Lawyers enjoy using the prefix “non”. Nonlawyer, nonequity partner; as someone who was not a lawyer once told me, “I don’t like being referred to as a non anything.”

For law firms, making someone a partner is a little like a marriage. It brings legal obligations, creates emotional bonds, and can be hard to escape. Making someone a nonquity partner, on the other hand, is like living with someone. If you don’t like how it’s going, you can just cut your losses and move on. No fuss, no muss.

The concept of the nonequity partner tier has been around for a long time. ). But it has picked up considerable steam in the last decade as firms grappled with large groups of associates becoming eligible for partnership. Perhaps, given the numbers, equity partners were not as familiar with many of the associates who were eligible for partnership as they once were. These were often associates the equity partners were perhaps unsure of but didn’t want to lose (aka let’s hedge our bets). All too often, these were, unfortunately, women and people of color.

Continue Reading Swelling Ranks of Nonequity Partners In Law Firms: It’s Not Personal. It’s Just Business
The traditional law firm. Composed of partners: the firm owners who toiled in the associate vineyards for several years and who were ultimately rewarded with the brass ring. A partnership, a piece of the ownership of the firm. A piece of security that tied you to the firm and your partners. On the other side were the associates—those who worked hard toward partnership and the security it brought.
 

Continue Reading Non Equity Partnerships and the Changing Law Firm Culture

Why are lawyers incompetent when it comes to e-Discovery: Hubris. Time. Perceived easier options.

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Stephanie Wilkins recently wrote an excellent article entitled, “Is Attorney E-Discovery Incompetence the Elephant in the Room?” In it, Wilkins notes a recent Report from eDiscovery Today, a website paper from EDRM, commentary by several exerts, and several recent examples that all evidence the glaring ignorance of so many lawyers about e-discovery issues:

Continue Reading Why Are Lawyers So Darned Incompetent With E-Discovery? Three Reasons

Everyone is talking about the recent Partners Compensation Survey conducted jointly by Major, Lindsay and Africa, and Law360. Perhaps rightly so. The data for the Survey came from some 1800 equity and nonequity partners. While it was not specified, my guess is that those surveyed primarily came from larger firms.

 

The big headline from the Survey is that 2021 was a great year to be a partner in big law, at least financially. It was a record year across the board. So much for the notion that you can’t be productive working from home. But there were some other takeaways that are perhaps not so attention-grabbing. I recently talked with Craig Savitzky, Senior Data Analyst of Law360, about some of these.

Continue Reading The Partners Compensation Survey: Lots of Interesting Non Comp Findings

Just like Moneyball concepts changed baseball forever, perhaps the same may be happening in legal tech. Yes, legal tech companies are making more data and financial based decisions. But the old days seemed, well, more fun.

 

Another day, another announcement by a legal tech company of increased integrations, acquisitions, or consolidations. Monday, Reveal announced that it acquired Technically Creative. Tuesday it was MyCase announcing an integration with LawToolBox for rules based court calendaring.

 

Integration, acquisitions, and consolidation are all the rage in legal tech these days. We have seen FastCase partner with Visalaw.AI for a state of the art immigration case management platform. (October 25). On October 17, it was announced that Netdocs was acquiring Worldox. Clio recently announced advanced several third party app integrations. (October 10). Haystack acquired Business Intelligence Associates (September 7). Relativity acquired Heretic (August 29). BigHand acquired Digitory Legal (August 22).

Continue Reading Moneyball Comes to Legal Tech? Or Am I Just An Old Curmudgeon?

Early on in the ABA’s most recent annual diversity Survey Report, the authors quote the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr: “The more things change, the more they stay the same”. The bottom line from this year’s Survey is summed up in one sentence from the Report:  “White attorneys, male attorneys, non-LGBTQ+ attorneys, and attorneys without disabilities dominate in representation within law firms and therefore in hires, promotions, leadership, and compensation”.
The Survey confirms pretty much what all the other similar Surveys from the ABA and elsewhere show year after year. Let’s face it: by and large, the legal profession is one of the last bastions of old white male domination. From equity partnership to compensation to associate hiring, being a white male entitles you to the keys to the legal kingdom. I have written about this here and here and here and here and here. You have to wonder what needs to happen for there to be any significant change.

Continue Reading When Will We Ever Learn: The Sad State of Diversity in Our Legal Profession 

Law firms and legal departments need a legal operations platforms that allow adaptability and individuality within an overall system and parameters. And firm management needs the ability to assess what’s being done, and its profitability, and compare the business lines of a firm and legal department. Litify believes the future is cloud based platforms that provide this kind of adaptability and flexibility. 
 
Litify, an end-to-end legal ops platform for law firms and legal departments, recently announced a partnership with The Noble Law. The Noble Law is a women-owned plaintiffs’ employment law firm. It was founded on principles of diversity, empathy, equity, integrity, inclusion, and innovation. Litify will provide the firm with a view of their clients, cases, and staff at all levels.
 
According to Laura Noble, founder and managing partner of The Noble Law, “Having data at our fingertips allows us to move quickly and thoroughly respond to our client’s needs and help them navigate what is typically a very stressful process,… Litify’s cloud-based technology will empower our staff to collaborate with clients more efficiently while enabling data-driven decisions to support successful outcomes.” The firm plans to use the Litify platform to centralize workflows and case information.

Continue Reading Litify Sees Adaptablity and Flexibility As The Future of Legal Ops Platforms

 


Pre-pandemic, I faithfully attended ALM’s LegalWeek every year. The event was traditionally held in late January, in the dead of New York city’s winter. So every year, it would snow sometime during the conference. Attendees were fond of saying: it ain’t LegalWeek unless it snows.

 

This year, the conference was moved from late January to last week due to the Omicron surge and finally kicked off this past week. I figured it wouldn’t snow (and it wouldn’t be the normal LegalWeek) since it was mid-March and the crocuses were already in bloom. But sure enough, on the first full day of the conference, just like the swallows returning to Capistrano, on cue, it did indeed snow.

 

And just like the weather, the Show itself provided a sense of normalcy finally after two long years.

Continue Reading It’s Not LegalWeek Unless It Snows

It’s Thanksgiving again. A time to stuff ourselves, watch some serious football (well, some football anyway), and be thankful. It got me thinking: what do I, as a blogger on legal technology and innovation, have to be thankful for this year (beyond, of course, my tech toys lol).

 

So, here are my top 10 things I’m thankful for this year:

 

Continue Reading 10 Things This Legal Tech Blogger Is Thankful For

On September 14, Law360 Pulse released its annual Glass Ceiling Report. The Report summarizes Law 360’s Survey of women in law firms for 2020. Every time I hear about one of these Surveys, I hope for once, it will reveal some real progress. But they never do: just like the Law 360 Diversity Survey results previously discussed, the Glass Ceiling results are discouraging. Not just discouraging. Embarrassing. It makes me mad. It ought to make us all angry.

 

Continue Reading Law360 2020 Glass Ceiling Survey: Little Change for Women in Law Firms