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LegalTechNY Discussion: Barriers to Social Media Adoption
March 31, 2013
At LegalTechNY, Steve Mann, chief marketing officer of the Research & Litigation Solutions business at LexisNexis,...
March 31, 2013
At LegalTechNY, Steve Mann, chief marketing officer of the Research & Litigation Solutions business at LexisNexis,...
7 Useful Google Chrome Tips
March 31, 2013
I’ve forsaken Firefox, my longtime favorite browser, for Chrome. Firefox became too frustratingly bloated and slow, even...
March 31, 2013
I’ve forsaken Firefox, my longtime favorite browser, for Chrome. Firefox became too frustratingly bloated and slow, even...
Private Investment in US Legal Services
March 31, 2013
I had the honor of speaking at ReInventLawSiliconValley, a conference on innovation and the legal system sponsored by the ReInvent...
March 31, 2013
I had the honor of speaking at ReInventLawSiliconValley, a conference on innovation and the legal system sponsored by the ReInvent...
The Tyranny of the Billable Hour
March 30, 2013
“THAT bill shall know no limits,”wrote one DLA Piper lawyer to another in 2010 in what the firm is now calling “unfortunate banter” between associates about work for a client. But what is truly unfortunate is the underlying billable-hour regime and the law-firm culture it has spawned. Lost in the furor surrounding one large firm’s current public relations headache are deeper problems that go to the heart of the prevailing big law-firm business model itself. Regrettably, as with previous...
March 30, 2013
“THAT bill shall know no limits,”wrote one DLA Piper lawyer to another in 2010 in what the firm is now calling “unfortunate banter” between associates about work for a client. But what is truly unfortunate is the underlying billable-hour regime and the law-firm culture it has spawned. Lost in the furor surrounding one large firm’s current public relations headache are deeper problems that go to the heart of the prevailing big law-firm business model itself. Regrettably, as with previous...
ACC Ups Its Involvement in Outside Counsel Fee Fights
March 29, 2013
Usually fights over attorney fees remain between the company and its outside counsel, or the in-house and outside bars. But some...
March 29, 2013
Usually fights over attorney fees remain between the company and its outside counsel, or the in-house and outside bars. But some...
‘Churn that bill, baby!’ email surfaces in fee dispute with DLA Piper
March 29, 2013
It all began with a corporate bankruptcy case. Retained by energy entrepreneur Adam H. Victor in April 2010 to prepare the Chapter 11 filing for one of his companies, DLA Piper ran up a hefty bill. And when Victor refused to pay it, the law firm sued him for $675,000. Victor defended aggressively, not only filing a counterclaim over what he alleged was a “sweeping practice of overbilling" on the megafirm's part but discovering some 250,000 pages of documents, according to the DealBook page...
March 29, 2013
It all began with a corporate bankruptcy case. Retained by energy entrepreneur Adam H. Victor in April 2010 to prepare the Chapter 11 filing for one of his companies, DLA Piper ran up a hefty bill. And when Victor refused to pay it, the law firm sued him for $675,000. Victor defended aggressively, not only filing a counterclaim over what he alleged was a “sweeping practice of overbilling" on the megafirm's part but discovering some 250,000 pages of documents, according to the DealBook page...
Apology Fails in DLA Piper Legal Billing Scandal
March 28, 2013
The billable hour is the monster inside the law business. Thanks to dogged discovery efforts by a former DLA Piper client, the monster has broken out of its lair and is standing, somewhat mortified but proud and unbowed, in the media’s cross-hairs. If you’ve been on vacation, here are billing emails discovered in a lawsuit between (depending on your side of the case) a deadbeat client and an upstanding law firm or a virtuous businessman and his rapacious lawyers. “I hear we are already...
March 28, 2013
The billable hour is the monster inside the law business. Thanks to dogged discovery efforts by a former DLA Piper client, the monster has broken out of its lair and is standing, somewhat mortified but proud and unbowed, in the media’s cross-hairs. If you’ve been on vacation, here are billing emails discovered in a lawsuit between (depending on your side of the case) a deadbeat client and an upstanding law firm or a virtuous businessman and his rapacious lawyers. “I hear we are already...
DLA Piper Is Not Alone: Why Law Firms Overbill
March 28, 2013
Some mornings are just nice to wake up to. Confirmation of bias is an underappreciated source of joy. I relish any piece of information that reinforces my preconceptions. Four stories making the rounds have reminded me how right I am that: 1. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get (hat tip to Warren Buffet). 2. The billable hour model creates perverse incentives in aligning price and value. 3. The problem with incentives is that they work — even for lawyers. 4. Despite their expertise,...
March 28, 2013
Some mornings are just nice to wake up to. Confirmation of bias is an underappreciated source of joy. I relish any piece of information that reinforces my preconceptions. Four stories making the rounds have reminded me how right I am that: 1. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get (hat tip to Warren Buffet). 2. The billable hour model creates perverse incentives in aligning price and value. 3. The problem with incentives is that they work — even for lawyers. 4. Despite their expertise,...
DLA Piper Calls E-Mails Cited in Lawsuit an ‘Offensive’ Attempt at Humor
March 28, 2013
After a lawsuit of involving the billing practices of DLA Piper, the law firm on Tuesday issued a memo to its lawyers, calling language in e-mails written by its lawyers “unprofessional.” The law firm is involved in a fee dispute with Adam H. Victor, an energy industry executive, who has accused the law firm of performing superfluous tasks and overstaffing assignments. Mr. Victor’s suit cited several e-mail messages from lawyers at the firm. One e-mail involved a lawyer describing how a colleague...
March 28, 2013
After a lawsuit of involving the billing practices of DLA Piper, the law firm on Tuesday issued a memo to its lawyers, calling language in e-mails written by its lawyers “unprofessional.” The law firm is involved in a fee dispute with Adam H. Victor, an energy industry executive, who has accused the law firm of performing superfluous tasks and overstaffing assignments. Mr. Victor’s suit cited several e-mail messages from lawyers at the firm. One e-mail involved a lawyer describing how a colleague...
IBM CEO Predicts Three Ways Technology Will Transform The Future Of Business
March 27, 2013
With cloud, mobile, social and big data advances all happening at once and at lightning speed, how will shifts in technology impact the way businesses are run? According to Ginni Rometty, the first female CEO of IBM, it will change everything. Last night, speaking at an event organized by the nonprofit Council on Foreign Relations, Rometty predicted that data will be the basis of competitive advantage going forward, calling it the “the next natural resource.” She believes it will change...
March 27, 2013
With cloud, mobile, social and big data advances all happening at once and at lightning speed, how will shifts in technology impact the way businesses are run? According to Ginni Rometty, the first female CEO of IBM, it will change everything. Last night, speaking at an event organized by the nonprofit Council on Foreign Relations, Rometty predicted that data will be the basis of competitive advantage going forward, calling it the “the next natural resource.” She believes it will change...
