Articles

We all have moments in our practice that we would rather forget. What follows is mine. I was an eager young associate who wanted to impress my client and the partners in the firm. We were handling a tax case that had something to do with inventory tax and the valuation of baby chicks. I had researched the IRS Tax Code, regulations, tax treaties, and IRS rulings and was confident that the IRS agent’s position was untenable. I wanted to display my legal prowess to my client, so I prepared a letter to the client explaining our superior position and the IRS agent’s incompetence.   Read More +

Jay Reeves has left the building. There will likely be no encores from Jay—at least for North Carolina lawyers. He has followed his personal legend and moved to South Carolina to write the baseball novel that has been stirring in him for years. The good citizens of Newberry will be lucky to have Jay. But we at Lawyers Mutual, as well as Jay’s followers, will sorely miss him. He has been an inspiration to so many of us over the years.   Read More +

When you find yourself in a hole and you want to get out, as the saying goes, the first rule is to stop digging.   Nowhere is this more true than in digging out of an altogether too common hole among law firms today: reducing attorney and staff turnover. Employee turnover is expensive, disruptive to workflow, frustrating to clients and damaging to team morale. Not to mention soul-sucking when you have to sit through hour after hour of terrible interviews seeking gamely to replace the person who just left with someone – you are getting the sinking feeling – who won’t be quite as good.   Read More +

Where are You Now? Odds are that you are sitting in the Triangle, the Triad, Charlotte or perhaps in Fayetteville, Asheville or Wilmington. There are fewer lawyers per capita in North Carolina than in other large states, especially in rural communities. The American Bar Association survey published in 2022 sta… Read More +

Courtroom5 is an online litigation support tool for pro se civil litigants designed to make true access to the courts and justice available to all. We are guided by a simple creed: the courts belong to the people and together we can take them back. We are an award-winning tech startup. Most recently, co-founder Debra Slone and I were both honored as Fastcase 50 honorees. Courtroom5 was designated one of seven legal tech startups to watch by Law360. We know from firsthand experience that affording a lawyer is difficult and navigating the legal system without one is even more so.    Read More +

In 2007, the NCSC Center for Jury Studies published findings from the State-of-the-States Jury Improvement Efforts, which provided the first comprehensive, national snapshot of jury system operations and trial practices. Much has changed since the release of this report including the widespread use of technology in all aspects of courtroom management and continuous efforts to improve juror comprehension, performance, and satisfaction with jury service.   Read More +

Friends, lawyers, colleagues, lend me your ears: I come to bury “work-life balance,” not to praise it. The phrase belongs in the Dustbin of the Obsolete, along with the pet rock, Chevy Vega, Blockbuster Video membership card and Ronco Rhinestone Stud Setter. And good riddance, I say. The idea that your “work” and your “life” are two separate, distinct things on opposite ends of some cosmic scale has long passed its expiration date. The stress of finding the perfect balance between your personal and professional selves, the struggle to maintain it for a minute, an hour, a whole day. Who needs it?   Read More +

Service by email? Ugh! If you are like me, you overlook important emails often. It’s understandable; most of them don’t need to be read anyway. Other times, essential emails go directly to my spam folder, and I don’t see them for days because I’m not diligent about checking my spam filt… Read More +

Have you ever wished for a group of experts down the hall who were available anytime to answer any questions about building your law practice? With a virtual community, you have just that – a group of experts ready and willing to help. A virtual community is simply a group of folks with common interests who use an internet platform to share ideas. Read More +

Is military disability retired pay divisible in divorce? Is Concurrent Disability and Retired Pay divisible? A recent administrative ruling by the Department of Defense sheds new light on dividing CRDP when there is a disability retirement and a divorce.  Let’s see what the new rule is.   Read More +

There are many times you need to ask that your clients send you files. Most everyone knows how to attach files and send via email, but is there a better way? Are there a lot of files? Large files? Do the files hold sensitive information like bank records, taxes, or insurance claims? There are many ways to securely request files that will make it easier and more secure for you and your clients. And you probably have the tools to do so already!   Read More +

Thousands of servicemembers have been deployed in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Naval frigates, surveillance aircraft, artillery units and brigade combat teams are all heading out as part of the first-ever NATO Response Force. Undoubtedly some of the servicemembers (SMs) will be involved in civil cases, administrative legal proceedings, and family law litigation.  Some of these SMs will likely ask the court to freeze the case during a deployment (or any period in which the SM is unavailable due to assigned duties), so the status quo will remain while the SM is not available.   Read More +

This is the story of a young basketball fan, a perfect season that ended in heartbreak, and a mother who kept things real. Tucked in there like a cross-hand dribble is a little message about law, life and what really matters in both.   Read More +

There are 1.3 million lawyers in the United States, and 30,000 of them live in North Carolina. Nationwide, there are approximately four lawyers for every 1,000 residents, but most lawyers work in urban areas. Many rural areas of the country have few or no lawyers. Legal experts call these legal deserts.   Read More +

The Pentagon has deployed thousands of servicemembers in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Naval frigates, surveillance aircraft, artillery units and brigade combat teams are all heading out as part of the first-ever NATO Response Force.   Read More +

Sometimes we lawyers take discovery deadlines lightly. So what’s the worst that can happen? Opposing counsel files a motion to compel discovery, and the Court enters an order compelling discovery?   Read More +

The Corporate Transparency Act of 2019 (“CTA”)[1] was enacted January 1, 2021, as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AMLA”), which is part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (“NDAA”).[2] This article contains highlights[3] of the CTA, an outlook of regulations to come, and an alert to North Carolina attorneys of the potential impact with respect to a commercial real estate practice. Read More +

Here is a little story about how not to treat your clients. This tale is true, though the names have been changed to protect the ridiculous. For anonymity’s sake, the two main characters will be referred to merely as “I” and “Some Sales Guy for a Telecommunications Company That Might or… Read More +

If the calls we receive at Lawyers Mutual are any indication, there has been a significant increase in estate litigation in recent years. A consequence of all that litigation is that estate planning attorneys are regularly receiving requests for their client files. The request may take the form of an informal p… Read More +

A trial lawyer recently described appellate practice to me as “a lot of rules and timelines” that are “really complicated.”  The good news is there are lawyers who enjoy appellate practice.  The better news is if you are a trial lawyer, you do not have to know all the intricaci… Read More +