Post # 100… Discussing my own work/life balance
I’m astonished to be hitting post #100 this morning. How time does fly! I’ve been thinking lately, with something between amusement and horror, about my own work/life balance. One of the things I’ve learned as a coach is that I very often end up working with people who face the same issues that confront me. No […]
Litigation pet peeve
It’s come to my attention again that many, perhaps most, litigators step all over one of my pet peeves. My pet peeves aren’t a big deal to anyone but me, but committing this particular error should be. I hate, detest, despise hearing an attorney, especially a litigator in a jury trial, refer to his or […]
Consistency in rainmaking efforts; making the most of the next 2 months
Tom Collins posted last month on The 10 to 15 Minute Rainmaking Plan (no longer available). The principle is that marketing activity fits nicely into any lawyer’s schedule when arranged in 10- to 15-minute phone calls, and that the benefits of these calls accrue when done daily. He suggests several questions that would lead very nicely into […]
The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law
The Wall Street Journal law blog is featuring Mark Herrmann’s The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law this week. The series started today with a review and an excerpt from the book on defending depositions, and the blog promises that excerpts will continue through the week. If you’d like to go whole hog and buy the book […]
Public perception of lawyers
Someone recently found this blog with a search on “All Lawyers Are Assholes.” Yes, complete with the initial caps. After I quit laughing (and got over being briefly miffed that this search implies that I, too, am an asshole simply because I’m a lawyer), I started wondering whether the searcher was looking for confirmation of his/her […]
Working hard vs. working smart
Have you heard this distinction before? All sorts of management experts talk about how people can work more efficiently, more effectively, maximizing the results of time. Some of them even have good ideas. I’ve been thinking about what it means to say that practicing law is hard work. I don’t have any question that it […]
Look for what’s right.
It’s often easy, and rather in vogue, to think that practicing law is a drain, a burden, incompatible with having a personal life. Sometimes that’s true. If it’s more often than not true for any individual lawyer, there’s a problem that needs a solution — a new way of approaching practice or managing your energy, […]