Lawsagna

Learn to fall forward

I saw a TV commercial yesterday that used the phrase to “fall forward” as a metaphor for learning from your experiences.  I liked the association.  When you deal with your share of disappointments in law school, it helps to keep in mind that you are learning to fall forward.  If you play it safe, you eliminate opportunities for learning.  It can be scary to fall, you can get injured.  Lawyers may even be more risk-averse than the general population because the nature of their profession demands caution.  But since some falls are inevitable, you may as well learn how to fall forward in law school, which is a safer environment than the real-world legal practice.  So, how do you learn to fall forward?

• Don’t be afraid to take calculated risks when you can get a high potential pay-off.  It may be worthwhile to join a law review or a moot court competition even if it means that you will have less time to prepare for your classes.  The pay-off is the skills you develop participating in those activities that make you more desirable to the employers.
• Take challenging classes in the areas that are new to you. Stepping outside your comfort zone will increase you learning opportunities. Consider taking classes in other programs that are relevant to the area of practice you want to pursue.
• Make sure you expose yourself to the teaching styles of different professors.
• Ask questions in class if you don’t understand something. 
• Get as much feedback as you can by voicing your opinions and comments in class and talking to the professors during office hours.   
• Look for internship opportunities.  Practice your job interviewing skills.
• Ask people whose opinions you respect to become your mentors.  If they say they can’t for some reason, ask them to refer you to somebody else who may be in a position to mentor you.
• Participate in study-abroad programs to learn more about the legal systems of other countries and enhance your cross-cultural communication skills.
• Learn to network by attending conferences, bar association functions and reaching out to others.
• Hone your people skills by enrolling in a legal clinic or volunteering.  Learn how to deal with difficult people.
• Don’t be afraid to negotiate better deals for yourself. 
• Don’t try to hide mistakes.  Acknowledge them and take responsibility for correcting them.    
• Treat mistakes as learning opportunities.  Determine what went wrong, what you should do to avoid the same pitfall in the future, incorporate the changes and move forward.   

Learning takes courage.  What else can you do right now that may look risky and uncomfortable but has a potential to bring a large pay-off for your future?   

Have fun with words

I’ve been playing with words this morning.  My linguistic background is to blame.  If you want to join in the fun, I am willing to share a few links.

“Wordy” Sites:

alphaDictionary.com.  Warning: don’t go there unless you have a strong willpower or nothing to do.  You will get happily lost among pages and pages of information – some serious, some fun. You can practice International Tongue Twisters, check out the Glossary of Useless Latin Phrases or a list of more than 250 words that speakers and writers of English often confuse (false cognates). 
The following entry is from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce (1911):

LAW, n.
Once Law was sitting on the bench,
And Mercy knelt a-weeping.
"Clear out!" he cried,"disordered wench!
Nor come before me creeping.
Upon your knees if you appear,
'Tis plain your have no standing here."
Then Justice came. His Honor cried:
"Your status?—devil seize you!"
"Amica curiae," she replied—
"Friend of the court, so please you."
"Begone!" he shouted—"there's the door—
I never saw your face before!"
      —G. J.

The Word Detective.  This is an online version of a newspaper column that answers readers’ questions about words and language.  It is informative and humorous at the same time. 

Grammar Girl’s Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing.  It is a free podcast.  Five minutes of grammar a day keeps grammar snobs away.  (Actually, the podcast is about once a week.)

Dictionaries:

OneLook dictionary.  I like its reverse dictionary feature.  If you describe a concept in a few words, a sentence, or a question, you will receive a list of related terms.  Using this feature, you can even cheat on crossword puzzles by typing in some letters and wildcards.

Multilingual Legal Glossary from Vancouver Community College.  You enter an English term, choose a target language and get the equivalent term in that language with the plain language definition and a list of related words.  The languages offered are Chinese (Simplified), Farsi, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese.   

An English Pronouncing Dictionary with Instant Sound.  You enter a word and listen to its proper pronunciation. 

The Visual Thesaurus.  It is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus. You type in a word and get a visual representation of related words and concepts.  Roll over a term on the word map to see its definition and examples of usage.  You can also listen to an American or British pronunciation of a word.  You can try a few words for free but to use it continuously, you need to buy the program or subscribe to the service.

Pseudodictionary.  A dictionary of words that can’t make it to other dictionaries yet: concocted words, slang, web-speak, colloquialisms.  Try typing in the word “law” and see what comes up.   

The Ridiculous Business Jargon Dictionary.   This one is a dictionary of business jargon that you don’t want to use.

A list of law-related dictionaries at alphaDictionary.com.  It offers brief descriptions and links to various online dictionaries, such as Plain English Dictionary or Legal Terms or Harvard Law School One-L Dictionary.

Generators of silliness:

Official Seal Generator.  This site will help you generate an official seal, like the one you see in this post. 

The Advertising Slogan Generator.   “The Law is Mightier than the Sword.” That’s what I got when I typed in “law.”   

Post-It Note Generator.   As the name suggests, it generates post-it notes when you enter the text.

Buzzomatic Memo Writer from alphaDictionary.  If you don't like to write, let your computer do it for you.  You will create some buzz. 

Image Chef.  You choose a template, enter your message and get a customized image.

OK… enough of fun.  It’s time to go about my serious business. 

10 factors to consider when designing a home office

Is the physical environment important to you when you work or study?  I find that my energy, motivation, creativity and productivity are affected by the physical space.  That’s why I am on a mission to turn my home office into a beautiful, light, uncluttered and comfortable place.  A couple of years ago I bought the office furniture that I really wanted: a big desk in a distressed white color and a couple of matching file cabinets.  I have a comfortable swivel chair and the office equipment that I need to do my work.  But I still have a long way to go.  I need additional storage and bookshelves for the piles of books sitting in the corner since our move almost a year ago (the old house had built-in bookshelves).  And it’s a constant battle to keep the white space on my desk visible as my papers have a propensity to close on me. 

As part of my designing efforts, I’ve decided to look more into the criteria for effective office spaces suggested by the environmental psychology and ergonomics.  Here's what I found:

1. A good space gives you a freedom of choice of what to do and how to do it by satisfying multiple purposes.  You want to be able to use space flexibly.  For example, I like having a choice where to read in my office:  I can sit at the desk or I can sit on a couch. 
2. The ability to personalize the space is important.  You want an office that reflects who you are.  Choosing a color theme that you like and decorating with items that you enjoy looking at can help you create a unique and exciting place. 
3. A good space offers privacy as well as opportunities for social interaction when you want it.  I have to admit that with a 14-month old, I don't have a lot of privacy.
4. It’s good to have transitions in visual stimuli because it helps to process information.  For example, after looking at a document or a leaning board on the wall, you may want to look out of the window or simply stare at the blank wall to give yourself time to think.  Similarly, taking a break from your computer screen to look at a favorite painting may re-energize you.
5. Physical comfort is important.  Invest in a good-quality chair.  Your level of energy and concentration depends on a good posture. 
6. Pay attention to esthetics.  People are happier, more energized and creative whey they are in beautiful spaces.  On the opposite, they get bored and distracted easily in unattractive spaces.  Need some inspiration?  Check out 10 innovative workplaces shared by Chief Happiness Officer.
7. Air quality is another factor that affects your performance.   Our brains use up about 20% of all the oxygen that our bodies absorb.  Plants are your friends when it comes to improving the air quality in your office.
8. Maintain consistent temperature and humidity levels in the room.  The optimum is the temperature of 70-73F and 60-70% humidity.
9. Control the noise.  While music may help you learn better, a beeping fax machine won’t. 
10. Exposure to natural light has a positive effect on health and well-being while prolonged work under the narrow spectrum artificial light with its constant pulsing can add to fatigue.  Pull up those shades!   If you work at your computer a lot, learn about 22 Ways to Reduce Eye Strain at Your Computer from The Lighting Blog.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with home office design.  What works for you and what doesn’t? 

Tip Bit #8: How Your Past Successes Can Cause You To Fail

"Things happen according to the ordinary course of nature and the ordinary habits of life."
California Civil Code, Maxims of Jurisprudence

“It may look like a crisis, but it’s only the end of an illusion.”
Gerald M. Weinberg, The Secrets of Consulting

People don’t like to change, but circumstances do.  Our current behavior is conditioned by our past successes:  we adopted what worked for us before.  The danger is that our past successes can become foundations of our future failures.  How so?  Past successes create the illusions of certainty, stability, continuity.  When the circumstances change, as they often do, we fail to adapt.  It’s like going to law school with a bag of undergraduate tricks.  We use familiar patterns of behavior in unfamiliar territories when, instead, we need a paradigm shift. 

Why not step back and ask yourself:  Is there a different way to think about this?  Am I moving forward or running in circles?  Are any of my habits holing me back?  What should I be doing differently?  It’s especially useful to do such review when you face changes in your life, like deciding on a career path, starting law school, or getting a job.  Open your mind to new ways of thinking and succeeding.  Are you ready for a paradigm shift? 

The Iceberg of Legal Writing

Some projects need time to brew, just like a good cup of tea.  But we   are all pressed to produce good quality within tight deadlines.  How can we do it?  We must plan well.  A good approach is to break down a project into several steps, figure out their logical sequence, and allocate sufficient time to perform each step.  It sounds obvious, but many people don’t do it.  In fact, most people underestimate the time it takes them to do things.  Sometimes, the challenge is to figure out the steps.   For example, look at the Iceberg of Legal Writing that I sketched to show the steps that may be required to complete a writing project, such as a student note or an article.  There are numerous things you have to consider when you write a longer piece.  The order of steps is also important.  It doesn’t make sense to edit the paper unless you have done all the revisions.  If you want feedback from your professors, you need to give them enough time to read your work.  By estimating how much time each step takes, you can count back from the deadline to determine when you must start the work.  And add some extra time for unforeseen events. 

What other tasks can benefit from such multi-step approach?

What’s in your brief?

As a first-year law student, you hear a lot about the importance of briefing cases.  It is an essential step in the development of critical thinking.  If done appropriately, the process of briefing cases will teach you, among other things, how to:

• read legal opinions effectively;
• recognize recurrent patterns in legal opinions;
• categorize legal information;
• identify relevant facts;
• formulate legal issues;
• dissect the court’s reasoning;
• translate legalese into plain English to enhance your own understanding of the material (also useful when you need to explain a legal concept to your client);
• be able to talk and write persuasively about law;
• recognize fallacies in reasoning;
• exercise your own judgment about the outcomes of the cases;
• see a big picture of how facts, issues, law, policy come together to produce a certain outcome;
• evaluate the impact of the courts’ decisions.

Here are a few things to consider and resources to consult when you learn how to brief a case:

1. Understand the goals and benefits of briefing.  If you only summarize a legal opinion to prepare for a class so that you can answer your professor's questions, you are just scratching the surface.  Set your goals in terms of what you want to learn from the exercise to keep yourself motivated to do it regularly.  Read about the Power of the Brief at Law School Academic Support Blog to learn how cognitive theory supports briefing and understand the benefits. 
2. Choose an appropriate structure and level of detail for your brief.  Law Career Blog has suggestions about the structure in How to Brief a Case.  For more discussion of the elements of a student brief, go to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice website.  And here is a link to a sample case and brief.
3. Write in your own words.  Some legal opinions are wordy and confusing.  If you copy a part of such legal opinion into your brief, you bring the uncertainty with it.  Instead, take time to dissect the opinion into comprehensible bits by rephrasing the sentences.  Clear language enhances comprehension.   
4. When you brief a case, don’t forget the dissenting and concurring opinions.  They may offer important insights about the factual basis of the decision and help you determine which facts are pertinent and why.   They also shed some light on how the judicial doctrine may evolve in the future.
5. Practice expressing your own opinion about the courts' decisions.  Part of being persuasive is the ability to take a stand on an issue.  Law Career Blog offers More Thoughts on it.
6. Consider the big picture.  How does this decision fit in the overall doctrine?  What are the implications of the decision?  What kind of policy does the decision support? 
7. Work out the mechanics.  You may choose to set up a form in your word processor with the relevant categories to streamline the process.  I always advocate the use of color codes to aid your memory:  you can choose different background colors for your categories.  Number the issues and the steps of the court’s legal reasoning.  Put the key words in bold or highlight them.  Leave space for comments and notes you may want to add during class. 

What do you like or dislike about briefing cases?

Take a nap

Continuous self-improvement requires discipline and sacrifice.  At least, that’s what performance gurus and self-help books tell us.  Is there a lazy way to perfection?  The answer may be a surprising “yes,” according to Dr. Sara Mednick.  Dr. Mednick studies how napping can improve human performance.  In our busy, sleep-deprived world, taking a nap in the middle of the day sounds like a luxury we don’t have time for.   But Dr. Mednick says that in reality, it is wasteful not to nap because we rob ourselves of such essential elements of productivity as endurance, alertness, attention, energy, creativity.  I first heard an interview with Dr. Mednick through The Theater of the Mind podcast, in which she described her research and her recent book Take a Nap! Change you life.  Her studies show that you can target different aspects of performance by varying the time and duration of your naps.  Morning naps can boost creativity, while afternoon naps help to absorb large quantities of information and improve memory.  You can learn more about the power of napping and read sample chapters at Dr. Mednick’s website.  A Nap Wheel on the website will help you design your customized nap schedule for optimum results.  Mine is showing that it’s time for my nap.  Efficient napping requires practice, so I better go.  Wouldn’t you like to be good at napping?   

Tip Bit # 7: Keep a Journal of a Young Lawyer

Law students generally don’t do a lot of coherent writing during the   semester unless they take a writing class.  While briefing cases is supposed to help with the analytical writing skills, students often stitch pieces of legal opinions together instead of expressing the ideas in their own words.  As a result, when the time comes to take essay exams, students may find themselves out of practice.  If the idea of writing things out intimidates you, you may want to try a rather informal technique to get into the habit of putting your legal thoughts on paper.  Start a Journal of a Young Lawyer, or JOYL for short.   Choose the writing medium you enjoy.  Maybe, a new Moleskine notebook will keep you coming back (you can also get it at Amazon), or a private blog for tech fans.  Spend about 15 minutes a day writing about something related to law that piqued your curiosity.   It may be a case, a piece of legal news, an occurrence in class, or a discussion you had with your classmates.   Write you thoughts and opinions in your JOYL as you would in a personal journal.  The point is to remove any stress factors that you may associate with other types of legal writing and make it as casual as possible.  It’s just an exercise for you.  Don’t write about boring stuff, pick something interesting instead.  (The comments you have written in your JOYL may even help you choose a topic for a student note or a paper later.)  Try writing from different perspectives by playing a role of a lawyer, a client, or a law reporter.   Pick different sides in an argument.  If you do this brief exercise regularly, you may find it much easier to write about law when you need to do a more formal type of writing.  The time commitment can be well worth the benefit.  And let me know if the JOYL technique works for you.

Teaching practical skills to students

According to the Carnegie Foundation report on legal education, law schools don’t do enough to prepare students for the realities of law practice.  The release of the report prompted a discussion of what could be done to address this issue.  It is probably too early to talk about the best practices, but here is a round-up of a few interesting programs.

Law School Innovation offers a series on the use of simulations in legal education.  Gene Koo discusses Stanford’s simulation-based courses that teach students “to think like a client” and better understand the client’s needs:  “Through simulations, law students work in teams with students from other graduate schools to solve a fully-described, substantive problem.”  For example, law students work with engineering students on a simulated patent infringement case. 

University of Detroit Mercy School of Law is about to launch its new Law Firm Program for third-year students. The program offers a series of courses that simulate the practice of law in a large law firm. Students are divided into groups corresponding to different practice areas. 

More and more law schools are establishing Supreme Court clinics where law students help attorneys develop real cases that go to the Supreme Court.  If the justices agree to hear the case, the students get a chance to work on the briefs and oral arguments, and even go to Washington to watch the justices in action.   

Massachusetts Bar Association offers Job Shadow Day when students can “shadow” attorneys through their work day. 

The challenge of developing “soft skills” is not unique to law schools.  MBA programs are grappling with this problem as well.  The Wall Street Journal reports on how M.B.A. Programs Hone ‘Soft Skills’ (need subscription).   Some MBA programs borrow soft-skill training techniques from the corporate world, including coaching, personality assessments and peer feedback.  Perhaps, law school can also benefit from those approaches. 

What do you think current law students can do to enhance their practical skills even if their law schools are too slow to catch up?   Do you have a personal development plan?

Now, that’s a bling worth seeing…

Now, that’s a bling worth seeing, but you have to travel far.  To the constellation Centaurus, 50 light-years from the Earth, to be exact.  10 billion trillion trillion carats of diamond twinkling in the space.  This gem is the crystallized carbon heart of an old star, the so called white dwarf, discovered by astronomers.  How is that for a symbol of Universal love?  And Universal Abundance.

Give love.  Feel love.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Do you smell success?

Matthew Stibbe of Bad Language shares great tips on How to learn things.  He must know a thing or two about learning:  he used the techniques to learn Dutch, prepare for a test in medieval history, and study for his commercial pilot’s license.  Many thanks to Raymond Ward for letting me know about this site.  Smell-coding intrigued me so much that I decided to visit The Sense of Smell Institute to investigate the olfactory function further. 

It turns out that the smell-coding technique involves associative learning – a process by which you link one item, in this case the subject matter you are studying, to another item – a particular aroma.  Later, when you need to recall the material you were studying, you help your memory by smelling the aroma associated with that material. 

I've also found out that people form strong associations between odors and emotions that they experience when they are exposed to the odors.  The odor can elicit the corresponding emotion, so be aware of the effect of aromas on your mood.  This effect can be either positive or negative.  For example, if you experienced frustration while learning how to swim in a swimming pool, you may have associated the smell of chlorine in the water with the emotion of frustration.  Later, if you are exposed to chlorinated water, the smell can make you feel frustrated.  On the other hand, if you have personally meaningful smells that make you happy, relaxed, focused, etc., you can use those smells to trigger the desired emotions. 

Essential oils can also enhance performance.  For instance, citrus smells promote mental awareness and concentration, so try using orange or lemon oil when you study.  Peppermint improves the performance of clerical tasks by increasing attention.  Lavender will calm your nerves, smell it when you need to make a presentation in front of a large group.  The perfume of cacao activates the production of endorphins that make us happy, so we can pass on that chocolate bar (well…I am not sure about that, the more the merrier).  Rose essence gives the sense of harmony and security. Check out the Alphabet of Smell to find out more about the meaning of various aromas.

Have you had any experience with aromatherapy?  Does it help you to work, learn, relax?  Share your comments!

Learning on the go

Do you find it easier to concentrate and learn when movement is involved?  Is it hard for you to sit still?  Do you do well in sports or performing arts?  Do you have hobbies that require working with your hands?  If so, you may be a kinesthetic learner who would benefit from incorporating movement into the learning process.  The Law School Academic Support Blog  has great tips for kinesthetic learners on how to improve their performance. 

Roger von Oech of Creative Think offers a neat product to boost creativity – The Ball of Whacks, which consists of 30 magnetic blocks that can be used to create a variety of designs.  You can work with your hands and improve your creative thinking at the same time – a win-win combination for kinesthetic learners and a great fun for everybody else. 

While movement is a necessity for some learners, all of us can benefit from kinesthetic intelligence.  Our brain consumes a third of all the oxygen that our body receives.  Physical exercise helps to increase the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain, improving its function.  I’ve found that certain types of physical activities work better for my mind. 

Walking is one of them.  It calms my nerves and clears my head.  Read Walk for Focus by Brain Based Business to find out how walking can benefit your brain.  If you want to listen to cases while taking a walk, go to http://www.audiocasefiles.com where you can download the digital audio recordings of legal opinions for 0.99 cents a piece.   

Spinning is another one of my favorites.  It is a much more vigorous exercise.  I liked the setting of a spinning class I attended a few years ago:  it had dim lights, good music, and effective but not overbearing coaching.  I felt like I was in the zone.   

At the time I was studying for the bar, I lived in an apartment in a Chicago high-rise with a swimming pool on the roof.   I took my books up there and did laps during my study breaks.  I don’t claim it will work for everybody, but it worked for me.   The additional benefit was that I didn’t feel like I had to miss out on all the summer fun because of studying.  And as I already wrote in the five-things-you-may-not-know-about-me meme, Latin ballroom dancing was my escape from law school.  Who knows… it may have helped me more than I am willing to admit. 

You don’t always need a big chunk of time to gain exercise benefits.  These days, I often do 15-minute yoga sessions to stretch and breathe.  And I am learning to juggle because juggling improves the brain function.  It also makes my baby daughter laugh, especially when I drop a ball.  Sometimes, simply being mindful of your posture and remembering to relax your shoulders can boost your energy according to The Happiness Project.  I’d add a few shoulder rolls to that.  Little steps can make a big difference. 

Are you ready to use your kinesthetic intelligence?  What’s your move?   

Tip Bit #6: lessons out of the blue

You can find learning opportunities in most unexpected places.   Yesterday, I found one on a bag of wild blueberries that I bought at a grocery store.  The bag had a nice graph of total antioxidant capacity for various berries from the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.  Oddly enough, I welcomed this opportunity to learn about berries and their antioxidant qualities even though it was a marketing technique on the part of the company:  wild blueberries have the highest antioxidant capacity after all.  But the point of tip bit #6 is not to read the messages on bags and boxes although you may learn something about warranties this way.  Rather, the point is to look for learning opportunities outside your usual learning environment.  Don’t pack your “legal hat” into the backpack with your books and notes.  Wear it in the real world.  We learn best when we can connect the material to real life situations we encounter.  I am more likely to remember the chart if I see it on the bag of blueberries that I like than if I study it in a textbook. Look for contexts where the concepts you are studying become relevant and test your knowledge.   You can also learn out of the blue.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

It’s cold here.  The wind sends chills right through my bones.   Normally, I enjoy walking, I try to walk to places whenever I can, but on a day like this, I would not venture outside but for my two dogs that need to be walked.  The dogs don’t care about the weather, they want their walks, so it must be done.  This brings me to a question I have for you today:  What would it take for you to move a task from the “may-be” category to the “must-be-done” category?  If the syllabus says you have to read Chapter 8 by tomorrow, does it make it a must?  What about a gut feeling that you may be called on in class?  Or do you have enough self-discipline so that if you decide that something is important, you will do it no matter what? 

When I walk the dogs on a nice day, I am motivated by pleasure.  I truly enjoy the process:  I like the outdoors, my eyes appreciate the beauty and variety in nature, I have time to think without interruptions.  This is an example of intrinsic motivation.  On the other hand, when it is too cold to enjoy the outdoors, my motivation becomes extrinsic, and it’s not as much fun anymore.  Understanding the interaction between your extrinsic and intrinsic motivation is important if you want to develop good habits and achieve results.  Intrinsic motivation is usually more powerful because it is driven by your goals, desires, personality.  Here are a few steps that can help you create intrinsic motivation:

• Set goals and rewards that are meaningful to you.
• Understand how a particular task contributes to a valuable outcome.
• Engage your imagination and emotions when you think about what you want to accomplish.  Re-create the image of success in your mind every time you need extra motivation to do a task.
• Approach each task with curiosity and the beginner’s mind.  Look for new things to learn even when you engage in a familiar activity.
• Try changing a perspective if you feel bored.  Ask the question: “What would _______ think or do about it?”  Insert a person, organization, profession in the blank.
• If you have a role model, ask yourself how your role model would approach the situation you are in.  Get into their mind.
• Embrace the uncertainty.  Do you ever wonder how people can spend hours pulling a lever of a slot machine?  It is the uncertainty of the outcome that keeps them interested.  The uncertainty increases the production of the neuromodulator dopamine, which is responsible for a focused attention and more pleasurable experience.  Imagine what would happen if you were to get a regular salary for pulling the same lever but no chance of a random win. You’d be bored to death very soon.  Uncertainty keeps the excitement alive. 

To find out more about different types of motivation, check out What’s the Motivation by Daily PlanIt. 

And I am off walking the dogs.

Related post:
What is your motivation direction?

Think like a lawyer with "The Secrets of Consulting" by Gerald M. Weinberg

I love The Secrets of Consulting:  A Guide to Giving & Getting Advice Successfully by Gerald M. Weinberg.  This book is witty and wise.  I like to go back to it to and re-read its memorable laws. Here are some of my favorites.  I think they can teach us a few things about thinking like a lawyer:

The Law of the Hammer:
“The child who receives a hammer for Christmas will discover that everything needs pounding.”

The following is my version for legal professionals: 
"A student who learns to think like a lawyer will discover that anything can be turned into an argument."  On a more serious note, this law reminds me that specialists sometimes suffer from the tunnel vision that prevents them from seeing out-of-the-box solutions. 

“If you can’t think of three things that might go wrong with your plans, then there’s something wrong with your thinking.”

When you think like a lawyer, you look for anything that can go wrong. 

Prescott’s Pickle Principle:
“Cucumbers get more pickled than brine gets cucumbered.”

This principle is about ethics and autonomy.  It tells us that it can be challenging to preserve independent thinking when you deal with a large and important client.  Recent corporate scandals show that even legal counsels can get “pickled” in the corporate "brine."   

“What you don’t know may not hurt you, but what you don’t remember always does.”

This principle highlights the importance of setting reminders, or triggers, for yourself and your clients of all things that you need to remember.  Do you have a system for that?

Empathy

Do you have empathy?  Can you step into somebody else’s shoes or, perhaps, try on their suit?   That’s the idea behind the “empathy suit” designed by the Ford Motor Company in partnership with the University of Loughborough,UK.  The suit simulates aging by reducing mobility, hearing and vision.  It allows the developers of products for aging baby boomers to test the usability of their creations.   

Empathy is crucial not only for good design, but for good lawyering as well.  Now, what would be the equivalent of the “empathy suit” to impart empathy to lawyers?

What's your opinion of legal writing?

Law students are getting serious about legal writing.  They don’t want to hide behind wordy legalisms.  They want to be understood.  And they offer good tips on how they plan to become effective writers. 

As part of Legal Andrew’s class action, The Frugal Law Student reveals his plan to analyze the works of great legal writers and edit old case opinions into plain English. 

Shelley’s Case has welcomed a writing muse – Laughter – while reading children’s books:  “I gasped. I panicked. I worried. I giggled. I laughed. I was enchanted by the innocent charm exuberating from these books.”  Is there a better way to learn how to tell great stories with simple words and uncluttered structure?

Mackenzie’s Weblog talks about how lawyers tend to perceive their writing abilities and how blogging can help improve writing skills.

The Top Law Student recommends a number of legal writing resources for law students.

Legal writing professors and consultants have also been looking for the fastest road to the writing nirvana.  Idealawg has a record of their search.  It started with the interview of Dr. George D. Gopen: WRITING FROM A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE and the comments by Wayne C. Schiess, the director of the legal-writing program at the University of Texas School of Law.  Their debate continued in the post Not on the same legal writing page: George Gopen of Duke responds to Wayne Schiess of University of Texas.   Take note of their suggestions and see which ones work best for you.  The beauty of a language is that it is common to many and yet as individual as the speakers, writers and readers themselves.

How about assessing your own knowledge of writing principles.  As you read the following quotations from famous people, can you tell which aspect of writing they address?

“That is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put.”

This is Sir Winston S. Churchill’s opinion of the old rule stating that you cannot end sentences with prepositions.  You can when you need to. 

“A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field.

George Orwell concocted this sentence as a cure for multiple negatives. (Politics and the English Language, 1946.)

“Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.”

This is George Orwell’s parody translation of the following verse from Ecclesiastes:

“I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

He did it to show the excessive use of abstract nouns and nominalizations (nouns that are derived from verbs with the help of the suffix -ion).

What's your opinion of legal writing?

Related posts:
The art of storytelling
Chasing metaphors
The mosaic of legal analysis
Get your pens ready:  it's time to scribble

Tip Bit #5: WH-Questions

Today’s tip is on the use of a framework to generate ideas or to study.   Imagine that you need to write a paper or a student note for a law journal.  You’ve read a few articles and news items that may suggest a possible topic for your writing, but you are not sure where to begin.  One way to help you generate ideas is to use a framework that would allow you to describe your issue or problem from various perspectives.  For example, you can create a mind map with the topic in the center and wh-questions – who, what, where, when, why, how -- as the main branches.  Record any words and images that come to mind and link them to the branch that triggered those associations.  Don’t evaluate your ideas, just put down as many as you can.  The questions will stimulate your thinking.  Later, you can decide which ideas can be used in your writing and organize them in an outline.

You can also use wh-questions in your studies.  Decide which legal concept you want to review, write down the wh-questions, and try to recall as much information as you can using the questions as your guide. 

Do frameworks help to focus your thinking?  Let me know.

What can you learn from people?

Some things we learn from books, by going to classes, watching presentations, listening to lectures.  Other things we learn from people by observing, analyzing, imitating, practicing.  For example, we can learn from people:

• how to communicate well,
• how to engage your audience,
• how to appear professional,
• how to explain complex things in a simple way,
• how to ask good questions,
• how to network,
• how to make people feel valued and respected,
• how to motivate others,
• how to make a joke and when it is appropriate,
• how to defuse intense emotions.

So how do you learn from people?  Here are a few questions and suggestions to guide you:

• What skills do you want to learn? What results do you want to achieve?
• Who will be your model?  Do you know a person who is good at what you are trying to learn?  If you personally know them, enlist their support, ask them questions.  But don't forget that you can also learn from public figures by observing their actions, listening to their speeches, reading their works.
• In what situations do you need to observe that person?  In other words, what is the context that triggers the desired behavior?
• While observing your model in action, decide what the important differences are that make the behavior effective.  What does this person do that others don’t?  In contrast, is there anything that the person you are modeling avoids doing that others tend to do?  What clues should you pay attention to?
• Can you recognize any patterns in the desired behavior?
• Are there specific steps or procedures that the person is following?
• Is there anything unique about the way that person interacts with others?
• Can you tell anything about the person’s assumptions, values, attitudes from his or her behavior?
• Now it is time to create your model of the effective performance.  Can you come up with a strategic list of behaviors that you can imitate?
• Try out your model in the relevant situations to see if you can achieve the desired result.  If not, how can you revise your model?
• Keep trying it out, fine-tune your strategy as necessary.

You need to be mindful and reflective when you learn from others.  It also takes discipline and patience to follow through with your plan.  The benefit is that you can improve your performance by being observant and willing to try something different.  I encourage you to keep your eyes open for other people’s talents.  Ask them questions, learn from them, and you might just add a few gifts to your own bag of tricks.   Who are the people you'd love to learn from?