Provided by U.S.News & World Report
1. Yale University
2. Harvard University
Stanford University
4. New York University
5. Columbia University
6. University of Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
8. University of California--Berkeley
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor
10.Duke University (NC)
University of Virginia
Friday, May 2, 2008
Top ten hard-earned tips for lawyers
1. Making copies of all checks from clients before you deposit them. You need information from the check to find out from the bank whether it has cleared or bounced. Long story, but you can probably guess how it goes.
2. Carrying business cards with you wherever you go. Invariably, the very few times I happen not to have a card with me, I meet someone who wants one. Once, when I was on vacation, I met a potential client on the beach. I borrowed a pen and wrote my information on one of my daughter's (clean) diapers. Still waiting to hear from him…
3. Co-counseling cases with other attorneys. Of course you need to screen these cases as carefully as you would any other; you need to make sure the other attorney is competent and trustworthy; and you need to have a clear agreement up front about how compensation will be divided. I co-counsel cases outside my areas of expertise to gain experience; I co-counsel cases with high costs so that a more established practice can carry the out-of-pocket expenses; and I co-counsel some run-of-the-mill cases because I like working with other lawyers.
4. Networking for maximum effectiveness. One-time events are not as good as ongoing participation where people will see you over and over. Attending five cocktail parties is less effective than attending five meetings of the same committee; just showing up on a committee is less effective than taking a leadership role.
5. Giving it time. Conventional wisdom says it takes two years for a business to make a profit. Because I was able to keep costs down, my practice was profitable the first year, but it took about ten months of part-time practice and intensive networking before I hit a critical mass where my phone was really ringing.
LOSERS:
1. Accepting referrals of dog cases from other attorneys. If another litigator is referring a case out, they probably have a good reason for it. Gain experience with decent cases, not with dogs.
2. Agreeing to represent a client who is not committed to seeing a case through to the end. If they can't accept from the beginning that they may need to take their claim all the way to trial, walk away.
JURY STILL OUT:
1. Signing up for the referral list with your bar association. While I receive one to three calls a week from people referred from the list, the vast majority of them do not have good cases. In fact, so far I have only agreed to represent one individual referred by the list. Fielding the calls takes significant time. Overall, I would recommend this for people just starting out who have more time than cases, as a good marketing tool for future business.
2. Requiring a cost retainer up front for contingency fee cases. I started doing this out of necessity because I simply couldn't afford to carry out of pocket expenses for cases in litigation. On the plus side, this screens out clients who want something for nothing, and keeps clients invested in the case. On the down side, it also screens out clients with good cases who simply can't afford to pay up front. My current policy is to inform all potential clients of my policy during my initial conversation with them. I then usually screen the case. Occasionally, if I really want to take the case, either because it's a great case or I just like the client, I will waive the cost retainer. Interestingly, women practitioners tend to encourage cost retainers while male practitioners warn me away from it. I don't know if this has to do with economic status, risk aversion, or something else.
HUNG JURY:
1. Working from home. Working from home has been phenomenal for the brief-writing portion of my practice. All I really need is my telephone and my computer system, and the convenience can't be beat. On my "non-working days" I often work from 6 AM to 8 AM while my husband gets up with my daughter. When attorneys who hire me are in a real crunch, I can work all night, something I would definitely not feel comfortable doing in an office building. Note, however, that I have a private office in my house that no other family members are allowed to enter; this is key for protecting my work and client confidentiality. Working from home is becoming less practical as my litigation practice grows. I could really use a part-time secretary for the litigation work, something I can't have in my house; meeting with clients is problematic; and I get no walk-in business. Finally, the most important tip for practicing law or just living: Be yourself. There is no cookie-cutter model for a successful law practice. The lawyers who do best are those who know their strengths and play to them. But that's another article.
2. Carrying business cards with you wherever you go. Invariably, the very few times I happen not to have a card with me, I meet someone who wants one. Once, when I was on vacation, I met a potential client on the beach. I borrowed a pen and wrote my information on one of my daughter's (clean) diapers. Still waiting to hear from him…
3. Co-counseling cases with other attorneys. Of course you need to screen these cases as carefully as you would any other; you need to make sure the other attorney is competent and trustworthy; and you need to have a clear agreement up front about how compensation will be divided. I co-counsel cases outside my areas of expertise to gain experience; I co-counsel cases with high costs so that a more established practice can carry the out-of-pocket expenses; and I co-counsel some run-of-the-mill cases because I like working with other lawyers.
4. Networking for maximum effectiveness. One-time events are not as good as ongoing participation where people will see you over and over. Attending five cocktail parties is less effective than attending five meetings of the same committee; just showing up on a committee is less effective than taking a leadership role.
5. Giving it time. Conventional wisdom says it takes two years for a business to make a profit. Because I was able to keep costs down, my practice was profitable the first year, but it took about ten months of part-time practice and intensive networking before I hit a critical mass where my phone was really ringing.
LOSERS:
1. Accepting referrals of dog cases from other attorneys. If another litigator is referring a case out, they probably have a good reason for it. Gain experience with decent cases, not with dogs.
2. Agreeing to represent a client who is not committed to seeing a case through to the end. If they can't accept from the beginning that they may need to take their claim all the way to trial, walk away.
JURY STILL OUT:
1. Signing up for the referral list with your bar association. While I receive one to three calls a week from people referred from the list, the vast majority of them do not have good cases. In fact, so far I have only agreed to represent one individual referred by the list. Fielding the calls takes significant time. Overall, I would recommend this for people just starting out who have more time than cases, as a good marketing tool for future business.
2. Requiring a cost retainer up front for contingency fee cases. I started doing this out of necessity because I simply couldn't afford to carry out of pocket expenses for cases in litigation. On the plus side, this screens out clients who want something for nothing, and keeps clients invested in the case. On the down side, it also screens out clients with good cases who simply can't afford to pay up front. My current policy is to inform all potential clients of my policy during my initial conversation with them. I then usually screen the case. Occasionally, if I really want to take the case, either because it's a great case or I just like the client, I will waive the cost retainer. Interestingly, women practitioners tend to encourage cost retainers while male practitioners warn me away from it. I don't know if this has to do with economic status, risk aversion, or something else.
HUNG JURY:
1. Working from home. Working from home has been phenomenal for the brief-writing portion of my practice. All I really need is my telephone and my computer system, and the convenience can't be beat. On my "non-working days" I often work from 6 AM to 8 AM while my husband gets up with my daughter. When attorneys who hire me are in a real crunch, I can work all night, something I would definitely not feel comfortable doing in an office building. Note, however, that I have a private office in my house that no other family members are allowed to enter; this is key for protecting my work and client confidentiality. Working from home is becoming less practical as my litigation practice grows. I could really use a part-time secretary for the litigation work, something I can't have in my house; meeting with clients is problematic; and I get no walk-in business. Finally, the most important tip for practicing law or just living: Be yourself. There is no cookie-cutter model for a successful law practice. The lawyers who do best are those who know their strengths and play to them. But that's another article.
Labour law - May Day
Labor law legislation dealing with human beings in their capacity as workers or wage earners. The Industrial Revolution, by introducing the machine and factory production, greatly expanded the class of workers dependent on wages as their source of income. The terms of the labor contract, working conditions, and the relations between workers and employers early became matters of public concern. Early Labor Law In England, Parliament was averse to legislating on subjects relating to workers because of the prevailing policy of laissez-faire .
The earliest factory law (1802) dealt with the health, safety, and morals of children employed in textile mills, and subsequent laws regulated their hours and working conditions. An act of 1833 provided for inspection to enforce the law. Young mine workers were first protected in 1842, women in 1844. Although labor unions were legalized in 1825, agreements among their members to seek better hours and wages were punishable as conspiracy under the common law until they were legalized in 1871 and 1906. In colonial America, labor laws limited a worker's ability to raise his wages and legalized such forced labor systems as slavery and indentured servitude.
Regulations were nonetheless passed limiting a master's control over servants and slaves and in the 19th cent. labor legislation was passed to improve working conditions. Federal employees were granted a 10-hr day in 1840, but the Supreme Court did not recognize the legality of state legislation that limited the work day to 8 hrs until 1908. Slavery ended with the Civil War and the legal basis for peonage and indentured servitude disappeared by 1910. As in Great Britain, labor organizing in the United States was discouraged by the common law doctrine that unions represented a conspiracy against the public good.
The Massachusetts supreme court abolished the doctrine in 1842, but in the 19th and early 20th cent. courts often prohibited unions for going on strike and generally granted prosecutors wide authority to indict union leaders for violence or property damage that occurred during a strike. Sedition laws passed in World War I were used to crush such unions as the Industrial Workers of the World .
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Black's Law Dictionary
Black's Law Dictionary is the most widely-used law dictionary for the law of the United States. It was founded by Henry Campbell Black. It has been cited as legal authority in many Supreme Court cases (see Secondary authority). The latest editions, including abridged and pocket versions, are useful starting points for the layman or student when faced with an unfamiliar legal word. It is the reference of choice for definitions in legal briefs and court opinions.
History
The first edition was published in 1891, and the second edition in 1910, long before the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed in 1928. The sixth and earlier editions of the book also provided case citations for the term cited, which some lawyers view as its most useful feature, providing a useful starting point with leading cases. The Internet made legal research easier than it ever had been, so many state- or circuit-specific case citations and outdated or overruled case citations were dropped from the seventh edition in 1999. The eighth edition introduced a unique system of perpetually updated case citations and cross-references to legal encyclopedias.
Black's Law Dictionary has been used to create law dictionaries in other languages including Qānūnī, Angrezī-Urdu lug̲h̲at : Blaiks lāʼ dikshanarī se māk̲h̲ūz, published in Urdu by Islāmābād : Muqtadirah-yi Qaumī Zabān in 1992, and Farhang-i ḥuqūqī-i Bahman : Ingilīsī-Fārsī : bar asās-i published in Persian by Tihrān : Ganj-i Dānish in 1999.
Because many legal terms are derived from a Latin root word, the Dictionary gives a pronunciation guide for such terms. In addition, the applicable entries provide pronunciation transcriptions pursuant to those found among North American practitioners of law or medicine.
The first edition was published in 1891, and the second edition in 1910, long before the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed in 1928. The sixth and earlier editions of the book also provided case citations for the term cited, which some lawyers view as its most useful feature, providing a useful starting point with leading cases. The Internet made legal research easier than it ever had been, so many state- or circuit-specific case citations and outdated or overruled case citations were dropped from the seventh edition in 1999. The eighth edition introduced a unique system of perpetually updated case citations and cross-references to legal encyclopedias.
Black's Law Dictionary has been used to create law dictionaries in other languages including Qānūnī, Angrezī-Urdu lug̲h̲at : Blaiks lāʼ dikshanarī se māk̲h̲ūz, published in Urdu by Islāmābād : Muqtadirah-yi Qaumī Zabān in 1992, and Farhang-i ḥuqūqī-i Bahman : Ingilīsī-Fārsī : bar asās-i published in Persian by Tihrān : Ganj-i Dānish in 1999.
Because many legal terms are derived from a Latin root word, the Dictionary gives a pronunciation guide for such terms. In addition, the applicable entries provide pronunciation transcriptions pursuant to those found among North American practitioners of law or medicine.
Situations Requiring the Help of an Automobile Accident Attorney
In most accident situations, there are circumstances that call for professional help. When this need arises, getting the services of a lawyer would be a smart decision. But hiring an attorney is not as simple an idea as getting someone you know who practices law.
Like any other legal issue, an automobile accident case is complex and must be pursued differently. Each personal injury case has its own legal characteristic and methods, which would often require the help of a legal expert.
However, getting involved in an accident does not mean that you have to get an attorney outright. Generally, it would depend on the nature of the accident, the injuries sustained, and the parties involved.
In an automobile accident, for example, you will need the skills and experience of an automobile accident attorney to improve your chances of a successful claim.
But in certain situations, getting an attorney would not only be important but definitely vital to a claim. Here are situations that would definitely require expert legal help: when there has been serious injury (broken bones and head injuries) that need hospitalization when injuries are likely to be permanent (paralysis) when someone’s fault is a clear issue in the accident when a death has resulted from the accident when the accident involved other parties such as pedestrians or other vehicles when the accident occurred in a construction area when the police report does not accurately describe the accident and puts you at fault when important technical, legal or medical issues are involved when the insurance refuses to recognize coverage when the limits of your liability insurance are low and; if you have no insurance, or your insurance company suggests that you have unpaid premiums In most cases, pursuing damages from an accident would often entitle a victim to the following compensation: Economic damages which often include loss of income, benefits, or opportunity, and medical expenses Non-economic damages include compensation for one’s suffering, anxiety, sleeplessness, loss of companionship and others.
In an automobile accident, for example, you will need the skills and experience of an automobile accident attorney to improve your chances of a successful claim.
But in certain situations, getting an attorney would not only be important but definitely vital to a claim. Here are situations that would definitely require expert legal help: when there has been serious injury (broken bones and head injuries) that need hospitalization when injuries are likely to be permanent (paralysis) when someone’s fault is a clear issue in the accident when a death has resulted from the accident when the accident involved other parties such as pedestrians or other vehicles when the accident occurred in a construction area when the police report does not accurately describe the accident and puts you at fault when important technical, legal or medical issues are involved when the insurance refuses to recognize coverage when the limits of your liability insurance are low and; if you have no insurance, or your insurance company suggests that you have unpaid premiums In most cases, pursuing damages from an accident would often entitle a victim to the following compensation: Economic damages which often include loss of income, benefits, or opportunity, and medical expenses Non-economic damages include compensation for one’s suffering, anxiety, sleeplessness, loss of companionship and others.
In serious cases, punitive damages may be imposed to prevent occurrence of similar reckless actions in the future Several benefits can be derived from having legal assistance during an automobile accident, especially if the victim is injured and immobile. At the most, you have the great advantage of having a reliable person who will undertake the task of documenting your case, deal with the necessary paperwork, and work towards the building of a strong case.
Because most personal injury cases must be pursued within the time limit imposed by law, having an attorney will give the assurance that your case is filed within the specific period. Because no matter how valid or reasonable your claim may be, your issue would be irrelevant if you do not observe the statute of limitation for the filing of a complaint. Having an automobile accident attorney can help you address such issues and may eventually lead you to obtain a well-deserved claim. for further information please visit http://www.mesrianilaw.com/
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