In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or attorney at law, barrister, solicitor, or civil law notary. However, there is a substantial amount of overlap between the practice of law and various other professions where clients are represented by agents. These professions include real estate, banking, accounting, and insurance. Moreover, a growing number of legal document assistants (LDAs) are offering services which have traditionally been offered only by lawyers and their employee paralegals. Many documents may now be created by computer-assisted drafting libraries, where the clients are asked a series of questions that are posed by the software in order to construct the legal documents. In addition, regulatory consulting firms also provide advisory services on regulatory compliance that were traditionally provided exclusively by law firms.
In American jurisprudence, the Restatements of the Law are a set of treatises on legal subjects that seek to inform judges and lawyers about general principles of common law. There are now four series of Restatements, all published by the American Law Institute, an organization of judges, legal academics, and practitioners founded in 1923.
Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, AM was an Indian jurist who served as Attorney-General for India from 1989 to 1990, and again from 1998 to 2004. In 2002, he received the Padma Vibhushan for his defence of the freedom of expression and the protection of human rights.
Forum, formerly known as the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) is an American organization that provides arbitration and mediation services to businesses, based at its Minneapolis headquarters and offices in New Jersey. The organization was founded in 1986. As of 2008, the National Arbitration Forum administered over 200,000 cases a year, most of which were consumer debt collection cases. In 2009, the National Arbitration Forum ceased administration of new consumer arbitrations as part of a consent decree with the Attorney General of Minnesota Lori Swanson concerning the NAF's ties with debt collection firms. The company maintains a panel of over 1,600 arbitrators and mediators who are attorneys and former judges located across the United States and in 35 countries around the world. Panelists arbitrate and mediate the disputes.
Ballard Spahr LLP is an AmLaw 100 law firm practicing throughout the United States. Founded in 1885, the law firm focuses on litigation, securities and regulatory enforcement, business and finance, intellectual property, public finance, and real estate matters. The firm is headquartered at 1735 Market Street in Philadelphia.
Timothy Kimbrue Lewis is a former United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. As of June 2024, he is an attorney at the law firm of Blank Rome LLP, where he serves as a mediator, arbitrator, settlement counselor, and trial and appellate practitioner. Lewis is African American.
WolfBlock LLP was a large U.S. law firm and lobbying group based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The National Law Journal ranked WolfBlock the 149th-largest firm in the United States, and the 10th-largest in Philadelphia, by number of attorneys. The firm was known for being one of the oldest law firms in Philadelphia.
Buckeye Check Cashing, Inc. v. Cardegna, 546 U.S. 440 (2006), is a United States Supreme Court case concerning contract law and arbitration. The case arose from a class action filed in Florida against a payday lender alleging the loan agreements the plaintiffs had signed were unenforceable because they essentially charged a higher interest rate than that permitted under Florida law.
Horace Stern was the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1 November 1952 to 29 December 1956. He became chief justice after serving on the court from 6 January 1936.
The Arbitration Roundtable of Toronto is made up of several litigators, academics, arbitrators, and mediators from the Greater Toronto Area. The group promotes arbitration as an alternative method of conflict resolution over litigation, especially in commercial suits. Members include commercial litigators from Toronto law firms including some of the Seven Sisters of Bay Street. Each member has experience and interest in promoting commercial Arbitration. The group dedicates its time to encouraging this form of Dispute resolution through seminars, papers, and talks.
Nelson Diaz is a United States lawyer who has been a Philadelphia city solicitor, a judge on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and General Counsel at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He was mentioned as a possible HUD secretary in the Obama administration, before Obama announced that Shaun Donovan was his pick for the position. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 2015 election.
Samuel Estreicher is Dwight D. Opperman Professor of Public Law at New York University School of Law, Director of its Center for Labor and Employment and Director of its Institute of Judicial Administration. He has published dozens of articles and several books on labor law, employment law, employment discrimination law, U.S. foreign relations law, international law, and Supreme Court decision-making.
Gary B. Born is an American lawyer. He is chair of the International Arbitration and International Litigation practices at the international law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and the author of commentaries, casebooks and other works on international arbitration and litigation.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortgage-servicing operations, foreclosure relief services, debt collectors, for-profit colleges, and other financial companies operating in the United States. Since its founding, the CFPB has used technology tools to monitor how financial entities used social media and algorithms to target consumers.
Philip Ruttley is an Anglo-Swiss lawyer and published expert in European Union competition (anti-trust) law and international trade law. He has been described as "one of Europe's foremost maritime competition experts".
The State Bar of Montana is the integrated (mandatory) bar association of the US state of Montana.
Constitution High School is a college preparatory high school located in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the first history based high school in Pennsylvania. It was founded September 2006 by Dr. Thomas Davidson. About 290 attend grades 9 through 12. It is located in close proximity to Independence Mall in Philadelphia. Constitution High School has a strong relationship with the National Constitution Center, as well as partnerships with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Philadelphia law firm, Ballard Spahr LLP.
Disputes between consumers and businesses that are arbitrated are resolved by an independent neutral arbitrator rather than in court. Although parties can agree to arbitrate a particular dispute after it arises or may agree that the award is non-binding, most consumer arbitrations occur pursuant to a pre-dispute arbitration clause where the arbitrator's award is binding.
JAMS, formerly known as Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc. is a United States–based for-profit organization of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services, including mediation and arbitration. H. Warren Knight, a former California Superior Court judge, founded JAMS in 1979 in Santa Ana, California. A 1994 merger with Endispute of Washington, D.C. made JAMS into the largest private arbitration and mediation service in the country. It is one of the major arbitration administration organizations in the United States. As of 2017, JAMS has 27 resolution centers, including its headquarters in Irvine, California and centers in Toronto and London. JAMS specializes in mediating and arbitrating complex, multi-party, business/commercial cases.
Deepak Gupta is an American attorney known for representing consumers, workers, and a broad range of clients in U.S. Supreme Court and appellate cases and constitutional, class action, and complex litigation. Gupta is the founding principal of the law firm Gupta Wessler LLP and a lecturer at Harvard Law School, where he is an instructor in the Harvard Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.
