Are you looking for a Christmas gift for a young lawyer or a law student? Or are you a new attorney trying to figure out how to practice law? In either situation, take a look at our article called Four Books Every New Lawyer Should Read. You'll find my recommendations on the four books I consider essential for every attorney to study, especially those just beginning their law practices.
What books would go on your reading list of essential books for new lawyers? Share your opinion in the Comments section below.
We are making some updates to our social media structure at the About.com Law Practice Management site. For those of you who visit our Facebook page, nothing will change. However, those of you currently following my personal Twitter account @StubbornWriter now have the additional option of following a Twitter account dedicated solely to this website. Follow us @AbtLawPractice to keep up with all the latest news and developments from the About.com Law Practice management site. Need more followers on your Twitter account? Follow us @AbtLawPractice and we'll follow you back (unless you appear to be a spammer).
With so much discussion going on about the Occupy Wall Street movement and the use of slogans such as "We are the 99%," perhaps we should take a moment to see just who is in this hated 1% that has made so many people angry. It will come as no surprise to most lawyers that most lawyers did not make in.
An ABA Journal article called The One Percenters Include More Doctors than Lawyers, Debra Cassens Weiss summarizes some recent data that shows the breakdown of the membership of the 1%. The results:
- Executives, managers, supervisors (nonfinance): 31%
- Medical: 15.7%
- Financial professions, including management: 13.9%
- Lawyers: 8.4%
- Computer, math, engineering, technical (nonfinance): 4.6%
If such a small percent of lawyers have made it into the top 1% of income earners, why is it that so much of the general population views all lawyers as rich? Why is it that so few lawyers have made it into the top income brackets? To learn more about the numbers, see Weiss's article and the links she cites in it, then share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
Joshua Monson either really dislikes lawyers or really doesn't want to go to trial. Standing trial in Snohomish County, Washington, for drug charges, Monson so far has managed to stab three different criminal defense attorneys in the courtroom. The first two were stabbed with pencils he smuggled into court from the jail. The third one was attacked using the lawyer's own pen, which the defendant grabbed from the lawyer during the prosecutor's opening statement.
After being stunned with a shock cuff and piled on by police officers and courthouse security, Monson was ordered to resume trial strapped in a restraint chair. Judge David Kurtz also ordered that Monson would finish the trial pro se, ruling that Monson had forfeited his right to counsel because he keeps attacking his attorneys.
The ruling that Monson must finish trial strapped in his seat is not particularly surprising, and it is quite reasonable for a judge to rule that he forfeited his right to be unrestrained in the courtroom. But the ruling that Monson must finish the trial without the aid of counsel is more controversial. It certainly seems unlikely that Monson will be able to competently represent himself in trial while strapped down in a chair, without access to pens, pencils, or paper. At the same time, if there could ever be grounds for forfeiting the right to counsel, assaulting every criminal defense attorney appointed by the court would certainly seem to be it. To learn more about this story, read Suspect allegedly stabs his third defense attorney.
What are your thoughts on the trial court's ruling that Monson has lost the right to counsel? Is this a reasonable ruling by the trial court, or a ruling arising more from frustration than from the law? Is the judge merely punishing Monson with the full realization that the conviction will likely be reversed on appeal, or does the judge legitimately believe that Monson's conduct constitutes the waiver of the right to counsel? Have you ever been attacked by a client in the courtroom? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.
