Michael Ferguson

A paralegal certification demonstrates to employers a commitment to the profession and a mastery of certain skills and knowledge necessary to the field. Skills and knowledge tested by certification examinations include an advanced knowledge of legal procedure, ethics, and substantive law as well as research, communication and writing skills.Many paralegals obtain professional designations after

Most people understand that to be successful in life at anything you have to have ambition, purpose, and goals. While this is understood, many fail at achieving their objectives or goals because they go about it the wrong way. The aspiration they have may manifest too late or quite possibly never occur because of improper planning for their target. They failed to create SMART goals. "A goal is

The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct make fairly clear that lawyers have a duty to bring about access to the legal system on behalf of the public. Today, this means seeing that technology that can help bring access to legal services be used to do so. The preamble to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct makes it the duty of lawyer entrepreneurs driving innovation and technology, like me, as well as lawyers in regulatory bodies do all we can to deliver access to legal services to the American public. Not just for the impoverished, who may or may not be entitled to legal services and pro bono services, but for the vast majority of Americans who have no effective access to legal services. These are model rules, until adopted by individual states, and this is a preamble. But it would be a sad reflection on our profession if lawyers interpreted gaps in ethical guidelines to avoid addressing a problem we’ve arguably created. From the preamble: [6] As a public citizen, a l

LexBlog, via the law bloggers it supports worldwide, has become one the largest legal news and information publishers. We support these bloggers with a digital design and publishing platform we have developed on a WordPress core. Developing the platform was the only way we could scale our offering. Without the platform, we could not provide each blogger/publication regular upgrades and feature enhancements, let alone support all of these publishers. Our platform is not limited to a blog site user interface. The platform can present interfaces for websites, mini-sites, magazines, content portals and what have you. Knowing this, organizations have approached LexBlog asking if they could license our platform for their members and customers. We’re in the process of doing so. In discussions with these folks, I started thinking that LexBlog was basically offering a SaaS solution for digital design and publishing. Organizations, or end publishers directly via a do it yourself (DIY) blog

The Denver Post announced the layoff of 30 reporters and editors this afternoon. The layoff represents a third of the Post’s staff and the fourth major layoff in three plus years. In a staff meeting, the @DenverPost editor just told us that we are cutting 30 positions in the newsroom. There are some sobs in the room. — Jon Murray (@JonMurray) March 14, 2018 The Denver Post announced 30 layoffs, a third of the newsroom. The news was met with sobs. These are people who have bent over backwards under amid already unimaginable cuts being told it isn’t enough. This is a hedge fund killing an institution. — Nick Kosmider (@NickKosmider) March 14, 2018 It’s going to be impossible for the Post to continue covering what they have. I seriously don’t know how to put into words how painful this is. By the end of this there are going to only be about 60 of us to cover everything we already work so hard to write about. — Jesse Aaron Paul (@JesseAPaul) March 14, 2018 It’s not mere

One of the best ways to improve cost margins and client services is to better manage paralegals’ time. Paralegals are some of the most versatile team members at a law firm and often work well past 40 hours per week. Using their time effectively and efficiently is important to improve productivity — not to mention paralegals’ job satisfaction. Paralegals perform much of the heavy

The internet is not ruined just because there are a few assholes on it. This  from  author, journalism professor, media consultant and long time blogger, Jeff Jarvis ,  discussing the progress he sees with the open Internet, digital journalism, Internet advertising and social media platforms. …[L]et’s please remember that the internet is not ruined just because there are a few  assholes  on it. This, too, is why I insist on not seeing the net as a medium. It is Times Square. On Times Square, you can find pickpockets and bad Elmos and idiots, to be sure. But you also find many more nice tourists from Missoula and Mexico City and New Yorkers trying to dodge them on their way to work. Let’s bring some perspective to the media narrative about the net today. Please go take a look at your Facebook or Twitter or Instagram feeds or any Google search. I bet you will not find them infested with nazis and Russians and trolls, oh, my. I will bet you still find, on the whole, decent people like

The transition to a new world is the hands of the old. This from author, consultant and speaker, Euan Semple addressing the biggest challenge to digital transformation. Those who can bring themselves to use the phrase “Digital Transformation” are invariably those who least understand, or would like, its implications. The true transformation of a digital culture is in behaviours and interactions between people. It is in the ability to more directly connect with each other in the workplace, to reduce unnecessary steps and overheads, and to be able to adapt and respond to challenges more quickly. All of this threatens the status quo and the authority of many of the gatekeepers who have, until now, been deemed necessary. Reading Juan’s post, I couldn’t help but think of the roadblock to the adoption of legal technology and innovation across the legal industry. Whether it’s law firms, bar associations, or even legal technology associations, the transformation to digital, the use of t

“Way too many journalists use social media to broadcast rather than being social,” Joy Mayer , a veteran journalist and director of Trusting News, a project that helps journalists earn the trust of their communities, tells Christine Schmidt for a story in Nieman Lab. It’s not so much about gaming Facebook’s algorithm or working with the Facebook changes as much as it is taking advantage of Facebook as a truly social platform. …… Being social involves listening, responding, and adjusting what you’re doing based on the feedback you’re getting…The biggest way newsrooms in this project are having success on Facebook is by participating in the conversations that happen there and using every interaction as an opportunity to explain their credibility. Journalists are learning to be social online because of trust — people don’t trust journalists. With two-thirds of respondents to an international survey  citing concerns of bias, spin, and hidden agendas as reasons why they often don’t t