Glossary of Key Terms

• Author: Adam Newhouse
• Pages: 175-178

175

Glossary of Key Terms

Bates Decision: The 1977 United States Supreme Court decision

that relaxed restrictions on lawyer advertising, marking the end of an

era during which the profession enjoyed relatively high public esteem

while the practice of law remained cloistered beyond the public eye.

The decision precipitated rivalries among lawyers and law firms for

higher standings on legal financial charts concocted by the media.

(Modern) Clients: Internet-savvy clients interested in teaming up

for ongoing digital dialogue with Digital Lawyers in the spirit of equal-

ity and collaboration aimed at creating value for their businesses. They

expect one-stop integrated legal and business solutions and welcome

long-term partnership arrangements with modern leaders of the profes-

sion providing extra efficiencies and “legal insurance” by handling all

their legal needs from a long-term perspective. They scrutinize lawyers’

performance, ever ready to negotiate legal fees and question their strate-

gies, billing, and expenses. They are viewed as clients of the Digital Law

Firm and not of any individual attorney.

(Traditional) Clients: Supplicants for legal services to traditional

lawyers; they are typically controlled by perceptions of lawyers’ supe-

rior knowledge, influence and power, trustingly hang on lawyers’ every

word, and meekly accede to their judgments and demands. They are

looked upon by lawyers as personal prizes and possessions serving to

meet financial targets and aggrandize status.

Cravath System: A system of law firm management developed in

the early twentieth century at the Manhattan firm of Cravath, Swaine &

Moore headed by Paul Drennan Cravath. With its checks and balances

crafted to curb abuses and excesses, the system fostered legal excellence;

cultivated loyalties of clients, attorneys, and firm alumni; and contrib-

uted to the prosperity and good reputation of the practicing bar in the

decades before the Bates decision.

Cyberspace: An alternate dimension of existence where people can

develop identities and personalities independent of or in tandem with

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