News, views and tips on litigation graphics, trial strategy and the law.

Social Media Ethics for Attorneys: An Evolving Topic That Shouldn’t Be Ignored

January 24, 2024 by Leave a Comment

We all know procrastinators who wait until a week before the annual deadline to fulfill their mandatory MCLE requirements on subjects that many find the least interesting, such as ethics, substance abuse and diversity. My law school recently hosted a day-long program in late January that offered six hours of MCLE workshops to reach those attorneys who procrastinate, and I was asked to do one of the presentations. (Sounds like fun so far!)

I decided to focus on the ethics of social media for attorneys, which I genuinely find interesting and relevant. [Read more...]

Litigation Tip: The Best Way to Get Demonstrative Evidence Admitted at Trial

January 19, 2024 by 2 Comments

The other day an attorney from the state of Illinois contacted me out of the blue because he had seen my blog and wanted advice on preparing presentations for his jury trial. He asked, “Do you have problems with the other side objecting to your presentations? If so, what’s the basis of those objections, and how do you overcome them?”

I was glad to hear his questions, and I always want to support attorneys using demonstrative evidence and trying new things in terms of design and tech. This post provides a primer on demonstrative evidence and shares advice on how to overcome objections to getting important demonstratives into evidence. [Read more...]

Legal Media and Tech Skills for Attorneys: Advice to Help You Get Hired and Improve Your Practice

January 10, 2024 by 2 Comments

Almost weekly I get a call from an attorney looking for work and asking for an informational interview to hear advice I might have about landing a position with a firm or starting a solo practice. Often these are recent graduates who are getting quite discouraged about their career prospects as an attorney. I’m happy to share what I know about Northern California’s legal landscape, but I find myself repeating one piece of advice to all of them—advice I believe will help all attorneys enhance their job security and improve their practice.

That advice, in a nutshell: Get tech savvy. Develop skills in information design and presentation. Become a whiz with document management. Find your inner geek streak.

File this post under “Things You Don’t Learn At Law School But Should.” [Read more...]

How to Follow the New California Law that Penalizes Businesses for Misclassifying Employees

January 3, 2024 by 1 Comment

I wanted to start this New Year by highlighting new legislation in California that affects litigation or business. As always, some new laws are quintessentially Californian, like one that dress codes cannot discriminate against transgendered and cross-dressers. I’ll make sure to put that in my employee handbook. I also was happy to see that it is no longer legal to carry a loaded unconcealed handgun, making one of those laws that I really cannot believe was legal through 2011.

However, one of the most interesting and controversial laws taking effect in 2012 involves greatly increased penalties for the willful misclassification of employees as independent contractors. I litigated quite a few class actions and individual cases involving these issues as a plaintiff attorney, and now I’m viewing the issue as a business owner who uses both employees and contract workers. Since most everyone in the litigation graphics field works with independent contractors, and a large number of law firms do as well, I want to focus on some key issues raised by the new law. [Read more...]