The holiday season brings families together, and we at MerusCase are lucky enough to be a part of a very special family—the legal family. Whether you be a legal secretary, an attorney, a paralegal, or a legal assistant, we are proud to be seated at the table alongside you.

Katharine Speer Rosenthal is on a mission to help her clients. She needed practice management software that would simplify her workflow and help her get more done, giving her more time for her clients. That's why Katharine chose MerusCase.

This MerusCase Client Spotlight will focus on the standout features that made MerusCase the best choice for Katharine's immigration practice. 

I sat down with Katharine for a conversation about her firm's partnership with MerusCase.

The turkey has been eaten, the pants unbuttoned, the football watched, the holiday cards purchased. It is time for the most anxiety-inducing (and financially painful) time of the year[1]: holiday shopping. You like giving gifts that are smart and unique, gifts that people won’t want to re-gift at their company’s “White Elephant” exchange. For your buddy who is already camping outside of the local cinema, a Star Wars-themed ugly Christmas sweater. For your friend’s kid, a mermaid tail blanket. For your pal who has just discovered Korean skincare, a sheet mask advent calendar. Then, you get to that person. You know the one. The legal professional. They are so smooth, so smart, so sophisticated. What do you get that person?

Between the pressures of the year ending, social gatherings, monetary concerns, and the diminishing of daylight hours, the holidays are a tough time of year for everyone. But if you add in the stress of working in law, the holidays are an especially difficult time of year for legal professionals. According to a 2016 Hazelden Betty Ford/ABA study, nearly a third of practicing attorneys report mild or higher levels of depression [1]. If you compound that statistic with the additional stressors that come with this time of year, the stakes are that much higher. While work is important, one must ensure their own well-being first and foremost. Here are some ways you can practice self-care this holiday season. 

On December 14-15, 2017, the MerusCase team will be attending the Louisiana Association for Justice CLE conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. We’ve attended our fair share of conferences, conventions, and CLE events, and we’ve seen many types of CLE courses. It’s very common for CLE events to feature Ethics seminars, and for good reason — most states’ bar associations require one or more hours of “Ethics” CLE per reporting period.

(Check your state’s requirements here: https://www.americanbar.org/cle/mandatory_cle.html )

At MerusCase, we focus on legal ethics issues, particularly digital ethics in law practice. In the internet age, technology is vital for growth. A law firm without a website will inevitably struggle to compete with a firm that with an established a web presence. A firm without digital file storage is just waiting for a paper file to get lost. Even though technology is a clear benefit to the average law firm, there is still potential for ethical issues.

In this post, we'll cover a few common digital ethics issues that a growing firm might encounter.