BARE BONES BRIEFS: Dentons faces AML charges | Is private equity taking over the profession? | Historic Shell emissions judgment overturned – but landmines remain | Hogan Lovells mistakenly discloses 4,321 privileged documents | Sun Life report: Canadian pension risk transfers exceed $3 billion in 2024
By Julius Melnitzer | March 23, 2025 DENTONS MUST FACE AML CHARGES The Law Society Gazette reports that the UK’s High Court has overturned the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s (SDT) dismissal of anti-money laundering charges against Dentons. The SDT ruled that Dentons’ breach was “inadvertent” and did not amount to professional misconduct. But on appeal by […]
Soaked to the Skin
Photo by Min An at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | March 17, 2025 I don’t consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin – Leonard Cohen I have a friend who is a dermatologist. I will call him Howard. Howard […]
Murray’s Masterclass in Managing Client Expectations
By Murray Gottheil | March 9, 2025 Photo by Max Fischer at Pexels At My First Rodeo Client (C): We need to close this transaction in two weeks. Murray (M): That is impossible. C: The vendor said that his lawyer told him that deadline is perfectly reasonable. Why are you creating roadblocks? If you cannot get […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: LST says 5-year “inordinate delay” causes “no prejudice” to investigated lawyer; “Ashamed” of “greedy” Big Law, lawyer leaves profession; Critics pile on UK PM for his “lawyer brain”; Study: PEI first, Quebec 10th, Ontario 5th in use of PI lawyers; Alexi launches large-firm AI workflow solution
By Julius Melnitzer | February 22, 2024 CHAOS RULES IN LAW SOCIETY DISCIPLINE INVESTIGATIONS A recent Law Society Tribunal (LST) decision leads to the vexing conclusion that a five-year delay in investigating complaints against lawyers causes no prejudice to them. And combined with the ongoing brouhaha about a $400,000 pay raise for a senior executive, […]
A Sucker’s Game
By Murray Gottheil | February 13, 2024 Imagine the following scenario: Jordan is a third year associate with Big Law targets. He typically achieves that target and receives a bonus of $18,000. He is also paid 10% of the billed and collected business that he brings in. Despite the “reasonableness” of the target, Jordan is […]
Titles are the Opium of the Masses
By Murray Gottheil | February 3, 2024 Unsuccessful people are the ones who are impressed by celebrity, by people’s names and titles – Robin S. Sharma In the old days, there were associates and partners. Every lawyer planned to work ridiculously hard as an associate for about seven years, after which the firm would invite them […]
Twenty-Four Hundred Hours
By Murray Gottheil | January 25, 2024 I spoke to two law firm partners this week: both told me that they were expected to put in 2,400 hours, consisting of 2,000 billable hours and 400 non-billable hours (administration, firm events, continuing education, business promotion, and mentoring) annually. I did some math to determine how many hours […]
Zero is the Loneliest Number
By Murray Gottheil | January 23, 2025 In law firms, more zeros are better than fewer zeros. For example, announcing, “Look at me! I just closed a $100,000,000 acquisition” impresses your colleagues more than saying, “I just did a deal worth $10,000,000.” A deal that was only worth $965,000 is not even worth mentioning. Frankly, it is almost […]
Big Law Does It Better
By Murray Gottheil | January 22, 2024 I am willing to bet that you did not expect this headline from me! And to be fair, I do not intend it as a general statement. What I am going to talk about is legal research, and it is a fact that Big Law does that better than the […]
Let’s Talk About Recruiters
By Murray Gottheil | January 15, 2025 Lawyers struggle to attract talent who are both capable and a good fit for a firm’s culture. If only there were consultants whom firms could retain and candidates could work with who understand the market, the culture in different firms and practice groups, the current salaries being paid by […]