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Expert Analysis

• Law Firm Tips For Attracting, Retaining Attys During Pandemic

  

  Steps law firms can take to attract and keep the best lawyers amid the pandemic include diversifying expertise to meet anticipated legal demands, prioritizing firm culture, and preparing for prospective partners' pointed questions, says Brian Burlant at Major Lindsey.

• Perspectives

  Finding A Path Forward To Regulate The Legal Industry

  

  Gerald Knapton at Ropers Majeski analyzes U.S. and U.K. experiments to explore alternative business structures and independent oversight for law firms, which could lead to innovative approaches to increasing access to legal services.

• Vaping And COVID-19: Plausibility And Causality

  

  A plausible correlation between vaping and increased COVID-19 risk has already led to liability claims against e-cigarette manufacturers — but it is unclear whether plaintiffs will be able to prove causality, say attorneys and a scientific adviser at DLA Piper.

• Series

  Lawyering While Parenting: A Day In A Dad's Pandemic Life

  

  Christopher Jennison shares a view of his life working from home as a Federal Aviation Administration attorney preparing to first-chair a trial while splitting child care responsibilities with his lawyer wife.

• Series

  Lawyering While Parenting: A Day In A Mom's Pandemic Life

  

  Josephine Bahn shares a view of her life working from home as an attorney at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation while splitting child care responsibilities with her lawyer husband.

• 5 Cost-Cutting Strategies For Corporate Legal Departments

  

  To achieve long-term reduction in their legal expenses, companies must look beyond law firm hourly rates and better distribute their legal work among high-cost premier firms, low-cost practitioners and alternative legal service providers, and their own in-house teams, says Nathan Wenzel at SimpleLegal.

• Guest Feature

  Preparing The Next Generation Of Female Trial Lawyers

  

  To build the ranks of female trial attorneys, law firms must integrate them into every aspect of a case — from witness preparation to courtroom arguments — instead of relegating them to small roles, says Kalpana Srinivasan, co-managing partner at Susman Godfrey.

• Guest Feature

  Mentorship Is Key To Fixing Drop-Off Of Women In Law

  

  It falls to senior male attorneys to recognize the crisis female attorneys face as the pandemic amplifies an already unequal system and to offer their knowledge, experience and counsel to build a better future for women in law, says James Meadows at Culhane Meadows.

• Kentucky Tax Talk: What Appeals Board Reinstatement Means

  

  While local customs and precedent set by the Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals prior to 2016 will likely be back upon the board's pending reinstatement, taxpayers and practitioners should be aware of several important practice and structural changes, say attorneys at Frost Brown.

• Guest Feature

  5 Ways Firms Can Avoid Female Atty Exodus During Pandemic

  

  The pandemic's disproportionate impact on women presents law firms with a unique opportunity to devise innovative policies that will address the increasing home life demands female lawyers face and help retain them long after COVID-19 is over, say Roberta Liebenberg at Fine Kaplan and Stephanie Scharf at Scharf Banks.

• Opinion

  Lawyers Must Fight Voter Suppression This Election Season

  

  Lawyers should use their unique skill sets, knowledge and spheres of influence to fight burdensome ID requirements and other voter suppression tactics that may influence the 2020 elections, and to participate in potential post-election litigation, say CK Hoffler and Allyce Bailey at the National Bar Association.

• Why Online Mediation May Be Here To Stay

  

  Videoconferenced mediation offers several advantages and helps cases settle faster and more cordially, making it hard to imagine going back to logistically difficult in-person dispute resolution after COVID-19 restrictions are gone, says Sidney Kanazawa at ARC.

• Clients Have The Power To Promote Wellness At Law Firms

  

  Law firm clients can play a role in lowering mental distress in the legal profession by seeking lawyer wellness data from firms and factoring those responses into outside counsel hiring decisions, says Jonathan Prokup at Cigna.

• Opinion

  Appellate Courts Should Welcome Well-Crafted Amicus Briefs

  

  A Seventh Circuit judge's recent order granting leave for three organizations to file amicus curiae briefs in Prairie Rivers Network v. Dynegy Midwest Generation is a reminder that relevant, nonduplicative amicus briefs can provide courts with helpful perspective, important facts and legal arguments, says Lawrence Ebner at Capital Appellate Advocacy.

• What Hiring Law Firms Should Consider Instead Of Grades

  

  With law schools forgoing traditional grading due to the pandemic, hiring firms that have heavily weighted first-year grades during the on-campus interview process should turn to metrics that allow a more holistic view of a candidate, says Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.