Legal Blogs | Wednesday, September 1, 2010

• Bridge Case an Act of Unprecedented Pro Bono Generosity. The I-35W bridge fund, litigation and settlement have to represent the single biggest pro bono project in the history of the state’s bar. A total of 17 firms agreed to be a part of the unprecedented display of lawyer generosity. To give you an example of how impressive a showing this was, considered one of the firms that lead the charge — Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi. The Robbins firm had 130 of its employees (presumably including everything from senior partners and junior associates to paralegals and administrative staff) spend a total of 20,000 hours on the project. If you average everyone together — from high priced partner to support staff — and assign a $200/hour rate, that alone is a $4 million donation. Go to MinnLawyer Blog


• Checklist for Moving Your Law Firm. Anyone who has recently moved an office or home (or both at the same time) is familiar with the scatterbrainedness that accompanies the general sense of displacement. Having recently experienced the chaos fun of moving myself, I’m sharing my moving checklist here to hopefully simplify the process for someone else. Go to Practice Blawg


• $580,000 E-Discovery Bill NOT OK (Then, on Reconsideration, OK). Ever spent some aggravating minutes when you have little or no time to spare looking for a document on a messy desk? Imagine having to find a document somewhere among, say, 35,000 desks… Go to Minnesota Litigator


• A Rapid Rise in Social Media Use by Older Lawyers? A report this week on social media use by older adults has important implications for the legal profession — even though it never mentions the legal profession or any other profession. Go to Robert Ambrogi's Law Sites


• Will-Writing and the Redefinition of "Legal Services" Last month, a BBC investigative program called Panorama exposed a wide range of illegal and unethical practices by “will-writers,” advisors who help people prepare wills and who are not lawyers. One result of that broadcast could be a significant clawback of lawyer regulatory power over the legal services marketplace in the UK, with implications for the future of this marketplace globally. Go to Law21


• Man Suing Star Tribune Reporter for $4 million Still Grants Him Interview. In this morning's Star Tribune, reporter Dan Browning got some great, salty quotes from Pat Kiley, a former associate of convicted Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook. The former Christian broadcaster just fired his criminal defense attorney, and may have more to say about the $160 million fraud. As Kiley told Browning, "I've got so much stuff you wouldn't believe. ... All I can say is, as I said on the radio, stay tuned." Go to BrauBlog


• Lawsuits Pending: Ruling Gives Big Boost to Patent-Marking Suits. If manufacturers weren’t yesterday combing through their inventories, looking to find which of its products claimed to be covered by a patent, you can bet they’re doing it today. Go to WSJ Law Blog


• The Art & Science & Scams Of Lawyer Bios. Don't let Bob Ambrogi's "you talkin' to me" photo scare you, he is really is a very nice man. Actually, I don't know if he's a very nice man, he's never been "very nice" to me," but he's never threatened to kill me either. Bob's been thinking about Lawyer Bios. Go to My Law License


• The Blogosphere Examines Lawyer Bios. One of this week's themes in the blogosphere appears to be the art of creating effective lawyer biographies on law firm Web sites. Matt Homann kicked this off on his [non]billable hour blog with a funny Venn diagram showing the tiny overlap between what lawyers include in their bios and what clients actually care about: Go to Legal Blog Watch

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