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Meditation Retreat for Law Professionals: April in California

(Click on quote to left to enlarge for reading.)

A meditation retreat for law professionals will be held April 2 through 6, 2008, at Angela Center in Santa Rosa, CA. From the meditation retreat Web page:

Meditation can provide a practical tool for busy legal professionals to quiet the mind, enhance clarity and awareness, and restore a more peaceful balance to their lives. This retreat will bring together members of the legal community, local legal scholars and clinicians, judges and mediators to learn and practice meditation together. We will also explore contemplative practices such as yoga, qigong and walking in nature, and discuss key questions about the connections between contemplative awareness, social justice and law.

Leaders of the retreat (with 5 CA MCLE credits available) are James Baraz, Norman Fischer, Charles Halpern, and Mary Mocine. Registration.

Testimonials from past law retreats . . .

"On a daily basis, I use the wisdom, inner-strength, and ideas that came out of these lawyers' retreats."

"It was an opportunity to reflect deeply on the role of integrity, ethics, and trustworthiness in my work as a lawyer and in the legal profession as a whole - I was moved by the level of honesty in our discussions."

"The combination of silence, meditation, and very real and meaningful discussions - it allowed us to cut out all the networking and unnecessary discussions that often happen during a normal conference, and instead turn inward and take an honest look at ourselves as individuals and as lawyers - it allowed us to really be real with each other when we did speak."

January issue of LAW PRACTICE TODAY online

Articles in the newest edition of Law Practice Today include:

• "Crisis Communication: How to Manage Them Effectively" by Paramjit L. Mahli

  What will your firm do in the face of an unexpected emergency? Crisis communication plans provide an organizational framework of who will be responsible for which specific task, when and if a crisis should occur.

• "Avoiding Discrimination in the Law Firm" by Edward Poll

  How can you be sure your firm is not discriminating? Below are some common trends to look out for so you can avoid a messy suit.

• "An Accountant’s View: Financial Trends that Affect Law Firms" by Janet Ellen Raasch

  With the approach of tax season, law firm administrators are eager to understand how the latest developments will affect their firms as financial deadlines draw near. These developments can be structural, like choice of entity, or strategic, like the use of key performance indicators. Either way, they are essential to a law firm’s bottom line.

Legal Highlight #12: Rochael M. Soper

Rochael Soper is our twelfth Legal Highlight. Soper is a negotiator and an entertainment lawyer practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area. I learned about her when she was interviewed for a San Francisco Chronicle article "ZEN and the art of lawyering." (idealawg blog post on that article.)

Please click back to the first of the Legal Highlights to learn about the Legal Highlights process and the reason behind this idealawg feature which focuses on what is right and working well in the legal profession. Here are all the Legal Highlight interviews.

And now read on the see what this Legal Highlight has to say in response to the seven questions . . .

1) Think about your experience in the legal profession and of a specific incident or event that made you feel extremely satisfied or proud. Give a brief description of the incident or event. The reasons I felt satisfied or proud were . . .

Recently I had an opportunity to raise the issue of diversity (particularly racial) with a client of mine and how they, as a company, might be depriving themselves and their clients of the benefits of having a more diverse community of employees.  And conversely, how being a company composed mostly of white, educated, upper middle class people, they were likely recycling and reinforcing conclusions and insights rather than really expanding their borders.  I shared with them how many law firms’ clients had demanded diversity from the law firms that represented them and posed that they may want to consider diversifying before their clients either imposed it on them or went with competitors who did understand the benefits of diversity.  I was able to share this because of the emphasis in California on elimination of bias in the profession and the many lectures I’ve listened to or discussions I’ve led on the topic.  Many at my client were surprised to hear that the legal profession had been so dynamic in their efforts to diversify.

2) I attended law school because . . .

I was smart and loved learning and knew I would continue on to graduate school of some kind.  I was drawn to law school because it was a great degree to have and I felt it would give me many opportunities in life.

3) I would recommend the practice of law because . . .

I do not recommend the practice of law often because I sense that many people get into the law for the wrong reasons and end up being very unhappy.  I also do not recommend the practice of law in large law firms beyond a couple of years of training because my experience in big firms was very life-depleting.  I would recommend the practice for people who feel strongly about the role of law in society and the need for good stewards of the law.

4) My colleagues who practice law appreciate doing so because . . .

Preventing neuroboomeritis: A trip to the brain gym might be one method

San Francisco has a new "health club for your brain" called vibrantBrains™  From Brain Reserves:

vibrantBrains, a gym to exercise our brains, has recently opened in San Francisco. We all buy into the health club idea for our bodies so why not one to tone our brains, too? The vibrantBrains folks have created a pleasant, bright space on Sacramento Street, close to cafes, shops, and residential areas. They have the front of the club filled with interesting books, including some bestsellers, by scientists and others on various aspects of brain research and how the brain works; the middle part of the club is filled with state-of-the-art computers with headphones nearby. A lounge area with comfy chairs and tea, coffee, and water always available fills the floor-to-ceiling windowed alcove at the back of the club and is a great place to chat with other members. They have developed Neurobics Circuit Training, which incorporates a number of scientifically based software programs that enable a club member to work on different skills for each visit or a variety of skills within a workout and at a huge discount over trying to find and purchase these programs individually.

. . .

The vibrantBrains innovative founders, Jan Zivic and Lisa Schoonerman, may just have latched onto a trend that Boomers and others must incorporate into our lives to keep that notion that "60 is the new 40" alive and well. And just to enjoy our lives more. They will also offer a speaker series soon as well as book clubs and other related activies.

Fun idea. Although there are ways to maintain cognitive fitness which are easier and require no financial expenditure, going to the brain gym might be a good fit for those who find that the trip increases commitment and discipline. And I can see that a group of people with similar goals and interests might, with the help of the gym, develop into a like-minded (and like-brained) community. Community can be a good source of support and inspiration. Anything that furthers the prevention of neuroboomeritis has my vote.

For those of you in the Bay Area, you may want to attend the gym's Speaker Series. Some knowledgeable people will be presenting.

Note (added 7:05 PM Mountain): For the aging body: British playground for kids over 60.

Note (added April 23, 2008, 7:14 PM Mountain): From Springwise ("your daily fix of entrepreneurial ideas"): Brain gyms for boomers.

Leadership for lawyers: Roundtable on Law School Leadership Education

From the Roundtable on Law School Leadership Education Web page:

Jointly sponsored by the University of Maryland School of Law and the University of Maryland Academy of Leadership, the Roundtable on Law School Leadership Education will provide a forum for learning across sectors and disciplines, vigorously exchanging ideas, and identifying goals and methodologies for introducing high-impact leadership education into law schools.

Confirmed participants include a broad range of leaders in the legal profession representing major law firms, the judiciary, corporations, government, the legal academy, and public interest law organizations. Participants in the Roundtable also include experts in the field of leadership studies who will discuss best practices and emerging trends in leadership education across disciplines.  . . .

The panel and discussion topics:

• What are your experiences of leading change? What prepared you for that role?
• What did you learn (or wish you'd learned) in law school to prepare you for leadership roles?
• What should be the goals, objectives and outcomes of leadership programs at law schools?
• What have other professional schools done in their leadership programs? What is the content and goals of these programs?

Participant list for Roundtable on Law School Leadership Education (pdf)

Blog Glob: Monday morning shorts

Excerpt from "Memphis attorney goes to task-based billing, but don't expect local trend" (Memphis Business Journal - subscription required)

Scott Ostrow, formerly an attorney with Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs LLP, has launched his own business litigation law firm, which is going against the traditional hourly billing method. Ostrow has decided to stop charging his clients by the hour and is basing his practice on value billing, or task-based billing, a rare method in the practice of business litigation.

According to American Bar Association estimates, about 90% of law firms in the U.S. use hourly billing. However, the national debate on attorneys' standard hourly billing method has become heated recently, with value billing emerging as a viable alternative, according to legal publications.

Excerpt from Articles of Interest (Conscious Lawyer)

Allen, John W., “Lawyers as Healers” (lawyers-as-healers.pdf)
     Michigan Bar Journal, October 2001.

Keeva Steven,  “Once More, With Healing” (once-more-with-healing.pdf)
     ABA Journal, May 2004.

Link, David T., “Healing and the Law” (healing-and-the-law.pdf) 
     Previously unpublished and printed with permission of the author.

Excerpt from Interview: What Coaching Is All About (Legal Marketing Blog)

[F]or those who care to listen to the golden vocal cords of yours truly, give it a go. (aw, come on, I know you've just been dying to hear me sound off on my various (mis)guided theories on all things marketing and business development.)

So, if you have 29 minutes to waste .......... errrrr, invest over lunch or your morning coffee, check out my coaching interview with Cole [Silver].

Excerpt from "As mediation spreads, courts see drop in cases" (Pacific Business News - subscription required)

Long-time civil litigator Jeffrey Portnoy of the Cades Schutte firm, immediate past president of the Hawaii State Bar Association, said the decline reflects a nationwide trend that is seeing more people solving their problems outside of the courtroom to avoid lengthy and costly trials.

Ethical wills: Have any clients who might want to pass on another kind of legacy in addition to the monetary?

As I wrote in the past about ethical wills:

Another helpful tip for the right clients might be to suggest the writing of an ethical will. While legal wills direct how property should be distributed, ethical wills pass on a person's values.

The new edition of the e-newsletter written by my friend Barry Baines, MD, on the topic of ethical wills (subscribe by sending a blank e-mail here) contains a number of articles recently carried by the media about ethical wills. (See links to some of those articles below.) The practice of writing an ethical will continues to garner both attention and participation.

What's in an ethical will? From Baines's Web site on ethical wills:

Every ethical will is as unique as the person writing it.

After reading a number of ethical wills, there are common themes that run through many of them. Older ethical wills contained burial instructions, blessings, and personal and spiritual values.

Here's a partial list of common themes seen in more modern ethical wills:

• Important personal values and beliefs
• Important spiritual values
• Hopes and blessings for future generations
• Life's lessons
• Love
• Forgiving others and asking for forgiveness

The ethical will site holds many resources, including Why Write an Ethical Will?, How to Write an Ethical Will, and upcoming seminars. Baines's book Ethical Wills: Putting Your Values on Paper is also a comprehensive and why-I-should-write-mine-soon resource.

Now for some of the recent media articles on ethical wills:

Around? How about "related to" or "associated with"?

The author of an article "Where Annoying Tech Buzzwords Come From" appearing at datamation describes the use of a word that grates on my ears when listening and burns my eyes when reading. In fact, a person using the word in this way will lose some credibility in my mind. Mike Elgan, the author writes:

You'll hear the use of the word “around” to mean “related to” or “associated with.” For example, people might say, “we're tackling all the issues around consumer acceptance.”

Does that use of the word "around" annoy you? I guess we each have our pet peeves, hm?

Volume 6, Issue 1 of the Mayhew-Hite Report on Dispute Resolution and the Courts

The current edition of the Mayhew-Hite Report on Dispute Resolution and the Courts includes an article entitled "Collaborative Law and Legal Ethics: Growing Pains for an ADR Movement."  Article summary at the site:

. . .Professor Christopher Fairman explores three major developments concerning the ethics of this interest-based, settlement-oriented dispute resolution process. In February, the Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee issued the first opinion in the country declaring collaborative law per se unethical. Fairman examines Colorado Opinion 115 and the reaction to it and ultimately concludes that it is unlikely to have much direct effect on collaborative law. Nonetheless, he voices concern that Opinion 115's approval of an offshoot of collaborative law called "cooperative law" risks creation of an ADR turf war. Next, Fairman highlights the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) effort to create a Uniform Collaborative Law Act. A NCCUSL Drafting Committee has already produced a working draft of a model act. Fairman describes the current drafting effort and its core feature — provisions to answer ethical concerns about confidentiality and privilege. The third ethical milestone explored in Fairman's Growing Pains is the latest formal ethics opinion by the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. Released in October, ABA Opinion 07-447 squarely addresses the compatibility of collaborative law with the Model Rules limitation on the scope of representation and concludes there is no violation. Characterizing these events as "growing pains" for collaborative law, Fairman ultimately concludes that "[w]hile ethical concerns are real and potentially limiting to the growth of the practice, our existing ethics regimes and proposed modifications can respond to these challenges." The full-text of this article can be accessed here.

In addition to the lead article, this edition of the Report includes:

New blog on the the process of writing: Covers productivity, writing craft, business of writing, and more

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits (a successful blog that was key to his recent book contract with Hyperion) has started a new blog on writing: Write to Done. His new blog's categories:

• Writing Habits
• Writing Craft
• Blogwriting
• Productivity
• Freelancing
• Business of Writing
• Fiction
• Journalism

This guy in Guam seems to have the craft of blogwriting down.

Hat tip to Today is that Day.