The Rise of Indie Books

Maria Haymandou’s newest blog post!

James Franco has recently found success as an indie author.

I recently came across an article about “indie books”, a new phenomenon that has been causing stirs in the literary world.  Indies have been creating national and international bestsellers for authors who otherwise might have never had their works published at all.

Initially, indie books had a huge stigma; it was considered that the only reasons indie authors couldn’t get their works published was because they were just bad.  But today, indie authors are changing the industry.  Back in 2007, Amy Edelman created the website IndieReader, with the ambition of providing professional resources, up-to-date information and reviews for indie authors.  The advances of digital publishing and indie books have made the dream of many authors – to release good books without giving away control or profits – have since become reality.  The number of self-published books in 2012 rose 59 percent over 2011, growing to over 391,000 different titles.

As more and more traditional authors have left large publishing companies, new models are being created; hybrid publishers, for instance, have become increasingly popular.  There is no doubt that, thanks to digital advances, indie publishing will continue to evolve.  A successful indie author experiments with marketing strategies, pricing, promotion and connection.  The author of the article hypothesized that as the year moves forward, more indie authors will be signing with hybrid publishers.  Ultimately, readers want great books, whether they’re indie, involved with hybrid publishers or the heavy hitters.

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Big Data and Law

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post!

I recently came across an article about the importance of big data in law firms.  Since the beginning, law has been a data-driven business.  A good attorney, librarian or judge has to know how to draw from up to thousands of potentially relevant cases and then synthesize knowledge insight from potentially hundreds of years of legal history.  In the digital age, law firms have to know how to navigate a near-infinite amount of digital information.  Firms that can master this new data-driven environment will have a better competitive edge.

There are about about 100 million cases brought to U.S. courts every year.  And most of them, if not all of them, can be accessed over the Internet.  This means that the amount of data that legal experts need to access is growing rapidly every day, and providers of legal information have to step up to the plate.  20 years ago, a subject-related searches returned a few dozen cases; now, it could deliver thousands.

No matter how much legal information you have, it takes time to sift through all of it.  It often takes a lot of trial and error to refine a search and sift through the plethora of information out there.  Legal information vendors are currently working hard to not just add available information, but also deliver it quickly.  Today, advanced legal search supercomputers can perform up to 5,000 transactions per second.

With so much data available and updates constantly coming in, analysis is even more important.  New tools to work with all of this legal information are helping legal professionals master huge amounts of court information and find new insights.

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How to Properly Train Junior Lawyers

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post

The two men behind Susman Godfrey.

In a recent article, Stephen Susman wrote about how to properly train junior lawyers.  Stephen Susman is an experienced lawyer, and a founding partner of law firm Susman Godfrey.  Susman has heard about a steep decline in enrollment at law schools, and a disturbingly high number of young attorneys that are leaving law.  Being a law firm associate is considered to be one of the “unhappiest jobs” in the United States.  While some law firms have established apprenticeship programs in which new associates are offered reduced salaries in exchange for less responsibility and more on-the-job training, Susman think that this is a poor choice; giving associates more responsibility will allow firms to recruit better candidates and help younger lawyers learn more skills on the job.  He wrote a series of five tips that he believes are good ways to help lawyers effectively train new associates.

The best new associates don’t want to spend their time doing legal research.  Rather, they would prefer to try out working in the courtroom.  And once these young lawyers do get to court, you should encourage them to get up and say something, as opposed to just sitting there the whole time.

It’s a good idea to afford new associates greater independence, as opposed to having them shadow more experienced attorneys.  Staffing cases leanly and efficiently allows greater opportunities for new attorneys to prove their worth.

A great policy for a law firm is the “one lawyer, one vote” policy, which gives the firm’s newest associate an equal voice (and vote) with even the most senior partner.  Younger lawyers will be more inclined to work harder if they feel respected and appreciated.

At a lot of law firms, attorneys are required to make partner before they can gain any real exposure to the operations of a law firm.  At Susman Godfrey, on the other hand, there is a policy of financial transparency, which helps new associates gain valuable insight into the finer points of running a law firm.

Being a trial attorney can be fun.  If you can convey your enthusiasm for law to your other associates, then they’ll be able to see the fun side of law.

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Maria Haymandou

Maria Haymandou is a lawyer based in the Brooklyn area.  She’s been working with the Kings County District Attorney since she first graduated from New York Law School in 2005.  In addition to the legal process, Maria’s interests include kickboxing, MMA, cooking and reading.  Several years ago, Maria got into working out after she rented some workout tapes.  Soon, she was hooked, and now owns numerous workout tapes.  Her favorite trainers are Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper, both excellent motivators.

Maria also has a great interest in cooking.  She frequently purchases cookbooks from Amazon, such as Ina Garten.  Her favorite things to prepare are pork dishes, traditional American meals and the classic Greek meals with which Maria, herself of Greek descent, grew up.  She also has a great passion for reading, and frequently buys books off of Amazon.  Her favorite types of books are fantasy, mystery and historical fiction.  Some of her favorite authors include John Connolly, famous for his “Charlie Parker” novels, as well as Neil Gaiman and Justin Cronin.  Maria frequently loses track of all of the books that she reads.

Maria Haymandou