Michael Ferguson

You’ve likely discovered by now that there’s a lot that goes into keeping up with the pulse of a thriving career. From researching different paralegal programs to discovering leads for potential jobs—not to mention a host of obligations outside of your career like caring for your children and getting the bills paid on time—your slate probably feels pretty full right about now. Who has time to

We’re not addicted to smartphones, we’re addicted to social interaction. And this is a good thing. Those are the findings of a McGill University  study  recently  summarized in Neuroscience News . We all know people who, seemingly incapable of living without the bright screen of their phone for more than a few minutes, are constantly texting and checking out what friends are up to on social media. These are examples of what many consider to be the antisocial behaviour brought on by smartphone addiction, a phenomenon that has garnered media attention in the past few months and led investors and consumers to demand that tech giants address this problem. Multiple students in a Indiana University Law School class I attended last week challenged other students to be more present. To engage others socially, versus being tied to their cellphones. I wondered if the students appreciated the value of their smartphones for social interaction for learning, networking and b...

How to protect client information when changing jobs? When a paralegal has previously been exposed to privileged client information, his or her new employer may be disqualified from representing a client, if a court finds that confidential information was shared. This disqualification rule can cause the firm to lose its client. As a consequence, the client has to spend more money and time

Nellie Bowles  penned a wonderful piece in the The New York Times this week on ‘ Report for America ,’ a non-profit organization, modeled after AmeriCorps, aiming to install 1,000 journalists in understaffed newsrooms by 2022. Molly Born , one of the first selected for the program who covers the coal fields for West Virginia Public Broadcasting, told Bowles, I felt like I needed to give something back to a place that has given a lot to me, and journalism is the way for me to do that. It’s important to have reporters based in parts of America where some people feel misunderstood. It just helps us get a greater understanding of who we are and who our neighbors are. Bowles report on the plight of journalists sounds earily similar to the plight of small law in communities across our country – even blogging lawyers. Historically, reporters would start their careers at small publications and move on to progressively larger ones. These days, young journalists tend to find ...

What if law schools were charged with never letting a student fail on their dreams? In this story from Notre Dame Magazine, I’m reminded of Emil T Hofman, a chemistry prof at Notre Dame for four decades and Dean of the Freshman Year of Studies for about three decades, who felt 18-year-olds were too young to know what they wanted, much less to fail on their dreams. Farther Ted Hesburgh, then president of the university and Emil T (as he was both affectionately and hatedly called on campus) did as much as anyone other than my parents shaping my belief that anything you can dream is possible. Emil T figured that If Notre Dame accepts the best students they should be treated right. That meant giving them a flexible academic program with time to decide on a major, and helping them to succeed and like the University. I remember to this day sitting in Emil T’s office, which almost on top of the Grotto telling him I was failing, that I totally blew it by going for an engineering degree a...

My colleague Bob Ambrogi reported yesterday that Avvo founder, Mark Britton  is leaving the company he launched in 2007. Following the January news of Avvo’s acquisition by Internet Brands, Britton’s announcement that he was leaving the company after its annual Lawyernomics conference in May is not too big of a surprise. Britton will leave Avvo though having left a significant impact on the law — and the business of law. A very positive impact. Britton was driven by his belief in serving consumers. From Ambrogi’s report: Even though we knew some lawyers would take issue with what we were doing, our focus in this product — was in serving the consumer and on getting them the help that they need. I remember meeting Mark for the first time in a Starbucks in Pioneer Square with a colleague of his, probably twelve or thirteen years ago. They were working on the stealth launch of company that would help consumers and small business people faced with legal issues — or at least ...

Paralegals are definitely project managers, so why not think of yourself as one?  I am pleased that the legal industry is slowly but surely beginning to embrace Legal Project Management techniques, even if some attorneys are being forced to the table by their corporate clients. Managing a project is like managing a case Every case and each part of a case can and should be viewed as a