The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Prop 8 Work Brings Olson, Boies to Philadelphia

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

The Equality Forums Global GLBT Summit is being held in Philadelphia this week and will near its culmination Saturday night with a dinner honoring two noted lawyers who surprised some by coming down on the same side of the gay marriage issue.

Now, famed litigators David Boies and Ted Olson will come together Saturday to be honored by the Equality Forum with its International Role Model Award for their representation of two plaintiffs challenging Californias Proposition 8 a ban on gay marriage.

David Boies, managing partner with Boies Schiller & Flexner, and Ted Olson, a current Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partner and former U.S. Solicitor General under George W. Bush, had been adversaries in 2000 when Olson represented Bush and Boies represented former Vice President Al Gore in Bush v. Gore.

Neither is a stranger to big-impact, high-profile cases. And perhaps no case was more closely watched this year, and a decision still so eagerly awaited in, than Perry v. Schwarzenneger.

Abbe Fletman, a shareholder with Flaster Greenberg, has long been on the national board of governors of the Equality Forum and will be introducing Olson and Boies Saturday night.

As a trial lawyer, Im deeply honored to be introducing David Boies and Ted Olson, Fletman said Thursday. As I will say on Saturday, to me they are rock stars.

Fletman said if someone were to have called her a year before the Prop 8 cases began and said Ted Olson would be representing a plaintiff, she wouldnt have believed them.

I think it says something very positive for civility in the profession that two people who are often professional antagonists could come together and work as co-counsel in a single case, Fletman said. I think thats how the profession should work.

The Equality Forums week-long summit concludes Sunday with a National Same-Sex Commitment Ceremony followed by parties and a mass.

Tips for Lawyers from Legal Marketing Experts: Part 4 Intelligent Selling / Alvidas Jasin

In my last post, I shared my Twitter notes from Leveraging Marketing Tools to Increase Your Exposure presented by Ross Fishman at the 2010 Legal Marketing Association (#LMA10) Annual Conference. Ross is CEO of Fishman Marketing and an organizer of the Just JDs program. He presented as part of the Just JDs: Business Development Strategies for Lawyers along with me, John Hellerman, Partner and Co-Founder, Hellerman Baretz Communications, James A. Durham, Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer, McGuireWoods LLP (and author of The Essential Little Book of Great Lawyering), Deborah Knupp, Partner of Akina Corporation and Richard P. Klau, who at the time was the Business Product Manager for Blogger, Google and who is now leading the charge for Google Buzz.

Also among the line-up was Alvidas A. Jasin, Director of Business Development of Thompson Hine LLP. To wrap up the morning program, Alvidas presented Intelligent Selling: Using Competitive and Client Intel to Grow Your Book. I have compiled my Twitter stream from insightful program. When reading the tweet tips, please note that the language and text are informal and stay within Twitter’s 140-character rule.

March 10, 2010 / 12:30 p.m.

• Alvidas Jasin of Thompson Hine up next at Just Jds #LMA10 on Intelligent Selling: Using Competitive and Client Intel to Grow Your Book.
• Client intelligence = "Asking your clients" — Are they satisfied? — use third party (someone other than you) then USE the data.
• If you ask for feedback, be prepared to act on it! Otherwise, your credibility is shot.
• Ask: For which areas of practice do you use outside counsel but not us? You may find out that they don't know you do that work.
• Create Client Service Teams (lawyers, paralegals, staff, marketing, etc) around top clients — bring together regularly and status.
• Client-centric law firms conduct end-of-matter reviews — shows you care, uncovers issues early, provides opp for new biz.
• End-of-matter reviews should be done w/i 30 days.
• Never do a presentation without sending around a sign-in sheet so that you can follow up with your contacts and provide a service.
• Ask: How do you feel about the deliverables as they compare to the objectives communicated up front?
• Ask: At any point in the matter were you pleasantly surprised? Disappointed?
• Make annual client meetings mandatory at client site, off meter, where you were, where you are, where you're going.
• Set up a separate charge code for unbilled time and track it. Show clients what they were billed vs unbilled as investment time.
• Don't use annual client meetings as opportunity to sell - use it as a time to listen. Offer before you're asked.
• Don't sell oranges to someone trying to bake an apple pie — if a different practice area makes more sense for a client, let them know.

I will be adding more blogs on tips from many experts over the next few weeks so stay tuned to hear more tips on business development, marketing, public relations, and measuring ROI. And be sure to check out all of the folks listed in my previous blog – they’re all thought leaders in legal marketing.

Gina F. Rubel, Esq., is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications, Inc., a public relations and marketing agency with a niche in legal communications. A former Philadelphia trial attorney and public relations expert, Gina is the author of Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers. Gina and her PR and marketing firm have won numerous awards for legal communications, public relations, media relations, strategic planning, corporate philanthropy and leadership. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com, is a regular contributor to The Legal Intelligencer Blog and blogs for The Huffington Post. You can find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ginafuriarubel or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ginarubel.  For more information, go to www.FuriaRubel.com.

Fox Rothschild Names New CMO

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Almost two years after Fox Rothschild Chief Marketing Officer Jim Staples left for Cozen O’Connor, the firm has named his replacement.

Fox Rothschild said Tuesday Heidi K. White, a three-year veteran of the firm’s marketing department, would be the new CMO.

White had most recently served as director of marketing strategy and, prior to that, as a practice area marketer for the firm. She joined Fox Rothschild in 2007.

“We are delighted that Heidi will be taking on this role,” Administrative Partner Mark L. Silow said in a statement. “This is a natural next step for her, and for us. Heidi has been taking on ever-increasing responsibilities in her three years at the firm. She has laid out a clear vision for the next phase in our business development and marketing efforts, and over the past year has been working steadily with the team here to execute. We look forward to her continued leadership as we pursue our program of strategic expansion.”

White’s background is in consumer marketing and business and finance. Before joining Fox Rothschild, she served in a variety of marketing leadership roles both in the United States and Europe for global brand company Unilever. Prior to Unilever, she worked in the private client division of J.P. Morgan & Co., and the investment banking unit of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette.

Fox Rothschild said White was taking the helm of the marketing department at a “pivotal time of growth” for the firm. The firm added seven attorneys to its West Palm Beach office earlier this year, opened a Stamford, Conn. office in 2009 and has added several laterals to its offices across the country.

Donatucci Says Independence Helps Users of Register of Wills Office

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff
 
While the functions of Philadelphia's clerk for criminal courts were recently taken over by the First Judicial District because of alleged problems in the office's bookkeeping and record-keeping, Philadelphia Register of Wills Ronald R. Donatucci said in an interview after a City Council budget hearing Tuesday that he thinks his office should remain independently run.

Donatucci said his independence as a row officer helps serve Philadelphians who use his office for marriage licenses, the administration of deeds and estates, and searches of genealogical records.

"I believe the independence helps the office," Donatucci said. "We fight for what we think is important."

Donatucci was the only one of three row officers who appeared for City Council budget hearings scheduled for Tuesday morning.

The Sheriff's office and the City Commissioners also were scheduled, but only deputies reported to present those offices' budgets.

Donatucci's record of customer service was praised by Anna Verna, City Council president, and other City Council members. Donatucci said his philosophy of customer service includes not using voice-mail and making sure phone calls are picked up by a live person.

Donatucci asked for $80,000 more to pay for employees than recommended by Mayor Michael Nutter's administration, but he said they can live within the recommendation of the finance director. Donatucci said his employees know his high standards and he keeps them accountable.

"We did close to half a billion dollars in the last five or six years and we were off by 16 cents," Donatucci testified during the hearing. "I'm very proud of the operation.”

 Donatucci also informed City Council that a bill to increase the Register of Wills' filing fees has been introduced in the General Assembly. Donatucci said the bill is designed to be in line with the fees levied in the four neighboring suburban counties.

Questioning members of Sheriff John Green's staff, Verna wondered why the sheriff's office needs $1.28 million in overtime.

"That seems like an awful lot of money for overtime," Verna said.

Inspector Mark Stipa said deputies have to stay in courtrooms as long as judges are on the bench. And he said the office is providing security to Night Court at the Criminal Justice Center, Traffic Court held in the evenings and security for supervised custody visits on Sundays at the 1801 Vine St. family courthouse. He said that overtime also is racked up because eight-hour days in courtrooms are appended with two hours of transportation time before and after court to bring inmates to and from court and the Philadelphia Prison System.

Verna did not ask any follow-up questions, and no other City Council members asked questions of the sheriff's budget presenters.

The office has 243 authorized employees, but currently has 232 employees with the budget freeze, said Barbara Deeley, Green's chief of staff.

Lost in the Middle: Using Primacy and Recency to Emphasize Key Trial Points

By Melissa M. Gomez, Ph.D.

I have seen it more times than I can count -- Well-intentioned and well-organized trial attorneys put their openings, closings, witnesses and witness examinations in a clear logical order. They make the introductions first; provide background and context; make the key points; and then tie it together. It makes perfect sense. It is well organized. It has a nice flow…and the key points lose their punch by getting lost in the middle. 

In the psychology of learning, there are two concepts that every trial attorney should know and integrate into every aspect of trial. Those concepts are called primacy and recency and are quite simple. They mean that people remember most what they hear first and what they hear last.  For example, if I were going to give you a list of 10 words and ask you to recite them back to me, you would probably have an easy time giving me back the first few and the last few and the words in the middle would be the most difficult for you to recall. The same idea applies for jurors at a trial.

What I have seen in my practice is that primacy and recency not only affect retention, but also affect the impact of a statement. If a message is presented in a manner that seems out of the natural order of how a story is typically told, it will grab the listener’s attention — he is not expecting it. I have seen some great trial attorneys get up and make clear and impactful statements in openings before even introducing themselves. It makes sense to me. Why waste those first precious moments, when juror attention is the greatest, on telling your name instead of your point? You can get to the name later.

Think about it. When you present a witness at trial, you may spend the first precious moments or longer going through whom that witness is, what her job and education are, etc. By the time you get to the meat of her testimony you may be 10, 20, 30 or more minutes into the questioning.  At this point in time you have lost both the jurors’ undivided attention and the benefits of the primacy effect.  The important points lose the impact they would have had if you had asked them coming out of the gate.

I recently presented in a CLE with some very experienced trial attorneys. When speaking about effective witness examinations, one of the attorneys showed an example that illustrates the concept of primacy perfectly. This was a case in which a man was on trial for allegedly hiring someone to kill his wife. The alleged hit man was on the stand. The prosecuting attorney stood and approached the podium and these were his first two questions:

Q- Were you hired to kill Mrs. X?
A- Yes
Q-   Who hired you?
A- Mr. X. (pointing at the defendant)

The background information and context were provided after that punch, but the jurors certainly didn’t need to hear much more to know what the key point was.

The same concept applies to the points made last. I was involved in a product liability trial in which we were cross-examining the opposing counsel’s expert. In the middle of the cross examination, we were on a break and I noticed that, for the expert’s ideas to apply, some critical assumptions had to be made about the product user’s behavior that were not realistic. After the break, we went through the rest of the cross examination, and just when it seemed as though we were about to sit down, my client looked up and said “Oh! I have one more question. For your opinions to be true, X also has to happen, right?”    Answer “Yes.”  With that punch at the end of the examination, we were able to further discredit that expert’s testimony by attacking the assumption as well as the opinion through other witnesses.

Primacy and recency effects can have a substantial impact on the effectiveness of a case. It is critical not only to ask the right questions and say the right statements, but also to say them in a time and place when they have the most impact.

Melissa M. Gomez, Ph.D. is a jury consultant and owner of MMG Jury Consulting, LLC. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her experience includes work on more than 100 jury trials in Philadelphia and across the country, with a focus on the psychology of juror learning, behavior and decision-making. She has more than a decade of expertise in research design and methodology, as well as in behavioral and communication skills training.

This posting is for general informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as advice specific to any matter. Each case is different and no strategy applies uniformly to all.

If you have any questions regarding jury psychology that you would like to see addressed in this blog, please contact Dr. Gomez at melissa@mmgjury.com or call 215-292-7956.

 

Committee of 70 Calls for Freezing Quarter Sessions Budget

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

Ahead of the Clerk of Quarter Sessions budget hearing in the Philadelphia City Council next week, the government watchdog group Committee of Seventy has called for the city to halt funding for the office until it "is absolutely clear that all potential savings have been identified" by the First Judicial District in making sure the work of the office can be done with more efficiency, with fewer people and for a lower cost.

The functions and duties of the office were absorbed by the First Judicial District at the start of the month because of an order issued by Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille. Joseph Evers, the prothonotary in charge of the court's civil cases and civil filing fees, has been put in charge of leading an office that has been criticized for dysfunction in its management of criminal records and criminal remittances.

The functions of the office are now in the FJD's hands, but the Clerk of Quarter Sessions' role as an independently elected row office is still up in the air after Vivian Miller's retirement March 31. No City Council resolution has been introduced to change the clerk's post as an elective office.

The legal status of the clerk's employees, who are civil servants but would lose that status by court employment, has resulted in a "behinds-the-scenes wrestling match," Committee of Seventy's Zack Stalberg said in a press release.

Stalberg also criticized Mayor Michael A. Nutter and City Council for not stating explicitly whether or not they support abolishing the office, observing that Miller continues to serve as a Democratic ward leader.

"It's up to Council to demonstrate its leadership by doing away with the Clerk of Quarter Sessions' office before anyone else starts jockeying for the seat in 2011," Stalberg said. "Council and the mayor should show the same urgency for abolishing the CASS as they have with the Board of Revision of Taxes."

Abraham's Thoughts on Philadelphia Courts

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

 
When former Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham last week discussed with The Legal how prosecutors should vet proposed criminal charges, she had a lot more to say than could be fit into a news story.

Here are some of those thoughts from Abraham in an e-mail to The Legal:

• Abraham noted the First Judicial District since the early 1980s has "ALWAYS" been under the supervision of a Supreme Court justice, and she said no justice ever raised a complaint that her former office's charging function was inappropriate. "Since the District Attorney's Office is a quasi-judicial office, we are, of course, under their supervision in one way or another," Abraham wrote.
•  Abraham praised the state Supreme Court order instituted last week extending the deadline for preliminary hearings from three to 10 days to 14-21 days.

• Abraham also praised the Supreme Court for making other changes to preliminary hearings, including barring judges from marking preliminary hearings that are otherwise ready to proceed as "ready not reached.”

 "Nowhere, but in Philadelphia, do judges leave the bench early with many cases 'ready, but not reached,'" Abraham said.

• Abraham also said Municipal Court judges have allowed "defense attorneys to 'game' the system" by claims of having conflicts in other courtrooms, they haven't gotten discovery, or because they haven't been paid. Abraham also said preliminary hearings would be rescheduled if the defendants failed to appear, if police officers were testifying in another courtroom, or if the prosecution's witnesses were late, she said. She also said it was a good idea to institute other recently instituted rules, including a rule requiring defense counsel to state if they are ready to proceed before prosecutors do and a rule requiring preliminary hearings.
• Finally, Abraham, wrote: "To paraphrase Shakespeare: The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in ourselves, but in the judges failing to follow the PRCP [Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure] Rules, so that justice might prevail."

So Easy, Even a Philadelphia Lawyer Can E-File

By Charlotte E. Thomas

I recently spoke to the Honorable D. Webster Keogh again, the Administrative Judge of the trial division, Court of Common Pleas, with the help of Mike Meehan of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott. This time, we talked about the e-filing system for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.  Our discussion was timely, because the Court is offering three hours of CLE on e-filing on April 22, in Room 380, City Hall.  Inquiries should be directed to Kara.Behlau@courts.phila.gov.

The process of filing pleadings certainly has changed since I started practicing. Filing in Philadelphia used to be somewhat complicated.  Back in the dark ages, simple motions to compel discovery for failure to respond were filed in Motion Court (not the Prothonotary and not Discovery Court), with stops along the way to pay the filing fee and to pick up a set of docket entries to attach to the motion.  Some of us even admit to accomplishing minutes-late filings in “the old days” by shoving filings under a City Hall door to meet a deadline (or at least being told that it had been done). 

E-filing is far more civilized.  Filing of pleadings can be accomplished remotely up until 11:59 p.m. of the date of a deadline (of course, this is not recommended, as Murphy’s Law predictably will cause problems for procrastinators). An e-mail is sent to the filer to indicate receipt, acceptance or rejection, and it comes promptly – sometimes in under an hour’s time.  This is a big improvement over manual filings, for which an attorney might wait several days to learn that a filing had been rejected, and hopefully, not after the statute of limitations had expired.  In addition, accountability is improved. It is easier to determine who at the Prothonotary’s office rejected a filing and accordingly easier to ascertain how to cure the problem.

Not only have 10,758 attorneys in the area filed electronically in Philadelphia, incredibly 5,178 pro se parties have e-filed documents. Unrepresented parties can file from remote locations such as a public library or home computer, but they also can obtain the Prothonotary staff’s assistance (215-686-8863), provided they pay the cost of scanning the document.

At this point, we have come to expect efficiencies with electronic systems.  Some of the efficiencies gained are easier to quantify than others. There is a significant savings to the court due to orders served electronically. The court saves over $7,000 a month in postage by serving orders electronically. The total amount saved on postage since November, 2009 is almost $88,000. On March 9, 2010, the Court started up electronic service of court notices, and in less than the full month the court has already saved close to $3,000 on electronic service of notices. 

Philadelphia was lucky to follow the establishment of the federal electronic filing system — Public Access to Court Electronic Records or PACER — as well as in Orphans’ Division, which allowed the bugs in the system to be identified, refined and cured before launching e-filing in the Court of Common Pleas. The e-filing system has been in the making for several years. As administrative judge Keogh oversaw the large steering committee comprised of a number of constituencies (judges, lawyers, administrators) so that the e-filing system could best accommodate the needs of its users. Keogh is particularly proud that there was no need to contract with a vendor. Rather, the system was set up by talented and devoted computer wizards employed by Civil Court Administration and the Prothonotary’s office. Various constituencies both within and outside of Pennsylvania have visited the city to examine and replicate the system.

One difference between the federal PACER system and Philadelphia’s electronic system is that PACER allows public access to the pdf. for documents filed. Keogh explained that attorneys representing parties in a matter have access to the underlying documents, but that there was some concern about privacy concerns in broad ranging electronic access. The public still can gain access to filed documents at the Prothonotary’s office.

For the seasoned veterans among us, it is important to adjust to the efficiency of e-filing – not that there is much of a choice. None of the four surrounding county courts have mandatory e-filing yet.  Montgomery County is the closest, with optional e-filing at present, but mandatory e-filing in the surrounding counties is definitely on its way.

Charlotte E. Thomas is a partner with Duane Morris. She can be reached at cthomas@duanemorris.com

Tips for Lawyers from Legal Marketing Experts, Part 3: Increase Exposure / Ross Fishman

In my last post, I shared my Twitter stream covering the presentation by Deborah Knupp, partner of Akina Corporation, who addressed Business-Development Tactics to Increase Your Competitive Advantage at the 2010 Legal Marketing Association(#LMA10) Annual Conference in Denver. Deborah presented as part of the Just JDs: Business Development Strategies for Lawyers panel discussion, along with me (as the CEO of Furia Rubel Public Relations and Marketing), James A. Durham, chief marketing and business development officer for McGuireWoods LLP, who spoke about Establishing a Goal-Oriented Client-Development Business Plan, Alvidas A. Jasin, director of business development of Thompson Hine LLP, John Hellerman, partner and co-founder, Hellerman Baretz Communications, and Richard P. Klau, business product manager, Blogger, Google.

To continue the morning program, Ross Fishman, CEO of Fishman Marketing (and organizer of the Just JDs program) presented "Leveraging Marketing Tools to Increase Your Exposure." I have compiled my Twitter stream from his fantastic program. When reading the tweet tips, please keep in mind that the language and text are informal and stay within Twitter’s 140-character rule.

March 10, 2010 / 11:30 a.m.

• @rossfishman up next at Just JDs #LMA10 on Leveraging Marketing Tools to Increase Your Exposure.
• When Joel Flow of Skadden was asked his personal hero, he said Richard Branson who had 15+ PR folks in-house spreading the word.
• When you look at a firm's Web site, what does it say about them? Their legal skills? Their creativity? Their ability to deliver?
• Your marketing should fit your brand and your message.
• Donations / Sponsorships / Giveaways all need to fit brand and have impact but firms need to be willing to be creative to stand out.
• If we see 3,000 marketing messages per day, how will your firm's messages stand out? Food for thought.
• Law firm rainmakers can be more productive with good marketing tools and training —marketing creates opportunity not relationship.
• @ginarubel Opinion: Why do law firms think their initials matter? Why would anyone use them in marketing?
• Marketing must be simple, clear and memorable.
• Did you know? Whenever Energizer runs the "Bunny" campaign, sales of Eveready batteries also increase.
• There is a great deal of overlap between Bus. Dev and marketing ...important for both to work together...integrate efforts.
• When you have a good name, associate it with something tangible: Helps buyers remember Consider Shell, John Deere, Apple, Target, Camel, Lincoln National.
• The best marketing reinforces your name.
• Try to assoc. your name with a tagline prospects can visualize. "It’s hard to stop a Trane."
• Turbulent economy means great opportunity — this is the time to widen the gap between you and the competition.
• P&G CEO says, "innovate during recession."
• Clients shopping for best deals - may want to adjust pricing or offer creative fees to give value — always justify on value.
• Just saying that you're as good as competition not enough to get the business and when you're smaller, you have more to prove.
• When you niche your services, you can reinforce your brand, dominate a smaller market and grow your business.
• Law firms need to look at their marketing and branding from the perspective of the outsider NOT from the perspective of a lawyer.
• Reminder — always "Google" your own name and your firm name to see what's being said about you.
• Every person in business should have a Google profile — no matter what industry — with a professional photo.
• Ross Fishman teaching Just JDs how to use Google Alerts — one of the most wonderful tools: Create for name, clients, competition.
• Be a big fish in a small pond — niche — to build your business or practice areas.
• The brand is the platform, use multiple marketing tools to execute: website, ads, brochure, newsletter, PR, blogs, etc.
• Web site is the front door to your law firm.

Many legal marketing and social media experts from across the country have shared their thoughts and insights from the LMA Conference. It was such an excellent program; weeks later, we are still buzzing about it.  Check out:

-Paramjit Mahli of SCG Legal PR Network reports on the Legal Marketing Association conference in Denver on Legal Broadcast Network News Blog

-Bruce Allen on Marketing Catalyst: Social Networking, #LMA10 and Law Firm Marketing

-Justia’sLegalBirds which highlights "Legal Professionals on Twitter"

-John M. Bryne, Director of Communications for Drinker Biddle shares his story about social media atThe Byrne Blog;

Lance Godard blogged about what he learned from two days at the Legal Marketing Association’s annual meeting (which includes various links to other experts’ commentary;

-Lindsay Griffiths tells us about relationships and Social Media Strategies for the Small to Mid-sized Law Firm in her blog: Zen and the Art of Legal Network Maintenance;

-Adrian Lurssen (better known asJDTwitt) and  Aviva Cuyler from JD Supra (which if you are an attorney and not on JD Supra, check out my previous blog Social Media for Lawyers Part 7: JD Supra);

Heather Morse Milligan (The Legal Watercooler blogger) shares a great perspective from the LMA conference;

Nancy Myrland, shares a message to marketers and a video recap from the Legal Marketers Tweet-Up and even I made the photo cut;

-Wayne Navarre shares The Social Web Revolution and Law Firm Marketing Professionals on the Virtual Marketing Officer blog; and

-Rebecca Wissler, Laura Gutierrez, Gail Lamarche, Lydia Bednerik, Russell Lawson and Tim Corcoran are all people you should follow.

To learn how the use of Twitter shaped my conference experience, you can also read The PR Lawyer blog:

Confessions from a Social Networker: How Twitter Shaped My #LMA10 Experience.I will be adding more blogs on tips from many experts over the next few weeks so stay tuned to hear more tips on business development, marketing, public relations, and measuring ROI.

Gina F. Rubel, Esq.,is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications, Inc., a public relations and marketing agencywith a niche in legal communications. A former Philadelphia trial attorney and public relations expert, Gina is the author of Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers. Gina and her PR and marketing firm have won numerous awards for legal communications, public relations, media relations, strategic planning, corporate philanthropy and leadership. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com, is a regular contributor to The Legal Intelligencer Blog and blogs for The Huffington Post. You can find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ginafuriarubelor follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ginarubel.  For more information, go to www.FuriaRubel.com.

Supreme Court Releases Changes to Municipal Court

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

The state Supreme Court has issued orders today that will make several changes in Philadelphia Municipal Court.

The orders include those issued under Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille's authority and those that required approval of the entire seven-member court.

Among other changes, Castille said that preliminary hearings will now be held 14 to 21 days after a defendant first comes into contact with the criminal justice system, rather than three to 10 days.

Attorneys will now be required to prioritize their appearances in preliminary hearings above all other appearances except for trials, but defense counsel must notify the court within 48 hours if they are on trial in another court, Castille said.

Municipal Court judges will no longer be able to mark cases that are otherwise ready to proceed for preliminary hearing as "marked ready not reached," prohibiting judges from not holding preliminary hearings because they want to leave the bench, Castille said.

Defense counsel will now have to state their readiness to proceed at preliminary hearing before prosecutors do so, Castille said.

Along with the court, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office is preparing to divert summary offenses involving marijuana to their own docket, Castille said.