Kimmel’s weekly salute to the FCC

Enjoy!

Movie Monday – Law firm social networking

Kimmel’s Tribute to the FCC

I’m a big fan of Jimmy Kimmel’s weekly tribute to the FCC with his segment “Unnecessary Censorship.”  I’ve posted the video for your enjoyment below!

Lawyers overworked? Not exactly news…

Article via ABA Journal:

Lawyers, doctors and others in the service industry can be more productive and creative if they stop working so much and put away their BlackBerrys, according to a media executive and “serial CEO.”

Manufacturers already focus on “asset integrity”—preserving plants and machinery from damage due to wear and tear, Margaret Heffernan, CEO of five businesses, writes for BNet.com. The professional service industry should do the same by preserving their greatest assets: the minds of their workers, she argues.

“For the last 100 years, every productivity study in every industry has come to the same conclusion: After about 40 hours in a week, the quality of your work starts to degrade,” she writes. “You make mistakes. That’s why working 60 hours may not save you time or money: You’ll spend too much of that time fixing the mistakes you shouldn’t have made in the meantime. That’s why software companies that limit work to 35 hours a week need to employ fewer QA engineers: There isn’t as much mess to clean up.”

Heffernan also argues that multitasking causes distraction, and BlackBerry addicts lose focus and concentration. Businesses that want to improve their employees’ cognition should encourage exercise, one thing shown to help.

Writes Heffernan, “Leaders need to take seriously a century’s evidence that 1) overwork doesn’t make us productive, it makes us stupid, 2) looking away from a problem is often the best way to solve it, and 3) burnout is what happens when people are asked to work in ways that obliterate all other parts of their lives.”

Congrats Justice Kagan



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NYT Article on Outsourcing Legal Work

Here is an interesting article about the growth of outsourced legal work in India.  ESPECIALLY the work given to young associates out of law school.  How does it feel to be a law student/recent grad, knowing how few jobs there are available for young associates and most of the work is being outsourced to India.  Who is to blame?  Are law firms to blame for exorbitant fees too high for clients in a down economy?  Are law schools to blame for traditionally focusing more on legal theory and less on practical skills?  Are there other factors?  Pay close attention to the type of work being outsourced… America has obviously become more of a service based nation (as opposed to manufacturing), but what are we going to do when we outsource manufacturing AND service?

Here is a snippet of the article (link to full article below):

India’s legal outsourcing industry has grown in recent years from an experimental endeavor to a small but mainstream part of the global business of law. Cash-conscious Wall Street banks, mining giants, insurance firms and industrial conglomerates are hiring lawyers in India for document review, due diligence, contract management and more.

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