The Estrin Report

Snoopy Lawyer Sent to the Woodshed

Talk about nerve! Or addiction?  Excitement? Thrill of getting away with something? The ABA Journal.com reported that a West Virginia lawyer has been suspended for e-mail snooping. Apparently, the lawyer accessed his wife's e-mail account at the law firm at which she worked as an associate along with eight other lawyers at her firm at least 150 times over a two-year period.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals imposed the sanction against Charleston lawyer Michael Markins in an opinion issued Friday, as reported by the Legal Profession Blog.

At first, Markins accessed his wife's e-mail account in an attempt to learn whether she might be having an affair.  He figured out the firm’s uncomplicated e-mail password system, and “his curiosity got the better of him” causing him to access the e-mail of eight other lawyers at his wife’s firm on almost a daily basis.

At the time, Markins worked at Huddleston Bolen and his wife worked at Offutt, Fisher and Nord. Both lost their jobs.

Markins accessed personal information and confidential financial information intended only for Offutt Fisher’s partners. It's questionable whether he would have stopped.  However, upon learning the firm’s computer experts were on the verge of discovering that he was behind the unauthorized e-mail intrusions, Markins came forward. There is no evidence that information concerning the case had been compromised, according to the opinion.

Nor is there any evidence that Markins misused the information he accessed, the opinion says. Still, the court said it needed to impose an effective sanction as a deterrent to other lawyers and to reassure the public.

Staycation - The Latest in No-Getting-Away Retreats

Here is a classic case of "everything old is new again". The Wall Street Journal today reported that the latest in vacations is the "staycation" - staying at home instead of getting away on your personal time off.  The ABA Journal picked up the article with a story about a frugal lawyer who chose to stay at home instead of spending two weeks at a lovely beach.

Staycation?  You mean stay home for a vacation?? Maybe it's because the folks who were interviewed have little kids, work 60+ hours a week and are so rarely at home that they think it's fun.  Or, maybe it's just a sign of the times - high travel prices; $4.00+ per gallon of gas while zipping around in your econoless SUV.  But for me, I love the idea of a pool, sunshine, a huge king-sized bed, room service, first run movies and a gorgeous beach boy who spritzes my face with Evian while handing me an icy, cold daquiri.

And I'm not so sure that a staycation is all that good for stress.  I mean, when you're home, let's face it - you still have to clean the house, do the shopping, answer the phone, check your e-mail, answer the door, get the snail mail, and do all the other day-to-day stuff to keep the house running smoothly.  To make matters worse, the firm is sure to know that you're not going anywhere and more likely than not will call (hating to disturb you of course) for the blankety-blank file and to find out if so-and-so client was actually served. 

Lois Backon, vice president of the Families and Work Institute, reports that 37% of U.S. employees take less than one week of vacation at a time. "Many of those people are choosing to stay home", she says, "to be with family and friends they don't get to spend time with because of their hectic lives."  I really think you can figure out a way to take them with you. I really do.

It used to be that if you were staying at home, it was a polite way of saying "I can't really afford to travel anywhere".  Why is it that people think they're making up a new trend with a new name when the reality is, few today can afford to take the same vacation they took when times were better? Can we just call it what it is?  Can you spell r-e-c-e-s-s-i-o-n?  Let's drop the pretense and stop being embarrassed. For me, I always hope to go somewhere where the phones don't ring, e-mails can't get through and I can cut a few beauty zzzz's under the palapa where absolutely no one knows me if god forbid, I snore.  If I can't afford it, well, I guess I'll just have to be honest. But call myself a staycationer?  I've got to think some more about that one.

What's Hot for Paralegals

We may be about 4 months late with this report but heck, we just found it.  The ABA's Law Practice magazine issued its 19th annual report on what's hot; what's not in the legal field. Here is a refreshing look at some interesting and exciting new developments specifically for paralegals:

Hot New Areas for Paralegals: Virtual Assistants.  A form of outsourcing that is new. VAs are paralegals and administrative specialists who work off site and online to handle legal projects.

Nonlawyer Staff on Websites: A handful of mostly smaller firms have been posting photos and bios of their administrative and staff personnel on their Web sites for some time. One midsize firm that recently did so is Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean.

Staff on Committees: Many firms have committees comprised of only staff. Now some firms are including staff with lawyers on committees such as technology, marketing and strategic planning. The results are improved staff retention and morale along with new and worthwhile ideas, plus improved implementation of plans.

Intellectual Property Firms: The conventional wisdom has been that these firms could not survive on their own. But IP boutiques continue to not just survive but thrive. One indication of this is the movement of IP lawyers and staff from large, general firms back to IP firms translating into more IP positions for paralegals.

Anyone have any other new trends and developments out there?  Let us know!

Is the National Law Journal Predicting Doom & Gloom for Paralegals?

The National Law Journal published an article the other day entitled "Ecosystem of Legal Services Is Evolving".  It was written by Mehul Patel who was previously the Chief Marketing Officer of a major San Francisco law firm who is now the EVP of Axiom Legal, a "new" type of contract attorney provider.  Only Axiom Legal does not claim to be a contract attorney provider. In fact, they are a law firm.  The article was written as a somewhat self-promoting piece which astounded me that the NLJ published it. However, it made some important points.

Axiom Legal's claim to fame is a very impressive website and a "new" concept.  Frankly, after over 16 years in the contract attorney business and having started one of the first paralegal temp agencies in the country, I had to laugh at loud at the marketing twist Axiom has put on its "new" concept.

Axiom has minimal physical overhead (lawyers work from home or at clients' offices), so it can charge half as much as traditional firms.  Primarily, they charge a flat fee or yearly salary and on occasion, an hourly rate. 

This is the same thing that temporary help agencies have done for years, particularly contract attorney agencies.  Temp agencies would place a contract attorney, preferably one with major firm background and top schools at a client for a certain length of time.  The only difference was, the contract attorney agency charged primarily an hourly rate, rather than a flat fee and placed both in the law firm and in the corporate legal department.  And, as little as 6-10 years ago, companies really didn't want a "virtual" lawyer.  They wanted the traditional law office.  So much has changed. 

Axiom apparently has selected to place primarily at in-house legal departments only, charge a flat fee instead of hourly; concentrate on the long-term temp or on an "as-needed basis" placement and claim that this is the "new" way that in-house legal departments have chosen to do business instead of hiring a law firm.  It's just a new twist on the old contract attorney job.  Well, God Bless 'em.  They jumped from a $4.4 million company to $31.2 million in a few short years. They must be doing something right.

Now, what has that got to do with paralegals?  A lot.  In addition to mentioning (once again) that law firms are outsourcing document review work to India, the article stresses that clients today want either lower fees or more bang for their buck.  If law firms cannot deliver either, clients are turning to alternatives.

The advent of e-mails, audio and video discovery has pushed up the need for more document review work, not diminished it as one may have orginally thought.  So, the "fear" factor is that paralegal work is going to go away.  I am here to tell you that paralegal work is not going to go away.  Document review, due diligence work may go away.  But savvy paralegals need to be on top of the latest trends.  Even if it's only the major law firms or top corporate law departments that outsource, expectations of all clients have risen. 

The best thing that you can do for yourself, your firm and your firm's clients, is to start inching up to the associate level and start getting yourself assignments that would have previously gone to first and second year associates.  It is clear that clients do not want to pay to train young associates.  But they sure don't seem to mind if a seasoned paralegal can do the job at a highly expert level for a lower hourly rate.

Those latest trends must push law firms to take a look at the assignment area of paralegals and for paralegals to start looking at their job descriptions and start upgrading assignments now.  If these trends hold true (and I believe they will), clients will expect low-level work to be done by the lowest cost-efficient competent level and everyone in the law firm to tackle work that cannot be delegated.