How do you react when someone mentions the Socratic method? Are you immediately transported back to law school, cowering at your desk in hopes you aren’t the professor’s next victim? Or do you miss the lively and challenging debate the method facilitated?
Whether it’s law school, CLE, or generic education settings, the term “Socratic method” is thrown around as a
Continue Reading Are We Using the Socratic Method the Right Way?
The Illinois State Bar Association is recruiting law students and newer attorneys to rural Illinois.
Its Rural Practice Fellowship Program is designed to address the shortage of lawyers in the less-populated regions of Illinois by connecting rural and small-town law firms with law students and newer attorneys who are interested in practicing in this setting.
The disappearance of rural lawyers
Continue Reading Interested in Practicing in Rural Illinois? Apply for an ISBA Fellowship!
Photo courtesy of Apple TVDon’t deny it. There are lessons lawyers can learn from Lasso. Ted Lasso that is. If you don’t know who this is, stop what you’re doing, turn on Apple TV, and watch this show immediately.
The show follows a fictitious English soccer team named AFC Richmond that is now coached by an American from the Midwest
Continue Reading Lessons for Lawyers from Ted Lasso
The public wants remote hearings to continue when COVID-19 subsides, according to the National Center for State Courts’ (NCSC) “State of the State Courts” survey.
And, while respondents said public trust in the courts and other institutions is waning, they indicated that courts could build trust by expanding online resources and remote options, which can help address core
Continue Reading NCSC Survey Finds Public Wants Remote Court Hearings to Continue Post-Pandemic
Want to improve attorney well-being? Start by capping billable hours at 1,800, making sure lawyers take all of their vacation time, and standardizing virtual hearings.
These recommendations, in addition to requiring that law students study well-being, were a few of the changes proposed by the New York State Bar Association’s Task Force on Attorney Well-Being and approved by the House
Continue Reading To Improve Well-Being, NYSBA Recommends Capping Billable Hours at 1,800
On Wednesday, the Illinois Supreme Court swore in 1,269 new attorneys during a virtual bar admissions ceremony. These lawyers join the almost 95,000 attorneys who are registered to practice in Illinois.
If you were sworn in, or just happened to watch the ceremony, you heard Chief Justice Anne M. Burke and Justice David K. Overstreet discuss the importance of mentoring
Continue Reading Are You a New Illinois Lawyer? Kickstart Your Career With Mentoring!
In this episode of Reimagining Law, we talk to Trisha M. Rich, a Partner at Holland & Knight and a Commissioner at the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, and Melissa A. Smart, Director of Education at the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission (ARDC).
Trish and Melissa discuss the difference between being a client advocate and overly aggressive, how
Continue Reading Reimagining Law: Client advocate or overly aggressive? How incivility can impact your case.
The Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice (ATJ Commission) has published a cannabis expungement suite of forms. The forms are required to be accepted at all Illinois courts.
The cannabis expungement forms, which can be found here, include:
Continue Reading Illinois Supreme Court Releases Cannabis Expungement Court Forms
New data from the National Association of Law Placement (NALP) found that first-generation law students who don’t have at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree or higher have a harder time securing jobs after graduation than their peers.
Moreover, first-generation students, who are often racial minorities, earn less than their peers and aren’t as likely to secure coveted private
Continue Reading First-Generation Lawyers Face Fewer Jobs and Lower Pay Than Peers, NALP Data Says
What technology tools are growing law firms using? Clio, a provider of cloud-based legal technology, explored this in its recently released 2021 Legal Trends Report.
Last week we covered how the Legal Trends Report documented a change in client expectations, especially when it comes to communications. In 2018, only 23% of consumers were open to working with a lawyer remotely
Continue Reading What Technology Tools Are Growing Law Firms Using?
Jill Wine-Banks shares unique perspectives gained from decades of experience as a lawyer.
She started her legal career at a time when help wanted ads were divided by gender and people generally stayed at one firm for 30 years or more.
Having shattered glass ceilings in government, corporate, and nonprofit settings, Wine-Banks talks about the importance of speaking up, personal
Continue Reading Jill Wine-Banks: Hopeful Solutions for Change
Since 2017, the Illinois Supreme Court’s Commission on Access to Justice (ATJ Commission) has prioritized remote access to the court system, including remote appearances.
Remote appearances allow parties and attorneys to access the justice system without multiple trips to the courthouse, while allowing courts to streamline their court calls.
Meaningful access to lawyers and the justice system without
Continue Reading First Judicial Circuit & Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Partner on Remote Appearance Pilot Program
One of the great benefits of mentoring is the opportunity for an independent, customized critique of your performance through friendly yet targeted feedback. Yet therein also lies the problem.
Rather than waiting for feedback, I encourage readers to seek it out, i.e., to pull for feedback. There are times when this evaluation is what you want: a review of
Continue Reading Stop Asking for Feedback. There is a Better Way.
This week, Clio, a provider of cloud-based legal technology, is holding its annual Clio Cloud 9 conference. The event has become one of the industry’s leading legal technology conferences and an opportunity to reflect on evolving consumer expectations in legal through the release of Clio’s Legal Trends Report.
Following the rapid adoption of technology by law firms in 2020, in
Continue Reading Clio Legal Trends Report Reveals How Clients Want to Communicate With Attorneys
A lawyer’s obligations of communication and competence aren’t diminished when a client and a lawyer don’t share a common language or owing to a client’s non-cognitive physical condition, according to a recently issued opinion from the American Bar Association.
Formal Opinion 500 states that, in both situations, the duties of communication under Model Rule 1.4 and competence under Model Rule
Continue Reading ABA Releases Guidance on Language Access in the Client-Lawyer Relationship
It’s hard to believe that we celebrated the Commission on Professionalism’s 16th anniversary last month.
The Illinois Supreme Court established the Commission in 2005 to promote professionalism among the lawyers and judges of Illinois, and, in turn, to foster equitable, efficient, and effective resolution of problems for the people of the state.
The Court formed the Commission at the same
Continue Reading 16 Lessons in Professionalism From 16 Years