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

Are You Ready to Practice Law Like It’s 2014?

morgan and mikeChange is always exciting, and we have an announcement to make as we transition to 2014. The big news for the start of the year is the formation of Cogent Legal, LLC as a partnership between myself and Michael Kelleher. Mike has been consulting for Cogent Legal for the past year and blogs regularly here. This partnership makes Mike a full manager of the company, but continues with the same business focus we have had in the past of providing outstanding legal graphics for litigation.

I’m so happy to have a partner, who like myself is a former practicing litigator with a great deal of trial experience. Mike’s speciality in business litigation—he’s a former partner and head of IP practice at Folger Levin & Kahn—complements my background in class action and PI cases. (Read our press release here.)

We both became lawyers in the 1990s and have witnessed tremendous change in the practice of law over these two decades. Looking back as well as looking ahead, we felt inspired to make this short animation to show the change from 1994 to 2014, and to illustrate Cogent Legal’s role in helping attorneys keep pace with change and win cases by leveraging graphics and tech. We hope you’ll watch it and let us know what you think.

 

 

We plan to continue writing about new developments in legal technology and litigation strategy, and sharing our practical tips through this blog. We also are getting ready to host webinars on our site to provide high-quality MCLEs on a regular basis. We’ll have an announcement here on the blog about that soon, so if you haven’t already, we hope you’ll subscribe to this blog by clicking here for updates.

2013 was a great year, with a highlight being voted the 2013 Best Presentation Provider by the Recorder. In 2014 we hope to continue to live up to that honor. From us here at Cogent Legal, we wish you all a great 2014.

How Lawyers Can and Must Learn Legal Tech and Social Media

attorney with iPad“Luddite Lawyers Are Ethical Violations Waiting to Happen.” That’s the alarming headline on a great post earlier this week in Lawyerist.com by attorney Megan Zavieh, who specializes in defending attorneys under investigation by the California State Bar. She talks about how lawyers’ relationship to technology—and their obligation to understand it—have fundamentally changed in two decades. “Technology is an unavoidable part of practicing law. The ethics rulemakers have taken note of this evolution, and the rules have grown to require technological competence,” she writes.

The ABA and court rulings have raised the bar on what attorneys have a duty to know and to do in the areas of computer technology and online activity. In this post, I’ll summarize some key take-aways from Ms. Zavieh’s post (I recommend you also read the full post here) and share advice on how to stay on top of ever-changing legal tech—not only to fulfill your duty to your clients, but also to improve your practice. [Read more...]