The Estrin Report

Fulbright & Jaworski's New Litigation Survey Reports Drop in Number of Litigation Matters Against U.S. Corporations

Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP, has released its Fourth Annual Litigation Trends Survey of more than 300 corporations within the U.S. and U.K.  This report is the largest conducted of business litigation matters.  According to the survey, while litigation between employers and employees did not dissolve completely, it did taper off.  Seventeen percent of the respondents reported they did not go to court for any lawsuits within the past year, an increase of 6% over last year.  Only 65% stated they initiated lawsuits, down from 88% in 2004.  Moreover, 22% said they expected litigation to rise in the next 12 months, down 10% from the previous year.

Does this have any effect on employment for major law firms?  Is it time to get cross-trained?  Any thoughts?

For a full report, please go to www.fulbright.com/litigationtrends.

Salaries for Sr. Paralegals Expected to Increase 6.1%

Declining law school enrollments have had a positive effect on the paralegal field.  A new salary survey issued by Robert Half Legal predicts that the demand for non-lawyers with competent skill levels is in higher demand, forcing salaries to increase in 2008.

Executive Director Charles Volkert said some law firms are building up practice areas, while corporate legal departments are addressing growing workloads and regulatory issues.

“The need for professionals with specialized expertise, coupled with a declining supply of law school graduates, has created a competitive hiring environment,” Volkert said. “As a result, many law offices are willing to pay higher salaries for in-demand skill sets.”

He said legal job seekers will see the greatest compensation gains at large firms.

The salary guide forecasts that nationally, paralegals can expect starting salaries to increase an average of 3.4 percent next year. For those with between four and six years’ experience, the report predicts an increase of 4.4 percent and, for paralegals with 12 years or more of experience, 6.1 percent.

Information for the salary guide is obtained from job orders and placements handled nationwide by Robert Half Legal account executives.The salary guide does not report on continuing or ongoing salaries, which may be affected by factors such as seniority, performance, work ethic, training, and other factors.

As a side note, we have frequently read where law firm enrollments often run parallel to the number of popular TV series about lawyers.  Lately, besides the long-running Boston series and the original Law & Order franchise, it seems these are far and few between. Perhaps that's a good thing for paralegals.......

DTI Global Offers Olive Branch - and Apology

Power of the written word. Thanks to all of you who wrote, called and came over to me at the Santa Clara Paralegal Association's annual event where I was a keynote speaker this weekend. Failure to stand up and say no would put anyone who offers a seminar in a delicate situation: we would have to allow any other vendor to crash our event. Estrin LegalEd is a leader in paralegal continuing legal education What would prevent other vendors or attendees from doing the same thing at any event, large or small?

Further to our incident with DTI Global, Jeff Harper washed his hands of me and referred me yet one more ring up the ladder to the CFO, Chris Hendersen to "discuss my issues". He was not going to contact upper management.  If I wanted to "discuss my issues", as he put it, I was to contact Chris Henderson, CFO.   I called Mr. Hendersen who was aware of the storm brewing on the Internet about DTI's actions and insistence of its so-called right to crash the SuperConference, thus setting a bad precedent for future legal seminars everywhere.

Mr. Hendersen couldn't have been more polite.  He apologized immediately on behalf of DTI Global and agreed to foward the $1500.00 due and owing.  Furthermore, he offered to purchase a booth for the New York SuperSeminar on October 29-30th for attendance of DTI's newly acquired Skyline Duplication located in NYC.  He did mention he was aware of this article and concerned over the somewhat bad press DTI Global was receiving. He assured Estrin LegalEd that this was not the policy of senior management and offered a verbal apology.  His e-mail read:

"Chere – Scott Heon serves as our Regional VP in the Northeast, Mike McGowan serves as our Senior Managing Partner in NYC and Ed serves as our COO of NYC.  I am confident that they will work diligently to make the upcoming event a success and demonstrate the commitment DTI has to our founding principals of professionalism and integrity – focused on delivering service excellence to the country’s top law firms and corporate legal departments.  Thanks again for your time this morning."

I received a check for both the past show in Atlanta and the upcoming one in New York City.  Apparently, DTI Global's senior management is geniunely concerned about their image and wants to put this to bed and they are willing to "do the right thing".  Whether a cohesive relationship emerges remains to be seen.  However, always willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt, we'll hope for smooth sailing from here on out and appreciate the gesture of good will and willingness to resolve the issue quickly.

In the meantime, Mr. Harper's handwritten check for $105.00 from petty cash arrived to cover the meal and cocktail reception crashed by Mr. Leslie Lumpkins. There was no note, no apology.  I'm planning on returning the check immediately.  I wouldn't want him to think that we would take something that doesn't belong to us, now would I?

DTI Global crashes the SuperConference and Tries to Defend Its Actions

Last week at the Atlanta Paralegal SuperConference, a sales rep from DTI Global (Document Technology Inc.) showed up at the Paralegal SuperConference and helped himself to every activity that vendors generally pay approximately $1500.00.  Leslie Lumpkins, a sales rep from the Atlanta office, showed up at the Cocktail Party (without paying), helped himself to attendee lists, brochures.  While soliciting business for DTI Global, Mr. Lumpkins apparently felt that he was "entitled" to crash the event while other vendors and attendees paid for the same privilege.  He showed up yet again the following day attending the luncheon, general sessions and helped himself to client lists, attendee lists and gave out his card and brochure to anyone he possibly could. He never paid an attendee or vendor fee as did well over 125 other vendors and attendees.

I contacted Mr. Reggie Jones of the Atlanta office who defended Mr. Lumpkins actions.  "He's a paralegal," said Mr. Jones.  "Even I received an invitation although I know it wasn't for free.  Mr. Lumpkins was invited."  Mr. Lumpkins was NOT invited by the management of this company.  Mr. Jones tells us the "invitation" he received was a flyer about the conference.

Complaints were made by paying vendors and other attendees who found DTI's actions offensive who came up to me when Mr. Lumpkins left. They wanted DTI to pay the same fees as they did since they helped themselves to the same meals, attendee information and workshops. When I contacted Jeff Harper and John Davenport, Jr., Vice President and President of DTI, here was their response: "

As you know, DTI heavily supports the legal community in each city where we have offices and customers. I’ve got to say that I take offense to your email message and your harsh words towards Leslie Lumpkins. Leslie and most of my Atlanta team was invited to attend the SuperConference by many of our clients in the marketplace. I believe Leslie is the only one that actually attended the lunch and cocktail party and I will pay you for his attendance. As you mentioned below, the lunch was $45.00 and the cocktail party was $60.00 for a total of $105.00. R

eggie: Please mail the check today."

Is he serious????  Is this to imply that if a DTI client invited DTI to Legal Tech, the ABA Tech Show or ILTA that they would show up for free and expect to eat at the conference, help themselves to the attendee list, solicit business, attend the workshops and never pay a dime???  This guy sat down and ate a meal while trying hard to avoid the event staff.  If I received a flyer for services by DTI, should I assume the services are free?  If one of my clients invited me to go to a DTI shop and photocopy a million documents, should I assume it's for free because "my client invited me?" What kind of business practices are these???  Where are common ethics and common sense?  Do we now have to police the conferences? 

This outrageous and indefensible business practice by DTI Global sets a pretty bad precedent for those of us providing continuing legal education and keeping the fees affordable so as many paralegals and vendors alike can afford to attend.  Can DTI honestly justify "invited by our clients" (assuming that was true) to attend as a means to a free conference?  Do they think that they are somehow elite? The fact that they would admit that they owe even a portion of the fee indicates wrongdoing.  We're still hoping that DTI is going to be interested in resolving this honorably.  We are a small company doing an honest days worth of work and I doubt that any other seminar company large or small would condone this behavior. 

In my opinion, crashing an event is a politically correct term for helping themselves to what they are otherwise not entitled.  Out of the hundreds of vendors we have had at our SuperConferences, no one has ever been so brazen or so cheap.