lawyer? Because I caught on really quick that it was better to be a lawyer than it was to be a caretaker for horses. But from that, I was impressed by the power of the Judge; I was impressed by the aura, the drama, the setting of the courtroom, and I was very impressed that the Judge could just resolve this whole thing. That made an impression on me that lasted, and still lasts today.
Do you feel that law school adequately prepared you for a career as a lawyer or do you think the real world experience was more beneficial?
Well, while I was in law school I worked fulltime at a local law firm, with a 35-year old lawyer who was very successful. He had a plaintiffs practice, a defence practice, a criminal law practice, domestic relations practice; he had everything. I got exposed to all of it and so I got to see from the inside to what a divorce case looks like, what a criminal case looks like, what a personal injury plaintiff looks like, what defence representing an insurance company looks like. I learned as much of value there, as I did from my second and third years of law school.
What are the most notable or interesting cases you were involved in that you would like to discuss?
Well, there have been a lot of those. I got involved, very early in my career, in the Candace Mossier case involving the murder of John Mossier; Candace Mossier, his wife, had been tried along with Melvin Lane Powers, her nephew, for the murder of her husband. There was a big national publicity over this case, it was huge. After Percy Foreman got an acquittal for Candace and Melvin Lane Powers, the Saturday Evening Post ran a two-part article about Candace and her nephew as being lovers. And so Candace sued the Saturday Evening Post for 83 million dollars for damage to her otherwise spotless reputation. I had the pleasure to spend an immense amount of time investigating that entire murder trial, talking to all the witnesses. That case alone kept me with the big law firm for an extra two years. I wanted to start my own, but the involvement with the Mossier case was fascinating and I couldn't leave without finishing it. So, I stayed five years with the firm instead of three. At the end of the day her case was dismissed but it was a grand experience that provided me with a lot of education.
One of my best accomplishments was when I tried a case against Astroworld for the design of the rollercoaster and as a result of my case seats in rollercoasters were redesigned which set a new standard of safety that was adopted by most rollercoaster manufacturers. So, we literally changed the industry and the safety of rollercoasters due to this jury verdict I got against Astroworld. In this case, we introduced into evidence a computer-generated animation of the roller coaster, and a computer-generated animation of the injury to my client. It was the first case anywhere in history that animations had ever been introduced into evidence and this opened the door for animation evidence in litigation, which has come a long way since then.
You have served in leadership roles in numerous associations for trial lawyers including the National Trial Lawyers, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Association of Trial Lawyers in America. Why is it important to you to serve in these leadership roles?
What lawyers do is very important. The work we do individually is important, but the work we do as associations is very important. If you take the AAJ, American Association for Justice, for example, and its work in lobbying to protect the rights of individual citizens in this country is unbelievably important. In the absence of that, the tort system would have been gone by now. The tort system would have been replaced by administrative agencies and the jury trial system would be reduced to arbitration, if there was any recovery at all. And the only thing protecting the rights of individual citizens are the Plaintiffs Bar and its associations. It's important to give back to the profession and the way to give back is by associating with other trial lawyers in organisations like this to protect the civil justice system in the country.
What do you see for the future of the legal community?
It's not as bright as it used to be because there is an attack on the judicial system in this country and an attack on the civil justice system.
There is an attack on the criminal justice system and on constitutional principle; these attacks are being made by people with huge fortunes and access to the media and the opportunity to diminish the perception of the Bar, perception of the legal profession.
I'm concerned that the jury trials are on the way out. If it were not for the Seventh Amendment, we would have lost jury trials a long time ago.
I'm concerned that we will no longer have the lawsuits to train our young lawyers. When I first started practicing law, we had 10 to 15 cases set for trial every Monday morning. I actually had one situation where I was in trial in two cases at the same time.
That's the way it used to be; we just tried case after case which you can't do anymore. It was great training as we tried every type of case. Those who want to do away with jury trials have had tremendous success in Texas. The number of jury trials in Texas has diminished just so severely that I don't even try cases in Texas any more.
What’s your advice to future lawyers?
In this business if you put your clients first and you always do the right thing on behalf of your clients and you do it within the ethical rules and within the rules that control both our profession and our judicial system, the rewards will be there. There's a saying that those who do good, do well. And the worst thing you can do, I think, is to focus on how much money you can make which is a tendency when you graduate from college and law school; today you have so much debt that you immediately start thinking about how to pay it off and making the most money in the fastest way. But if you focus on doing the best job you can with every single thing that's in front of you with every individual case, and treat every client and every case as your most important client and your most important case, and do it within the bounds of ethics, you'll do fine. You'll do good and you'll do well.
Howard L. Nations
Founder
713-807-8400 | Toll Free: 1-800-269-3050
Howard Nations has been at the forefront of civil and personal injury litigation for over 50 years and has built a national practice focused on mass tort pharmaceuticals, individual catastrophic injuries, and complex business litigation.
Howard graduated from Florida State University in 1963 and from Vanderbilt Law School in 1966. He has three trial board certifications and has tried countless cases involving catastrophic injury, wrongful death, breach of contract, will contests, securities fraud, real estate fraud and domestic relations, among others. He also represented the accused in more than 300 pro bono criminal cases.
As a pioneer in courtroom technology, Howard was the first attorney to have computer-generated liability and medical animations admitted into evidence at trial. As a leader in education, Howard co-founded AAJ’s National College of Advocacy, and has taught advocacy-related courses in law schools for 35 years. As one of the most sought after educators in the law profession, he is widely published and has lectured to lawyers in all 50 states. Howard also pioneered the use of forensic psychological and neurolinguistic principles to persuade judges and jurors in trial.
The Nations Law Firm is a national litigation firm. We represent plaintiffs who have been injured by defective drugs, medical devices, and corporate wrongdoing. We also specialise in catastrophic injuries and wrongful death from other causes, such as trucking accidents, other motor vehicle accidents, drunk driving, elevator accidents, birth trauma, amusement park rides and other defective products.
Law firms face a massive customer relationship management challenge. Getting the right information to the right people is key if business development and marketing activities are to be successful. To address this issue, many law firms have invested in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. But too often, these systems are just not delivering the expected benefits. The main reasons for this are that law firms are struggling with getting the right information into their CRM systems and keeping them up-to-date – and time pressured lawyers or support staff are simply failing record accurate information.
In fact, around three quarters of law firms have a CRM system, but only a third are actually using it. The overwhelming majority (93%) of respondents to Ackert’s January 2017 survey, ‘The State of CRM at Law Firms - A Market-Wide Study’ 1 estimated that less than a third (31%) of the lawyers at their firms actively use CRM – and a staggering 58% of respondents estimated that fewer than 5% of lawyers at their firms actively use them.
Delivering Usable Relationship Insight
If firms are dependent on client data, but less than a third of the lawyers are inputting data or recording data in a central repository, then there will not be a reliable source of information and the firm will lack any real intelligence that can be used for business insight. As a result, more often than not, lawyers do not have any usable relationship insight before they go into meetings with new or existing clients.
Law firms are fighting for a shrinking slice of the pie in an increasingly commoditised marketplace. Against this backdrop, the ability to understand clients and forecast future client requirements is of the upmost importance.
There are three steps to getting law firms to be smarter with their customer data collection and analysis. This includes:
CRM systems, if used correctly, can also be a goldmine of data about client activities. If partners can see information about the conferences and meetings that major clients have been attending and who else in the firm has been communicating with the client, they will be so much better briefed ahead of their next meeting.
Boosting Your Existing IT Investment
An effective CRM solution can be the source of data that underpins useful reports for lawyers, giving them competitive intelligent and actionable ideas in a format that they will use at the time they need it. However, the way in which many systems are set up is doomed to fail because they are not intuitive or a one-click task. If your current CRM solution does not do this, while it may not be necessary to refresh the solution, law firms may need to reboot their approach to it.
Innovative software tools that sit on top of existing CRM systems can cleverly address the firm's reliance on lawyers as data creators and enable law firms to disseminate useful business intelligence. For example, they can provide a pre-meeting briefing digest containing information about each individual, news about the client, related matters that are being worked on and the two or three latest events and meetings that the clients have attended. This kind of briefing can be far more effective than a 100-page end of month report. For prospecting, this can mean better tracking of changes in relationship strength with new contacts and intelligent assessment of which activities are likely to drive change. Smarter integration of relationship data into your marketing automation platform also means that CRM can become a revenue-generating solution, rather than an expensive white elephant.
About the Author:
Stewart Walchli is the co-founder of Introhive. Before co-founding Introhive worked as VP BlackBerry Messenger and Social Media. Stewart joined BlackBerry via the acquisition of Chalk Media where he served as CEO. Stewart has also worked as a technology investment banker for CIBC World Markets and began his career as Corporate Finance Specialist at KPMG.
Introhive is a relationship data science platform for CRM that helps law firms drive user adoption and consumption of CRM data. Relationship intelligence helps firms better leverage their relationships with clients and partners to drive more business. Visit www.introhive.com or follow on Twitter @Introhive or LinkedIn
References
1 http://info.ackertinc.com/crm-for-law-firms (registration required)
Pro Bono work is a feat most industry climbers have to face, but as a budding lawyer, how important is it to do ‘free work’? Here Emma Jones, lecturer in law and member of the Open Justice team at the Open University talks Lawyer Monthly through the concepts behind pro bono legal work and the impact it can have on one’s career progression.
The short answer is yes.
Pro bono work, or work undertaken “for the public good,” is an integral part of law and the legal profession. Most large law firms and organisations have a formal programme of pro bono work for their employees to participate in. Many smaller firms and bodies also have either formal, or more informal, schemes in place and encourage such activities.
For many involved in such work there is a sense of “giving something back” to the community. As law students and lawyers, we have valuable knowledge and skills which relatively few people possess. Therefore, some would argue we have a form of moral or societal obligation to use these legal capabilities to promote social justice by assisting those in need. Of course, there is also evidence that acting in an altruistic manner, with a motivation to help people, is great for your own wellbeing too!
Many law schools in the UK also have clinical legal education programmes, enabling their students to undertake pro bono work. This may be in an extra-curricular form, or as part of an assessed course. Although social justice is a significant motivation for this work, it also reflects an increasing recognition of the valuable legal skills and experience that pro bono work provides. For law students it means you can gain practice in applying existing legal skills in new contexts. For example, you may be used to researching the law for assignments, but undertaking practical legal research and applying it to ‘real life’ situations involves taking into account a much wider range of practical considerations and sources.
In addition, pro bono work gives you the opportunity to develop new skills that don’t usually feature in an undergraduate law degree. For example, practising interviewing clients, presenting to different bodies of people and writing and drafting legal documents. If you decide to go into legal practice, you will be able to demonstrate that you have practised and honed a wide range of legal skills. If you don’t end up in the legal profession, you will find lots of these skills easily transfer to other work environments. As an illustration, virtually any role you undertake is likely to involve working in a team and communicating clearly, abilities that are key to pro bono work.
The experiences that pro bono work provides are also very valuable. It may be that it introduces you to a new area of law you’ve never considered before. It may alter some of your pre-conceptions of what legal practice will be like. It might make you think about other roles within the legal field that you’d previously discarded, for example, teaching law.
To sum up, pro bono work is valuable in many ways. If you are offered an opportunity to do pro bono work, grab it with both hands. If you haven’t been given the chance yet, start to explore potential opportunities near you (a simple internet search is a great starting point). In terms of both public and personal good, it offers real benefits for all.
As part of our law school & careers features, for paralegals, newly graduates, and those simply hoping to jump into an exciting world of law, here Andrea Hall, Founder and Principle of US based The Hall Law Office, LLC, talks to Lawyer Monthly about choosing a legal career path that will satisfy your needs, challenge your expertise, and suit your personality best.
Your personality is what will help you determine what type of law you should practice. This is something you should really consider before you pick an area of practice. If you are a litigator sitting in a corporate office writing contracts isn’t going to make you happy. If you are someone who likes to be alone working on projects then working a trial case that is high profile will scare the be Jesus out of you. Here are some things to think about before picking an area of expertise.
Where do you put your energy and how do you renew your energy? Do you prefer to spend time with other people (Extroversion), or are you happier spending time alone (Introversion)? Everyone has tendencies of both, yet most people have a tendency to lean strongly one way or the other. Let’s look at them more in-depth:
Extroversion
Being an extrovert means you get most of your energy from being active and spending time with people. If being in a large group of friends energizes you, you probably lean more towards being an extrovert. Extroverts also tend to feel confident and comfortable when speaking to large groups of people, being a team leader, and giving direction. See if these statements fit your personality:
These are all traits of strongly extroverted people. Can you relate?
Introversion
Introverts gain their energy from within; they like to think through ideas, plan responses in their head, and live in an inner world. They are more comfortable on their own or with only one or two friends. They like to think a project or idea through and make a plan before getting started, taking time to formulate a clear picture of the result they want. Do these sound like you:
If you can relate to these statements, you probably lean more towards being an introvert.
Are you a logical thinker and process all the facts or do you tend to make “gut instinct” decisions? Do you rely on facts and principles or do you think about the people involved and make heart-felt decisions?
Thinking
Thinking means that you like to review all the facts, find the bottom-line truth of a situation, and make a logical, well thought out decision. You tend to analyze the pros and cons of a situation, even making a list of them. And you don’t let other people’s desires influence your decision. See if this sounds like you:
If you can relate to most or all of these, then you lean more towards being a thinker than a feeler.
Feeling
If you are concerned about other people, how they feel and their points-of-view, then you are more of a Feeling person. You tend to be concerned with values and how your decisions will affect other people. You like to create harmony and you are a warm, caring, and considerate person. These probably sound a lot like you:
If you’re saying “that’s me” then you are definitely a feeler.
Really determine who you are naturally not who someone else wants you to be. This will help determine your area of expertise and how you choose to practice law throughout your career. Have fun exploring different areas of law and your personality. Not every person is cut out for litigation and not everyone wants to work in an office without contact to the outside world. The truth is every position is needed just make sure it is the best fit for you.
