Lawsagna

What Should You Do When the Debt Collector Calls? by Guest Blogger Sergei Lemberg

Attorney Sergei Lemberg, who specializes in fair debt collection law is sitting in the guest blogger’s chair today.  Lemberg is the head of Lemberg & Associates, LLC, a team of attorneys located in several states across the country who specialize in collection law and lemon law.

When people get behind in their bills, they receive past due notices from creditors. If those notices go unheeded, typically what happens next is that the phone rings and there's a debt collector on the line. While most consumers aren't surprised for the call, they're unaware of what to do when that call comes in. Here are five survival tips:

1. Don't avoid the call. No one wants to answer a call from a debt collector. But, as tempting as it might be to avoid a collection call, that will just fan the flames and lead to harassment, threats, or worse.

2. Keep good records. Most bill collection agencies – especially those who have purchased large quantities of old debt for a song – try and get around the law or even break the law. If you're receiving calls or letters from a debt collector, keep a record of the date and time of each call or the date you received the letter. For phone calls, jot down the debt collector's name, the time of the call, and what was said. The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act has strict requirements about debt collection calls. If you choose to sue the debt collector for harassment, your written record will provide key evidence.

3. Watch for a letter. According to the FDCPA, a bill collection agency must, within 5 days of calling, send you a written notice. The letter must include specific information, such as the name of the creditor, the amount owed, and that you have 30 days to dispute the debt or it will be assumed that you agree that you owe the money. If no letter arrives, the debt collector has violated the FDCPA. Often, bill collection agencies count on consumers not knowing that they have 30 days to dispute, and let the clock run out before upping the ante.

4. Dispute the debt. Unless you have the money to pay off the debt, dispute the debt within 30 days. Even if you owe the money, forcing the debt collector to substantiate the debt gives you some time to put together a plan. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act says that a bill collector cannot continue to collect on the debt until it's verified. If they continue to try and collect while the debt is in dispute, they're violating the law.

5. Contact a fair debt attorney. The FDCPA says that, if you have a lawyer, a debt collection agency must stop contacting you, and that all communication must go through your lawyer. If you've been the victim of debt collector harassment, an attorney should represent you free of charge. That's because the law says that, if a debt collector violates the law, the debt collection agency must pay for your attorney fees.

The Complete Lawyer: Focus on Coaching and Mentoring

The March Issue of The Complete Lawyer focuses on "The Critical Importance Of Coaching And Mentoring For Today's Lawyer."  I couldn't agree more, and yes, it is a self-serving statement, coming from a coach.  Here are some of the great offerings:

"Use Coaching To Develop Your Lawyers' Skills And Expand Your Firm's Potential" by  Susan Beneville and Sandee Magliozzi

"Senior Male Mentors Help Women Lawyers Get Promoted To Shareholder" by Ellen Ostrow

"Today's Economic Pressures Work Against Natural Mentoring" by Marian Lee

"When Is Coaching Really Coaching?" by Debby Stone and Laura Biering

"Master The Four Elements Of A 'Coachee's' Success" by Arnie Herz

"Mentor By Example With Excellent Delegation" by Julie A. Fleming

The Complete Lawyer focuses on "The Brave New World Of Associates"

The current issue of The Compete Lawyer is dedicated to associates.  There are plenty of insightful offerings from professional development to lifestyle to productivity and networking, so check it out. 

What do “love” and “law” have in common (besides the fact that they both start with “L”)?

I won't be eating chocolate today as I am on a 30-day raw food experiment.  As I sit here buzzing from all the sweet fruit I've consumed (I hope it's the fruit), I am pondering the following question:

What do "love" and "law" have in common (besides the fact that they both start with the letter "L")?

Service comes to mind.  The value of the legal profession is measured by the service we provide.  And the service is driven by love.  What we love, though, varies from person to person.  One could be driven by:

• love for people;
• love for justice;
• love for ideas;
• love for lifestyle;
• love for money;
• love for family;
• love for himself or herself (self-worth)
• etc.

Does the nature and quality of our service depend on what we love?  What do you think?  What drives your service?

Blawg Review #142: Letter to New Lawyer

Blawg Review #142 is here, hosted by Susan Cartier Liebel at Build A Solo Practice, LLC.  It is designed as a “Letter to New Lawyer,” and it will make you think, dream, laugh, learn and soar!  Be sure to read it.

Lawyer Depression

ABA Journal discusses lawyer depression in the article “Lawyer Depression Comes Out of the Closet” by Debra Cassens Weiss:

About 19 percent of lawyers experience depression at any given time, compared with 6.7 percent of the general population. About 20 percent of lawyers have drinking problems, twice the rate of the general population.

Many lawyers hide such conditions for fear of losing their practices.  The article highlights several resources that lawyers can use to address these serious issues, including the website created by attorney Dan Lukasik, which offers information and support for lawyers with depression.

Big Law Rankings on Diversity

If you want to know how big law firms rank when it comes to diversity, check out www.betterlegalprofession.org.  Their statistics cover six major markets:  New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Boston, Northern California, and Southern California-LA.  The firms are ranked in five categories:  female, African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American, and openly gay.  The numbers come from the public, online directory of law firm employment statistics maintained by the National Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP). 

What’s in your legal future?

Wouldn't you like to peek into the future to see what a lawyer's life would be in 20 or even 100 years?  Luckily, several well-known futurists have launched their guided tours into the future of the legal profession, so buckle up and prepare for some time travel.

The new issue of The Complete Lawyer focuses on "Viewing The Law In 2020."  Jonathan Peck delivers the good news that "The Knowledge Revolution Will Make You Healthier":

In 2029, an American will wake up in the morning, do Pilates, take a couple of pills, put on his suit and head to work. The pills will dissolve and be absorbed into his bloodstream, sending nanoparticle probes to various parts of his body. These nanoparticles will collect information about his health and transmit the data to sensors in the man’s jacket; the data will then be recorded on his electronic medical record accessible online. If any irregularities are observed, a computer program will search information from resources all over the web and deliver health recommendations specifically tailored to suit his genome.

Peter Bishop reads "An Open Letter From A Retired Lawyer To His Great-Grandson, Who Is Turning One": 

We liked being "unplugged" once in a while, but today of course that is unheard of. At the same time, your mother’s generation developed customs that solved some of the problems that we found so annoying, like too many emails, cell phones ringing in the middle of meetings, and wireless connections that would not connect. The implant that you will receive at your Bar Mitzvah will handle all your communication needs. It’s amazing, but "thinking will make it so" in your world. You will be truly wired, all the time, but you can control your connectivity to the outside world as easily as you control your hand or foot, once you get the hang of it. Truly amazing!

Bill Cobb asks the question "Are You Ready For The Revolution In Legal Services?"

Lawyers will acquire problem-solving skill sets using multiple skills not taught in law schools, such as client relationship development and project management. They will also be able to become more efficient in the way they deliver legal and legal related services.

Charles F. Robinson reveals his vision of how "Elder Law Attorneys Can Help Humanize The Future Of Health Care."  Read his predictions and learn about three crises that are going to influence the elder law practice in 2020.

At the same time, in London, The Times offers the extracts from Richard Susskind's forthcoming book "The End of Lawyers?" and invites you to join the debate over the future of the legal profession "Will lawyers exist in 100 years?"  (Hat tip to Idealawg).  You can read what others think in the comments and share your opinions.  Frances Gibb writes:

In a new book (to be published next year by Oxford University Press) Susskind argues that lawyers and the legal profession in their present shape face extinction – or at least are "on the brink of fundamental transformation". He sees a future, as he puts it, when "conventional legal advisers will be much less prominent in society than today, and, in some walks of life, will have no visibility at all".

How do you envision the legal profession in 20 or 100 years?

How do you create value?

How do you think about the value that you bring to your clients?  We often measure what we do in terms of numbers, projects accomplished, hours billed, etc.  But what is the real human value behind those numbers?  In the hustle and bustle of the day, it is easy to lose track of why we do what we do, and then we feel undervalued, unappreciated, insecure of our own abilities. 

How often do you remind yourself of the true value you create for the people around you?  How do you know your value?   

Student Loan Forgiveness

YourABA reports on the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which was signed into law last month.  The new law includes the income-based repayment program for public service:

Under the program, borrowers of student loans who are working in qualified public service would repay loans at an affordable percentage of their income and, after 10 years of service, would have the balance of their loans cancelled.

The program caps monthly payments at 15% of discretionary income.

The Inter-Pacific Bar Association scholarships for young lawyers

Young lawyers who are involved or have interest in a cross-border practice may want to check out the scholarships from The Inter-Pacific Bar Association. 

The Inter-Pacific Bar Association ("IPBA") is an international association of business and commercial lawyers with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

The IPBA scholarships enable young lawyers to attend the IPBA’s Eighteenth Annual Meeting and Conference which will be held in Los Angeles from April 27 – 30, 2008.

The highlight of the year for the IPBA is its annual multi-topic four-day conference. The conference has become the "must attend event" for international business and commercial lawyers. In addition to plenary sessions of interest to all lawyers, programmes are presented by the IPBA's eighteen specialist committees. The IPBA annual meeting and conference provides an opportunity for lawyers to meet their international colleagues with Asian practices and to share latest developments in cross-border practice and professional development in Asia.

Here is the link to the PDF file with the description, requirements, and the application form.

Learning Incubator

• Are you a knowledge worker whose livelihood depends on how quickly and accurately you process information each day?
• Are you a life-long learner with the passion and curiosity for knowledge who wants to use this knowledge for impact?

Pull up a chair, get your cup of coffee (or tea) and join our conversation about informal learning and professional development.

Think how rapidly things change nowadays.  Successful knowledge workers have the skills to learn fast, think clearly and act decisively.  They don’t feel overwhelmed with information because they know what to look for and how to find and prioritize it.  Yet, many of us would probably agree that we have very little time to work on the skills we need to learn better.  Here’s an idea.  Let’s have a conversation about our informal learning and professional development.  How do we learn?  What works and what doesn’t?  How can we maximize our learning “on the job” – by doing what we already do anyways, but perhaps with better approaches, frameworks, and focus?   

Are you ready to take charge of your learning?   Join our Learning Incubator community to share your learning goals, achievements and tips for success, to inspire and get inspired to be the best learner you can be.  Bring curiosity, humor, respect, and appreciation – that’s how we learn best.  The membership is free.  What’s there to lose, except a good conversation?

The Complete Lawyer: "What Can Law Schools Do Better?"

The current issue of The Complete Lawyer focuses on the question “What Can Law Schools Do Better?” 

Larry Kramer, the Richard E. Lang Professor and Dean at Stanford Law School, highlights a few areas where legal education is failing students in “Law School Innovations Result In Broader Students:”

This shouldn’t surprise anyone:  by the third year, students know the drill and are no longer getting as much from their classes….

The second problem with legal education is that it is too individually focused.  Students basically work alone. They study for class and for their exams, they write their papers.  But the work is all done individually, whereas lawyers in the real world invariably work in teams….

As the profession has evolved, the international or global dimension has become incredibly important, and we’re just starting to come to terms with what that means.  What should we teach students who are going to work with lawyers, clients, businesses, and regulators from other countries and across borders?

Last, like every other profession, legal practice has become more specialized, and as that has happened, law firms have changed.  They do not train young lawyers the way they used to:  they can’t, their clients won’t pay for it.  It’s not that law schools need to teach the nitty gritty of practicing law—new lawyers still learn this best by doing it, on the ground.  Rather, law schools must teach students to be reflective lawyers, must teach them how to think about what they are doing and the choices they’re making.  Clients will demand this of them, and rightly so.  And lawyers need to be trained to be problem solvers as well as problem spotters.

Donald Polden, Dean and Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, addresses the importance of building leadership skills in law students in the article “Educating Law Students For Professional And Community Leadership:”

Instead of serving as community models of professional excellence, discernment and good judgment, lawyers in contemporary America are perceived to be caught up in the commercial and business demands of their work and are not sufficiently attuned to their prudential roles and responsibilities to their communities, to the national polity, and to the legal profession.

Daisy Hurst Floyd, Dean and Professor of Law at Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law, talks about the importance of developing a healthy professional identity in the artcile "A Matter of Identity:"

During their time in law school ... many students experience a loss of purpose, which is harmful to individual students and has negative consequences for the profession and for those served by the profession. The loss of purpose results from students’ changing identities.

In the article “Critical Relationship Building Skills For Associates,” Arnie Herz, a practicing attorney, mediator, and the author of the Legal Sanity blog, reveals three core business relationship principles that you need to know to have a successful and satisfying career.

Professional life coach Anne H. Whitaker will help you “Create A Personal Vision And Change Your Life.” 

Paula Patton from the NALP Foundation discusses new insight on associate attrition in the article “Why Do Associates Leave Firms That Want Them To Stay?”

Among 2,225 associate departures reported by 118 law firms during 2006:

• 21% were characterized as “desired”
• 28% were characterized by law firms as being “neutral” departures (neither desired nor undesired)
• 51% were described as “undesired” or “unwanted” 

In the article “Six Key Pieces Of Advice Straight From Corporate Counsel,” Marcie Borgal Shunk, a principal with The BTI Consulting Group, talks about the key characteristics corporate clients look for in a law firm. 

And there are more interesting articles to read in The Complete Lawyer, so check it out.

Legal Offshoring Myths Dispelled

The Hindu article "Three myths about legal services offshoring"  by D. Murali and Goutam Ghosh addresses three concerns about offshoring. 

Myth number one: ‘Indian lawyers lack the skills and aptitude to handle high-end legal work for the West.’

Here is what they have to say about legal education in the US as compared to India:

Legal education in both India and the English-speaking West serves essentially the same purpose – to train its graduates to “think like lawyers” and to teach them how to conduct research in the British-based, common law system. Western law schools, however, do not train students to practise law. A recent study conducted by Harvard Law School and LexisNexis reveals that 75 per cent of US law graduates admit they do not have the necessary skills to practise law. Interestingly, when young lawyers were asked what is the one thing that they wish they had learned, the most frequent answer was “how to draft a motion.” Yet, motion practice is at the heart of litigation services provided to clients by law firms.

Since Western law schools are mostly litigation-oriented, their failure to train students in the most basic of litigation skills is disappointing. However, clients who pay high hourly fees for corporate and transactional work by US law graduates are short-changed even further. It is typical for Western law students to graduate from law school without ever having learned how to draft a contract.

So you would expect that these deficiencies would be met by rigorous training programs undertaken by Western law firms. Guess again! The Harvard-LexisNexis study reveals that 64 per cent of young lawyers receive no organised, on-the-job training. They learn as they go along, by trial and error, with their firms’ corporate clients footing the bill.

By contrast, reputable legal services offshoring companies in India provide rigorous training to their lawyers, and the hours spent on training do not appear on invoices to clients.

Writing skills are also a problem:

...at least in the US, law graduates for the most part are notoriously incapable of writing effectively in English. The problem is so severe that some large US law firms now assign a writing coach to each incoming associate. However, most lawyers in the West never receive this kind of training. By contrast, reputable legal services offshoring companies in India train all their attorneys in English writing.

There is much more to ponder in that artcile, so read it in full.

Meanwhile, what do you do to ensure you stay competitive?   

A new networking site for attorneys

ABA Journal reports on the launch of a new social networking site for attorneys called LawLink.   It is a network exclusively for licensed attorneys, who can join free of charge.  The application form will ask for your bar number, and the applications are checked.  LawLink provides the following services: 

The Network: Acquire new clients, advance your career, build a network of trusted attorneys.

The Classifieds: Jobs, client referrals, atty to atty services, office space, announcements, personals and more.

The Forum: Discuss legal topics, share info with other attys working on similar matters, and discuss judges, experts and other attys.

The Brochure: Create a brochure with your bio, qualifications, colleagues, endorsements and photos.

Associate layoffs a possibility

Law firms are busy now, but it may not be long before they start feeling the pains of the credit crunch, according to the article "With Dip in Economy, Are Associate Layoffs on the Horizon?" by Gina Passarella at Law.com:

"Future layoffs are a realistic possibility, and they would come in the areas of corporate finance and real estate," Duane Morris Chairman Sheldon Bonovitz said. "This is by reason of the turmoil in the debt markets which has made finance of many transactions in the pipeline problematic or not feasible."

The firms that will be hit the hardest, he said, are ones focusing on financings and securitizations as well as leveraged buyouts. Litigation, bankruptcy and employment law would then pick up, Bonovitz said. Practices like health care, intellectual property and energy would probably be immune from any hits, he said.

Legal outsourcing trends

It looks like clients may prefer lawyers in India over high-priced U.S. associates to conduct legal research and proofread documents.   Legal outsourcing is on the rise according to Bloomberg’s article “Jones Day, Kirkland Send Work to India to Cut Costs” by Cynthia Cotts and Liane Kufchock:

Clients are pushing law firms like Jones Day and Kirkland & Ellis to send basic legal tasks to India, where lawyers tag documents and investigate takeover targets for as little as $20 an hour. The firms are reacting to a trend that will move about 50,000 U.S. legal jobs overseas by 2015, according to Boston- based Forrester Research Inc.

…

Law firms contribute 45 percent to offshore revenue, while corporate law departments contribute 36 percent….

…

In India, legal education is based on common law, conducted in English, and requires two or three years of classes. The country produces about 80,000 law school graduates a year, according to ValueNotes, compared with about 44,000 in the U.S.

Offshore companies charge $10 to $25 an hour on low-end work and $25 to $90 an hour on advanced jobs. Junior Indian lawyers might earn as much as $8,160 a year, according to ValueNotes, compared with the $160,000 average salary for associates in major U.S. cities.

UPDATE:  To learn more about the topic of outsourcing, visit Legal Process Outsourcing Blog by Mark Ross.

Working Mother magazine ranks 50 best law firms for working moms

The current issue of Working Mother magazine lists 50 best law firms for working moms:

"For real-life female lawyers, and millions of working moms in other high-pressure fields, balancing work and family may be the toughest part of the job. Law firms are starting to recognize the hard choices their female attorneys face. In this, our inaugural Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women list, we salute those firms with groundbreaking programs to help women strike a better work/life balance and climb to the top. Our winning firms have taken the lead in implementing penalty-free flex schedules and mentoring, networking and leadership programs."

To create the list, the magazine used an application measuring "a law firm's workforce profile, benefits and compensation, parental leave, child care, flexibility and retention/advancement of women."  The ranking is based on the responses to the application provided by the firms themselves. 

What do you think of this methodology?   It seems that such policies can look good on paper, but how they are implemented is less clear. 

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!

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.

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.

Law school is bad for your health

Law School Innovation blog alerts to this new study that attempts to explain the negative effects of legal education on law students.  Kennon M. Sheldon and Lawrence S. Krieger report in "Understanding the Negative Effects of Legal Education on Law Students: A Longitudinal Test of Self-Determination Theory" on the previous findings suggesting that “law school has a corrosive effect on the well-being, values, and motivation of students, ostensibly because of its problematic institutional culture.”  It sounds like the psychological distress frequently experienced by lawyers in practice may originate in law school.  Interestingly, this new study shows that student autonomy may lead to better well-being in the 3rd year, better grades, better bar exam results and more motivation on the job.  All the more reasons to be proactive and take control of your learning.

Licensing of foreign-educated lawyers

I had a classmate in law school who first passed the New York bar exam and then entered the JD program.  Not your usual order.  He topped off his study with a license from one more state.   He was able to sit for the New York bar because he was already a licensed attorney in China. 

3,571 foreign-educated lawyers took the bar exam in the United States in 2005, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE).  Foreign attorneys may have more options in the future for limited practice in the U.S.  “U.S. States Review Licenses for Foreign Attorneys:  Temporary practice and 'legal consultant' status may be expanded,” reports Vesna Jaksic for Law.com: 

“Twenty-six states license foreign legal consultants, who are attorneys from other countries permitted to practice in a limited matter, such as only being allowed to advise on their home country's laws, instead of U.S. state or federal laws.”

Nine more states are currently considering the licensing of foreign legal consultants.  21 states are deciding whether they should permit foreign lawyers to practice temporarily.

On the other hand, the U.S. lawyers also actively seek to enter foreign legal markets.  To learn more about the efforts to liberalize trade in legal services, read “U.S. Pushes For Open Legal Markets At GATS Talks” by Julius Melnitzer in Inside Counsel:

“The United States exported $3.38 billion in legal advice in 2003, almost four times the $879 million it imported, according to the most recently available statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce.”

The proponents of the exchange of legal services argue that “in today’s increasingly global market, lawyers need to follow their clients to the countries where they operate and give them advice on the laws of their home country and international law.”   There is also a wider benefit: “Liberalization promotes the spread of legal skills to places where those skills might be wanting….Liberalization also promotes economic development within the rule of law.”

National Pro Bono Opportunities Guide

Looking for opportunities to do good and gain legal experience?  Look no further than the National Pro Bono Opportunities Guide, a project jointly sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, the ABA Center for Pro Bono and Pro Bono Net.

The Guide lists various programs across the United States that need volunteer legal professionals. After you choose the state that interests you, you will be taken to the listing of the programs in that state.  The directory offers additional filters to narrow your search options by county, area of law, the population groups served and the volunteers’ desired level of experience. The last filter allows you to search projects for law students, transactional lawyers, mentors, paralegals and others.  You can also search by keywords. 

Research resources for summer associates

It’s not all play for summer associates, after all. You will have to do some work, such as research and writing.  Here are a few sites to bookmark that will help you develop your research strategy.

LawyerExpress, “designed by a busy lawyer for busy lawyers,” brings you a lot of information in a convenient and customizable format:  Here’s how they define their objective:

“Our primary goal at LawyerExpress is to make the Internet worth your while. Toward that end, we've developed great tools to find the "20%" that would be valuable to attorneys. LawyerExpress transforms what can be an inefficient, unruly morass of information into a format that works smarter and faster for busy people.” 

Georgetown Law Library connects summer associates to various legal resources.  Check out their State Research Guides and Online Tutorials, covering research in statutes, cases, administrative law, secondary sources, and other areas.

Finally, here are tips on summer associate research strategies from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law Library.

Tip bit #22: On managing expectations

Many problems can be avoided or resolved easier if you are good at managing people’s expectations.  We may want many things in work and life, but because we know that we can’t get them all, we are sensitive about things that we expect to get.  That’s our compromise, so to speak.  I may give up X, but I better get Y.  If you know how to lower or raise people’s expectations, you have an influence over their levels of happiness, satisfaction, appreciation.  I don’t suggest that you manipulate people by setting their expectations low on purpose.  I believe in honesty and respect when dealing with people.  After all, trust is essential in serving professions, such as law, but it is also fragile.  On the other hand, you should not promise what you can’t deliver.  But you already know that.  Let’s look at a few scenarios when managing expectations can save you a lot of trouble.   

Scenario 1 

You get an assignment from a partner.  You think you understand what the partner wants even though you are a bit fuzzy on a few points.  You think you will figure it out once you research the question more.  You don’t want to ask for clarifications now because you don’t want to look incompetent.  “What if I am supposed to know that?” your inner critic says in a reproaching kind of voice.  You go ahead and do your research.  One hundred billable hours later, as you are talking to the partner again, you are told that you answered a wrong question.

The lesson from Scenario 1 is that in order to manage expectations, you need to know what they are.  To be clear about your task or the process to be followed to solve the problem, ask questions and repeat the essence of what you heard in your own words to make sure you understood correctly.  Fire the inner critic.

Scenario 2

You get an assignment from your boss.  The task is clear.  As you go about your business, a few complications arise.  You think you can handle them on your own.  You don’t want to bother the boss with minor details.  The inner critic says, “The boss will never give me any serious work if I can’t handle this.”  Before you know it, two hundred billable hours later, the complications snowball into a major disaster. 

The lesson from Scenario 2 is that you must keep the channels of communication open.  Good bosses know how to stay on top of things without being a micromanager.  But if it’s not your boss, the burden is on you to make a call when something needs to be brought to her attention.  What you want to do is to have a plan ready how you would handle the situation.  That way, you are not complaining about a problem, you are offering a solution.  And fire the inner critic.

Scenario 3

You get an assignment with a deadline.  You need to coordinate with John Doe, who has an important role in the project.  No problem.  You think you will be ready in time with your part and so will John Doe.  Unfortunately, John Doe has a family emergency.  You think you can still finish on time when John Doe shows up in the office on Monday, so you don’t let anybody know that the deadline may be compromised and you don’t reschedule any meetings.  “They will kill the messenger,” admonishes the inner critic.  John Doe is not in the office on Monday. 

The lesson from Scenario 3 is that sometimes you have to deliver the bad news.  Nobody likes to miss a deadline, especially an important one.  But things happen, and if you keep communicating with your team and your clients, you may be able to renegotiate the deadline, which is better than missing it.  So, fire the inner critic.

Do you have your own scenario?

The Dog Days of Summer: Advice for Summer Associates

With the approach of the summer, many of you are heading to your first legal internships.  Do you remember the first time you looked at the blue ocean glistening in the sun?  You are thrilled and mesmerized by its power and magnitude.  It’s alluring on a sunny day and frightening when the skies turn dark.  The waters are treacherous if you don’t know how to swim, and what you don’t see can hurt you, but swimming in the ocean is exhilarating.  Are you ready to swim with the big fish?  Here’s is your survival kit.

Law Career Blog describes "Do’s and Don’t’s for Summer Associates" and tells you "What NOT to do as a Summer Associate."

Kathleen J. Wu  offers her insights in the article "Rules Summer Associates Should Live By":

“Even if the firm isn't ladling work on your plate, try to find some way to get something substantive out of your time at the office. Everybody knows that law school teaches you next to nothing about the everyday reality of being a lawyer. We learned the law in school, not lawyering. So spend your summer watching lawyers.”

Read “Summer Associates, Settling In” at Law.com for more advice on schmoozing and boozing, as well as deal-making and partaking.

Finally, here's  “Law Blog News You Can Use:  An Associate Etiquette Lesson” with the focus on table manners.

Generation gap in the workplace

Recently, the legal blogosphere has been actively discussing the work-life issues in the legal profession.  The Dreams of a Solo blog offers insights on how baby boomers and Gen X and Y differ in their approaches to work-life balance.  Natasha Sarkisian writes about the “new legal lifestyle” and “the attitudes of a generation that isn’t willing to sacrifice itself on the altar of work” in the article “Who says being a lawyer has to suck?” for San Francisco magazine.  What would baby boomers say of “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss?  Visit his site to find out your LQ (Lifestyle Quotient).

In light of this debate, you may want to listen to the podcast “Engaging the Generations” Pt 1 and Pt 2 from The Engaging Brand. This podcast contains a two-part interview with Tamara Erickson, the co-author of “Workforce Crisis.”  She talks about the characteristics of various generations of workers and the challenges that the management faces in attracting talented employees who want different things from their work environment.  Younger people, for example, are more comfortable with project-based engagements similar to the Hollywood model where actors, writers, directors come together to create a movie for a limited period of time and then move on to new projects with a new team.  This model offers a variety of experiences and a greater degree of flexibility. 

As a lawyer, I would ponder the following questions:  What types of clients will I have in 3, 5, 10 years?  How their lifestyle design will affect mine?  How can I be better positioned to serve their unique needs?  Clients are the puppeteers of lawyers’ work habits.  Who will be writing your scripts?

Tips to develop intercultural competency

What are the chances that in your practice, you will represent a transnational corporation, take an assignment at a foreign office of the U.S. law firm, advise international clients on the U.S. law, outsource legal work to lawyers in India, help American retirees to settle down in Mexico, or devise an estate plan for foreign nationals with assets in the U.S.?  You may think that you have a local practice, but in today’s economy, more and more of your business and individual clients choose to trot the globe.  Are you ready to travel with them?  If you need help, the following resources can be your guide across cultures:

Pamela Slim of Escape from Cubicle Nation gives advice on "How not to be a cultural knucklehead in a global business world." 

Lynn Gaertner-Johnston of Business Writing addresses pitfalls of cross-cultural communication in her post “Do You Like My Dressing?” 

Janet Moore offers great advice to lawyers across borders at her International Lawyer Coach Blog.  If you are considering a study abroad program, read the post “Study Abroad Opportunities for Law Students,”  which has a list of helpful websites.  The blog also has useful information for foreign lawyers in the U.S. 

I always look forward to Anne Fox and Dr. Laurent Borgmann’s podcast ‘absolutely intercultural!’ which deals with intercultural issues in creative and engaging ways. 

Letter to a Young Lawyer

Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letters To A Young Poet,” Stephanie West Allen of Idealawg invited her readers to post on their blogs their “Letter to a Young Lawyer.”  Since I receive correspondence from the ABA Young Lawyers Division, I am among the audience, still trying to figure things out.  But I decided I’d give it a shot and write about a few paradoxes that I observed in law school and the beginning of my law practice.  So, here we go.

Dear Young Lawyer:

You have chosen a profession and a career that is full of contradictions.  By now, you should be comfortable with contradictions as they are abundant in the pages of law books that you are reading.  They are just another problem to solve.  Isn’t it what we do – solve problems?  This brings me to the first contradiction:

1. Lawyers are very good at solving other people’s problems, but they often disregard their own needs, hence the sad statistics on the dissatisfaction and burnout among lawyers.  Wouldn’t we take better care of our clients if we took better care of ourselves? 
2. If you entered law school because you were not sure what you should do with your life, be aware that you can graduate from law school, pass the bar and begin practicing, and still not know what you should do with your life.  The upside is that you can pay your bills as you are trying to figure out your life’s purpose. 
3. Some people love law school and hate the practice of law, others hate law school and love the practice of law. 
4. Everybody wants to be in top 10 percent in law school, everybody can’t be in top 10 percent in law school.  According to the ABA Legal Education Statistics, in 2006-2007, 43, 920 students were awarded J.D. or LL.B. degrees.  10 percent of that is 4,392.  There is a future for you in the legal profession even if you are not in top 10 percent, and (gasp!) you haven’t done the law review or moot court. 
5. Contrary to what your classmates, career services and other stakeholders want you to believe, you don’t have to go into BIGLAW if you are in the top 10 percent.  What will make you feel the blood rushing in your veins every morning?  (“Coffee” is not the right answer here.)
6. You may like a certain subject matter in law school but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will enjoy that area of practice.  Stay flexible, get a taste of various areas of practice, rotate through different departments in your summer programs.  Give yourself time to decide.
7. In law school you are led to believe that the practice of law is about unique knowledge, expertise, and problem-solving skills.  Once you begin practicing, it becomes more about people and relationships, just like in any business. 
8. There is no “one day” and you won’t have free time, so find a way to do what you want to do right now.  If you are “paying your dues,” make sure you know what you are getting in return.   
9. The practice of law is local in nature, but you are likely to feel the global currents more and more these days.  Stay informed of what is going on in the world and how it affects the profession.   
10. The world is changing faster than you can say “mutatis mutandis,” be prepared to change with it.  Gerald Weinberg wrote in “The Secrets of Consulting”:  “When change is inevitable, we struggle most to keep what we value most.”  If you find yourself struggling, it’s a good time to ask what is important to you and how you can get it.

Law Practice: What Every New Associate Needs to Know

The current edition of Law Practice is online now.  It covers many important topics for young associates.  Here are some of the articles:

“The Smartest Marketer Around: What New Associates Should Know About Marketing” by Allison Wolf.  If you want to be a partner one day, start developing the business owner mindset from the start.  Do you know what it takes to run a successful legal business?   

“Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch” by Catherine Alman MacDonagh and Beth Marie Cuzzone.  Will your “elevator pitch” pass the "so what?" test?  Learn how to make it succinct, memorable and unique. 

“Being a Good Boss: Dos and Don'ts for Working with Your First Assistant” by Paul McLaughlin.  Should you introduce your assistant to your clients?  Can you share your personal problems with your team?  How often should you give feedback to your assistant?  The article answers these questions and many more. 

“The Art of Making Rain: Seven Steps That Give Associates an Edge” by Lawrence M. Kohn and Jill Rose Kohn.  You didn’t think you were going into sales when you graduated from law school, did you?  The sooner you start building a foundation for rainmaking, the better your chances are to become one of those powerful connectors that everybody wants to know. 

“The Culturally Savvy Associate: Top Three Tips for Moving Up in a Global Economy” by Janet H. Moore.   These days, even if you don’t want to practice international law, chances are that your practice is going to be affected by it.  Can you spot international issues?  Are you comfortable working in multinational teams?

“Associate Technology Challenges: A Snapshot of Need-to-Know Applications” by Browning Marean.   There's life beyond LexisNexis and Westlaw.  What decision analysis tools would you like to use?  Are you ready for electronic discovery?

On job search and networking

Are you looking for a job?  Do you want to learn the skill of business development and networking?   Today’s round-up is for you:

Law Career Blog offers job hunting advice for 3Ls and recent grads.  I like the suggestion of being proactive, flexible and creative in your job search.  Some students buy into others’ vision of how things should be and adopt the victim’s mentality when things don’t turn out that way.  How do you make the best with what you have?  It takes courage, creativity and consistent work.  You begin by valuing what you have to offer because if you don’t value yourself, you can’t show your worth to others.  Take the challenge and write your own life story, don’t let others write it for you.  The upside is that you can learn so much more about yourself and your true aspirations in the process.   I suggest you sit down and make a list titled "Here's why I am so awesome!"  Place this list where you can see and read it often.  Strive to add new things to it each day as you go about your search for business.   

Do you want to know nine essential characteristics for making partner?  Inside Practice offers an excerpt from "Making Partner: A Guide for Law Firm Associates" by John R. Sapp.  Among those characteristics are “Maturity: You are in control of your life” and “Entrepreneurial attitude: You think like an owner rather than an employee.”  Now is the time to start working on those skills.  And if you already possess them, maybe you don’t need an employer.  Build A Solo Practice, LLC will help your to plan your own business venture. 

Here are a few nuts and bolts of networking.  Business Writing teaches you How to Ask a Stranger for a Favor and offers Great Tips for Email.  If you want advice on phone networking, listen to Escape from Cubicle Nation podcast Networking tip:  Use the phone! Finally, is your body language congruent with the words you speak?  Read about 18 ways to improve your body language from The Positivity Blog.

Happy hunting and gathering!

How do you deal with fear?

Whether we like it or not, fear is part of our life, and it is often part of the learning process.  When we learn new things, we challenge ourselves, we venture outside our comfort zone, we grow, change, and redefine who we are.  That’s when we become scared.  What if I am not smart and capable enough to do it?  What would others think of me if I fail?  What would they say if I follow my gut instinct and not what everybody else says I should do?  How will I handle rejection?  Can I be financially secure?  How we respond to those fears has a huge impact on our success in life, happiness, and peace of mind.  So how do you deal with fear?

Do you feel that you must overcome your fear?  Is it stopping you from achieving more in life?  If so, read 5 life-changing keys to overcoming your fear at the Positivity Blog. 

“Can We Control Our Fears?”  Sevil Duvarci and Denis Paré tackle this question from the neuroscientists’ perspective. A recently published study suggests that “the expression of learned fear is flexible and subject to modulation by the prelimbic cortex, depending on the circumstances; our expression of learned fears is less rigid and less automatic than the expression of innate fears, which are beyond the reach of the cortex.”

Perhaps, you welcome fear.  You may even believe that if you don’t feel fear, you are not doing enough.  Fear may propel you to action.  Is Fear Actually An Asset?  It may well be according to Success from the Nest.  Get to know your fear and learn from it.    

Do you share your fear with others or do you hide it?  Executive Coach Doug Sundheim believes that revealing our vulnerabilities to others may strengthen our relationships and generate good energy.   He shares his 5-step approach at Fast Company Expert Blogs.  Interestingly, neuroscientists also tell us that social contact reduces the brain response to threat. 

Would you agree that fear is in the fabric of the law practice?  Lawyers work with people’s fears.  Sometimes, they alleviate fears, for example, when they do  a title search for the clients who want to purchase a home.  Other times, they seem to generate more fears:  just read the "default" language in a promissory note.  And then, there are circumstances when they have to say to their clients that it’s OK to be afraid and help them through their fears.   Do you acknowledge your clients’ fears?  Or would you rather shun the emotions and stick to business only?  What role does fear play in your practice?

Legal research resources

The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center created The Legal Research Jumpstation with links to various legal resources under categories such as federal resources, state resources, international resources, legal associations, legal education, legal employment, Continuing Legal Education (CLE), law practice technology, ethics, legal representation, future of the legal profession, surveys and statistics, legal news sources, legal research resources, business and reference resources, electronic discovery resources. 

For example, you can visit the sites of the State and Local Bar Associations, check out various statistics about lawyers and the legal profession, read employment trend data compiled by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), find the wealth of information at the Legal Information Institute hosted by Cornell University's School of Law, search online law journals courtesy of the University Law Review Project, or browse through The Virtual Law Library hosted by the University of Indiana's School of Law. [Via Your ABA]

Three types of thinking in action

To continue with my “Thought-Full Series”, I though I would highlight a few examples of analytical, practical and creative thinking in action. 

You have heard of Tupperware parties.  How about using the same business model in the practice of law?  In the article “Where There’s a Will…”appearing in the April issue of the ABA Journal, Jill Schachner Chanen profiles Massachusetts attorney James Haroutunian, who launched “Have Kids, Will Party” after watching his wife successfully selling jewelry at the home-based jewelry parties.   Just like with other home-based parties, the "Have Kids, Will Party" host invites a group of young parents with basic estate planning needs.  Before the party, they fill out the questionnaire, have phone conversations with the attorney, who then drafts the legal documents and sends them to the clients for review.  As the party goes on, the attorney meets with each client in private and executes the documents.  With the growing interest, James Haroutunian is considering a franchise for the will-signing party.

Think you can’t have it all?  Think again.  In the April issue of the Young Lawyer, Colin T. Darke talks about how to “Feed Your Creative Side.”   The recipe comes from young attorney Marie Hejl who hosts a broadcast cooking show that airs on over 70 stations around the world.  And you thought you were busy.  In her interview, she reveals that her “passion outside of the law” helps to advance her communication skills and meet many different people in business and legal communities.  And that’s good for business.

As these stories show, you don’t have to follow the beaten path.  Be passionate, be creative, be smart, and you can create your own recipe for success.  Do you agree? 

Tip Bit #13: On reflective learning

People like to be in control of what they do.  It applies to learning as  well.  One way to make your learning experience more meaningful to you is to take time to reflect on the learning process itself.  Imagine that you want to go to Paris for vacation.  To see the city, you can either choose to go on a group tour with a guide or you can create your individual sightseeing agenda.  If it’s your first time in Paris, you don’t know anybody there and you don't speak French, a guided tour may be your best option:  you will be shown all the main points of interest and receive the basic information about the places.   However, if you are familiar with the city enough to decide what to see and how to organize your trip, you can create much more personal and meaningful experiences in Paris. 

How does it apply to learning?  Law school is in many ways like a guided tour with a busy schedule.  But when you get off the bus and have some free time, consider a few questions to orient yourself towards better learning experience.  What kinds of questions should you be asking?  Here are some examples for a weekly review:

1. What confused you most in class this week?
2. What is the best way to resolve your confusion?
3. What key ideas and information did you learn?
4. What was the most important idea you learned this week?
5. What surprised, dismayed, delighted you most in class this week?
6. How does your learning relate to the larger context of your life and work goals?
7. Have you learned any practical skills, ideas, tools, techniques that you can easily apply to real-life situations?
8. Have you learned anything new about yourself, your interests, feelings, values?
9. What helped your learning?
10. What interfered with your learning?
11. What should you do more of?  What should you do less of?
12. What is one thing (skill, habit, activity) you want to focus on next week?

Stanford Law School launches the Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic

Here is an interesting example of collaboration between a law firm and a law school to expand the clinical education in the law school curriculum.  Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has committed $250,000 to establish the Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe Fellowship for a Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic at Stanford Law School.  The clinic, which is scheduled to launch in Fall 2007, will give students an opportunity to work with non-profit organizations and micro-businesses.  The students will act as general counsel to non-profits, doing transactional work, including corporate governance matters and corporate disclosures. 

The Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic is one of ten clinics that operate as a single law firm – the Stanford Legal Clinic.  Among them is the well-known Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, which has enabled students to work on more than two dozen Supreme Court cases.  Other clinics do pro-bono work ranging from immigrants' rights to cyberlaw and environmental protection.   

What do you think of clinical education?  What kinds of clinics would you want to see at your law school?

Related post: 
Teaching practical skills to students

Tips and tools for your job search and career development

Are you looking for a summer internship or a job?  Do you contemplate a career transition?  If so, here is a round-up of some tips and tools that can help you in the process. 

Each of you has had a variety of experiences in you life that have helped you to develop certain skills that are valuable to your potential employer.  But when time comes to prepare your resume or answer questions at a job interview, you may not remember this valuable information.   This inventory list will ensure you give yourself credit for all the wonderful things you have accomplished in life.   It has two parts:  Part I discusses “Sources of Evidence That You May Possess Skills, Experiences, and Attributes of Interest to Employers” and Part II lists “Skills, Experiences, and Attributes You Have That Might Be of Interest to Employers.”   It’s a good check list to go through and make sure you are not forgetting anything important.  And you may be surprised at how much you already know.  Also, if you need to add some action to your resume, check out Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs. 

Do you need help with job interviews?  Lifehack discusses a new tool – InterviewTrue -  which allows you to practice your interviewing skills virtually. You can customize your interview by choosing from the database of 1000 questions from the leading companies.  You record yourself with your own webcam as a virtual interviewer asks you questions.  After the interviewing session is over, you receive a transcript of your interview.  You can watch the recording to evaluate your body language and analyze your responses in a transcript.  The InterviewTrue site has a demo and a free trial option. 

Here’s another interesting way to play out your interview scenario.  It comes from the area of the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).  As you do the exercise, you visualize the desired behavior and build confidence. 

As you network for success, don’t make The Ten Biggest Networking Mistakes, described by Harvey Mackay.  Instead, focus on developing the Seven Habits of Successful Rainmakers, shared by Sara Holtz in The Complete Lawyer.    

If you aspire to build a solo practice, Build A Solo Practice blog by Susan Cartier Liebel will guide you in the right direction. 

Perhaps, you want personalized advice in exploring various career options.  If so, visit Life at the Bar blog by Julie Fleming-Brown, a professional and personal coach for lawyers.

Related posts:
5 questions to ask when you evaluate job options
Find out your networking quotient

Think before you think

Neuroscience tells us now that the human brain can change and new neurons can be created.  I've just finished listening to an interview with science writer Sharon Begley in which she talks about her new book, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain.  (Thanks to SharpBrains for featuring this interview.)  Brain neuroplasticity hints at exciting possibilities as neuroscientists discover the factors that affect the brain development.  One of these factors is exercise, which promotes the growth of neurons and the strength of their connection, according to the article "Buff and Brainy" by Christen Brownlee.  Meditation is another practice that builds awareness and attention, which appear to be a prerequisite for the shift in brain patterns.  Even lawyers are willing to dedicate some of their precious time to meditation.   

If you want to know how law practice can benefit from brain research, read Idealawg by Stephanie West Allen.  Stephanie and Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz co-authored the article "Brain Management: Law Firm Leadership on the Neuro Frontier" which appeared in the February, 2007 edition of Of Counsel: The Legal Practice and Management Report (Not available online, but Idealawg has the beginning of the article.) 

Another great resource for brain-based business advice is the Brain Based Business blog by Dr. Ellen Weber who teaches businesses how to capitalize on the brain power for maximum results.

Are you taking a good care of your brain? 

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? 

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?

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?

How to find a mentor

Do you have a mentor?  If not, maybe, it is time to add the task of finding one to your list of New Year’s resolutions.  Your relationship with a mentor can be instrumental to building a successful and satisfying career.  A young attorney faces many choices.  Asking the right questions is a prerequisite for making good decisions.  How do I choose a practice area or a niche?  How can I get more work to fulfill my requirement for billable hours?  How can I prioritize my personal and professional obligations?  What is the best way to stay current in my field and gain expertise?  These are examples of questions you can ask your mentor.  “OK, I get it, it is a good idea to have a mentor, but how do I find one?”  Here are a few things you can do:

• Start with assessing your needs.   Which areas of your life could use a mentor?  What do you want to gain from the relationship with a mentor?  How would you know if the mentor is a good fit for you?  Do you have a preference for the means of communication with your mentor?  These days, you don’t have to meet the person face-to-face.  Email or phone conversations can work well, although some would argue that nothing beats a good old lunch.  If you had a mentor in the past, evaluate that relationship form the standpoint of what worked for you and what didn’t.   
• Think of what you can bring to the table.  Mentorship is a two-way relationship.  Your unique background and experiences, your knowledge of technology, your fresh perspective can be of value to others.
• Make a list of the characteristics of your ideal mentor.  Be open-minded about it.  You and your mentor don’t have to work in the same place.  Your mentor does not have to be much older that you are. There is a benefit to having a mentor who has recent memories of the issues you are facing. 
• Now it is time to see who fits your ideal mentor profile.  Do you know anybody you would want to be your mentor?  Put them on your list of candidates.  Look closely at the people around you.  Who do you go to for advice?  Whose opinion do you value? Perhaps, you already have a budding mentor relationship.  Share your plans and the profile with your relatives, friends, acquaintances.  They may know of someone and may be willing to broker your initial contact.  Don’t underestimate your “weak ties.”  According to Keith Ferrazzi, your acquaintances may be even more valuable than your close friends.  The reason is that you and your close friends often hang out with the same people, whereas your more distant acquaintances may broaden the search pool.  And don’t forget, you can have several mentors, there is no one-mentor-per-mentee limit.
• Decide how you want to approach your potential mentors.  You can summarize your strategy in a simple table where all the important information is written out, so that all you need to do is to execute on your plan. Download how_to_find_a_mentor_table.doc [Word, 25KB]. Contacting people is the scary part for many, so creating a plan helps to avoid unnecessary deliberation and hesitation.  Most people are flattered when they are asked to become a mentor even if they are too busy to take on this responsibility.  Remember that rejections are part of the process.  Also, if someone cannot be a mentor for you for some reason, ask if he or she can recommend somebody else.
• You may also want to research organizations that offer mentorship programs for lawyers.  For example, General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division of the American Bar Association offers Law Student Mentoring Certificate.  The State Bar of Georgia launched the Mentoring Program in early 2006.  The Ohio Bar piloted the Lawyer to Lawyer Mentoring Program.  The Missouri Bar also has a mentoring program.  These are just the ones I know of, there may be more.
• For additional resources on mentoring, check out Law Practice Today.  Here is a link to an article that discusses more internet resources on mentoring.  Finally, you may find useful this How to Find a Mentor Worksheet.

Good luck and let me know if these tips work for you.

* This post is part of the Networking Carnival hosted by Legal Andrew, where you can find many more great tips on networking.

Happy hour for lawyers: interview with Alexander Kjerulf, Chief Happiness Officer

Alexander Kjerulf is a happiness consultant, speaker and author.  He has just released his new book “Happy Hour Is 9 to 5”.  Alexander has kindly agreed to an interview here at Lawsagna.

Lawsagna: Congratulations on your new book “Happy Hour Is 9 to 5”.  Have you met many happy lawyers?

Alexander Kjerulf:  I've actually worked with lawyers to make them happier at work - and I have to say they often don't seem very happy. Law professionals face some tough challenges including rigid, old school management, a demanding, stressful work ethic and what I call "The Cult of Overwork" - the irrational belief that the more you work the better.

L:  Law firms in the US are notorious for the somber and often stressful work environment.  What are the downsides of the work unhappiness?

AK:  Studies show that people who are unhappy at work are:
Less productive
Less creative
More prone to workplace stress and to various diseases
Less motivated
Less happy outside of work also
But the most important reason to be happy is this: As a working professional you'll be spending more time on your job than on your family, friends and hobbies combined. Do you really want to spend that much of your life on something that doesn't make you happy?

L:  Why do you think lawyers should read your book?

AK:  Lawyers should read the book in order to become insanely happy at work. To wake up every Monday morning saying "YES! It's Monday! I get to go to work." Not only will that make them enjoy work more and life more - studies also show that happy people are more successful.

Lawyers should also read the book in order to create law firms that are fun, inspiring, meaningful and energizing. In my experience, many law firms exhibit a complete disregard for how people feel at work. They care only about productivity and billable hours. This is a huge mistake for one simple reason: Happy companies make more money! Lawyers who read the book will come away with the knowledge that happiness at work is the way to a more fulfilling work life AND to higher profits.

L:  Is it possible to stay happy while dealing with the unhappy aspects of life?

AK:  It is possible - and it's also difficult. And remember: You can't be happy every single day. No matter how much you love your job, there's still going to be bad days once in a while. That's as it should be.

L:  Is the work unhappiness a personal or an institutional problem?

AK:  Both! Companies must provide a mood where it's easy for employees to be happy at work, and today many companies fail miserably at this.

On the other hand, it's also up to each of us to take responsibility for our own work situation. If you're not happy at work, you can't just sit on your butt and wait for your manager, your co-workers or the company to fix it. You must take charge and do something.

L:  What is the best approach to instilling the value of happiness at work:  top-down or bottom-up?

AK:  Both at the same time is by far the best. When management and employees work together to create a happier work environment the sky is the limit.

If I can only pick one, it's top-down, because one unhappy top executive can ruin the good mood in an entire organization, whereas one determinedly happy person in the top ranks can positively affect the whole company.

L:  What are your secret ingredients for happy hours at work?

AK:  The secret is this: Happiness at work starts with a choice. You must choose to be happy at work and to do what it takes to get there. If you don't make that choice, nothing is likely to happen.
What can an individual worker start doing now to become happier at work?
Happiness at work is something you and I create here and now. It's about doing something every day to make yourself and others happier at work. Here are some simple ideas:
1: Perform a random act of workplace kindness. Bring a co-worker a cup of coffee without them asking. Pay someone a compliment. Pass out candy at a meeting.
2: Praise someone. Praise is a great way to make others happier at work
3: Write a log. Every day, before you leave work, make a list of 5 things that made you happy at work today.

L:  What’s your favorite happy hour drink?

AK:  I usually go with a good Danish beer from a small, local brewery.

Alexander, thank you very much for you time.

Obsolete lawyering and avant-garde cooking

How much has the practice of law changed since, let’s say, a hundred years ago? It is not the fastest changing industry, for sure, but it is not immune from change either.  Now we have, in no particular order:  Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw, e-mail, internet, law office management software, the SEC filing system EDGAR, legal forms on CDs.  The dynamics of the legal practice change as well.  Outsourcing Times reports that 79,000 legal jobs will be outsourced by 2015 according to Forrester Research.  Unbundled legal services gain momentum. Partnership is like the horizon:  you can see it, but you can’t reach it. Bold men are looking from the billboards:  Divorce? Bankruptcy? Injured?  Arrested? 

So-so-so, what do we know? It turns out that the law school does not prepare law students to face the challenges of the modern legal practice.  In the New York Law Journal, Thomas Adcock reports on the results of the survey of mid-size law firms conducted by Pace University law school: only 8% of U.S. midsize law firms filled their recruitment needs by hiring law school graduates.  The reason is that they do not have the time and resources of big law firms to train the inexperienced associates.  Law students do not get enough exposure to the technology that has automated the litigation process.  When asked how law schools could improve their curricula, survey respondents emphasized writing (38%), practical skills (24%) and more clinical experience (21%).  Law students, take notice!

Are chefs as technology-averse as lawyers?  Not the members of an avant-garde culinary movement of “molecular gastronomy”, described in the BusinessWeek article Feed Your Mind by Adrienne Carter.  These chefs experiment with cutting-edge scientific processes and tools, such as lasers, enzymes, liquid nitrogen, to produce surprising combinations of flavor and appearance:  how about egg whites tasting like a coconut. These innovative products stimulate not just the taste buds but the minds as well.  What’s the most avant-garde thing in law right now?