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Blog glob: Attorney playground rules

Blog globs are little posts, no more than a few lines. Here's idealawg's first blog glob.

Ethically Speaking

by Shannon Leonard-Boone

Each fall, law professor Grace Giesel explains to students that playground rules also apply to attorneys' ethical conduct.

"I'll say, 'You would be able to answer the ethics questions we'll be talking about when you were 7,' " said Giesel, who teaches the required course, "Professional Responsibility," at the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law.

"The basic concepts are: You don't lie, you don't cheat and you don't steal," Giesel said.

Rest of Ethically Speaking

Graying of the Bar? Try boomeritis prevention for your body and your brain

Does aging result in dimming, dulling, and dawdling? Not necessarily. This month's Law Practice Today includes an article by Ed Poll entitled "Should Auld Lawyers Be Forgot, and Never Brought to Mind?" in which he mentions the much-read Seattle Times article "'Graying of the Bar' fueling concern in court." (My post on the "Graying of the Bar" article.)

Noting that 66 percent of the members of the Washington State Bar are 41 or older, and that 10 percent are over 60, the article declared that “ incompetence due to declining skills, failure to keep pace or dwindling mental acuity may soon rise in the legal profession.” That seems overblown enough, but a second item described a new regulation in India (where legal work is increasingly being outsourced) stating that if you are not licensed by the age of 45 you cannot become an advocate. “We don’t want the Bar to become parking lots for retirees,” one official was quoted as saying.

The natural conclusion seems to be that older lawyers are more careless, have too many pressures in their lives that distract their attention and cause them to make errors leading to discipline.

Poll does not believe that age necessarily equals incompetence, nor does he believe that age equals lack of creativity. I wholeheartedly agree with him. I also know there are many methods by which an aging lawyer can lessen the likelihood of loss of competence and creativity. Let's look at a few available for the body and the brain.

Law Practice review of WAKE ME UP WHEN THE DATA IS OVER now online

In October, I promised I would let you know when my review of Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over was available to be read online. So here's the link for that review of Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results. You may read it online until the next edition of the ABA's Law Practice goes up on the site. After that, the review will be available in the archives only to subscribers of Law Practice.

"Lawyers Appreciate . . ." posts

I will add links to the "Lawyers Appreciate . . ." posts here. Let's watch the list grow. We appreciate each new addition.

December 22 (first day of the countdown)

1) Jamie Spencer at Austin Defense Lawyer (Lawyers appreciate discussing interesting issues in a collegial atmosphere.)

December 23

2) Gerry Riskin at Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices (Lawyers appreciate the same things other people do.)

3) Victoria Pynchon at Settle It Now Negotiation Blog (Lawyers appreciate integrity.)

4) Blaine Donais at Workplaces That Work (Lawyers appreciate fairness.)

December 24

5) Allison Wolf at The Lawyer Coach Blog (Lawyers appreciate other lawyers who work diligently in service to their clients.)

December 25

6) Steve Seckler at Counsel to Counsel (Lawyers appreciate the rule of law and separation of powers.)

December 26

7) Tom Collins at morepartnerincome (Lawyers appreciate being appreciated.)

8) Anastasia Pryanikova at Lawsagna (Lawyers appreciate their mentors.)

December 27

9) Matt Homann at the [non]billable hour ((Lawyers appreciate gifts.  Be sure to read the gifts that Matt wishes for his lawyer friends.)

10) Carolyn Elefant at Legal Blog Watch ((Lawyers appreciate their clients.)

11) Victoria Pynchon at  SETTLE IT NOW BL AR G (Lawyers appreciate legal bloggers.)

12) Susan Cartier Liebel at Build A Solo Practice, LLC (Lawyers appreciate the value of their education.)

December 28

10-day countdown: Lawyers Appreciate . . .

Julie Fleming Brown of Life at the Bar and I had an idea last month for a way to close out the year with a flurry of appreciation in the legal blogosphere. We hope many of you will join us. Here's how it works. We each will start out by sending an e-mail to three bloggers asking them to write a post to their blog beginning with these words: "Lawyers Appreciate . . ." That's the only rule; start a post with those words. And the second half of participation is to pass the LA (Lawyer's Appreciate . . .) baton on to three more bloggers. The countdown will last for 10 days, until the last day of the year. Today is the beginning of the appreciation storm. We look forward to reading what you post when the baton arrives at your inbox.

Can you hear it now? LA, LA, LA, LA, LA, LA, Law, Law, Law!

Note (added December 22, 4:55 PM Mountain): Julie Fleming Brown also has now announced Lawyers Appreciate… A 10-day countdown.

Stephanie West Allen, the voice behind Idealawg and TrackKnacks, and I have been corresponding for some months now.  One of the many topics we’ve discussed is our shared desire to launch an appreciative look at the law, lawyers, and practice in the legal blogosphere.  And that’s how the “Lawyers Appreciate…” countdown was born.

Note (added December 23, 9:55 AM Mountain): Links to "Lawyers Appreciate . . ." posts.

One radical idea: The world is a good place

I have often said that life is an echo; what you send out is what you get back. It is also a filter; what you believe is what you will see. And you have control of both. In today's Boston Globe we read that "there's a growing movement to get happy." In a post earlier this week, I talked about the recommendation in US News & World Report to "get happy" in order to improve your life in 2007. In the Globe article "Nice try," a number of salutes to "niceness"  are described.

[A] countervailing phenomenon has arisen in the form of movements, websites and organizations devoted to accentuating the positive, to looking for the silver lining, to seeing the glass as perpetually half-full, to being just ..... plain ..... nice. As Santa Claus takes his annual inventory this week, he may find the ranks of the naughty a tad less populated than usual.

For example, Daryn Kagan, former anchor for CNN, has created a Web site devoted exclusively to uplifting news. The site's tagline is "One radical idea: The world is a good place."

Without identifying it as such, the article mentions confirmation bias. Because so much sensory data hits us each moment, we have to filter much out to maintain our sanity; we tend to let through that which confirms what we already believe.

"Bad things happen in the world," Kagan says. "But I believe everyone has this life filter, this life view. We all run around collecting stories in our head to support whatever that life view is. I’m choosing to have the life view that good things are happening."

We cannot get rid of our confirmation bias but, with managed and focused attention, we can change the bias. How do you see the world? Whatever your answer to that question, you will continue to see through that lens. If you don't like what you see, trade in your bias for a new one.

Bob Sutton at Work Matters dropped into the blogosphere an extremely thorough post about the well-researched benefits of smiling and its affects on happiness. He also presents other ways to increase happiness. Very few times has a blog post made me laugh out loud and then chuckle at the thought of what had been written afterward. When you read his post, you will come to the second-from-the-last paragraph that begins: "So, I am not sure I am joking or not, but next time you . . ." Let me know if you can keep a straight face when reading what comes next.

I hope you laugh, too. Laughter is good for you, as are happiness and smiles. If there are any grumps reading this, it is never too late to change your Scroogey ways.  Highlight the "hug" in humbug. Go forth and find something to appreciate.

Note (added December 21, 2006, 3:15PM Mountain): Take a look at the cover of the current edition of  The Economist.

Note (added December 21, 2006, 4:30PM Mountain): At the beginning of the year, CNN will show Happiness and Your Health: The Surprising Connection for 7th to 12th graders. That link takes you to a page with curriculum benchmarks, discussion questions, and suggested activities. Many would be appropriate for adults, too. I asked myself some of those discussion questions.

Lax O'Sullivan Scott: Are these lawyers as much fun as their Web site?

I learned of this creative, moving (as in the lawyers move) law firm Web site from the second annual Law Page Dubious Achievements for 2006 at Globe and Mail.

Overwhelming evidence to the contrary, all law firm websites do not look exactly the same. Standing out against the vain, stodgy cyberlandscape this year was Lax O'Sullivan Scott LLP, a Toronto litigation boutique that clearly takes itself less seriously out of court than it does in.

Click on a partner's name and up pops a cartoon character that robotically enacts one of the partner's favourite hobbies. There's outdoorsman Clifford Lax, capsizing his canoe, Rocco Di Pucchio savouring wine in his cellar, and amateur highland dancer Charles Scott strutting his stuff in his kilt. Most touching of all, though, is Paul Michell in the proud role of dad, pushing two children in a stroller.

Mr. Scott says the unbuttoned marketing approach came from the realization that most of the firm's work comes by way of referrals from other corporate firms conflicted out of litigation files. "So, the people that we're talking to are our friends, and they know what we're like," he says. "There might as well be truth in advertising." Another well-argued case from an esteemed litigator, if we do say so ourselves.

Go play at the animated site. Then take a look at some of the other Dubious Achievements; see what lawyers have been up to in 2006. Sure wish I could see that bobble-head lawyer.

New edition of LAW PRACTICE now online: Squeeze and drink those creative juices

Go get a beverage now and curl up for a fine time reading the new issue of Law Practice. This one focuses on creativity and mavericks at law. Don't miss:

Law Firm Mavericks Go For Broke: Traditional Thinkers Need Not Apply by Merrilyn Astin Tarlton

Why Do Law Firms Resist Innovation? 10 Reasons by Ron Friedmann

Solo Creativity: 10 Tricks That Lead to New Ideas by Andrew Eklund

Innovation in Practice: Why It's So Hard by Eric Mankin

Koestler's Law: The Act of Discovering Creativity—And How to Apply It in Your Law Practice by Dennis Sherwood

Lots more to read too so give yourself the gift of time to go exploring.

LAW: Leadership Academy for Women coming in 2007

Women law firm partners are invited to attend the Hastings Leadership Academy for Women (LAW) on May 31 - June 2, and July 19 - 21, 2007, at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, CA.

The Project for Attorney Retention and The Center for WorkLife Law at Hastings College of the Law are pleased to announce the Hastings Leadership Academy for Women (LAW), the first executive education program designed exclusively for women law firm partners.

The LAW program is designed to help experienced women lawyers stride confidently to the highest levels of success in their law firms, their communities and the legal profession. LAW participants will learn skills, knowledge and techniques that will enable them to assume leadership roles and make their contributions visible, valued, and rewarded.

The course curriculum has been designed to provide a unique, hands-on learning experience and will be taught by distinguished faculty from leading law schools, business schools, and law practice. Prominent executive coaches will provide individualized leadership guidance for each participant. Learning will be enhanced by opportunities to build a strong network of other women partners with leadership aspirations.

For additional information about the LAW program, contact the Center for WorkLife Law at 415-565-4640 or Ida Abbott, Director of LAW, at 510-339-6883 or e-mail Abbott.

Sign up for Abbott's newsletter to be on her mailing list for further information when it is available.

Note (added March 20, 2007, 8:30 AM Mountain): You may now download a brochure for the Leadership Academy for Women.

50 ways to improve your life in 2007: Blog and smile

I learned on the Positive Psychology listserv (where I recently e-met a partner from a large Denver law firm) that the current edition of US News & World Report features 50 ways to improve your life in 2007. Given the research, it is no surprise that the first health tip is "Get happy." In the past, I have discussed the benefits of happiness to you and to the way you represent your clients here at idealawg. And researchers continue to find the strong link between happiness and health.

Nearly a dozen studies show that happier people live longer. They're also less likely to suffer heart attacks, strokes, and pain from conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. Plus, Carnegie Mellon researchers last month found that people who express positive emotions come down with fewer colds and flus after being exposed to the viruses than those who express negative emotions like anger, sadness, or stress.

Other ways to improve your life include:

• Read ("our brain craves creativity")
• Blog ("blogging has value even in a vacuum")
• Be free of TV ("television is a great enabler")
• Go tech free once a week ("Take out the earplugs and plug into the world!")
• Save on fuel by losing weight ("based on the 10 pounds the average American gained in the 1990s, airlines require 350 million extra gallons of fuel")
• Choose shoes wisely ("minimize the damage while maximizing the look")

Bonuses for improving the coming year: Caroline Adams Miller has begun a Positive Psychology podcast series in which she interviews leaders in the field. Troy Blankenship debuted a blog on fitness, nutrition, quality of life, and goal setting. I think you will want to keep an ear and an eye on both.