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Westlaw, Lexis, FastCase - in many legal circles these are the only acceptable avenues of legal research. Anything else is not only pedestrian but sometimes even villified. There are plenty of good lawyers who (secretly, for risk of being shamed) start many legal research projects with a simple Google search. There are several good reasons for it, too. Google searches are free. It's usually the most practical place to start for complex topics or subjects with which the attorney has only limited familiarity. You can user broader search terms and still pull up useful information, because the algorithms are smarter...

We were recently interviewing a pool of candidates for an associate position at our firm. After all the interviews, we discussed the various interviewees. For one of them, one of the first concerns was this: "I'm not sure they'd know when to stop arguing in front of the judge."((While I do not endorse they use of "they" to refer to a singular person (even though I recognize that it is gaining increasing acceptance), I found it to be the best way to conceal the gender of the individual being referred to.)) And you know what, that can be a real problem!...

On Monday mornings at the outset of trial, there are many things that the lawyers and judge need to accomplish outside the hearing of the jury panel. Usually, much of this happens before the panel is seated in the courtroom. But often times, each potential juror is stuck with significant downtime while the lawyers and court handle procedural issues. During one of such session, in which the lawyers for both sides were conferring with the judge in a rural county in central Alabama, a potential juror popped up and began walking toward the back doors of the courtroom. The judge...

I wait in the courtroom along with fifty other lawyers for the judge to call my case. I hear him say, "Plaintiff v. Big Box Store," and make my way to the bench. Plaintiff's lawyer isn't here, so I inform the court I represent Big Box Store. Then the wheels came off. Judge: "Mr. Richter, let me tell you [I begin to sweat because his tone and demeanor are not friendly and he clearly intends to make a scene] what happened to me the last time I was in Big Box Store." JWR: "Yes, sir?" [As if I had any...