BARE BONES BRIEFS: Mandatory mediation undermines experts’ reports | DEI malaise infects UK | Susskind wrong: AI not lawyers’ demise | Law firm bet on the Leafs | Rap sheet for rapping lawyer
By Julius Melnitzer | May 27, 2025 GETTING EXPERT WITNESSES BACK ON TRACK There’s little doubt that courts have manifested an increasingly critical look at expert testimony lately. Gerald Genge, a claims adjudicator and expert witness with 25 years’ experience, is not surprised: he says the quality of experts’ reports has dipped with the introduction […]
Pay for Play
Photo by Cottonbro at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | May 26, 2025 A friend of mine, whom I will call Bill, was named as a Best Lawyer. Bill is a sole practitioner in a narrow specialty, and I am inclined to believe that having his peers vote him that award is meaningful. Unlike some of […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Law firm branding mania: Are Leafs Next? | Five years: Harshest sentence ever for OHS criminal negligence | Div. Ct.: LST has power to order compensation for pending claims | Taliban: Chess not compatible with Islamic law | Lexis+ AI fuels revenue growth – says Lexis Nexis
By Julius Melnitzer | May 22, 2025 LAW FIRM PAYS $11.4M FOR STADIUM NAMING RIGHTS CITY AM reports that Liverpool’s Hill Dickinson, a top-50 UK law firm whose profits exceed C$95M, has paid $11.4 million for the naming rights to soccer team Everton’s new stadium. The move is apparently part of law firms’ realization of […]
Pivoting From Big Law
Photo by Allison Browning on Pexels By Murray Gottheil | May 20, 2025 Sometimes I meet a young lawyer whose career goal is to work in Big Law. That might not be my first choice, but they should go for it as long as they know what they are getting into. This article is not about those […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: “Woman means woman” as UK Supreme Court refuses to recognize gender identity | Alberta lawyer challenges “woke” Law Society rules | World’s first AI law firm says system can do “anything” | AI video of murdered man gives his impact statement | Training AI on someone else’s headnotes is copyright infringement: USCA |
By Julius Melnitzer | May 12, 2025 “GENDER RECOGNITION CERTIFICATE” DOES NOT A “WOMAN” MAKE The United Kingdom Supreme Court has ruled that “woman” in the Equality Act (EA) means a biological woman. The ruling strikes down guidance from the Scottish government stating that a gender recognition certificate issued to an individual brings that person […]
For all the brouhaha, law firms – and especially Canadian firms – are still “missing the boat” on wellness – and profit
By Julius Melnitzer | May 7, 2025 Sadly, the International Bar Association’s (IBA) Workplace Wellbeing Survey 2024 Analysis and Discussion reports that law firms still don’t understand “the importance of addressing workplace well-being challenges”. The heart of the problem seems to be that line managers, who are crucial to supporting mental health, “currently lack the […]
Sometimes, I Just Don’t Care About The Client’s Damn Budget
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | May 1, 2025 A young lawyer named Eve called me today about a fee dispute. She had quoted an hourly rate without providing an estimate and issued an interim bill for the time spent. The client did not think it should have cost that much […]
A Masterclass on Quoting Fees For Lawyers Who Bill by the Hour
By Murray Gottheil | April 28, 2025 Estimating is what you do when you don’t know ~ Sherman Kent A young lawyer named Eve called me today. She had made the same mistake I had made numerous times in my first years of practice. She quoted an hourly rate for reviewing and reporting on a draft […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Lawyers’ fees approach $1/second | Cheap AI outperforms costly LexisNexis | Death sentence looms as counsel solicits sex in court | “Bimbo” is not a valid TM | Perry Dellelce receives Coronation Medal
By Julius Melnitzer | April 27, 2025 LEGAL FEES: A LICENSE TO PRINT MONEY? American law firms with more than 750 lawyers will be charging $1 per second within a decade, according to the latest annual trends report from LexisNexis CounselLink. An overview of the report in The Law Society Gazette notes that the median […]
Client gratitude: Is a free lunch a reality?
By Marcel Strigberger | April 24, 2025 Thank you. Thank you very much. But how often do we experience gratitude from our clients? Actually, sometimes they do make your day. George owned a coffee and doughnut franchise. Whenever he came to my office, he would bring fresh doughnuts. Once, I joked with him while munching […]