This post was written by David Bilinsky: "Every so often, all of us are looking for a bit of inspiration - a few uplifting words to give flight to our ideas and our lives. Accordingly I was pleased to receive an email from a colleague Patricia Yevics pointing me to a graduation address by Steve Jobs at
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Source: Thoughtful Legal Management, 21 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
This post was written by JD Hull: "Rule 11: Treat Each Co-Worker Like He or She Your Best Client.*
Or, Why did Big Sally throw a DC phone book at me? I still need to get better at this rule. People, of course, are every business's most important asset. So here are three very personal "aspects" of Rule 11, from the 12 Rules. The above is my non-litigation "Rule 11".
And these are, as it were, the "advisory committee notes":
First, in our workplaces, we need great people and we need to treat them with respect--not just buttering up. We need to give them prompt feedback--the good and the bad.
Above all, we need them to grow and be happy. Which frankly is not (like never) your problem unless you let it be. Failure to grow: it's their problem, unless you impede their growth..."
Full text and active link are available by clicking on the author's name.
Source: What About
© 2005-2010 John Daniel Hull, reproduced with permission of the author.
View oral argument video of this case.
The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today that a common law doctrine known as the "public duty rule" does not immunize employees of a political subdivision from personal liability for injuries they cause in the performance of their official duties in cases where the injured party alleges that the employee engaged in "wanton or reckless conduct." The Court's 6-1 majority opinion, authored by Justice Maureen O'Connor, affirmed a decision of the 4th District Court of Appeals."
Source:
I couldn't find an answer about how to respond when a requesting party stated many facts in one paragraph, some of which were true and others were not.
Actually, it's easy to admit or deny only part of a request. Here an actual example from a past case--
3. At the time of the purchase of the motorcycle in question, you were present, when Joe Johnson delivered a check on your behalf to the motorcycle dealership in question."
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Source: The Trial Practice Tips Weblog, 28 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
This post was written by Greg Lambert: "As I mentioned yesterday, a group of bloggers traveled to ThomsonReuters (TR) in
Full text and active links are available by clicking on the author's name.
Source: 3 Geeks and a Blog, 28 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
This post was written by Bonnie Shucha: "FDsys.gov, the Government Printing Office's replacement for the aging GPO Access website, continues to grow. It now covers the following:
Congressional Bills, 103rd Congress (1993-1994) to present; BILLS
104th Congress (1995-1996) to present; CCAL
Congressional Committee Prints, 100th Congress (1987-1988) to present; CRPT
Congressional Directory, 104th Congress (1995-1996) to present; CDIR
Congressional Documents, 104th Congress (1993-1994) to present; CDOC
Congressional Hearings, if available from committee, 105th Congress (1997-1998) to present; CHRG
Congressional Record (Bound), 1999 to 2001; CRECB
Congressional Record (Daily), 103rd Congress, 2nd session (1994) to present; CREC
Congressional Record Index (Daily), 1983 to present; CRI
Congressional Committee Reports, Senate Executive Reports (includes conference committee reports), 104th Congress (1995-1996) to present; CRPT
History of Bills, 1983 to present; HOB
Precedents of the
Public and Private Laws, 104th (1995-1996) to present; PLAW
Statutes At Large, 2003-2006; STAT
According to a recent article in LLRX, migration is now expected to be complete in April 2010 with a full switchover to FDsys in Summer 2010. See the article for more info, as well as some advanced search tips."
To reach the blog post and the active links, click on the author's name.
Source: WisBlawg, 29 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
Consider the following block of type. The left side is from a PDF published by a Great Big Law Firm; the right side is from the Word document that was the source of the PDF.
Use the author's name link it view the screenshot]
The type in the Word document looks fine; the type in the PDF is much heavier and less distinct. To use some highly technical typesetter's terminology, "it just don't look right."
In this case, the problem is that the PDF was saved in the wrong format. But that's not especially important, as there are a number of problems that can prevent PDFs from looking as good as they should..."
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Source: Set in Style, 26 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
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Source: Lawyerist.com, 28 January 2010
© 2007-2010 Lawyerist Media, LLC. Reproduced with permission of the site editor, Sam Glover.
This post was written by Julie A. Fleming: "Do you ever feel that you're just one lawyer in a large sea of others? New lawyers often begin their practices wondering how to distinguish themselves from the hundreds or thousands of other lawyers occupying the same niche. And lawyers who've been in practice for some time may have the same nagging question. Though the question may fade, it frequently re-emerges when a lawyer is preparing to grow her practice or is considering some shift in substantive areas.
Differentiation from other lawyers and law firms is useful in marketing and business development conversations. So, how can you differentiate yourself?..."
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Source: Life at the Bar, 20 January 2010
© Life at the Bar LLC Blog, reproduced with permission of the author.
Although tenure-track law professorships are scarce and fiercely competitive, it is comparatively easy to become an adjunct professor of law. Design a course that you are qualified to teach and that fills a curricular gap, then determine how to most appropriately and persuasively pitch your course to the faculty making the hiring decision..."
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Source: Lawyerist.com, 27 January 2010. © 2007-2010 Lawyerist Media, LLC. Reproduced with permission of the site editor, Sam Glover.
This post was written by Simon Chester: "Yesterday, two members of Slaw were given an in-depth look at the most profound re-engineering of a legal research system since the migration to the Web. In Thomson Reuters' impressive
WestlawNext is the culmination of five years of research and development and a massive amount of customer research into how legal research is actually carried out..."
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Source: Slaw.ca, 27 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of Simon Fodden, founder of Slaw
Adler states:
I believe that our identity-shaping notions of mediation are at an odd point of climax and the end of our paradigm is being fueled by three forces:
(1) The dawning realization that our skills aren't unique;
(2) An awareness that we really are not a real field or profession; and
(3) A growing comprehension that the social, political, economic and technical problems we face will accelerate the adoption of our value-propositions, strategies, and skills into other domains.
And then goes on to explain each of the three points..."
Continue reading this interesting post by clicking on the author's name.
Source: idealawg, 27 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
Court Agrees With AG's Reading of Law Banning Electronic Transmission of Pornography to Minors
From the site: "2009-0609. Am. Booksellers Found. for Free Expression v. Cordray, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-149...
Opinion: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2010/2010-Ohio-149.pdf
View oral argument video of this case.
The Supreme Court of Ohio today agreed with the state attorney general's interpretation that a state law banning electronic transmission to minors of pornography or other material "harmful to juveniles" applies only to personally directed communications such as instant messaging, person-to-person emails and private chat rooms, and exempts from liability material that is posted on generally accessible websites and in public chatrooms."
Read full text and reach active links
From the site: "2008-2037. State v. Williams, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-147...
Opinion: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2010/2010-Ohio-147.pdf
View oral argument video of this case.
The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today that pursuant to
Read full text and reach active links
Source: The Supreme Court of
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Source: The Mac Lawyer, 28 January 2010. Copyright © 2010, J. Benjamin Stevens, reproduced with permission of the author.
I just finished reading Gary Vaynerchuk's book, Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion. The credit for the title of this post rightfully belongs to him, and it bears repeating:
Social media is word of mouth on steroids
Simply put, your reach on social media and the power of word of mouth or referrals is exponentially increased..."
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Source: Legal Ease Blog, 27 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
In the news: "Listen up. Federal courts are starting to send a clear message to litigants on how to handle the preservation and production of "outlier" ESI found on cell phones and PDAs, voice mail systems, instant messaging systems, chat rooms, and websites, says Farrah Pepper, of counsel at Gibson Dunn."
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 27 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
"First, and most important," Prof. [Carlo] Strenger suggests, "invest some sincere thought in the fact that you have more high-quality adult years ahead of you than behind you. Realize what that means in planning for the future."
...
The full text and active link for this post are available by clicking on the author's name.
Source: idealawg, 26 January 2010
Reproduced with permission of the author.
In the news: "Lawyers at large law firms are typically smart, highly skilled individuals with much to offer potential employers. But they may have one distinct disadvantage in the job market, notes consultant Kate Neville: They may never have had to look for a job on their own. Many went straight from law school to a firm through an on-campus recruiting program and were recruited by a job placement professional for a lateral move. Neville provides six tips to help lawyers who may be looking for a job on their own."
Briefly, the six tips include:
RECOGNIZE THE LIMITATIONS OF VARIOUS RESOURCES
IDENTIFY WHAT TRADEOFFS YOU CAN ACCEPT
ARTICULATE WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR, EVEN IF YOU AREN'T SURE
FIGURE OUT HOW TO HARNESS THE POWER OF NETWORKING
TAILOR YOUR MATERIALS
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPRESSION
This post was written by Tom Kane: "If you don't know, shame on you. The most important element in marketing and business development is assuring the most solid, close, concrete, rock-solid, meaningful, close up, personal, etc., etc. (you get the drift) client relationships possible. If that is NOT your main focus, double shame.
Yesterday's (today's is below) 'marketing meditation' from my good friend Larry Smith and his colleague Richard Levick at Levick Strategic Communications is:
'What keeps your clients up at night? This is the bulls eye (emphasis mine) of marketing. If you don't know the answer, you are not marketing. You're just busy.'
..."
The full text and active link for this post are available by clicking on the author's name.
Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 26 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
From the e-newsletter: "The ABA Division for Public Education offers resources, lesson plans, and tips for legal professionals going into the classroom and reaching out to the public. In addition to mock trials for grade levels K - 12, the Division provides legal professionals with the tools to discuss a variety of important legal topics, such as the court and jury system with young people and adults. Visit www.abanet.org/publiced/pedlawy.html for materials to enhance your presentation, classroom visit or community outreach."
[Law Day 2010 will be here before you know it!]
Source:
The full text and active link for this post are available by clicking on the author's name.
Source: Slaw.ca, 26 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of Simon Fodden, founder of Slaw.
In the news: "When the New York State Courts Electronic Filing System was introduced in 1999, only one case was e-filed all year. In the decade since then, the use of e-filing has become standard in the federal courts, and has gained widespread acceptance in state court systems throughout the country."
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 27 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
This post was written by Tom Mighell: "I don't know about you, but sometimes I'm preparing a presentation, and I'm completely at a loss about where to begin, or where to start on a particular topic within the presentation. Surely others have done presentations on my topic before - wouldn't it be cool if I could tap into their experiences?
With SlideFinder, you can get pretty far. SlideFinder is a PowerPoint presentation search engine - it catalogs publicly available slide decks and indexes them by content. Just type in some words from your presentation, and you'll instantly see other PowerPoint presentations that include those words. Pretty slick.
Granted, you can probably just go to Google and type in "[keywords] filetype:ppt," but with SlideFinder, why bother?"
To reach the blog post and the active link, click on the author's name.
Source: Inter Alia, 25 January 2010
Reproduced with permission of the author.
This post was written by Tara Calisham: "...Check out Calendar Labs at http://www.calendarlabs.com/ .
This site contains a wide variety of free, useful calendars in several formats. You can custom make your own calendar with an online generator. There are several paper templates for calendars in weekly, monthly, and yearly formats. There are lists of holidays for several different countries and calendars for different religious holidays.
If you're looking for really different content, check out the calendar for movie releases (only updated to January at this writing, alas) or the calendar that gives general horoscope information (lucky day? Money day? Health risk?)..."
The full text and active link are available by clicking on the author's name.
Source: ResearchBuzz, 27 January 2010
© 2006-2010 ResearchBuzz, reproduced with permission of the author.
To reach the blog post and the active link, click on the author's name.
Source:
Teaching will press you to add breadth and depth to your expertise, get up-to-speed on current developments in your field, expand your network in a meaningful way, improve your public and improvisational speaking skills, bolster your professional reputation, and improve your confidence....
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Source: The Lawyerist.com, 19 January 2010
© 2007-2010 Lawyerist Media, LLC. Reproduced with permission of the site editor, Sam Glover.
Source: Law Practice Today, January 2010
Then successful lawyer and former in-house counsel at LinkedIn, Doug Mandell, spoke at the Avvo conference this week on how critical it was for lawyers to use social media to develop their own brand. Doug and I hooked up yesterday morning for breakfast to continue a discussion on that among other things.
So a blog post at the Harvard Business Review by management consultant, Ron Ashkenas, on how to define your brand by answering a few simple questions was a timely one.
The questions:
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Source: Real Lawyers Have Blogs, 23 January 2010
Copyright © 2010, LexBlog, reproduced with permission of the author.
This post was written by Jordan Furlong: "...I used this analogy -- high-wattage lamps that cast vast amounts of light in a wide circle, contrasted with smaller, sharper, focused sources that put only the light you need exactly where you need it -- in a recent discussion about the future size of law firms. My theory is that most things being equal, the future belongs to smaller firms and solos, because the large-firm model ultimately suffers from an over-reliance on volume and an inability to finely focus resources.
Many big firms are like very large lamps with incredibly high-wattage bulbs that radiate huge amounts of heat and light -- but in doing so, waste a lot of energy because they light up parts of the room that don't need it and that aren't going to produce a return on illumination investment, so to speak. Smaller firms, which do only a few things and do them in a very specific way, are like flexible halogen lights that aren't for everyone and everything -- but are ideal for certain contexts and needs. Mass broadcast power through reach and volume was the key to success in the 20th century, from media to manufacturing to marketing, and large law firms flourished in this environment. Their largeness was a competitive feature: volume as strategy, size as an end in itself.
In the 21st century, a different model will take hold. The future is fragmented, channeled, specific, focused, niched: a needle instead of a sledgehammer, a laser instead of a lamp. The elements of small practice -- flexibility, dexterity, specialization, and personalized service -- are ideally suited to the deeply diverse, long-tail legal marketplace that's now emerging. A recent Economist article about the forthcoming
Full text and active links are available by clicking on the author's name.
Source: Law21, 20 January 2010
© 2008 Jordan Furlong, reproduced with permission of the author.
In the news: "The lunch (or breakfast, or dinner) interview is ideally suited to reveal characteristics about the candidate not easily discovered otherwise, and can be useful to the job seeker for similar reasons, consultants Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass write. If handled well, the social ritual of breaking bread together can cement a relationship and help lead to a job offer. The authors discuss how to finesse mealtime interviews and answer some important questions, such as whether it's OK to ask for a doggy bag."
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 25 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
This post was written by Jim Hassett: "This week's post concludes our series on how law firms are using project management to improve performance on alternative fees, based on the results of our national survey of alternative fees.
Project management systems may reveal some hidden traps in the way lawyers deal with alternative fee projects:...
Project management also requires an understanding of the differences between clients, and the people skills to manage relationships:...
Managing client relationships begins with communication:..
Communication is particularly vital when it comes to change orders - formal agreements that the scope of a project has changed in a way that also changes the budget:...
It is also useful to continue communication even after a project has been completed:...
Clearly, the process of managing alternative fees is a large undertaking. But it is also vitally important, and the benefits are obvious:...
As one participant succinctly summed it up, "If we teach our people to manage, we can make more money."
The full text and the active link are available by clicking on the author's name.
Source: Legal Business Development, 20 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
This item was written by I. Haight: "Cognition, a privately held corporation, developed and patented the Semantic Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology that aims to improve search by improving computers' ability to "understand" language. English words often have multiple meanings, and humans identify the correct meaning of a word from its context.
...When a user inputs search terms into an engine running Semantic NLP, the Cognition Parser analyzes the grammar of the sentence and matches search terms against Cognition's Semantic Map in an effort to obtain the user's intended meaning of the words from their context. Alongside the search results, Cognition displays the meaning of each word in the query based upon its contextual analysis; users can select a different meaning from a dropdown menu if the meaning is incorrect...
Caselaw.Cognition accurately analyzed all the search terms I entered and retrieved relevant results. No search engine is perfect for legal research of course--results may discuss the user's topic only parenthetically and don't help the user determine the significant cases for the development of the law. Nevertheless, Caselaw.Cognition is a strong tool for searching federal case law, with the added bonus that it is freely available. In addition to natural language searching, Cognition also supports the use of many Boolean terms, which are detailed in the "Help" section. Semantic NLP is currently available with LexisNexis Concordance and Merrill Lextranet, two commercial e-discovery and litigation management tools."
Source: "InSite." Vol.15, No.11. 25 January 2010.
This post was written by Tom Kane: "From a marketing standpoint, I put involvement in organizations as No. 10 on my top ten marketing list of best practices for developing business. And, which organizations and what your "involvement" consists of are very important.
Jaimie Field had post on her blog yesterday entitled "Rainmaking Recommendation #2 - Join and Join In" that speaks to those points...
Continue reading this interesting post and get active links by clicking on the author's name.
Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 21 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
I get that question a lot. From the first day I opened my virtual assistance business it became evident that I was going to have to learn how to perfect that so-called elevator speech, because no one that I came into contact with knew what a virtual assistant was. When called upon to introduce myself at networking events I always start by asking if anyone has heard of a virtual assistant. I see more hands now that I used to. Still, those same people who raise their hands end up finding me at some point and admitting that although they've heard of it, they really don't know what one does. Or how they could use one.
In my short introduction I find it hard to really give an explanation of just what it is I do. I've always used the line "I provide administrative support to busy business professionals via the Internet", but I still see a lot of blank stares. Even looking at my website copy (and that of other virtual assistants) I realize that I'm failing to truly answer the burning question.
What do you do?..."
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Source: Home Office Warrior, 13 January 2010
Copyright © 2008 Home Office Warrior. Reproduced with permission of Grant Griffiths.
We blogged about Aristotle's ideas on persuasion here. Aristotle talked about three pillars of persuasion: fact, emotion and credibility. A few hundred years later, Mannallack (2002) & Hosman & Siltanen (2006) write about what they think is important in persuasion. We'll focus on just a few of their ideas here..."
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Source: The Jury Room, 22 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
Attorneys in Need of a Support System
In the news: "Over the years, attorneys have become more isolated from their peers, says attorney Frederic S. Ury. If you are a solo or small firm lawyer, practicing law can be a very lonely existence. The informal support network for attorneys no longer exists. And unless you attend court on a regular basis or participate in bar association events, you no longer interact face-to-face with fellow attorneys. Ury suggests a mentoring program and a law office management assistance program to help combat isolation among lawyers."
Read full text
Associates, Take Ownership of Your Legal Work
In the news: "Nearly all associates, if they really think about it, can cite an example of their own sheer laziness. At the very least, associates can recall times when they consciously delivered an acceptable, but not exceptional, work product. In this new year, why not take ownership of the final work product? That's right -- independent thought and analysis are back in 2010. The editorial board of Young Lawyer calls on colleagues to research, proofread and edit as if "the buck stops here."
Social Networking: A Workplace Policy
In the news: "Web 2.0 technology holds great potential for employers, but not without risk. Attorneys William C. Martucci, Kristen A. Page, and Jennifer K. Oldvader discuss the laws that impact social networking in the workplace and provide guidance on developing a policy for social networks and blogs.
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 22 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
...Our focus, in times of change, goes instinctively to the problems at hand. What's broken and how do we fix it? This troubleshooting mind-set serves us well -- most of the time. If you run a nuclear power plant and your diagnostics turn up a disturbing signal once per month, you should most certainly obsess about it and fix the problem. And if your child brings home a report card with five As and one F, it makes sense to freak out about the F.
But in times of change, this mind-set will backfire. If we need to make major changes, then (by definition) we don't have a near-spotless report card. A lot of things are probably wrong. The "report card" for our diet, or our marriage, or our business, is full of Cs and Ds and Fs. So if you ask yourself, What's broken and how do I fix it?, you'll simply spin your wheels. You'll spend a lot of time agonizing over issues that are TBU.
Click to read the rest of "Switch: Don't Solve Problems--Copy Success" (Fast Company)."
Full text and active links are available by clicking on the author's name.
Source: idealawg, 21 January 2010 Reproduced with permission of the author.
I want to focus now on only one issue: the use of justified text -- that is, text printed in such a way that the right margins of all lines are equal. (The alternative -- where lines of text are more or less the same length -- is known as "ragged right.")..."
Continue reading this interesting by clicking on the author's name.
Source: Slaw.ca, 21 January 2010.
Reproduced with permission of Simon Fodden, founder of Slaw.
To reach the blog post and the active links, click on the author's name.
Source: Inter Alia, 21 January 2010
Reproduced with permission of the author.
Full text and active links are available by clicking on the author's name.
Source: Lawyerist.com, 20 January 2010 © 2007-2010 Lawyerist Media, LLC. Reproduced with permission of the site editor, Sam Glover.
There isn't much that comes as a surprise in this article. Most lawyers are well aware that these are the common complaints made about lawyers, and they claim that those complaints don't apply to their practice, and yet those complaints persist. Why? Is it just a misperception or are lawyers still failing in these areas?
Take a good, hard look at your own practice - can you improve in any of these areas?"
A few of the areas she discusses include:
Failure to communicate clearly
"Overlawyering" or taking a one size fits all approach
Being bad listeners
Giving the lion's share of the actual work to younger, less experienced lawyers
Wasting time on insignificant issues
Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Ease Blog, 20 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.
Altruism is good, but pro bono practice can benefit newer, unemployed and underemployed lawyers in important ways. Here are some (self-interested) reasons:..."
Continue reading this interesting post at the source site listed below.
Source: Lawyerist.com, 20 January 2010
© 2007-2010 Lawyerist Media, LLC. Reproduced with permission of the site editor, Sam Glover.
This post was written by J. Craig Williams: "A new year is upon us and the American Bar Association is carving out a new agenda with a new President. Please join me and my fellow attorney and co-host Bob Ambrogi as we welcome President-elect of the American Bar Association, Attorney Stephen N. Zack, to discuss his new role as President, the importance of civic education, inspiring our students through law and his fight for Hispanic rights. Give a click on the podcast icon below and give a listen!"
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: May it Please the Court, 14 January 2010
© 2003 - 2010 Mayitpleasethecourt.com, reproduced with permission of the author.
This post was written by Chuck Kallendorf: "
The Ohio Supreme Court announced Tuesday that a subcommittee of its Advisory Committee on Children, Families & the Courts, has developed a set of forms which have now been published for perusal & public comment.
All domestic relations courts in
Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source:
In the news: "In this economy, prospective employers are looking to save money wherever possible, and telephone interviews can be a cost-effective way to screen candidates before deciding on face-to-face interviews. Just because the interviewer can't see you doesn't mean you should take phone interviews less seriously, because they are often a make-or-break situation for job candidates, warn consultants Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass. They discuss how to handle phone interviews if opportunity comes calling on you."
Talking points include:
SCHEDULING
TECHNOLOGY
GET PREPARED BEFORE THE INTERVIEW
TONE OF VOICE
A SHORT SCRIPT CAN HELP AT THE BEGINNING
LISTEN!
USUAL RULES APPLY
THE CLOSE
BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT
FOLLOW UP
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 19 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Law Practice Management
How 'Pointless Interaction' Helped Law Firm Communication
by Debra Cassens Weiss, Senior Writer (0nline)
A law firm that developed a training program for 15 potential partners got a strong message from the participants: They needed to meet regularly to create a collaborative "successor generation."
Legal consultants from Altman Weil led the group, learning during the first workshop that two-thirds of the lawyers had never met each other, consultant Douglas Richardson writes in an Altman Weil (PDF) article. Read the full story here."
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Greatest American Lawyer, 16 January 2010.
Reproduced with permission of the author.
This post was written by Tara Calisham: "When I first got the e-mail about Stinky Teddy, I almost threw it away. I mean, Stinky Teddy? That could be anything. But I read a little more and I was reassured. Stinky Teddy is in fact the name of David Hardtke's daughter's beloved stuffed animal. David Hardtke took the name and adopted it for his search engine that collects buzz from all over the Web. Stinky Teddy, complete with cute logo, is available at http://www.stinkyteddy.com.
Stinky Teddy is what I guess you would call real time metasearch. Enter a keyword and you'll get search results from Bing, Yahoo, VideoSearch, Twitter, Oneriot, and Collecta. These different search types are choosable from the front page via checkboxes; I did a search for superbowl.
Stinky Teddy provides the results stacked on top of each other; Web, News, Images, Twitter, Popular Links, etc. There's also a "Buzz-O-Meter" that measure how fast tweets are being generated and posts added to OneRiot. My searches brought me discussions on Twitter, fairly current news, and overview Web sites for context. The videos didn't seem particularly "real-time," but that was the only spot that seemed weak..."
Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: ResearchBuzz, 21 January 2010
Copyright © 2006-2010 ResearchBuzz, reproduced with permission of the author.In the news: "The burden of authenticating a document as evidence is usually low, but doing so for a screen shot of a website is a challenge, as courts generally view such information with suspicion. As one federal judge noted: "Anyone can put anything on the Internet." It is "voodoo information."
Subject headings include:
AUTHENTICITY
AUTHENTICATION UNDER FEDERAL RULE OF EVIDENCE 901
AUTHENTICATION OF SCREEN SHOTS FROM ARCHIVE.ORG
SELF-AUTHENTICATION UNDER FRE 902
JUDICIAL NOTICE OF WEBSITES OR FACTS CONTAINED THEREIN
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 21 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
In the news: "Consultant Frank Michael D'Amore asks, how many times have wonderful opportunities been sitting virtually in front of us throughout our careers that were never seen, let alone appreciated, because of an inability to listen to what was being communicated? He discusses the benefits of truly listening with an open mind. Do not assume that you have every angle covered and know everything in a particular situation, says D'Amore, noting that he's found these concepts especially difficult for lawyers to appreciate."
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 20 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
I think the lapboard could be used in many other situations with seniors, including estate planning. The board is not only helpful for the senior but also for the communicator to help clarify his or her concept organization..."
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: idealawg, 19 January 2010
Reproduced with permission of the author.
At a deposition, an attorney is required to object to those defects that are immediately curable--that is, irregularities that opposing counsel can correct at the deposition. Such defects include procedural matters, such as the manner of taking a deposition, the form of questions or answers, the oath or affirmation, and the conduct of the parties.
Timely objections are necessary, for instance, where a question is leading, vague or unintelligible, mischaracterizes prior testimony, calls for speculation, or constitutes a compound question. Problems can also arise with answers. If the attorney taking the deposition believes the witness has not provided a responsive answer, that attorney should object accordingly.
There's much more in the complete article. The authors are lawyers at Shapiro Sher Guinot & Sandler."
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Trial Practice Tips Weblog, 19 January 2010
Reproduced with permission of the author.
This post was written by Nicole Garton-Jones:
The Demographic Landscape of Law
"The recent Law Society of BC Report on the Retention of Women in Law Task Force notes as follows:
• Women have been entering the legal profession in BC in numbers equal to or greater than men for more than a decade, yet represent only about 34% of all practicing lawyers in the province and only about 29% of lawyers in full-time private practice; and
• the legal profession in BC is aging and there will be a net reduction in the number of practicing lawyers - a looming shortage - as older lawyers retire without a corresponding increase in younger lawyers joining the profession.
The February 2007 cover story of California Lawyer magazine was entitled "We're Outta Here: Why Women are Leaving Big Firms." The article noted the serious issue of high attrition rates from the legal profession:
"The past few years have witnessed the highest levels of associate attrition ever documented, with an average annual attrition rate for both sexes of 19 percent, as recently reported by the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education. Within five years of entering a firm, more than three-quarters of associates leave. Female associates were nearly twice as likely as males to depart to pursue a better work/life balance."
The article's key quote was:
"If law firms want to get the best and brightest young women to join them and stay, they will likely need to change radically and adopt different definitions of sacrifice and partnership."
Talking points for the rest of the article include:
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Slaw.ca, 19 January 2010
Reproduced with permission of Simon Fodden, founder of Slaw.
In the news: "In law school and in practice, lawyers always talk about balancing acts, notes attorney David Koller. As a solo, there are two separate ones he thinks of all the time: balancing marketing and actual legal work, and balancing his private and professional life. Koller, who is in his first year as a solo practitioner, discusses his approach to marketing in this early stage of his solo career, and how his flexible schedule is helping him to maintain a better balance among work, play and family."
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 20 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Just like other advertising media, the key is measuring the directory's performance for your firm. While many paid directories will claim hundreds or thousands of visitors, this should not be used as an indication of how well the directory will perform for your firm.
Here are a few factors that will help determine a directory's likelihood of performance:
Another topic of discussion is - "Measuring Performance for Your Firm"
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Lawyerist.com, 20 January 2010
Reproduced with permission of the site editor, Sam Glover.
This post was written by Ernest Svenson: "Most speeches are too long, which is a shame because almost every speech has some useful information. So what if you created a program that lets people present a bunch of short talks?
How short?
5 minutes. Period. No more, no less. If you want to use Powerpoint, that's cool. But, with this ironclad rule: 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. Period. No more, no less.
This type of program is called 'Ignite,' and it was started in
Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Ernie the Attorney, 18 January 2010
Reproduced with permission of the author.
Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Future Lawyer, 19 January 2010
Copyright 1996-2010, Richard M. Georges, reproduced with permission of the authorThis post was written by Chuck Kallendorf: "The United States Supreme Court Tuesday reinstated the death penalty sentence for Frank Spisak's 1982 shooting spree at
"(The Sixth Circuit)," the Court said, "erred in holding that the instructions and forms contravened Mills v. Maryland, in which this Court held that the jury instructions and verdict forms at issue violated the Constitution because, read naturally, they told the jury that it could not find a particular circumstance to be mitigating unless all 12 jurors agreed that the mitigating circumstance had been proved to exist... (and) Even assuming that Mills sets forth the pertinent 'clearly established Federal law' for reviewing the state-court decision in this case, the instructions and forms used here differ significantly from those in Mills: They made clear that, to recommend a death sentence, the jury had to find unanimously that each of the aggravating factors outweighed any mitigating circumstances, but they did not say that the jury had to determine the existence of each individual mitigating factor unanimously. Nor did they say anything about how--or even whether--the jury should make individual determinations that each particular mitigating circumstance existed. They focused only on the overall question of balancing the aggravating and mitigating factors, and they repeatedly told the jury to consider all relevant evidence. Thus, the instructions and verdict forms did not clearly bring about, either through what they said or what they implied, the constitutional error in the Mills instructions."
...
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source:
I was pleasantly surprised to receive the
Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Slaw.ca, 14 January 2010
This post was written by Tom Kane: "Everyone knows today that it is a buyers' market when it comes to legal services. One only has to pay attention to the surveys reporting that clients are dropping law firms that no longer meet their needs in terms of responsiveness, costs, communications, and otherwise fail to meet their expectations.
I ran across an article by Kimberly Alfred Rice over on the Law Practice Matters blog that identifies six ways that a law firm can chase clients away.
They include failure to:
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 14 January 2010
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Trial Practice Tips Weblog, 14 January 2010
For this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast I thought I would grab one of my favorite podcasters Mignon Fogarty. Fogarty is known to legions as Grammar Girl and she's built an impressive empire dishing out Grammar and a growing list of other topics in Quick and Dirty style.
...
In this podcast:
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 12 January 2010
Copyright 2003-2010
In the news: "Social media are becoming increasingly central to corporate communications, but with them come new risks as conversations get too casual and typing too loose. Reed Smith partner Douglas J. Wood suggests five steps corporate counsel can take to deal with social media and their risks."
The five steps:
1. Join in the conversation...
2. Monitor the conversation...
3. Influence the conversation...
4. Limit the conversation...
5. Empower your social media guru...
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 15 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
This post was written by Tara Caisham: "I have been covering Twitter tools more and more on ResearchBuzz. You might be wondering why. Here's why: because Twitter, with its millions of users sending out tens of millions of tweets, is a great source to monitor for information and links. And there are some amazing people out there holding useful conversations. So you're going to get see more Twitter tool coverage here, because whether you personally want to use it or not it's an important information stream. (And you personally do not have to use it to take advantage of it as an information stream.)
I am always looking for interesting people to follow on Twitter so I appreciated learning about Twiangluate, at http://twiangulate.com. Besides sounding like it must have been founded by Elmer Fudd, Twiangulate lets you enter two or three Twitter users and find common followers between them..."
Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: ResearchBuzz, 14 January 2010
Copyright © 2006-2010 ResearchBuzz
Also read his review of Amicus Premium Edition 2010
Continue reading this interesting post at the source site listed below.
Source: Does It Compute?, 11 and 13 January 2010
Continue reading this interesting and important post at the source site listed below.
Source: Lawyerist.com, 12 January 2010
© 2007-2010 Lawyerist Media, LLC.
Source: Slaw.ca, 13 January 2010
But what we have is actually a semantic problem rather than a leadership problem. The issue is that in the age of the Internet, what it means to be a leader is changing. And we need a new way to talk about leadership so we can talk about identifying leaders.
The old view of leadership is doing it from the top...
Leadership style is generational...
Beware of BS books about women leaders...
The way to be a good leader is to lead from the middle...
Get a tribe..."
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist, 13 January 2010
© 2009 Penelope Trunk, All Rights Reserved
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source:
This post was written by Chuck Kallendorf: "The U.S. Supreme Court released notice of revisions to brief and document preparation rules yesterday. They become effective on February 16, 2010.
The Court's announcement highlighted major changes as including:
Rules of the Supreme Court"
The full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source:
The demand for online social networking has become so ubiquitous that a recent reported outage of severe Internet controls in
Read more...
Related Resources
• 5 Ways Law Firms Can Market With Social Media
Source: FindLaw's The Practice Paper: For Solo & Small Firm Lawyers. 13 January 2010 Copyright © 2010 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe
Here's the episode description:
In part two of this two-part series on legal technology trends, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell peer into the crystal ball to find the key trends and storylines to expect in legal technology in 2010. Will the economy keep a lid on significant developments? What role will Internet and mobile technologies play? What should lawyers, law firms and other legal organizations be putting into their strategic technology plans? In addition, Dennis and Tom make predictions about technology in general and legal technology in particular.
..."
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: DennisKennedy.blog, 5 January 2010
© 1995 - 2005 Dennis Kennedy.
In the news: "Good software ages gracefully, an apt portrayal of iBlaze, the litigation support software from CT Summation. Nonetheless, according to consultant Brett Burney, the new iBlaze 3.0 brings much-needed feature upgrades to address the tempestuous world of e-discovery and electronic evidence."
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 11 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
What's this day all about? From the press release [pdf]:
Celebrate the great gift of laughter on Global Belly Laugh Day, January 24. Global Belly Laugh Day is a celebration of the laughs and smiles that transform moments 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on the 7 continents. The celebration of the gift of laughter is playful, easy and fun. On Global Belly Laugh Day, January 24 at 1:24 p.m. (local time) people around the world smile, throw their arms in the air and laugh out loud. They Join the Belly Laugh Bounce 'Round the World..."
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: idealawg, 12 January 2010
The question is often phrased as "How . . ." or "How can you sleep at night when you . . ." but those demand smartass answers like "very well" or "on a pillowcase full of hundred-dollar bills."
Typically, the laypeople (in which group I include civil lawyers and prosecutors) asking the question don't understand the niceties of legal and factual guilt, so the question is usually ". . . people you know to be guilty," which demands the answer, "they aren't guilty till they're proven guilty," which is not smartass but will be seen as such by people who don't understand that "guilty" is a term of art.
The Question assumes something that is true only rarely, if ever: that the criminal defense lawyer knows what happened. Some reject the premise. It's not the criminal defense lawyer's job to decide whether his client is guilty or not. Even if a client swears to have done the deed, the lawyer can and should doubt--clients lie to us, and do so for the strangest reasons.
But, for purposes of this post, accept the premise.
Why does The Question matter? Criminal defense lawyers don't agonize over it--they just know. Most of the non-criminal-defense-lawyers asking the question will never, no matter how we answer, understand.
...
So this post is an effort to categorize the various answers to The Question, with examples. I'll update it as time goes along, as a reference for those who follow after.
I. The Sixth Amendment Answer...
II. The Flawed System Answer...
III. The Biblical Answer...
IV. The Compassionate Answer...
V. The Cog-in-the-Machine Answer...
VI. The John Wayne Answer...
VII. The Martin Luther Answer...
In other words, wir können nicht anders.
Full text and active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Defending People, 8 January 2010
Copyright © 2010 Defending People
What is keeping you from creating and maintaining meaningful and effective business relationships, whether with colleagues, clients or employees? How can you translate Walsh's 'stripped down' approach to your practice? What can you simplify or eliminate?
Here are a few thoughts to get you started:..."
Continue reading this interesting post at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Ease Blog, 12 January 2010
In the news: "Irrefutably, solo and small firm practitioners need to embrace some of the marketing gems of this technology-laden society. However, solo Renee C. Berman suspects that solo practitioners' marketing efforts are actually being diluted when technology is the only strategy used to market their practice. Berman discusses why relying less on technology and more on traditional networking techniques, like face-to-face communication, may help considerably in building relationships and getting work."
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 13 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
The problems arising by operating outside your niche are:
You will dilute your message...
You do not have that much time on your hands...
You are competing in a broader legal market place...
The bottom line. Do not abandon your niche. Instead, boost the time you spend marketing your niche to overcome the economic drag."
The full text of this interesting post is available at the source site listed below
Source: Chuck Newton Rides the Third Wave, 10 January 2010
This post was written by Tom Kane: "Now is a good time to consider gearing up your business development efforts. One way to do that is to hire a coach. And a post over on Jamie Field - Enlightened Rainmaking mentions six reasons for doing so:
[Follow the active link above to view the six (seven) reasons]
There are many good coaches out there, and the most critical factors to take into consider in hiring a coach include:
[Four factors can be viewed at Tom's blog]
Some lawyers prefer that their coach meet with them in person, while others find that coaching sessions by telephone work just fine. Each lawyer should determine what would work best for them.
The important thing is that a coach can help you focus, plan and provide valuable support in your business development efforts. Give it some thought."
Full text and active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 12 January 2010
In the news: "As firms' need for face-to-face meetings has grown, so has their appetite for communications tools that aren't just cheaper than travel, but that come close to replicating the in-person experience. The best videoconferencing comes so close the industry coined a new term: telepresence."
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 12 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
This post was written by Tara Calisham: "Google has announced that Google Docs is set to become more than just a place to make presentations, spreadsheets, and documents. Over the next few weeks Google will be rolling out the ability to upload all file types to Google Docs. Individual files will have a limit of 250MB, but you'll have a total of 1GB of space to store your files. If you need more space than that it'll cost you .25 per GB per year.
(Remember when GMail first launched and it had 1GB of storage and everyone thought it was AAAAMAAAAZZING? Now it seems a little skimpy, doesn't it?)
Anyway, this feature is not available to everybody right this second; keep an eye out for a bubble notification when you sign on to Google Docs. While you're hanging around Google Documents waiting you might want to check on some features you might have missed, like the ability to share folders, or detecting and translating languages within spreadsheet cells. You can also check out the rules for uploading files."
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: ResearchBuzz, 12 January 2010
Copyright © 2006-2010 ResearchBuzz
This post was written by Anthony Cerminaro: "I highly recommend this profound presentation by the late Dr. Russell L. Ackoff, the dean of the systems thinking community. In it, Dr. Ackoff dicusses the history, nature and application of systems thinking. A few of his observations will give you an idea of the force of the presentation:
-The properties of a system (e.g. a business organization, an automobile or the human body) depend on the way in which the parts of the system interact.
-When a system is taken apart, it loses all of its essential properties and so do each of its parts (e.g. Take the motor out of an auto and what's left is not an auto. Moreover, the motor no longer moves anything. It just sits there.)
-A system is not the sum of its parts. It is the product of the interactions of its parts.
...
Dr. Ackoff cites specific instances where systems thinking was used to dissolve seemingly intractable problems. To eliminate an illiteracy problem in an inner city grade school, for example, a team of which Dr. Ackoff was a member, used a grant to set up a continuous showing of Charlie Chaplin silent films that students could watch at any time. Soon the illiteracy problem dissolved, as students became motivated to learn to read so that they could understand the subtitles."
The full text and active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: BizzBangBuzz, 6 January 2010This essay treats a legal education as an investment, and asks the question of whether, based on known costs and expected benefits, such investment should be undertaken. The inquiry will necessarily differ from one potential law student to another. But for three posited "typical students," the investment is shown to be a bad one.
Several options available for retrieval of full text."
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Docuticker, 6 January 2010
There's a risk of this if you hang out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn--especially if you use the "status updates" features within these tools.
If you are a negatively-oriented person, it won't take long for people to see that you view the glass half full.
If you are using any of the these tools for relationship development, especially business relationships, you may be doing yourself more harm than good. While you might elicit sympathy--some will surely rally-round and empathize, thereby encouraging more of this posting behavior--humans are, overall, more attracted to optimists than pessimists.
People definitely don't want to hire or refer folks to Negative Nellys and Donny Downers.
...
If you're on Linked In or Twitter, you probably ARE there for business reasons, and being negative undermines your efforts, big time.
3 ways to discern if you're turning people off
Everyone has the occasional bad day. Crummy traffic, bad service somewhere, kids out of control, or the occasional cold or flu. A random post now and again about such human things is no big deal if you more than balance it out with a more positive outlook on life.
But when downers are the trend, it's something you'll want to recognize and improve. Here's what to look for:
1 - Consider your present situation and demeanor...
2 - Review your status updates...
3 - Ask a sampling of trusted people...
What to do to improve your image..."
The full text of this interesting and important post is available at the source site listed below
Source: Golden Practices, 10 January 2010
According to Raymond Ward at the (new) legal writer, 'If you're a trial judge or trial lawyer, you need to read it.'"
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Trial Practice Tips Weblog, 7 January 2010
This post was written by Tom Kane: "Okay, the holidays are over. Time to focus on business. And the best source of new business is from existing clients (either in the form of new matters or referrals), and other referral sources. I have talked about this several times before. But don't just take my word for it.
Paula Black had a post on her blog In Black & White earlier last month that I thought was too important to get lost in the holidays. So, I made a note to cover it early in the new year. She talks about two marketing strategies relating to referrals that individual lawyers and law firms should consider.
She conducted a survey of her readers, and learned that 65% of referrals came from "existing clients or other attorneys." Actually, if you include referrals from former clients, the percentage jumps to eighty; which matches exactly the number I was able to track at two of my firms when I was an in-house marketer.
Paula's two strategies are both basic and simple to implement:...
Continue reading this interesting post and get active links at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 5 January 2010
This post was written by Penelope Trunk: "People at work are asking me why I am not working as many hours as I used to. I am. But I am working on anger management. Here are seven tips I've tried using:
1. Face the problem and make it a priority.
2. Focus on your trigger points.
3. Use deep breathing to regulate stress.
3. Have a regular sleep schedule to improve your ability to self-regulate.
4. Accept that every day includes unpredictability, and that's okay.
5. Understand the true source of your frustration.
6. Understand the impact food has on your moods.
7. Use solutions-based language in tense conversations.
8. Slow down a tough situation so you make good decisions.
The full text of this post is available at the source site listed below
Source: Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist, 8 January 2010
© 2009 Penelope Trunk, All Rights Reserved
In the news: "In this slow period in the legal job market, interviews are few and far between. Therefore, candidates must make the most of each precious opportunity. In a series of articles, consultants Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass will provide tips and techniques for handling different types of interviews as well as some of the sticky situations that can arise. In this first article, the authors examine some of the basics, such as preparation, proper etiquette and dress and when to bring up money questions."
Topics discussed include:
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Inter Alia, 30 December 2009
I asked a number of attorneys recently about their professional goals for 2010. Almost all of them responded that they'd like to increase revenues, expand their client base, or grow their business in 2010. Are those really goals? After all, doesn't everyone want to make more money this year than they did last year (especially with the dismal economy in 2009?)
If you're going to bother setting goals at all, those goals should mean something - they should be tied to the core principles of your practice and the services you provide to your clients. They should be specific enough to gauge whether you're making progess toward those goals throughout the year, and to allow you to identify what else needs to be done to meet the goal.
Make sure your goals are realistic. You can have a wish list of things that you'd like to accomplish, but that isn't the same thing as having goals. Your goals need to be achievable within the time frame you've designated. Taking on too many goals at once or goals that are unrealistic will overwhelm you. If you reach your goals early, you can always add more..."
Allison lists three more ideas that you should read and keep in mind during the coming year!
Continue reading this interesting post at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Ease Blog, 6 January 2010
In the news: "Give a long second thought to padding that resume or fudging the truth on a job application, especially if you're a lawyer. Consider the case of a lawyer whose professional standing is under attack because
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 8 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Here is why I think that:
Recently, Gretchen Rubin sent me her new book, The Happiness Project: Why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my closets, fight right, read Aristotle, and generally have more fun.
...
People who are basically happy and want to talk about it. Because happiness is contagious. So I kept reading the book. And, you know what? I didn't love the book, but I love that it made me think a lot more about the stuff she wrote about.
...
Sonja Lyubomirsky, psychology professor at the
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist, 7 January 2010
© 2009 Penelope Trunk, All Rights Reserved
This post was written by Dan Hull: "WAC/WAP? is at heart about Quality, Old Verities, and Values--the things no business, government, non-profit group, religion, politician or leader (a) wants to give you or (b) can give you. You have to find them on your own. Work and Service, whether you are paid for them or not, are inseparable from these things.
At this blog, at our firm, and in our lives, we seek (in the largest sense) serious overachievers, and aficionados of life, past and present: identifying them, learning from them, having them as friends, hiring them and, above all, never holding them back.
It is often hard to find these people--or even to remember that they once existed.
We do, after all, live in a cookie-cutter world. Originality, intuition, authentic spirituality, and even taste are not valued--these traits are often feared and attacked--in most of the West.
Continue reading... this interesting post at the source site listed below.
Source: What About Clients? 1 January 2010
© 2005-2009 John Daniel Hull. All rights reserved.
"Westlaw Classic" Remains...
Different Look and Feel...
Collaborate Through Shared Folder Functions...
Some Firms Testing Now... Full Release at LegalTech...
I look forward to seeing the new "West Next" product. Those that have seen it seem to think it is a very good product."
The full text of this post is available at the source site listed below
Source: 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, 8 January 2010
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: idealawg, 6 January 2010
This post was written by Tara Calisham: "Thanks to TeleRead for the pointer to AddAll's new e-book search engine, available at http://ebooks.addall.com/. The pointer from the front page says that it's "available for testing," so perhaps it's in beta, but it worked fine for me. It searches over 30 ebook sites to find stuff for you to read.
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: ResearchBuzz, 7 January 2010
Copyright © 2006-2010 ResearchBuzz
From the e-newsletter: "I have been writing weekly on technology issues the entirety of the past decade - and what a decade it has been! Technology convergence has been fantastic, with more to come, but we need to make sure that our gadgets do not extract too much of a social cost."
Source: FindLaw's Modern Practice: Law & Technology. 7 January 2010. Copyright © 2010 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.
From the site: "2008-2133 and 2008-2228. State v. Underwood, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-1.
Opinion: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2010/2010-Ohio-1.pdf
View oral argument video of this case.
The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today that R.C. 2953.08(D)(1), which bars a criminal defendant from appealing a jointly recommended sentence that is "authorized by law," does not bar appellate review in cases where the sentence imposed by a trial court is contrary to a mandatory provision of the state's criminal sentencing statutes..."
From the site: "2008-1669. State v. Whitfield, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-2.
Cuyahoga App. No. 90244, 2008-Ohio-3150.
Opinion: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2010/2010-Ohio-2.pdf
View oral argument video of this case.
In a 5-2 decision announced today, the Supreme Court of Ohio clarified the procedures to be followed by
Source: The Supreme Court of Ohio, 5 January 2010
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source:
This post was written by Julie A. Fleming: "One of the top concerns for most lawyers is time management. We all have so much to accomplish in so little time, and it often seems that we're always trying to cram more activities (whether professional or personal) into the non-negotiable 168 hours we have each week. Most of my coaching clients bring time management issues to the table at some point, and time pressures are largely responsible for the high levels of stress that many lawyers face.
One distinction, "urgent" versus "important," can form the basis for effective time management. Urgent vs. important is a simple distinction that applies equally to the substance of a lawyer's work as well as to practice or career management. Stephen Covey has written about time use and devised a four-quadrant chart to help us judge where we spend most of our time:...
Continue reading this interesting post at the source site listed below.
Source: Life at the Bar, 6 January 2010
© Life at the Bar LLC Blog
The full text of this post and actice links are available at the source site listed below
Source: Slaw.ca, 7 January 2010
Those older demean those younger (and the youth are not particularly admiring of their elders). Whether we do this in our personal lives or not, is naturally, a personal choice (and just as naturally, has consequences for our relationships). But in the courtroom and in voir dire, it is wiser to make choices based on what we know to be true of human nature rather than what we assume or choose to believe.
Here is (courtesy of the
All of these factoids have relevance for voir dire, case presentation and witness preparation..."
Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Jury Room, 6 January 2010
Play GAL Radio - Jim Hassett of LegalBizDev discusses Alternative Billing
- Greatest American Lawyer
- Read Transcript
- Publish this Show on Your Website
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Greatest American Lawyer, 15 December 2009
This post was written by Tom Mighell: I've never been very good at predicting the future, and trying to guess what's going to happen with lawyers in the next year is usually a challenge for me. But why should that stop me from trying?
The latest episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast, entitled Looking Forward: Legal Technology in 2010 is out and ready for download to your iPod or favorite MP3 player. [You can also play on your computer directly from the site] Here's a description of the show:
In part two of this two-part series on legal technology trends, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell peer into the crystal ball to find the key trends and storylines to expect in legal technology in 2010. Will the economy keep a lid on significant developments? What role will Internet and mobile technologies play? What should lawyers, law firms and other legal organizations be putting into their strategic technology plans? In addition, Dennis and Tom make predictions about technology in general and legal technology in particular.
Give it a listen - we had fun with this one!"
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Inter Alia, 6 January 2010
This post was written by Wayne Schiess: "Jim McElhaney has for many years given great advice on litigation in the ABA Journal. In the January 2010 issue, he recommends against using the following words in examining a witness. I'm against the same words, for the same reasons, in legal writing:
Prior and subsequent: "Before" and "after" are perfectly good words. Use them instead.
Previous: Worse than "prior."
Contemporaneously: Worse than "previous." "At the same time" is understood instantly.
Have occasion to: Needless clutter that often follows "did you . . . ?" Don't use it.
With respect to: An awkward way to say "about" or "concerning."
...
Continue reading this interesting post at the source site listed below.
Source: Legalwriting.net Blog, 6 January 2010
Al of us at the Stark County Law Library would like to say a big THANK YOU to Dennis Kennedy for awarding our blog one of his annual "Blawggie" Awards!
Just a reminder:
In the following posts, the author's name links to the blog post cited and the blog's name in the source links to the main blog page followed by the date where the post can be found.
I realized this after spending two years reading what positive psychologists have discovered makes people happy. And, it turns out, that everything we know about what makes us happy comes down to having self-discipline to do what we know want to be doing.
So of course making a New Year's resolutions doesn't work, because it's the act of saying, "I want to make a change, but I'm not going to do it now. I'm going to do it in January." That's not self-discipline, that's procrastination, right?
If you want to make a change in your life, you can start right now, with something that is not that hard to change.
1. Start small...
2. Think in increments of three weeks...
3. Get the wording right...
4. Visualize what you will look like...
5. Forget New Year's day. Start now..."
The full text of this interesting post and the active link are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist, 29 December 2009
© 2009 Penelope Trunk, All Rights Reserved
This post was written by Allison Shields: "The folks over at JDSupra have done a great job of compiling thoughts, predictions, wishes and tips from a variety of lawyers and legal professionals entitled, "Lawyers and Legal Professionals Looking Ahead to 2010" - I recommend that you take a look at them all, but here are some of my favorites:..."
Have you ever arrived at work, only to realize that you do not remember any scenery or landmarks during your drive? At the end of your shower, have you ever realized that you are not sure whether you washed your hair? Or more important, think back to your last conversation with a loved one: Do you remember the details of what you talked about? For many, these examples highlight the fact that we live much of our days in automatic-pilot mode. We have our routines at home and at work, and we go through the motions, not truly paying attention to what we are doing. Our minds wander elsewhere, and we end up eating without tasting, looking without seeing, and talking without knowing what we are saying...
Click to read the rest of "Teaching Mindfulness to Children" (Gestalt Review) [pdf]. The exercises described in this article work just as well for adults. Why mindfulness?"
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: idealawg, 5 January 2010
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Trial Practice Tips Weblog, 17 December 2009
First, let me say that RSS is an amazing technology and I wish more people would make use of it. In fact, if you want to use an RSS reader and simply want to subscribe to everything I read (you can delete what you don't want) then download this OPML file and import it into your RSS reader.
Everyone laments the downfall (or, at least, serious downgrade) of newspapers. I don't waste time lamenting things that are inevitable. Newspapers (or any daily paper-based publication) face the harsh reality that printing every day, coupled with every day physical delivery, is a frighteningly expensive way to deliver information. And, if the reason you're printing every day is to cover 'breaking news,' then you're basically trying to defy gravity. Twitter is fast, free and scaling virally. So good luck to the newspapers. I predict that in ten years there will only be 5 national papers, and a smattering of local ones.
What will we do then? Sad as it may seem to you, you'll be on our own. You'll have to sift through the mass of information and latch on to the good stuff. Wouldn't it be cool if you could subscribe to the best online feed for each topic that you were interested in? You can. Right now. The future, my friends, "is here but just not evenly distributed." So, tap into the future now, and let the newspapers arrange their funerals on their own.
So, if I were building my own personal newspaper from online sources here are the feeds I'd subscribe to..."
Find out his picks and get the active links at:
Source: Ernie the Attorney, 1 January 2010
This post was written by
Instead of a single query box, you have to tell Goby at least two of three things: what you want to do, where you want to do it, and when you want to do it....
The results show the name of the place, an image, and where the listing came from (in this case backpacker.com.) There are also additional buttons to show more info, get photos, or search for what's nearby...
Goby is a good idea, though you might have to tweak your searches a little to get what you want. I see a lot of possibilities as more APIs offer geolocation tools and services. Pictures of the
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: ResearchBuzz, 5 January 2010
Copyright © 2006-2010 ResearchBuzz
And, now, I have a new excuse to give She Who Must Be Obeyed. Honey, I broke the computer, and I can't send it in because I have client confidential communications on the hard drive. Here is an article about it. So, I have to keep the old one safe and secure, and buy a new one!"
In the news: "Deciding to become an early adopter for Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system was one of those moments when all of the stars aligned for Allen Matkins. It was time to replace hardware, improve efficiency, and make lawyers more effective with 24/7 access to mission-critical tools."
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 6 January 2010. Copyright 2009. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
You will notice a slight change in format of the Stark County Law Library Weblog.
The first link (the author of the post) links to the post I am citing.
The last link is to the main blog page and is followed by the date to locate the post.
I hope this format is more convenient for the reader and produces more link backs to the origional post!
This post was written by Chuck Newton: "I am not a futurist and I do not have a crystal ball, but here are some of the changes I see in the next decade, of which attorneys need to be tuned into if they wish to thrive.
1. Death to the desktop...
2. Death to the office...
3. Unbundled legal services...
4. Death to downloads...
5. The cloud rather than the hard drive...
6. High bandwidth...
7. Extras will become standard...
8. Production rather than consumption...
9. Suggestions rather than searches...
10. Personal connection...
Are you ready?"
The full text of this post is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Chuck Newton Rides the Third Wave, 30 December 2009
From the e-newsletter: "Think about the lawyers whose conduct appears to be "on the edge" but who are nonetheless largely ignored. Should questions arise about our own conduct precisely because of such willingness to let our colleagues' behavior go unchecked? The longer we avoid such questions, the more we place at risk our collective professional reputation, write Joel Cohen and Katherine Helm."
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 4 January 2010. Copyright 2008. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
I LOVE the ultimate Murphy's law! Visit the source site listed below for the full text of this post.
Source: Does it Compute?, 4 January 2010
For this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast, I grabbed a few minutes with Tim Ferriss, author of the newly released - The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated. The expanded edition features over 100 pages of case studies and anecdotes taken from people that embraced Tim's Lifestyle Design theme and put it into action in their lives over the last few years.
Tim's book was a surprise run away best seller when first released and landed him in the spotlight for those who garnered hope from his positive message of work less and live more. However, his message also created a camp of doubters that likely felt the message was unrealistic. I find it ironic that Amazon has his book selling in tandem with Gary Vs CrushIT message of work 80 hours a week until your eyes bleed..."
Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 29 December 2009
