Posts on ‘March 30th, 2009’

The current state of the economy has turned the employment arena into a “buyers’ market.” This means employers can set higher standards and be more selective. Background checks can greatly help with the selection of a fitting candidate. Attorney Diane Krebs explores the guidelines and limits in three main areas in which employers may seek to conduct inquiries beyond simply work experience or required degrees or certifications: criminal history, creditworthiness and general character.

Proposed electronic discovery rules currently before the California Senate’s Committee on Rules significantly alter the treatment of “inaccessible” electronically stored information. Disaster recovery backup tapes, once deemed inaccessible, may enter the realm of accessible data.

The decline in financial markets has caused some junior — and even some senior — lawyers to worry whether they might be better off in a different practice area. Attorney Steven C. Bennett warns that changing practice areas should not be a rushed decision, because it’s a change in your self-image. He discusses essential elements of making a successful shift in practice areas, some of the challenges you might face, and practical suggestions once you’ve decided a new practice area is right for you.

While mass layoffs at big law firms have grabbed headlines in recent months, in-house attorneys also have had their jobs taken away. Relatively few lawyers are being let go as part of mass corporate layoffs, in part because legal departments aren’t that big to start with and because the bigger cost often isn’t a company’s own lawyers, but the ones it hires from law firms. Out-of-work in-house lawyers are better off on the hopelessly unemployed scale than their law firm counterparts, recruiters say.