Lawsagna

Business Etiquette

When you attend business meetings, dinners and other social functions, you want to make the best impression possible, don’t you?  The knowledge of business etiquette may help you feel confident in social settings and ensure that people are comfortable in your presence.   Do you introduce the more important person first?  What do you do with your napkin if you are called to a telephone during a business meeting in a restaurant?  If you share a cab with a business client, where should you sit?

At the website of Louise Fox Protocol Solutions, you can take the "EtiQuiz" to test your knowledge of etiquette, learn about “Top Ten Etiquette Blunders,” and get some tips on how to look and act your best. 

Didn't do so well on the first quiz?  Try this business etiquette quiz with explanations at GradView.

Finally, if you do business internationally, check out the resources at Executive Planet.  This website offers guides to international business culture and etiquette in over 35 countries. 

Legal English Makeover

What images does your mind conjure up when you hear different languages?  Even if we don’t speak the language, we often have an opinion about it.  We may like how it sounds, we may even have our favorite words in that language.  Elizabeth Gilbert wrote about her love for Italian in her book Eat, Pray Love:  “Every word was a singing sparrow, a magic trick, a truffle for me.” 

We may not share the same excitement about professional languages – a jargon rarely invokes fuzzy feelings – although the wine lingo, for example, is not bad at all:  “reserve,” “vintage,” “bouquet,” “tannins,” “earthy,” “oaky,” “jammy.” 

What comes to mind when you hear “legal English”?  Boring?  Stuffy?  Confusing?  Fine print?   I think legal English has an image problem.  If you were hired as an image consultant for legal English, what changes would you propose?  Maybe, the new legal English style should be precise, crisp, logical, structured, fluid, self-explanatory, direct, balanced, respectful, truthful.  What do you think?

Tip Bit #30: Know when to keep the lid on

Certain dishes need to be cooked covered, others – uncovered.  For example, water comes to a boil faster if you keep the pot covered   The lid prevents the heat from escaping, and you get the condensation effect so the steam returns back to the pot as water.  But if you want the flavors of a dish to intensify, you let it simmer without a lid so that extra liquid could evaporate.   How does it relate to the study of law?  Learning has two similar phases. 

The beginning phase, when you learn something for the first time, resembles cooking with a lid on.  You try to get as much information as possible about the subject matter.  You don’t let anything escape you.  You may not know yet what’s important to remember and what you can let go of.  You keep circulating information through your brain to find the most natural links and connections.  This is a stage when you want to ask  lots of questions, create hypothetical “what-if” scenarios and see where they take you.   

When the second phase comes, you take the lid off.  You know enough to figure out what you need to keep and what you can let evaporate from your memory.  Just like the flavors blend together and intensify, your knowledge becomes more concrete and integrated.  You see the big picture, but you can also identify the individual ingredients.  You reduce all that you have learned to its essence.      

How do you know when to move from the first phase to the second?  When you keep coming across the same information over and over again even if you try to find something new.  It’s just like the condensation loop:  the water comes back into the pot.  It’s a good sign that you have covered it all (no pun intended).  By the way, these two phases also apply to research. 

Want Happy News?

Positive Psychology News Daily can be your source of happy reading:

"Positive Psychology News Daily provides the latest news about happiness, the 'science of happiness,' and Positive Psychology.  Our goal is to be your fun, collaborative place for a research-based daily boost of happiness."

For example, the article "Using Your Strengths in the Job Search" by Senia Maymin encourages you to explore the relationship between your strengths and your job.   

"To what extent would you personally agree with this statement:  ‘At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?’   When Gallup asked this question, it found that only 20 percent of those surveyed said they strongly agreed with this phrase. Are you in that 20 percent, or is it maybe time for you to re-craft your job to match what you do best?"

She proceeds to discuss a job search trap that many job candidates fall into.  They often build their job interviews around the skills they demonstrated at their previous jobs.  But this strategy is going to get you more of the same type of work.  If you want a job that uses a different set of strengths, you need to know how to incorporate what excites you into your job search process.  The article has some suggestions for you. 

While we are on the subject of happiness, check out the happiness carnival at Think Happy Thoughts.

Persuasive communication

I plan to do a research project on persuasion and publish my observations here as I go along.  It comes from my general interest in the topic of change.  I’d like to learn to be more persuasive. I also want to be more aware of what persuades me and why.  It’s a broad topic, I understand, so I’ll tackle it in bits and pieces.  Right now, I am developing a roadmap for my project.  Here are the categories I have so far:

• Definitions.  What is persuasive communication?
• Theories of persuasion
• Persuasive strategies
• Factors that determine the persuasiveness of a message
• Areas where persuasion applies
• Personal accounts related to persuasion
• Resources on persuasion

If you have any thoughts on the topic or suggestions of books, resources or other aspects of persuasion I should look into, I’d love to hear them. 

For now, I’ll leave you with a few quotations:

"When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim that 'a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.' So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really a good one."
- Abraham Lincoln

"Persuasion is often more effectual than force."
- Aesop

"In order to learn one must change one’s mind."
- Orson Scott Card

"He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that."
- John Stuart Mill

"Let him who would move the world, first move himself."
- Socrates

Stumbling out of the bar

There are ten minutes left.  You are done.  You look at the notebooks and try to remember if you need to return and check on a section.  You could also add this…but no, you are going to trust your initial instinct.  Maybe, you don’t really trust it, but you trust your brain six grueling hours later even less.  So you just sit and stare at the notebooks, and then you hear:  “Put the pencils down,” and so it’s settled.  The place is slowly starting to buzz.  As you stumble out of the room, you tell yourself:  “It’s over…done deal!”  The whole thing is a bit anti-climatic.  You are tired, and your feelings are numb.  But a sense of relief begins to envelope you slowly and cautiously.  The following couple of days will be strange.  You will have to find something to do to fill the vacuum of the day.  But it will be nice so you will let yourself float in this newly formed vacuum.   Or maybe you already have booked a ticket to the Caribbean so it’s almost time to pack.   

To those of you who are taking the bar this week, good luck!  It will be over before you know it. 

A useful technology law resource

I’ve recently come across a useful website dedicated to technology law - BitLaw: 

"BitLaw is a comprehensive Internet resource on technology law, containing over 1,800 pages on patent, copyright, trademark, and Internet legal issues."

BitLaw is provided by the Minneapolis law firm of Beck & Tysver.  I like how the website is organized:  it has executive summaries, multiple categories for information, good lists of resources, helpful navigation.  Technology law can be quite confusing, so clear presentation is a plus.  Check it out.

Tip Bit #29: Run away from panic

As the date of the July bar exam approaches, many of you may experience sudden panic from time to time.  Here’s a quick trick to quiet those worries.  Do some high energy exercises for just a few minutes.  It has to be something vigorous enough to distract your mind from negative thoughts, so do a set of push-ups, sit-ups, some kickboxing moves or just run up and down stairs.  It will release the tension build-up in your body and ease your anxiety.  And it’s a good way to spend your study break, so give it a try.

What do you do to lower your stress level?   

"The Naked Brain: How the Emerging Neurosociety is Changing How We Live, Work, and Love"

If you are interested in the works of your brain, listen to this podcast in which Deborah Harper interviews Dr. Richard Restak, MD, author of The Naked Brain: How the Emerging Neurosociety is Changing How We Live, Work, and Love.    The focus of the book and the interview is social neuroscience.  Should employers screen job candidates with MRIs?  Can neuromarketers really manipulate us into buying more?  How can one create false memories?  Dr. Restak explains how new research can help us understand our own behavior.

Take the Working Memory Challenge

About Working Memory is a web site that provides information and resources about working memory, just like its title suggests.  The term “working memory” refers to our ability to hold information in memory temporarily (for a few seconds) while we are solving a problem or performing a task.  The site has a challenge that allows you to test your working memory capacity.  You do two exercises with progressively increasing levels of difficulty.  The first exercise tests your ability to remember visual patterns.  The second exercise focuses on the auditory information.  Once you are done, you can compare your score with other people’s scores on similar working memory exercises.  Are you ready to push your working memory to the limits?

Best diet before a test

The best diet is a balanced diet that gives you the vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, and carbohydrates that your body needs to function properly.  Having said that, you may want to tweak you diet a bit right before the test.  Here's how:

• On the day of your test, you may want to eat a protein-rich diet. Your body breaks down protein into amino acids.   Tyrosine is one of these amino acids used by the brain to produce neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine, which are associated with alertness and mental agility.  Good options for your breakfast before the test would be eggs, low-fat yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts.  Add some fruit or berries (many seem to like eating bananas before the test).   
• When you eat only carbohydrates, your brain uses another amino acid – tryptophan – to produce serotonin, which helps you relax.  Carbs can be a good thing the day before your test to help you fight the jitters and get some rest.
• Because our body breaks down protein and carbs differently, you may want to avoid certain combinations of food to keep your energy level up.  Don’t eat proteins and starch together.  A white bread cheese sandwich is not good either. 
• Consider taking a multivitamin every day.  Omega-3s and B vitamins help brain functioning.  You need iron and calcium in your body to be able to cope with the effects of stress.  Antioxidants keep your brain and body clean.  Selenium may help you feel clearheaded, confident and energetic.
• Make sure you stay hydrated as you prepare for your test.  Water and tea are good options, sugary sodas and caffeine are not. 
• Don’t eat a heavy lunch on the day of the test, it will make you sleepy.  Consider a salad with chicken, shrimp or salmon.   
• As a final precaution, stick to what you know as your test day approaches.  Don’t experiment with new foods and supplements because you don’t know how they may affect you.  Eat safe.   
• Here’s your shopping list:
  Almonds
  Avocados
  Bananas
  Beef (lean)
  Blueberries
  Broccoli
  Brown rice
  Brussels sprouts
  Cantaloupe
  Chicken
  Cottage cheese
  Eggs
  Garlic
  Kale
  Legumes
  Oatmeal
  Oranges
  Peanut butter
  Peas
  Salmon
  Soybeans
  Spinach
  Strawberries
  Sweet potatoes
  Tuna
  Whole grains
  Yogurt
• And things to leave at the store:
  Alcohol
  Corn syrup
  Refined sugar
  Sodas
  White flour

What do you like to eat before the test?

Take the Six Seconds emotional intelligence test SEI-360 free of charge

Six Seconds is a not-for-profit organization that offers information, tools, and services related to emotional intelligence:

“Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage feelings. It is the key competency for personal effectiveness, essential to communication, self-direction, problem-solving, and leadership.”

During the month of July, you can participate in the free trial of the Six Seconds emotional intelligence assessment SEI-360.  The SEI-360 is an online test that measures how you use your emotional intelligence in your daily life and how other people, who you choose to give you feedback, perceive your emotional intelligence skills.

It sounds like a great way to learn more about yourself.  Hurry up because the test is available free of charge as a research version only till the end of July.

Tip bit #28: Look for a story

You can find stories everywhere if you care to look.  Why should you care to look for stories?  Stories are a great sense-making tool.  Stories are like a good meal.  They have just the right ingredients to whip up a meaning.  What did you have for dinner yesterday?  Whatever it was, you probably wouldn’t want to eat the ingredients that went into your meal separately.  How about a spoon of sugar, a 1/2 cup of water, followed by some flour on a slice of a tomato?  I don’t think so.   But when you mix them up in the right order and add some labor and love, the result is something fabulous and perfectly edible (let’s hope) that gives you both nourishment and pleasure. 

Similarly, you don’t want to consume unrelated pieces of information.  Stories add coherence and substance, and as you know by now, we learn through linking and association, so stories are good for learning.  They make you guess what’s to come, and our brains like to solve problems.  Good stories, just like good food, speak to various senses:  they make us see, hear and smell things in a good, healthy way, and we remember things better when all of our senses are engaged.  Finally, stories make us emotional, and when we get joyful, sad or mad about something, it stands out in our memory.  So, look for stories around you because they help us make sense of the world. 

I saw a fine example of storytelling yesterday thanks to Legal Andrew who pointed out this 2-minute viral video.  Check it out.

Susan Cartier Liebel of Build A Solo Practice, LLC answers my question

Susan Cartier Liebel is an attorney, national coach and consultant who shares her wisdom and advice on how to create and grow a solo practice in her blog Build A Solo Practice, LLC.   Here’s what I asked Susan:

“I saw your category of "You Ask...I Answer" posts and thought I'd ask a question on behalf of my readers.  Summer time is when many students try to get practical experience by interning at a firm, government or non-profit.  If students know they would like to go solo after graduation, what would you recommend they do during their summers to prepare for their solo practice?”

Susan was kind enough to craft a great answer with good questions to make you think about your overall law school experience as it relates to your goal of becoming a solo, as well as practical advice on what you should be doing with your time outside law school:

“If you know you are going to become a solo practitioner upon passing the bar then everything you do, from your course selection to your extracurricular activities to your summer internships should be geared towards two things, networking/building professional relationships and gaining 'practical' experience that mirrors the life of a solo practitioner.”

Read the rest of her post here as she shares her three-step approach to your solo success.

Thank you so much, Susan!

Are you in a maze or a labyrinth?

Daniel Pink in his book “A Whole New Mind:  Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” explains the difference between a maze and a labyrinth:

“Mazes and labyrinths are often lumped together in the popular imagination, but they differ in important ways.  A maze is a series of compartmentalized and confusing paths, most of which lead to dead ends.  When you enter, your objective is to escape – as quickly as you can.  A labyrinth is a spiral walking course.  When you enter, your goal is to follow the path to the center, stop, turn around, and walk back out – all at whatever pace you choose.  Mazes are analytical puzzles to be solved; labyrinths are a form of moving meditation.  Mazes can be disorienting; labyrinths can centering.  You can get lost in a maze; you can lose yourself in a labyrinth.  Mazes engage the left brain; labyrinths free the right brain.” 

It strikes me as a good metaphor for the learning process.  When it comes to your learning, do you feel like you are in a maze, disoriented and trying to find your way out as soon as possible?  Or are you in a labyrinth, focused, enjoying the process and making progress at your own pace?

How to figure out your clients’ needs and motives

How do you know what you clients really need or want?  ABA Inside Practice offers “Keys to Understanding the Needs of Clients and Prospects” in an excerpt from The Lawyer’s Field Guide to Effective Business Development by William J. Flannery.  The author talks about seven categories of needs and the ways to discern them in a conversation with your client:  active needs, visionary needs, latent needs, ego needs, organization or company added-value needs, job needs and implied needs. 

What do you do if one day your client decides to question your motives?  What if a client accuses your firm of running up the billable hours?  How do you respond?  David Maister addresses such incidents in his article “Integrity Impugned.”   (Hat tip to International Lawyer Coach Blog).  There is a lot of good advice in the article from how to figure out the reasons behind the client’s actions to what to say in response.  For example, if you need to buy more time to analyze what was just said, you can reply:  “That’s interesting. Could you say a little more about that?”  I like this recommendation because it can be used in a variety of situations. 

How do you go about figuring out your clients’ needs?  How do you respond if somebody questions your motives?

Stephanie West Allen and Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz give us Brain on Purpose

Stephanie West Allen of Idealawg and Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz have teamed up to launch a new exciting blog – Brain on Purpose.  It explores the implications of neuroscience for the field of conflict resolution.  It’s a must read for anybody who deals with conflicts as part of their professional life.  And who doesn’t?  The recent post "There's a great future in [neuroplasticity]. Think about it. Will you think about it?" makes you ponder how much control you have in shaping your own brain.  Our brains develop new connections with every choice we make.  If you let others make those choices for you, you may end up with a brain shaped by your clients, co-workers, relatives, friends, even strangers in a grocery store.  It makes me wonder about the challenges the legal profession faces when it comes to the brain neuroplasticity.  How do you stay compassionate and empathetic without letting your clients’ problems get to you?  Can you use combative trial tactics without harming your own brain and the brains of others who come in contact with you?  Do you feel more responsibility now that you know that your actions may affect somebody else’s brain?  When does the adversarial turn into adversity? 

Want to know what happens to your brain in law school?  Read “Law Students: Create A Well-rounded Life” by Stephanie West Allen and Jeffrey M. Schwartz in The Complete Lawyer.

Let’s begin! (Part II)

“There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other.”
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

You’ve probably heard the saying “to begin is half the work.”  It is also the hard part of the work.  Have you had trouble starting a thing or two?  What is a good way to begin something?   In Let’s begin (Part I), I gave some tips on how to get yourself ready to cross the start line.  Today, I want to talk about the importance of finding common ground as the first step in many initiatives.  What we have in common with one another can be used as glue to make all the pieces of our project stick together.  How so?  Let’s look at some of the contexts where you can use common ground as your beginning point.    

1. Whenever you need to make a speech or a presentation, it’s a good idea to begin by sharing something that your audience can agree with.  If you establish a point of agreement with your audience from the start, your listeners are going to be more willing to accept what you have to say later.   To learn how to do that, listen to The Engaging Brand podcast Powerful Presenting Pt 1 and Pt 2.   
2. When we meet a person for the first time, it’s only natural that we look for commonalities in our backgrounds or interests to establish rapport.  Remember that next time you are at a networking function.  You conversations will be more fulfilling if you take a genuine interest in the other person.   
3. When mediators work to resolve a conflict between parties, they often try to have them agree on something as the first step of the mediation process.  Even if the point of agreement is really small, its psychological benefit can be great.  Sometimes, a small object that has sentimental value for both parties, such as the kids’ pictures, can do the trick.  Next time you see a conflict brewing, try to agree before you disagree. 
4. When you work as a team, you need to start with a common agenda and common goals.  It applies to meetings, collaborative projects, study groups.  It ensures that all the members of your team are moving in the same direction. 
5. When you write to persuade, inform or entertain, it’s a good idea to consider what characteristics your readers share and what you can do as a writer to address their concerns, interests and desires.  You can apply the same principle when you launch a new product or service. 
6. Whenever we encounter a new situation, we look for a familiar pattern in it.  That’s how our brain processes the information.  To understand the new piece, we need to find a link or an association to something we already know.  If you train yourself to be better at pattern recognition, you will learn more and remember longer.  So next time you need to learn something new, compare it first to what you already know and see how you can transfer your existing knowledge or skill set to the new context.

Can you think of any other situations when finding common ground is a good way to begin? 

Tip bit #27: On memory collages

If you need to memorize a complex concept, try creating a memory collage.  Here’s how  it works.  Pick the key elements and relationships that describe the concept.  Then, find images that you associate with those elements.  You can browse magazines if you want to make it low tech or find images on the web if you want to create your collage in a digital format, or maybe, you can sketch them yourself.  After you are done collecting your visuals, arrange them in a collage trying to reflect the relationships among the underlying elements.  The benefit of a memory collage is that it allows you to see the concept as a whole whereas the verbal description can only be sequential. 

Visit Creativity Portal to explore various collage resources on the internet or play with Art Zone interactive tools to create your own collage online. 

Learn copyright law basics with the help of a comic book

Who says that learning the law has to be boring?  Just take a look at Tales from the Public Domain:  Bound By Law?  by Keith Aoki , James Boyle, Jennifer Jenkins.  The authors, who are law professors, introduce the subject of copyright through the adventures of filmmaker Akiko as she is filming her documentary capturing a day in the life of New York and learning about the line between fair use and copyright infringement.  Not your usual law review material. 

The book is a project of Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.  You can read or downloaded it for free here.

Happy 4th of July!

Good writing happens in drafts, even the Declaration of Independence.  Thanks to Legal Writing Prof Blog for sharing the link to the history of the document's authorship. 

Mnemonics to remember the future estates

Here are a few mnemonics to help you remember the future estates: 

Reversionary interest:
1) Possibility of Reverter:  PORE
2) Right of Entry / Power of Termination:  RE-POT
3) Reversion:  REVERSE
Remainders:
1) Indefeasibly Vested Remainder: INVEST
2) Vested Remainder Subject to Open: STOP
3) Contingent Remainder: CORE
4) Vested Remainder Subject to Complete Defeasance: CD
Executory Interests: EXECs
1) Shifting Executory Interest:  Shifty Exec
2) Springing Executory Interest:  Springy Exec

The following interests may violate the Rule Against Perpetuities (RAP):
1) vested remainders subject to open;
2) contingent remainders;
3) executory interests
To remember them, use RAP STOPS CORE EXECS

Summer Associates’ Guide to the Point of No Return

You are interning away, doing the best job you can and hope that your efforts, the economic trends and the Universe will produce the coveted offer to return to the firm as a permanent employee.  Let’s say you receive that offer.  Now what?  You will feel the pressure to accept it proportional to the amount of debt you have accumulated and the good intentions of friends, family and career services.  Does it mean you should take the plunge?  Even if you have one of “The Ultimate Summer Internships” described by Tara Weiss for Forbes.com, don’t let the “outrageous summer internship perks” cloud your judgment.  What makes you happy during your summer gig may not be the key to your long-term happiness.  Here are a few things to pay attention to as you continue your internship and questions to ponder when you decide on an offer:

What benefits do you get from working for that particular firm?  Consider expertise, types of cases or deals, networking opportunities, training, mentorship, career advancement, future employability, resume enhancements, paycheck. 

What are the costs or downsides?  How much control will you have over your lifestyle?  Will this work allow you to express all your talents and offer the best you have to the world? 

Will working for this firm bring you closer to where you want to be in your life 5, 10 or 15 years from now?  Consider the long-term implications of your decision.  Will this workplace help you become the person you want to be? 

How do you like the work itself?  Does it fuel your passions?  Can you see yourself doing this work day in and day out?

Are you comfortable in the culture of this place? Do you fit in?  Can you be who you are when you interact with your co-workers?  Will you have to compromise on your own values and attitudes if you take this job?

How do you like the partners or “bosses” you are going to work for?  Will they care about your professional growth?  How much will you be able to learn from them?  Do you respect the way they practice law and deal with clients? 

Have you noticed any red flags?  The support staff gets no respect.  The clients’ phone calls don’t get answered promptly.   Yelling is an acceptable form of communication.  You can’t get straight answers to your own questions.   People who work there seem to harbor a sense of bitterness and resentment about the place.   Different groups engage in hush-hush conversations.  There is a big turnover.  Take notice of such behaviors because they may signal trouble. 

Last but not least, once you have made a decision to accept an offer, sleep on it.  Wear it for a couple of days before you communicate it to the firm.  It’s a big decision to make, so take your time.  See how it feels.