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Friday's lighter wisdom — TURN THE ESCAPE KEY NOW

TURN THE ESCAPE KEY NOW

I think I know how bank robbers feel as they wait for tellers to stuff their bounty into a satchel. . . . I damn near giggled as she handed me that bag, validated my parking stub, smiled, and raised her eyes to the next customer, just like that. Clutching my toy to my chest, I shoved through the crowd and hustled towards the exit.

Geez, would I get away with it? Slip a creative writing book past my mean-spirited internal censor? Would I finally ignore that sour-breathed advisor who had always banished enthusiasm with its sick idea of realism, pointing fingers and thundering, "This will go nowhere. This is a waste of time that will cost you. This is PLAY."
--Tama J. Kieves, from This Time I Dance! Trusting the Journey of Creating the Work You Love: How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All! [later edition This Time I Dance!: Creating the Work You Love]

Are You a Flight Risk? Hope So

I don’t suppose any of you have a “mean-spirited internal censor,” that Judgment Jabber? Judgment Jabber is the voice that lives inside your mind that tells you: “You’re not good enough.” “You’re wasting your time on this job/relationship/recipe.” “Who are you to think you can succeed/be different/sing?” “What a failure!” “Look at your wrinkles/big ears.”

And lots of other negative things as it causes, exacerbates, and articulates your fears. It is a powerful

Blog Glob: "What Elvis Can Teach You About Employment Law"

Excerpt from "What Elvis Can Teach You About Employment Law" (Inc.com) . . .

By most definitions, employment law isn't exactly fun. But a new blog uses comedy and interactive gimmicks to engage and educate business owners on the topic.

Mark Toth, creator of The Manpower Employment Blawg and chief legal officer at Manpower, a Milwaukee-based employment-services firm, is providing his online resources free of charge to help employers keep legal fees down and avoid unnecessary lawsuits.

Toth delivers information in an entertaining way, with an employment law sing-a-long, for example, and an "Employment Law Greatest Hits" -- a top 10 list of the best lawyer advice, with rules such as "Follow Your Own Dang Policies."

From "Manpower launches employment law blog" (Milwaukee Business Journal)

To commemorate Labor Day, Manpower Inc. has developed a new blog that will focus on what the company calls the often-ignored, sometimes boring but highly important topic of employment law.

The employment law blog, dubbed a blawg, can be found online at www.manpowerblogs.com, and will be written by Mark Toth, North American chief legal officer for Manpower, which is in the process of moving its corporate headquarters to Milwaukee from Glendale.

Toth dresses like Elvis, sings an employment law rock 'n' roll anthem and asks interactive questions in what he claims is an effort to encourage companies to pay more attention to employment law.

12-step programs for client development and firm management and leadership . . .

Start this post by reading Lyman Reed's Twelve Steps for Personal Development Addicts; the 12 steps are funny and probably, for some, a bit close to the truth. A sample . . .

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Dr. Phil.

4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of our local or virtual bookstore’s self-help section.

5. Humbly admitted to no one, especially not ourselves, that we weren’t really working on any of this stuff, just thinking about it and not taking any action.

6. Were entirely ready to have the latest guru remove all of our defects of character.

Mike DeWitt at Spooky Action commented on this "instant classic" list and explained why he did not buy the latest book in the climb-the-Amazon-ratings promotion even though the book's purchase came with 71 (yes, 71!) free bonuses. DeWitt realized he would never be able to read even a small part of the offerings.

And maybe self-improvement is not that complicated. DeWitt pointed out that Wallace D. Wattles, author of the very old and still-popular book The Science of Getting Rich (download The Science of Getting Rich for free here or here), distilled personal development into four factors: faith, focus, perseverance, and gratitude. A nice observation that rings true.

Following in Reed's footsteps, I bet someone could write the 12 steps for client development addicts or the 12 steps for firm management addicts or the 12 steps for leadership addicts (especially leadership!). You know whom the lists would be about: those people who take the courses and seminars, and read all the articles and books, and maybe get a coach, and do nothing more. Got a list in you?

And I bet we could distill client development, firm management, and leadership each into four factors as Wattle's did for personal development. I even bet that client development and firm management and leadership might share a factor or two. Into what four (or so) factors would you distill each of these three activities?

Now, I am going back over to those 12 steps for personal development addicts. On second reading, I am not sure I find some of them so funny. I would not recognize Dr. Phil if he walked into my Starbucks, I find Tony Robbins jarring, and I have not read Rajneesh since before he became Osho. But  #8 on the list has given me pause. I believe Lyman Reed's list may put a dent in the profits of Amazon. Thanks, Lyman . . . I think.

Seems like a lot of money for THAT kind of mediation

Do you follow Say What?! Classic Humor from U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer? If you don't, may I recommend it to you? The posts are funny and true. Today we read of a typo in a letter confirming a mediation . . .

January 1998 - Classic Typos

(1) From a letter confirming the mediation date of a Dallas mediator:

The fee for a dull day of mediation is seven hundred fifty dollars ($750) per day.

Blog Glob: Monday morning shorts

Excerpt from Louis Nizer: A Leader Wears Many Hats (Michael McKinney) . . .

He must be an archaeologist who exhumes evidence; a psychologist who strengthens his client and weakens his enemy; a paragon of patience to withstand the unreasonableness of troubled clients; a man of endurance to withstand the strain of the most arduous profession; an optimist in the darkest hours and a pessimist in the brightest, so that momentum doesn’t slacken; a historian of the law so that he can better predict its future; an idealist in the service of justice and a practical man who may forgo litigation in his client’s interest; a precisionist who must draft documents which defy ambiguity; a negotiator who makes deals not breaks them; . . .

Excerpt from Thursday. April 12, 2007, post at Bone Marrow Poptarts (young cancer patient, daughter of new partner in a law firm) . . .

She called today to say
that she understands. About me.
Doctors. Life. Cancer. Everything.
She said she wants to be a good mother
because she doesn't have forever.
Only today. That's all we have.
She's been a lawyer all her life.
She made partner at her new firm
last year. Tomorrow she is
putting in her two weeks.No more law books.
No more court dates.
 No more going through files
at the dinner table.
Or forgetting dinner all together.

Excerpt from The Future of Strategy (Rob Millard) . . .

The new model of business strategy that will dominate the 21st Century is already here. It is to be found, in a form rapidly approaching adolescence, in the emerging concepts of military strategy and  the serious academic journals. . . . It is even to be seen in completely different fields that are not intuitively related to either business or strategy, but that have important concepts that influence both, such as emerging areas of physical science such as quantum mechanics and chaos theory.

The W Magical List of Women Bloggers

Lawyer fees rise . . . and fall (Dan Pink) . . .

 

Wilson Sonsini: Goats and gaffes (with later-added Nixon Peabody song notes)

Photo credits below

Earlier this year I blogged about Wilson Sonsini building teams by milking goats. For some reason, I thought of goats when I read in Above the Law about the firm's shocking ineptness in delivering the rejection message to applicants. In Public Humiliation, Courtesy of Your Friends at Wilson Sonsini we learn that the rejections were delivered via e-mail (tacky enough) and that the rejection e-mail had the addresses of all receiving it in the "To" box, not the "Bcc" box!

Note (added August 24, 2007, 5:25 PM Mountain): Speaking of Above the Law, make sure that you don't miss the saga of ATL's not-a-theme-song dispute with Nixon Peabody. I am betting it is not over (good luck, David) but you can catch up to the current chapter by reading Nixon Peabody: This Is Not a Love Theme Song in which David Lat recounts his conversations with representatives from NP, and Nixon Peabody ThemeSongGate: A Linkwrap. I think NP should post that zippy little ditty right on their Web site; the song is so, so, so cute.

Vote over at The Volokh Conspiracy as to how Nixon Peabody should handle this matter of their song. Voting numbers are approaching 1,000.

Note (added August 26, 2007, 3:05 PM Mountain): Hear Everyone's A Winner at Nixon Peabody. Lyrics to the Nixon Peabody song. Both courtesy of Above the Law.

Note (added August 27, 2007, 12:50 PM Mountain): The Nixon Peabody story is now in The New York Times: "Unauthorized Enjoyment of Song Irks Law Firm." Looks like the firm is moving on. Their released statement quoted in the article:

“This song was put together for a celebration. We were having some fun with it and now some other people are having fun with it. We’re moving on and focusing on being a great place to work and doing great work for our clients.”

Another story gets old and dies. I would label this death rather graceful.

Photo credits:
Left goat by Alex at morgueFile
Right goat by fotographix at morgueFile

Friday's lighter wisdom — CONSTRUCTION ZONE AHEAD

CONSTRUCTION ZONE AHEAD

Backyard Tents and Cardboard Houses

Many a parent have been surprised, when giving a fancy gift to a child, to discover the big box in which it came holds more allure for the child than the gift itself. Kids have a great passion for forts, playhouses, clubhouses, little nooks and crannies indoors and out, tents anywhere and everywhere, treehouses.

Children are often very inventive in creating these special spaces for themselves -- stretching a blanket from one piece of furniture to another to serve as a roof, putting a sheet over a cardtable to transform it into a clubhouse, cutting windows and a door into a large cardboard box to build a playhouse. The list can go on and on. How did you create your kid space when you were young?

Lots of us still have a great enthusiasm for treehouses, and forts, and tents in our backyard. While I was on a trip recently, the bed where I slept was under a skylight that afforded me a view of a very tall oak tree. I looked up and designed in my mind the best treehouse ever.

Everyday, in my imagination, I would climb the tree and sit in my treehouse. When we left, I was sad to leave my treehouse up in those oak branches. So I relocated it and take it with me every place I go. It is now the treehouse of my heart.

You've Always Had the Blueprint

Build the treehouse of your heart. From its heights, you can look down and get a new perspective on problems. The lofty limbs of your heart hold you safely in your arboreal shelter, and that security is always there whenever you choose to enter. Judgment Jabber does not have the secret password so cannot intrude.

Your treasures and talents are stashed there and you can always find them easily. You laugh in this place and invent new ways to play. Ah, the gratitude that soaks through you in your treehouse. You only allow in playmates like joy and generosity and good cheer. On the outside of your treehouse is a big sign that says, “No grumps, or grouches, or grudges allowed,” and that rule is magically enforced.

Some Fordham Law conferences: international arbitration and mediation, international law and the constitution, antitrust, and race and the family

Fordham Law is presenting several CLE conferences . . .

• Third Annual Conference on International Arbitration and Mediation
• Symposium on International Law and the Constitution: Terms of Engagement
• 34th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law & Policy
• Forty Years of Loving: Confronting Issues of Race, Sexuality, and the Family in the Twenty-First Century

Tip of the hat for all to Legal Scholarship Blog.

Blog Glob: "Is the boss a real piece of work?"

Photo credit below

Excerpt from "Is the boss a real piece of work?" (Los Angeles Times) . . .

Getting even with an ogre, or at least venting, is a cottage industry.

Lawmakers across the country are considering legislation that would give workers grounds to sue their superiors for being, basically, jerks. Bookstores are stocking bad-boss advice tomes, including "Snakes in Suits" and "Was Your Boss Raised by Wolves?" Today the AFL-CIO will name the worst boss in the country, based on the results of an online contest.

Are relations between workers and management really in such an awful state?

Maybe. The ranks of bullying bosses are growing, some experts contend, as short-staffed companies tap managers with lousy people skills. Others point out that though mean and dimwitted supervisors have been around since work was invented, baby boomers on the cusp of retirement and restless younger employees are more likely to complain or quit than suffer in silence. It's easy to decide against taking the latter tack, thanks to the proliferation of venting websites, among them www.ebosswatch.com.
. . .

If [a jerk boss] doesn't sound like grounds for a lawsuit, at least four state legislatures are thinking about making it so.

. . .

This year's contestants -- all anonymous, of course, as they were in 2006 -- tell many horror stories.

One of the hundreds posted is about a lawyer who called the office every morning to give instructions as he brushed his teeth and conducted other business in his bathroom; another is about a manager who refused to let an employee whose husband had a brain tumor take a day off unless she provided a note from a doctor.

Read the rest of "Is the boss a real piece of work?"

Photo credit: lorcanz88 at photobucket

This upcoming "Inter-generational Boot Camp for Visionaries" will include an event for lawyers

Are you working in your community to make a difference? To positively impact the lives of those around you? If so, this conference co-founded by lawyer (and my friend and colleague) Kim Wright may just be for you.  From the Web site . . .

The Imagine-Nation Conference brings together two groups: visionary adults who are already at work in their communities, shaping an inclusive future for their city AND visionary high school youth who are tomorrow's national leaders, who can co-create a powerful path for their communities and for the nation.

The conference is delivered using Appreciative Inquiry, an organizational development process that capitalizes on the best of what is and provides a wide avenue for multi-generational and cross-cultural participation – everyone is welcome; every voice is honored.

The Imagine-Nation Conference is being held at Briarwood Conference Center near Dallas, Texas, on September 27 through 30, 2007. On the afternoon of Saturday, September 29, Wright is holding an Open Space meeting for lawyers to discuss how they want to contribute to the world through their legal careers. Throughout the conference,  she will be interviewing lawyers about their personal journeys to finding satisfaction in the legal profession.

Wright has allowed me to offer idealawg readers a registration fee discount. The discount is $150 for three adults from the same organization or firm. Just mention idealawg when you enroll. Questions? E-mail Kim Wright.

On a related note, here are idealawg interviews of Carol Metzker and Tojo Thatchenkery on Appreciative Intelligence, and an article they wrote with Mark Beese to help readers "Use Appreciative Intelligence To Work Smarter" (in PDF format).