I’m not a physicist (I can barely spell the word) but as I remember it, the second law of thermodynamics is that entropy, which for purposes of this post only might be a synonym for chaos or disorder, tends to increase. Another way of saying this is that systems tend to move from a state of higher […]
I’ve been making a lot of calls this week, not only to lawyers and law firms but also to doctors’ offices and a variety of businesses, and I’ve discovered something disturbing. On a distressingly high number of these contacts (including some in-person contacts as well as phone calls), the people who greeted me and who […]
Sometimes I work with clients who are caught in a pattern they want to break. It may be a behavior that doesn’t serve them (for instance, not completing time sheets until the morning they’re due and losing the details that would yield more billable time), a thought that produces an action that doesn’t serve them (such […]
Have you heard this old saw? People used to say that law firms need four categories of lawyers: finders, minders, grinders, and binders. It’s still true to some degree, though today’s atmosphere requires lawyers to develop their skills in each of these areas, rather than simply selecting the most comfortable skill set and roosting there. […]
I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading lately (a by-product of not being able to work using my own computer) and I’m enjoying the diversity of ideas that are coming through my selections. From the point of view of the stereotypical lawyer or law firm, the most subversive of these books is The Power of […]
To those of you in or from the U.S., Happy Independence Day! Today’s a day that many celebrate with cookouts, fireworks, parades, and the like. I’ve had an interesting lead-in to the holiday through conversation with my husband’s parents. They live in England, though they spend a great deal of time now in the U.S. […]
So I spent the last two days restoring my files from my online back-up. I’ll identify the service I’ve been using now, because it’s been a life saver: Data Deposit Box. It’s cheap and easy. But even though it’s an automated back-up system, some human thought is required to make sure that it’s backing up […]
Apologies for my silence of late. While traveling last week, one of the Windows files necessary for start-up mysteriously vanished. “It just happens,” say the tech support people, which is no consolation to me at all. After trying every trick in the book, including mystical incantations, I finally wiped the hard drive yesterday. I’m back […]
Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. I once had the joy of being on a Norwegian milk boat headed to the North Cape on June 21. As we traveled northward, we could see the bonfires lit on the shore to mark the solstice. It was one […]
For those who hate networking, walking into a room as part of a team may increase comfort and confidence. The real beauty of this approach lies in having someone who knows you ready at hand to trumpet your skills — in other words, to introduce you glowingly (and truthfully) in a way that would come […]