NSBA News
New Bar Leaders Step up at 2017 Annual Meeting
At the NSBA Annual Meeting Friday, Tim Engler accepted the gavel from outgoing NSBA President Hon. Joseph Bataillon. As he took the gavel, Engler remarked, “Serving as President is both an honor and a privilege and carries with it the challenging responsibility of helping the members of our profession achieve the goals of the Nebraska State Bar Association." Full Press Release
House of Delegates and Executive Council Welcome New Leadership
Jane Langan Mach took over as Nebraska State Bar Association House of Delegates Chair and Hon. Stefanie Martinez began her term on the NSBA Executive Council this week at the NSBA’s Annual Meeting in La Vista. Full Press Release
Duties, Risk and Rewards of Nonprofit Board Service
Most lawyers are asked or encouraged to serve on a nonprofit board, possibly as legal counsel. Such service can be personally and professionally rewarding. However, if an individual doesn’t take the responsibilities seriously the volunteer service can end up as a significant liability to reputation and resources. Learn what to ask before you agree to volunteer service, along with advice on carrying out your board responsibilities, including what to look for when you review nonprofit finances.
Lawyers are especially encouraged to attend NSBA’s Nonprofit Seminar on Wed, Nov 8 in Omaha, but the seminar welcomes nonlawyer board members and nonprofit staff. The seminar offers 5.75 hours CLE, including 1 hour ethics, and is available in-person and via live webcast. See the full program and register now!
2017 Pro Bono Summit on November 17
As lawyers, we have a special responsibility to provide pro bono legal services. However, as legal employers in recent years have had to adapt to an ever more competitive legal market, lawyers' opportunities to do pro bono work and public service have diminished. Lawyers today grapple with a difficult dilemma that previous generations of lawyers were spared: how to meet the demands of modern law practice and still fulfill their idealism and professional responsibility to give back to their communities. Join us on November 17th from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. for Nebraska’s inaugural Pro Bono Summit. The purpose of the Summit is to bring stakeholders together to discuss the current delivery of pro bono services in Nebraska and to address the need for collective efforts to serve people who need, but cannot afford adequate legal assistance in Nebraska. Participants will join together in a “Call to Action” to implement a plan to increase pro bono services to narrow the gap in services. The event qualifies for 3.25 hours of ethics CLE and is only $25. Space is limited. Click here to register: http://www.nebar.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1023521&group=
ABA Retirement Funds Program – Webinar for Solo and Small Firms
Shouldn’t Your Retirement Plan be a Perfect Fit for your Firm? To learn more, click here to register for a free informative webinar for solo and small firms by the ABA Retirement Funds Program on November 1 at 12:00 p.m. CT. Or visit ABA Retirement Funds website: http://abaretirement.com/ to learn more about the how the ABA Retirement Funds can help your solo and small firm.
The Slants – A Name Worth Fighting For
In June 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declared the Lanham Act’s “disparagement clause” unconstitutional. At issue in Matal v. Tam was a trademark application by an Asian-American rock band called “The Slants.” Registration of the band’s name (or mark) was refused by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for violating the Lanham Act’s disparagement clause which prohibited the registration of any mark that may “disparage…or bring…into contemp[t] or disrepute” any person, institution, belief or national symbol.
Join us on Monday, December 11 from 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. in Omaha to hear from Simon Tam who initially registered the mark of his band’s name, The Slants, when he describes the legal process and how it resulted in a significant ruling in support of the First Amendment’s protection against government proscription of free speech. The seminar offers 2 hours of CLE and will be available in-person and via live webcast. And a thank you to Advent, the NSBA Corporate Counsel Section and NSBA Intellectual Property Section for sponsoring this CLE program. See the full program and register now!
NetWORKS! – NSBA’s Professional Networking Group
Sign up now for the next round of networking matches beginning November 1. A great professional network can be extremely helpful to your clients and your career. NetWORKS! matches interested lawyers for one-to-one coffee or lunch every two months, at a time to be determined by the lawyers. There are three subgroups—Omaha, Lincoln and Greater Nebraska. Omaha and Lincoln matches are expected to meet in person; Greater Nebraska members can meet in person or virtually. Any voluntary NSBA member lawyer or judge may join any or all of the three geographic groups. More details and sign up are online.
Journey To Cuba - April 26 - 30, 2018
This is an exciting time in US-Cuba relations. Recent changes are generating substantial interest from the business and legal communities in America. The Nebraska State Bar Association is partnering with Cuba Cultural Travel (CCT) to give you the opportunity to travel to Cuba. Cuba Cultural travel has organized educational tours for a variety of organizations for the last 15 years. Please join Kim Robak and Bill Mueller, Tom and Mary Maul, Bob and Dian Hillis and Jane Langan Mach and Jeff Mach from April 26-30, 2018, on this once-in-a-lifetime trip. Complete Trip Information
Recent Supreme Court Opinions
Week of October 20, 2017
Week of October 13, 2017
For a complete listing of recent opinions, visit the Nebraska Judicial Branch Website.
Legal Technology From a Managing Partner Perspective
By Mary Juetten, Originally Published in Law Practice Today
As a solo practitioner or partner in a firm with less than five to 10 attorneys, running the practice and making administrative decisions is usually simple and streamlined. At the opposite end of the spectrum in Big Law, lawyers and non-lawyer administrators hold executive positions. However, in the middle, mid-sized firms often struggle because they are not large enough to have administrators, yet they need to gather input and approval on management decisions, often from more than 10 partners. It’s like trying to run a company with a double-digit number of CEOs.
I have experienced this issue when working with mid-sized law firms on technology implementation. Creating a management structure that consolidates decision making with adequate input is critical to ensuring that firms embrace change and adopt innovative technology. Full Article
Look in the Mirror: Associates Hold the Key to Their Own Happiness
By Jay Harrington, Originally Published in Attorney at Work
In a 1955 essay in The Economist, Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a British historian, described a phenomenon that would come to be called “Parkinson’s Law.” His key insight: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” In other words, if something must be done in a day, it will get done in a day. If something must be done in a year, it will get done in a year. Work takes as long as we allow for it.
If you believe that achieving success as an associate takes 3,000 hours of work per year, then it will. It’s Parkinson’s Law of being a lawyer. Working hard, working long hours, working late into the night — too many of us accept the inevitability of a life driven primarily, if not exclusively, by work. Full Article
NLF News
Nebraska Lawyers Foundation 2016 Impact Report
The Nebraska Lawyers Foundation is the charitable fundraising arm of the Nebraska State Bar Association. It raises funding for programs dedicated to ensuring justice for all Nebraskans and strengthening the legal profession. With support from NSBA members, firms, partner organizations, and the legal community, NLF
continues to serve the public and the legal community. We want to thank the 633 donors this past year that contributed to the Nebraska Lawyers Foundation. THANK YOU! Full Report
Casemaker Weekly Update
Archives and Annotator in Administrative Codes
Casemaker is providing you with more tools to navigate administrative codes. Now not only does your state’s administrative code offer an archive of past versions but you also can use our Annotator feature. The Annotator feature, also available in statutes, let you know what cases have cited the code you are viewing. Once you click on a case in the Annotator list, you will be taken to exactly where the code you were viewing was cited in the case.
Excluding Terms with a NOT search
Are your results giving you a bunch of cases that are not relevant but still contain your terms? Do those irrelevant cases all seem to have a term in common? Maybe you should try excluding a term. For example, maybe you want documents that mention property but not commercial property. In the search bar, you can enter property NOT commercial and Casemaker will give you cases that mention property that do not contain the word commercial.
Client Tracking in Casemaker
Need to keep track of time spent doing online research for a client? Utilizing the Client and Session Summary features of Casemaker can help. Simply create a Client and select the client each time you begin to conduct research for that client. Once you have finished, click the Sign Out link to sign out of Casemaker and view the Session Summary. The Session Summary contains the date, time and client for each search, which can be used to keep track of billable hours for the client. Please remember to print this information as it cannot be retrieved after closing the Session Summary.
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