Svenson Law Firm

LSBA Technology Conference in May

I'll be speaking at the LSBA's 1st Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference, which will be held at the New Orleans Hilton Riverside Hotel on May 8–9th. Details about the seminar are available here. This event will feature some top-notch legal tech folks from all over the country and promises to be a very entertaining and informative event.

Hourly billing by lawyers.

Scott Turow, the famous lawyer turned best-selling author, has a great article about the problems of billing by the hour.  I agree with most of what he says.

Notary Publics

Louisiana is a civil law jurisdiction, which means it's much harder to be a notary here than in most other states.  But if you're a lawyer it's easy to be a notary.  Basically, you just have to apply.  It's assumed, quite reasonably, that attorneys know enough law to perform the function of being a notary public.  I applied to be a notary shortly after I practiced law and I've found that it's been a real benefit to me, and to my clients.  I don't market myself as a notary because it's not something that I want to spend a lot of time doing.  In certain situations, I'm happy to do it --for a reasonable fee, of course.

ABA Journal's new website

The ABA Journal has new website.  Note that the Journal is now listing legal blogs (which they term 'blawgs').  A lot has changed in the 5 years since I started my Ernie the Attorney weblog.  It's good to see the ABA updating its site, especially their inclusion of legal weblogs as part of the makeover.

Rating Lawyers

The July 6th podcast of This Week in Law (of which I am a regular contributor) features an interview with Mark Britton, the CEO of Avvo.com.  Avvo is an online lawyer rating service, one which has been somewhat controversial.  Avvo is only available in a handful of states so far, and is not present in Louisiana.

E-Discovery seminars

I'll be speaking on E-Discovery at a series of seminars on Ethics and Professionalism hosted by the Louisiana State Bar Association.  Actually, I'll be co-presenting with Raymond Chenault, and our program is titled The Evolving, Uncertain and Perilous Law of Electronic Discovery: What Lawyers Need to Know Now.  The program will take place in Lafayette on September 25th, New Orleans on October 5th and in Bossier City in November. 

More information is available online here.