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Talent search in a social media age

By: Bill Ibelle
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: 20 things, recruiting, social media, young lawyers

Innovation, most of it electronic, is the name of the game when it comes to recruiting young associates, lateral hires and summer interns.

For a generation brought up on YouTube, Facebook and reality TV, job research is done in front of a computer screen, and firms that want to attract the best and the brightest are realizing they have to reach out to them in their preferred medium.

That’s why Choate Hall & Stewart, a 200-lawyer firm based in Boston, launched a new recruitment page on its website that mimics the look and feel of a YouTube video.

The ‘Constructive Divorce’

By: Bill Ibelle
Published: July 30, 2007

Tags: divorce

“I must confess that I have been guilty in the past of viewing litigation as a competition to be lost or won,” attorney Mark Chinn writes in the prologue of his book, Constructive Divorce.

Chinn has since seen the light. But this isn’t a book about Chinn’s personal epiphany. It is a tight little volume that provides practical advice on how, by modifying their mindset, lawyers can better serve their clients’ long-term interests.

Attorney carves niche cross-examining experts who say plaintiffs are malingerers

By: Bill Ibelle
Published: May 7, 2007

Dorothy Clay Sims was so incensed by one medical expert who said more than 50 of her clients were malingerers that she devoted her career to unmasking the hired guns who masquerade as medical experts.

Internet makes mock juries fast and affordable

By: Bill Ibelle
Published: March 12, 2007

Tags: mock juries

Adam Rosen has devised a way to use the Internet to make mock juries faster, cheaper, more responsive and nearly as realistic as their live counterparts.

Lawyers find identity theft cases rewarding

By: Bill Ibelle
Published: November 6, 2006

Tags: identity theft

It’s a practice area where clients rarely pester their attorneys, cooperate fully and are enormously grateful when the case is completed.

Welcome to the world of identity theft law.

The art of the holiday schmooze

By: Bill Ibelle
Published: November 21, 2005

Tags: small talk

Small-talk. The very name implies insignificance. So why would anyone who has already mastered the art of big-talk – closing statements, cross-examinations, complex contract negotiations – stoop so low as to master the art of chit-chat? How about these for starters?

Meeting the challenge of time-limited voir dire

By: Bill Ibelle
Published: September 12, 2005

Tags: jury selection, voir dire

In a trial-lawyer Utopia, no attorneys would ever have to deliver an opening statement in front of a jury they don’t know as well as their own siblings. Instead, they’d have the time and resources to break down a jury pool as thoroughly as Bill Belichick breaks down opposing NFL defenses.

But in the real world, expanding caseloads and shrinking resources dictate strict time limits on voir dire.

From ‘mistmaker’ to rainmaker

By: Bill Ibelle
Published: August 15, 2005

Tags: rainmaking

Some people don’t need a personal trainer to get in shape or a counselor from Weight Watchers to help them shed those extra pounds – and some lawyers don’t need a coach to tone their rainmaking skills.

But if you’re not one of the lucky few who have marketing in his or her blood, Mark Powers believes he has the program for you.

Positive Psychology and the law

By: Bill Ibelle
Published: July 18, 2005

Of all of the professions and all the athletic pursuits studied by internationally acclaimed psychologist Martin Seligman, law is the only one where pessimists outperform optimists.

It’s a startling finding, says the founder of Positive Psychology – and one of the primary reasons why lawyers, as a group, are so dissatisfied with a profession that provides them with both wealth and social status.

Solo has team approach to divorce litigation

By: Bill Ibelle
Published: June 6, 2005

Tags: divorce

Divorce litigation runs smoother, settles quicker, achieves better results and leaves everyone more satisfied when it is handled by a team of professionals, quarterbacked by the lawyer.

That’s the philosophy that led Birmingham, Ala., solo John Wood to develop an innovative approach to family law.