Jay Reeves practiced law in North Carolina and South Carolina. He was Legal Editor at Lawyers Weekly and Risk Manager at Lawyers Mutual. He is the author of The Most Powerful Attorney in the World, a collection of short stories from a law life well-lived, which as the seasons pass becomes less about law and liability and more about loss, love, longing, laughter and life's lasting luminescence.
File this under Casual Fridays Gone Wild: one BigLaw firm has changed its dress code to allow employees to wear jeans whenever they want. Dechert LLP – with close to 1,000 lawyers in 27 offices worldwide – announced the move in March. It applies to lawyers and staff. Previously, jeans were permitte… Read More
If you’re a North Carolinian and happiness is your goal, the news is not so great. The Tar Heel state ranked 36th in the nation – right behind New York and just ahead of Ohio – when it comes to being happy, according to a recent Gallup survey. We can dream of being in Honolulu. For the secon… Read More
If a prospective client can’t pay your fee, you don’t have to send them away and tell them to return when they have the money. You can help them get a loan – and you can do it right there while they’re in your office. Under 2018 Formal Ethics Opinion 4, the State Bar gave the green lig… Read More
Here’s some free risk management advice: it’s a bad idea to let the air out of the tires of a car parked in front of your garage. It’s also ill-advised to squirt glue in the door locks of a tenant who owes you rent. Doing so may well get you disciplined by the State Bar. Just ask the Bay Ci… Read More
In the epic and endless debate over the propriety of the Oxford comma, chalk this one up as a Big Win for punctuation people. The absence of an Oxford comma was the deciding factor in a $5 million settlement of a federal lawsuit in Maine. The otherwise mundane case – which involved the interpretation of… Read More
A story of how listening and silence can be strong communication skills. Read More
Attention law students: the ticket to your dream job will likely be punched in June, July or August. In 2018, a record number of summer associates – a whopping 97 percent, in fact – were offered full-time jobs by the firms where they’d worked. Eighty-eight percent of those associates accepted… Read More
There are different ways to deal with a negative online review of your law firm. You can ignore it – which is often the wisest response. You can reply to it – which can be risky, depending on what you say and how you say it. You can even reach out to the reviewer to discover why they’re unhap… Read More
Lawyers are great at taking care of others but tend to fall short in caring for themselves. That fact is glaringly apparent from the ABA Report on Lawyer Well-Being, which found a profession in crisis and said “the current state of lawyers’ health cannot support a profession dedicated to client ser… Read More
Words like patience, kindness and respect are often missing in action in today’s public discourse. But the president of the NC Bar Association is making it her mission to bring them back. “Each of us can make the choice to display the attributes of civility,” writes Asheville attorney and NC… Read More
Lawyers can breathe a sigh of relief: it seems even the most advanced robot is no match for a human when it comes to debating skills – at least for now. Tomorrow, though, might tell a different story. In February, the world’s top debater prevailed in a mano-a-nano cage match against IBM’s Pr… Read More
When you ask for feedback – from a client, colleague or employee – sometimes they give it to you straight, but sometimes they only say what they think you want to hear. They might be too intimidated or anxious to be completely candid. But if you’re a law firm manager or leader – and if … Read More
You might have noticed that job titles have taken a creative turn lately. You’ll find Help Wanted ads for Sales Ninjas, Data Commanders, Einstein Editors and Human Calculators. In the old days, those positions were called salesperson, accounting manager, proofreader and bookkeeper. And instead of a rece… Read More
Law schools won’t have to comply with stricter bar-passage requirements – at least for the time being – after the ABA yet again delayed action on the issue. In February, the Section of Legal Education and Admissions deferred action on a proposal that would require accredited schools to show t… Read More
Happy employees not only do better work, but they are more likely to stick with your law firm for the long term. Unhappy employees, on the other hand, are always looking for greener pastures. That’s one takeaway from the 2018 Aflac Small Business Happiness Report. Another key finding: small workplaces … Read More
For lawyers handling real estate closings, it’s important to know that seller fraud continues to rise, especially with the upcoming holiday season when distractions are high, and fraudsters are active.
Lawyers Mutual has published previous alerts regarding the new filing requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) that went into effect January 1, 2024. After reviewing additional resources, we want to emphasize concerns that we have about the risks and increased potential liability for lawyers undertaking the reporting requirements. This is especially true for the continuing reporting requirements after entity formation and initial reporting.