Gender: Female
Industry: Law
Age: Unknown
Location: Undisclosed

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When the market booms – we win, when it plummets – we still win

While the downward trend in the sub prime mortgage market affects all other related markets in a negative manner, it holds out new hope for a few.  Finding that the rise in foreclosure rates and mortgage frauds are putting the pressure on a wide range of industries, parts of the law fraternity hold that such stressed companies would soon turn to law groups specializing in reorganizing business and restructuring loans.

In fact, Shutts & Bowen LLP is in the process of building a practice group focusing on complex loan workout to help clients affected by the slump in real estate.  The group will be formed with lawyers expert in real estate, receiverships, creditors’ rights, bankruptcy, taxation, and litigation.

Florida’s stressed economy, especially in real estate, creates anticipation that more and more people would be seeking legal advice to restructure their loans.  I have no doubt that firms in other parts of the country would appreciate the idea of Shutts & Bowen.

05-29-2007

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I would like to learn what comes out of this Conference

The one-of-its-kind National Conference on Professional Responsibility is all set to hold its 33rd annual program in Chicago.  The program would be running from Wednesday to Saturday.  The conference this year discusses the critical and controversial issues of lawyer ethics.

The conference includes issues like duties of lawyers to killers when the lawyers are aware of incriminating evidence and the fact that they are trying to defend and acquit somebody whom they personally know to be a murderer.  I cannot deny that this particular issue has always intrigued me. 

While I personally hold that in most issues the duty of the lawyer is to represent his/her client as well as possible, the duty of the judge is to judge the issues, and the duty of the police to prevent and investigate crime and enforce the law – I also believe that all our own rights and duties arise from the initial fact of ourselves being citizens – and as a citizen one has the duty to report crime.  Now, this citizen’s duty clashes with the ethical duty of client confidentiality, and the situation that emerges is tricky and tortuous. 

I don’t profess to know the solution but would surely keep my eyes pinned on what goes on at the Chicago conference.  Incidentally, other tricky issues on similar lines like the ethics of helping cheats and fraudsters are also going to be discussed.  Seems somebody out there wants lawyers to pre judge issues and take over the functions of a judge with the added advantage that the person at the dock is freely granting his confidence and his dollars upon assurances that the information would not be used against him.  Seen that way, the same people want a lawyer to perform the additional role of a treacherous police investigator in camouflage. 

What should be the exact stand and duties of lawyers to criminals is an issue that’s been debated for centuries, and needs to be debated now and onwards.  Meanwhile, I’d love to concentrate on earning my daily bread, and leave the debate to the leading legal scholars, jurists and specialists who are coming together at the conference.

05-28-2007

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Plan ahead for success

Hi folks.  It’s almost the middle of 2007 and time to start planning for 2008.  The webbed civilization is here to stay and the Internet is pushing other media back, as far as the advertising industry is concerned.  Lawyers have started to use the internet effectively to market themselves for quite some time.  However, for most of us, use of the internet is still limited to browsing, and reading, and sometimes writing content.  The internet provides powerful marketing tools, but mental inertia prevents most of us from spending the effort to internalize them and use them.  There is nothing so highly technical about internet marketing that a lawyer cannot understand or use.  And, it’s a shame if you remain content with watching market leaders reap success using the same tools that were easily within your reach. 

Grant D. Griffiths at his blog Home Office Lawyer (htt p://gdgrifflaw.typepad.com/home_office_lawyer/) has two excellent posts on the subject of internet marketing.  In his May 22 post titled Why Every Lawyer Should Advertise in Search Engines – guest blogger Todd Henley says, “If you are a practicing lawyer, whether from your home, garage, or a New York City skyscraper – you need to be advertising in search engines.”  He goes on to say that just having a website, or the fact that you can easily find your website on the search engine does not matter.  What matters, says Henley, is whether your clients, including your potential clients, can find your website as easily.  Sound advice from Henley, the founder of the Internet Marketing Blog (http://www.sitelead.com /blog/), goes on to show you how to do what matters.  A post further down the page on email marketing read together with the May 22 post gives a full overview of the subject and makes you ready to do your own bit.

Change is the only thing constant in this world, but the legal fraternity as a whole is far behind other professional communities in accepting and using technological changes.  We are reluctant to give up dresses that were relevant in the 16th century.  We are reluctant to give up legal aphorisms that were relevant in the time of the Roman Empire.  We do accept change, but only after we find that the leaders have accepted them and the particular change is now socially acceptable.  We rarely think that it is this adaptability to accept change ahead of others that makes somebody a leader and a success.

Arnie Herz on Legal Sanity (http://www.legalsanity.co m/) has a May 23 post on “innovation and the legal profession.”  You will find the post interesting, but more interesting are his linked posts on “what will drive change in law firm culture” and “whether law firms can change to meet lawyer-user demand.”

This year, I have resolved to plan ahead and start setting my goals for 2008, form plans, and strategies to realize them right from now.  And I definitely intend to sharpen my internet marketing skills and put them to good use.  How about you?

05-25-2007

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Law firms issuing shares to the public?

Australian law firm Slater & Gordon set a new trend by becoming the world’s first law firm to list itself on a stock exchange.  The move has left senior partners of the firm immediately richer by an amount of $4 million, if reports are to be believed.  In U.S., rules of ethics keep firms from selling equity shares to non-lawyers.  Further, law firms generally shy away from listing themselves on the stock exchange, or going public for disclosure requirements that conflict with client confidentiality.  However, if a middle way could be found, I have no doubt that it will provide a big boost to the legal industry.  Meanwhile, in UK the Carter, Clementi, and the Legal Services Bill holds out hopes for alternative legal structures for law firms and introducing multidisciplinary ownership.  If non-lawyer ownership in law firms proves out to be an acceptable alternative in other parts of the world, then U.S. would not be left far behind.  I can’t even start to imagine what such changes portend.

05-24-2007

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The question of life and death

Think of those moments when jury has to decide whether the defendant should live or die.  There is evidence.  There is law.  There is logic.  Yet, it is one of the most difficult moments for jury.

A large percent of Americans support the idea of death penalty.  However, giving an opinion for a public survey is different from sending a person to death.  Shouldn’t we know what judges think about it?  It could be a fruitless exercise to infer their view from their articles, or from listening to their lectures.  It is better to review judgments.  That could suggest the definite trend.

A recent case at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse in Chicago is interesting to note.  Twelve jurors considered the fate of one Juan Luna Jr.

“I’m pleading with you to consider mercy.  Sometimes we can temper justice with mercy,” shouted Luna’s lawyer stamping his feet.  He pleaded to consider Luna’s 33 years of unblemished life before punishing him for those 40 minutes in which he committed mass murder.

Eleven jurors voted in favor of death penalty, one did not.  As a jury must be unanimous in case of death penalty, Luna’s life was spared.  He received life in prison.

Are juries moving from logic and evidence to moral intuition?

The records say in the mid 1990’s every year juries awarded death penalty to 315 persons.  With the passage of time, this number has decreased.  Last year, only 100 were sentenced to death.

Surprisingly, even victim’s families sometimes often do not favor death penalty. 

I believe death penalty punishes dependants and dear ones more than the wrongdoer.  Life with no chance of parole could be more severe.

05-23-2007

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