There have been many articles written about cross examination, but there is not much that covers direct examination. As a result, what I know about direct comes from virtually the only source I have found: the school of hard knocks. And for reasons...

Historically, lawyers, especially while still in active legal practice, didn’t serve on corporate boards. Boards typically preferred C-suite executives—whether retired or active—as directors. Attorneys were nonetheless often “in the boardroom” in...

In a very weird walk down the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City to ask the Wizard for new clients and matters, members of the executive committee of Gale, Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion, LLP, a 100+ lawyer firm are chanting “Pandemics, Politics,...

“If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn’t plan your mission properly.”Colonel David Hackworth, 1930-2005. Some contrarian legal writers claim leading questions are not practical or especially effective. I disagree. Leading questions—those...

The title of this article is from Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Wilde’s immutable proposition is of great importance to those of us engaged in the adversary system. We are...

Both SSI and SSDI offer cash benefits for persons with disabilities. Both programs are overseen and managed by the Social Security Administration. Medical eligibility for disability is determined in the same manner for both programs. However the...

WE CAN DO IMPOSSIBLE THINGS In the summer of 1969, with less technology than what exists in the device you’ll use to share today’s social media tidbits, human beings flew to the moon. We’re so desensitized to the fact of the matter that the...

My name is Jaimie Field and I am a chronic procrastinator. I thought that would feel better getting that out in writing, but honestly, it doesn’t because I am not sure when this procrastination habit began. And make no mistake, procrastination is...

THE ONGOING CHALLENGE OF LAWFIRM GENDER DIVERSITY Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was first in her class at Columbia, a distinction she achieved while also helping her husband with his coursework, taking care of her daughter, and getting very little...