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Home » articles

Job market for 2021 law grads one of the strongest ever

September 13, 2022 by

The job market for the 2021 law school grades was one of the strongest on record. The National Association for Law Placement, Inc. (NALP) has released its Employment for the Class of 2021 — Selected Findings, a synopsis of key findings from the upcoming annual Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Law School Graduates. The release of the full Jobs & JDs report is anticipated in October 2022. This year’s selected findings, available at www.nalp.org/classof2021, show that the employment outcomes for the Class of 2021 were some of the strongest that NALP has ever recorded, as the U.S. economy recovered from the COVID-19 related disruptions that impacted the Class of 2020. “Driven by extraordinary demand for talent at the largest law firms, a healthy private practice market propelled… . . . read more

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MORE PROFIT

The art of delegating to increase firm revenues

September 6, 2022 by

By Elizabeth Miller Law firms are unique in that unlike most other businesses which sell a product, lawyers sell time. Their time is, for a better description, “their stock in trade”. Based on this concept, to be profitable and generate sufficient revenues to carry the firm, lawyers should be spending their valuable time doing client billable work. The exception to this are contingency cases and hybrid cases which consist of a part contingency/part billable hour retainer agreement. Contingency cases, however, have to be profitable for a law firm also. With this in mind, the key to profitability and work product efficiency in a law firm is to assign legal tasks to the lowest paid but most qualified person to complete a task. When partners spend their time doing work that… . . . read more

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PRODUCTIVITY

Quiet quitting: The new ‘just say no’ employee pushback

August 20, 2022 by

By Lynne Curry Gone are the days when employers could count on employees competing to go “above and beyond” to rise faster in their organizations. Employers now face “quiet quitting,” a trend that emerged in July 2022 from a viral TikTok video to become a phenomenon noted on Wikipedia and discussed in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. Quiet quitting is more than employees setting boundaries or intentionally putting a hard stop to their work day or work week so they can create a work/life balance. Checked-out quiet quitters simply slack their way through their workweek by doing the bare minimum needed to keep their jobs, overloading their coworkers, frustrating their supervisors, and draining productivity from their employers. According ResumeBuilder.com’s August 2022 survey of 1000 U.S. employees, 21% of surveyed… . . . read more

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RISK MANAGEMENT

What you should know about new COVID-19 guidance

August 20, 2022 by

CDC is streamlining its COVID-19 guidance to help people better understand their risk, how to protect themselves and others, what actions to take if exposed to COVID-19, and what actions to take if they are sick or test positive for the virus. COVID-19 continues to circulate globally, however, with so many tools available to us for reducing COVID-19 severity, there is significantly less risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death compared to earlier in the pandemic. “We’re in a stronger place today as a nation, with more tools—like vaccination, boosters, and treatments—to protect ourselves, and our communities, from severe illness from COVID-19,” said Greta Massetti, PhD, MPH, MMWR author. “We also have a better understanding of how to protect people from being exposed to the virus, like wearing high-quality masks,… . . . read more

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PRODUCTIVITY

Voice technology can give you an extra set of hands

August 17, 2022 by

By Philips Dictation From robotics to augmented reality and beyond, the growing prominence of technology’s role in business has been fascinating. But there is also concern that some types of technology, such as AI, may threaten people’s jobs by performing functions or even “thinking” as humans do. However, the reality is that the development of AI-related technologies, especially speech-to-text, is designed to complement human work—not replace it. There are many ways the rising popularity and adoption of speech-to-text help enhance workflows and make the day easier and more enjoyable for employees in all kinds of roles. Utilizing advanced voice solutions also helps prepare employees for future technological evolution in the workplace, keeping them on the leading edge with desirable, transferrable skills. For support staff, this is a win-win, as evidenced by these key benefits… . . . read more

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EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Staff continuing education: Must you or should you pay for it?

August 17, 2022 by

By Paul Edwards QUESTION: I’m looking to hire a new employee and they asked me about my policy on paying for employee CE. I normally don’t pay for employee CE but it sounds important to this potential new employee. What is the best way to handle this? ANSWER: Many individuals have annual continuing education (CE) requirements they need to meet in order to maintain certain credentials. Meeting that requirement is an obligation on the individual, not on the practice. Of course, you should keep track of whether your employees have the credentials; otherwise it does become a problem for the practice. While you may not be required to help pay for the cost of license renewals or CEs taken specifically for an employee’s license, offering that type of a benefit… . . . read more

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STAFFING

Is it a recession or not? The answer may surprise you

August 11, 2022 by

By Lynne Curry My in-box filled with questions after I posted a Recession Fears Loom blog. Readers asked how I made sense of the different views voiced by economists and politicians. As a law office manager with responsibilities around staffing and profitability, you are probably watching to see which way the economy goes. Here’s the background, and my answer to “are we headed into a recession?”: Some say “yes.” Over 60 percent of the 750 CEOs surveyed by the business research firm Conference Board expect a recession in the next 12 to 18 months1. Another 15 percent of surveyed CEOs report their region is already in recession.1 The most recent gross domestic product report that tracks our overall economic health showed a second consecutive quarter of negative growth, the textbook… . . . read more

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INCREASING PROFITS

12 MORE marketing secrets of superstar lawyers

July 27, 2022 by

By Trey Ryder #13: They provide client service beyond compare. They return phone calls quickly. They work day and night to finish projects. They have backup plans for their backup plans. They err on the side of caution. They hire a bright, responsive support staff. And they always go the extra mile. Whatever it takes, they get the job done. And the superstar’s staff is equally committed to bring the client the best result on time, on budget. #14: They make sure everybody knows they welcome new business. One obstacle successful lawyers face is that other lawyers think they don’t want new clients. As a result, they quit referring cases. When prospecting for new clients, superstar lawyers know it is far better to receive too many inquiries than too few. They make… . . . read more

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HIRING

Jobs in law top pre-Great Recession numbers

July 27, 2022 by

The U.S. legal services sector now has more total jobs than it had when the count hit its previous high point in 2007 shortly before the Great Recession, according to U.S. Labor Department data as reported by Reuters. The legal sector added 3,000 jobs in June, reaching a total of 1,185,600, the preliminary seasonally adjusted Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed. This exceeds the historic high of 1,179,500 jobs the sector reached in May 2007, according to BLS data. The legal services job count includes lawyers, paralegals and other legal professionals. BLS legal sector jobs data is available stretching back to 1990. Newly revised data for May 2022 also shows the sector cracked its previous 2007 record that month, with a total of 1,182,600 legal sector jobs. The May 2022… . . . read more

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PRODUCTIVITY

4 ways to use voice technology to save time

July 21, 2022 by

The expectations from today’s business professionals continue to increase with an ever-changing modern world. Heaps of documentation and document creation needs add on to often already heavy workloads. Yet, there is limited to no help managing administrative tasks. As a busy office manager, there are always work processes to be improved, time to gain, and more efficient ways to bring to screen and paper what needs to be documented. When handling our day-to-day work, we often don’t think of how we could work more efficiently and are caught up in outdated processes. We try to create our documents the most straightforward way we know—by typing them ourselves. But what if you could make a small change that could be a huge time saver? As suggested by Phillips Dictation SpeechLive, here… . . . read more

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