Parental leave and a bumbling Supreme Court highlight the week.
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Are law firms going to get stingy with parental leave? While most firms report solid revenue, sparking resentment over a few weeks of leave seems like a weird strategy, but DLA Piper recently cut back on the leave available to non-birthing parents. It's a first as far as Above the Law can tell, but will it be the last? Also, the Supreme Court screwed up its metadata, committing an error that would get junior associates fired. And finally, Joe Biden offered the Court some tough talk... by quoting them.

Biglaw's Parental Leave Backslide

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Zack talks with Lab Coach Chad Fox about how developing law firm processes can build value for a practice. They specifically discuss how his experience in franchises showed him that the difference between success and failure can often be as simple as creating and abiding by standard operating procedures. 
Links from the episode:  
Check out and register for LabCon 2024! 
CosmoLex: Complete Legal Practice Management for Modern Law Firms  
 
If today’s podcast resonates with you and you haven’t read The Small Firm Roadmap Revisited yet, get the first chapter right now for free!

#504: Leveraging Franchise Know-How in Law Practice, with Chad Fox

Guest Shelly A. Walker has enjoyed a career spanning nearly three decades of perpetual growth and advancement. Hear how she learned to move forward with every step, up to her current position as regional office administrator and paralegal manager for a large law firm. Successful careers in the paralegal profession don’t just happen. It takes work, ambition, and drive. Preparation creates opportunity. 
Walker took advantage of every chance to learn and advance. The paralegal profession never stands still, and Walker explains how seizing opportunities to build skills advanced her career. One example is how she recognized the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and helped her firm create a DEI committee, which she went on to lead. 
She encourages today’s up and coming paralegals to understand their worth and show initiative. Speak up with confidence at your organization and demonstrate your value with everything you do. If you’re looking for advice on advancing your career, this episode offers valuable tips. Step up, stand out, and succeed.
If you have insights you’d like to share or a topic you’d like us to take on, please send us a note at Jfrancisco@lawgical.com and HaveASipp@gmail.com.

Advancing Your Career: Advice From A Real-Life Success Story

From COVID-19 response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the results of 50 states having individual approaches to public health, medical outcomes and healthcare access raise troubling questions. A husband-and-wife team of University of Utah professors dig into the ethics of the American healthcare system in States of Health: The Ethics and Consequences of Policy Variation in a Federal System.
Leslie P. Francis is a professor of law and philosophy with a background in bioethics, and John G. Francis is a professor of political science with a focus on European comparative politics, federalism and comparative regulatory policy. The spouses had partnered on three previous books together. When looking for their next project, they decided to examine the consequences of states opting out of Medicaid expansion and what power federalism could have in protecting American citizens’ health. But soon more news events and landmark cases expanded their focus.
The result is States of Health. The book examines the tensions between state and federal powers in a number of areas, including reproductive rights; gender-affirming care; medical marijuana; public health and pandemics; right-to-try laws; patient confidentiality; and care quality and life expectancies.
In this episode of The Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with the Francises about their collaborative writing process, and what conclusions they have drawn about the benefits of federalism and states’ rights.
The Francises argue that since it is the federal government that determines citizenship and census decisions, state differences go too far when they make “basic decisions about who counts at all, and what it means to count.” They add, “Movement is a critical aspect of who counts: the ability to come and go, or to leave one state more permanently for another.” The Francises argue that freedom of movement for the purpose of medical treatment is crucial for patients, but also point out when states control licensure for medical providers, that too can restrict freedom of movement.
The value of 50 individual laboratories of democracy can be appealing to a scientific mind. But at what point can it be argued in the healthcare space that a federal government needs to step in, if the outcomes in some of those laboratories are decreased lifespans and higher mortality?

When states’ rights and healthcare access clash

Trump's attorneys seems as asleep at the switch as their client.
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Having called Stormy Daniels a liar repeatedly in its opening, the Trump defense team was then shocked and appalled that the prosecution elicited testimony to rehabilitate her credibility. The hits didn't stop there as they attempted to get out of the mess they'd landed in by sex shaming someone whose sexuality is their whole business. Trump lawyers do a lot better when the judge is running their defense. Meanwhile, an organization moved to preemptively pare down Trump's SCOTUS shortlist to the least qualified, worst behaved candidates and its been a very Ponzi-rific week for one Biglaw firm.

Trump Defense Team Playing Tiddlywinks At A Chess Match

Does your support staff see the big picture or are they trapped in old ruts? The Simon Law Firm support team discusses the importance of empowerment, autonomy and trust when organizing details and logistics for trial.

Biglaw's Parental Leave Backslide

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