Law Firm 101: How to Keep and Excel at the Job You Worked So Hard to Get

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
Intermediate
- work Practice Area
Professional Skills
- event Date
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE webinar is about a topic that smart attorneys resoundingly agree is hugely essential but which all agree they were never taught in law school or for years afterward. That topic is how to survive in the law business--not the law practice--the law business.
Faculty

Mr. Burnside concentrates his complex civil litigation practice on matters related to class-action defense, consumer financial services, and commercial litigation. His more than two decades as an attorney is distinguished by significant victories in state and federal trial and appellate courts, particularly in actions challenging banking fees and services. Since successfully defending a pioneer class action lawsuit over insufficient funds (NSF) fee practices, Mr. Burnside has represented dozens of major financial service providers facing similar claims. He also has the rare experience of taking a financial services class action through a jury trial—and winning. With an established track record of securing outright victory or favorable settlements, Mr. Burnside has become the go-to attorney for consumer financial service providers facing class action lawsuits challenging fees charged by banks and credit unions. His leadership at DWT includes serving as the co-chair of the Class Action Defense group and co-chair of the Consumer Financial Services Litigation industry team, and he previously served as the firm's Deputy Chair of the Litigation Department, Executive Committee member, and on the firm's Share (Compensation) Committee. Mr. Burnside is a co-chair of the ABA's Annual National Institute on Class Actions, editor of the ABA Class Action Committee's Annual Survey of State Class Action Litigation, and a member of the American Law Institute.

Mr. Karon is a class-action trial attorney specializing in antitrust, consumer–fraud, and wage-and-hour litigation. He began his class-action career with Much Shelist Freed Denenberg Ament & Rubenstein, P.C. in Chicago. Mr. Karon now manages Karon LLC. He represents individuals in antitrust, consumer-fraud, wage-and-hour, and other class-actions and has represented domestic and international corporations in domestic and international antitrust class-action matters. Mr. Karon also defends corporations in consumer-fraud and antitrust class actions. He teaches consumer law at the University of Michigan Law School and The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and taught complex litigation at Columbia Law School. He has also been a lecturer in law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Mr. Karon lectures on class-action law at multiple other law schools and serves on Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies’ U.S. Advisory Board. For thirteen years, he chaired the ABA’s National Institute on Class Actions, for five years wrote a bimonthly column for Law360, was an editorial board member and contributing author to the ABA Litigation Section’s Class Actions Today-Jurisdiction to Resolution magazine, co-chaired the American Association of Justice Class Action Litigation Group, was a member of the Ohio Association of Justice Board of Trustees, and served as an editorial board member for the Ohio Academy of Justice’s Ohio Trial magazine. He has published several law review and bar journal articles on class-action topics, and he lectures nationally on class actions for the ABA and other bar associations.
Description
This one-hour fun, illuminating, and interactive program will discusses and dissects the thorny topics many new (and not-so-new) lawyers have neither considered nor knew to consider, such as how to become immediately valuable to your firm before you have (or can even have) a book of business; the importance of having a book of business and how to get one; the relative value between grinding, finding, funding, and politicking; how to observe, unpack, and navigate law firm politics; the importance of work-life balance; the importance of side hustles to enhance your main hustle; the importance of bedside manner; and more.
Listen as a seasoned plaintiff and defense lawyer show what all lawyers, but especially new ones, need to know if they want to thrive at the job they worked so hard to get.
Outline
- The business of law vs. practice of law
- The importance of having a book of business and how to get one
- Navigating law firm politics
- The benefit of side hustles
- Developing a long-term business (and retirement) plan
Benefits
The panel will discuss the following key issues:
- What is the difference between the business of law and the practice of law?
- What can associates without a book of business do to make themselves valuable?
- What techniques are essential to law firm survival and making the most money you can?
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