As more and more attorneys and law firms work remotely in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of those lawyers don’t have plans for disaster recovery or business continuity, according to a 2019 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report.
As courts, law schools and law offices close around the country in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus, Indiana Lawyer wants to know how you’re handling “the new normal” of self-isolation, social distancing and working remotely. Please share your thoughts and photos showing how life has changed amid the COVID-19 pandemic with Indiana Lawyer reporter Katie Stancombe at [email protected].
The Chicago-based law firm of Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit now has an Indiana address with the completion of its acquisition of the Tanner Law Group, an Indianapolis firm that represented the largest number of community associations in the Hoosier state.
Julia Blackwell Gelinas’ February retirement from Frost Brown Todd marks the end of an era for the firm. The first woman lawyer at the predecessor firm Locke Reynolds started in the 1970s and continued a career marked by professionalism and leadership.
On Jan. 6, Paganelli Law opened the doors of its renovated fourth-floor office. The space is in the shape of a symmetrical V, with the distance between the two “tips” equaling that of a football field.
In a close game wrapping up this season of the Indianapolis Lawyers Basketball League, law students from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law team defeated the team from Cline Farrell Christie Lee & Bell 55-54 for the championship title.
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath closed all 22 of its global offices Tuesday due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. Attorneys worked remotely after concerns that employees in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office had potentially been exposed a day prior.
An ongoing royalties dispute between Indiana spine surgeon Rick Sasso and medical-device giant Medtronic will continue in state court despite Medtronic’s efforts to remove the matter to a federal judge.
For those of us who manage employees, how we engage (or don’t engage) them impacts how our work gets done.
A Pendleton Correctional Facility inmate will be paid $425,000 by the state after spending four years in isolation for a disciplinary violation he says he didn’t commit. But the settlement might not have been agreed upon without the help of a Chicago-based justice center that says it advocates for underdogs.
Volkswagen’s recent emissions scandal triggered criminal and civil prosecution by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2017, Volkswagen’s estimated cost resulting from the scandal was more than $30 billion, and that number is growing. In the wake of this scandal, the EPA has declared “war” on an entire subindustry — aftermarket parts — and anyone who manufactures, sells or installs devices that allow drivers to tamper with their vehicle emissions.
Law firms with offices and law schools with programs in China have been proactive in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak. For example, Dentons has temporarily closed its office in Wuhan and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP told Indiana Lawyer it has closed some offices in China. Law schools in the state have suspended all staff and faculty travel to China.
On the heels of luring some key lateral hires and opening three new locations in December, Barnes & Thornburg is again expanding with the opening of its first office in New York.
A legal titan in the Indianapolis office of Barnes & Thornburg is facing attorney discipline charges over an alleged improper romantic relationship. The litigator and former federal prosecutor is accused in a disciplinary complaint of an improper relationship with the ex-wife of a former Fishers money-manager client who was convicted of securities fraud and is nearing the end of a 10-year prison sentence.
Hoosier attorneys Ann Marie Waldron and Mike Simmons just returned home after weeks on a boat they plan to work from for the next few years. The couple have decided to work remotely from their boat as they complete a tour of the Great Loop: thousands of miles of waterway along the riverbanks and shorelines of eastern North America.
Lawyers who have had a hearing or trial in the Indianapolis City-County Building often had to bring their own equipment, lug in the hardware, use their own applications and programs to present their material, then pack and lug everything back to the office. The situation will be dramatically different at Marion County’s new Community Justice Center under construction southeast of downtown.
Even after the advent of e-filing and some paperless offices, courier services are still available, and the need for such services persists. That need has evolved in the digital age, but attorneys and delivery companies say there are options available when technology can’t yet get the job done.
A new legal services company rooted in Nashville has recently settled in Indianapolis, with a Hoosier attorney at the helm. Latitude, a Tennessee-based legal services provider founded in 2014, announced the establishment of its Indiana office last month. The company claims it will provide on-demand, sophisticated attorney expertise for Indiana corporations and law firms while increasing flexibility and reducing costs.
The Baker & Daniels name which has been listed among Indiana law firms since 1889 was erased Feb. 1, 2020, as the historic legal entity transformed into Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath and is now one of the 50 largest firms in the country.
The world’s largest law firm now has an Indiana address as the combination between Dentons and Bingham Greenebaum Doll launched Monday as part of the global firm’s first step to creating a national law firm in the United States.