How to keep personal problems from affecting performance

Dress Codes: The Poll Results

By dmc-admin
Published: July 5, 2010
Tags: Law Office Management, Surveys

It’s okay to ditch the tie when working in the office, according to lawyers across the commonwealth. Just don’t show up with a three-day beard. Leave the low-cut tops at home, but don’t be afraid to step out in stilettos. Tattoos and nose rings have no place in the law firm, but men can probably [...]

Firms must exercise care in hiring unpaid interns

By Correy E. Stephenson
Published: June 16, 2010
Tags: Law Office Management

Summertime means vacations, dinner on the grill and summer interns at the office. Law firms may be looking to unpaid interns who are looking for resume enhancement. Lawyers also may need to advise their business clients who may be skittish about hiring and hope to take up the slack with unpaid interns. But beware. It’s [...]

Dress Codes: What is the prevailing view about associates’ appearance?

By Paul Fletcher
Published: June 14, 2010
Tags: Law Office Management

Another crop of new lawyers has entered the legal workforce in Virginia. We have seen some slight easing of the job crunch: Here’s hoping that law firms and other organizations decide that it’s time to hire and that the new lawyers can put their new law licenses to work. But what type of workplace culture [...]

Does your law firm have a language gap?

By Edward Poll
Published: June 8, 2010
Tags: Law Office Management

Lawyers have a language all their own, and sometimes its purpose seems to be to obscure meaning rather than to facilitate it; however, other disciplines that work in law firm staff positions also have their professional jargon that may or may not translate well for lawyers. Some time ago I read an article in the [...]

Protecting yourself, data when recycling

By dmc-admin
Published: May 31, 2010
Tags: Going Green, Law Office Management, Technology

When donating or recycling used computers, it’s important to keep your personal files out of the wrong hands. Simply deleting files from your computer does not clear the information from your hard drive. Armed with the right tools, even an inexperienced crook can recover client data, legal documents, credit card numbers, browser history, passwords and [...]

Old computers can get new life through recycling

By dmc-admin
Published: May 31, 2010
Tags: Going Green, Law Office Management, Technology

As technology develops at a seemingly exponential rate, many small firms and businesses find themselves burdened with obsolete equipment. Limited resources and overall lack of awareness, coupled with concerns for the environment, have prompted some offices to hang on to old computers rather than throw them away. Those environmental concerns, however, are not without merit. [...]

Green practices at firms require coordination

By Alan Cooper
Published: May 31, 2010
Tags: Going Green, Law Office Management

Green practices at a law firm can be the result of a coordinated effort by a 900-lawyer institution or a single lawyer following what she describes as her “hippy-dippy” inclinations. Robert J. Couture, executive director of Richmond-based McGuireWoods LLP, said the firm has been recycling its paper since the 1990s but has greatly expanded its [...]

What to keep in your employee files

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: May 13, 2010
Tags: Law Office Management

The lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, Abraham Lincoln once said. But the solo or small firm lawyer may represent him or herself as IT Director, Chief Marketing Officer or Director of Human Resources for the firm, among other responsibilities. At least the lawyer with a fool for a client has [...]

‘At-risk’ lawyers: How the rest of the firm keeps them in line

By Nora Lockwood Tooher
Published: April 26, 2010
Tags: Health & Wellness, Law Office Management

When it comes to dealing with “at-risk” lawyers, take action quickly – even if it’s one of the senior partners in your firm. That’s the advice of the experts. Whether it’s a lawyer bullying staff, a senior partner with billing issues or an attorney struggling with substance abuse or mental illness, the problem is not [...]