Recently in Career planning Category

This post was written by Ernest Svenson: "Last Saturday I taught a two hour skills course to 30 or so Loyola Law Students about Digital Lawyering. Almost every one of them had a laptop in front of them, which was good. I was hooked to the Internet and demonstrated how to find things using Internet services like Google Reader, Delicious and so forth. As I referred to these services I sensed that the students were going to those sites and reading along for themselves. As I said, I think this is a good thing...

The other reason that I'm not bothered, and actually happy to see students using their computers as I talk is this. My generation is pretty lame when it comes to gathering information in the digital world. In law this manifests itself most starkly in the world of e-discovery. Discovery, in law, is all about getting the low-down on what really happened in a lawsuit. You can get the low-down by interviewing witnesses or deposing them, but that takes time, costs money and is inherently unreliable. What people say happened is not usually exactly what happened...

Most lawyers have trouble with email (and digital information in general) because they don't understand how to navigate that world. Lawyers who don't search for things on Internet are the worst. They lack a fundamental skill that's needed to efficiently attack digital information. Naturally they're inept when it comes to handling electronic discovery. Some of them are committing serious malpractice. But, of course, they have no idea...

Law students today use the web like detectives. They know how to gather information (fine), but they instinctively know how to trace back the steps that other people use to find information. This mindset and the online research skills that come with it are dangerous. At least to some people...

The next generation will not graduate from law school and immediately surpass veteran lawyers.  But they have a skill that's already in high demand, but short supply.  Veteran lawyers can't quickly learn how to gather and process digital information. Most young lawyers will learn how to practice law fairly quickly, or at least much faster than the veteran lawyers will learn what they should be learning."

Full text and active links are available by clicking on the author's name.

Source: Ernie the Attorney, 8 March 2010, reproduced with permission of the author.

In the news: "The adage "It's not what you say, but how you say it" is true. In interviews you need to effectively communicate your professionalism both verbally and nonverbally. Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass discuss the importance of body language -- both yours and your interviewer's."

Topics discussed include:

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

POSTURE

VOICE

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

GESTURES

EYE CONTACT

READING THE INTERVIEWER'S BODY LANGUAGE

MIRRORING

YOUR EXIT

PRACTICE

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 8 March 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

For tips on selling your practice, watch Ed Poll's YouTube video at: LawBiz Blog, 2 March 2010.

This post was written by Julie A. Fleming: "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them And People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell

The subtitle of Maxwell's book is "Follow Them, and People Will Follow You."  Each time I read that line, I hear a rejoinder in my head:  "Don't follow them, and people won't follow you."  Revised and updated in 2007 for the 10th anniversary of The 21 Irrefutable Laws, this book is rightly regarded as a foundational piece of the leadership literature.

As the title indicates, Maxwell presents 21 laws of leadership, all of which are free-standing and yet buttressed by one another.  You can learn quite a bit simply by reviewing the 21 laws with Maxwell's brief explanation of each..."

Continue reading this interesting post by clicking on the author's name.

Source: Life at the Bar, 17 February 2010. © Life at the Bar LLC Blog, reproduced with permission of the author.

In the news: "Questions you ask as a job candidate are just as important as those asked by the interviewer, note consultants Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass. You can use questions not only to learn more about the employer, but also to demonstrate your knowledge and express your interest."

Topics discussed include:

PREPARATION

FRAMING YOUR QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS TO AVOID INITIALLY

FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 1 March 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

In the news: "Beth Baldwin, an assistant state disciplinary counsel in Connecticut, says there's increased demand for trustees -- lawyers who volunteer to assist clients, refer cases and clean up files when another lawyer has died or can no longer maintain a practice. "People are working longer and doing things on a smaller scale and once they're gone there's no one there to pick up the pieces," she says. Trustee work requires a significant amount of commitment, but volunteers also find it rewarding to help other lawyers."

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 26 February 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

In the news: "The hidden dangers lurking in many interviews are those tough or possibly inappropriate questions for which there seem to be no right answers, but many wrong ones, note consultants Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass. They discuss how to save yourself if you get hit with one."

DANGEROUS QUESTIONS include:

• Tell me about yourself.

• Why are you looking to move?

• Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?

• What are your strengths/weaknesses?

• Why do you want to relocate?

• What do you do in your free time?

• The Hypothetical

• Questions for which you don't have an answer

QUESTIONABLE QUESTIONS include:

• Marital Status/Children

• Age

• Political, Religious and Social Affiliations

• Nationality and Citizenship

• Disabilities

and OFFENSIVE QUESTIONS

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 22 February 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

This post was written by Susan Cartier Liebel:  "...Plan for solo practice, not the Big Law job and the Big Law job opportunity may present itself.

To answer you regarding this particular thinking, the new grads are worrying about the wrong issue and their thinking is incorrect.  They should plan for solo practice BECAUSE of the economy and by doing so, they are MORE attractive to the new firm emerging out of this chaos.  Why?  The new firms are going to be (or should be) more interested in self-starters and someone who doesn't have to be hand-held through any process, who can make rain independently and reduce the large firm's initial training costs...

The full text of this interesting post is available by clicking on the author's name.

Source: Build a Solo Practice, 15 February 2010 @ SPU Copyright 2010 Susan Cartier Liebel, reproduced with permission.

From the e-newsletter: "Perhaps very welcome news to legal employees is ButterflyVista's recent release of JobFish 2010; a windows application that facilitates the use of online job boards to seek employment opportunities."

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Source: FindLaw's Modern Practice: Law & Technology. 18 February 2010 Copyright © 2010 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.

In the news: "Today, there's no need to leave the legal profession if you no longer wish to practice law. Attorneys are well-suited to several administrative roles within a law firm setting, as discussed by Saul Ewing's Leslie Kart Gross and Jennifer Smuts of Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz."

From the article: "There are a number of different administrative roles within a law firm setting for which attorneys are particularly well-suited. They include:

• Marketing

• Recruiting

• Professional development

• Pro bono and diversity

• Client relations

• Human resources"

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 17 February 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.