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Blawg Review #147: Bike riding through Iowa

I am particularly fond of the travelblawg reviews. Perhaps because they tell stories. In Blawg Review #147, Rush Nigut tells us the story of a seven-day bicycle ride across Iowa. Throughout the seven days, we run into many legal blogger bikers. Now hop on your virtual bike and join Charlie Longbrief on his ride through the newest Blawg Review.

It's not a race.  It's an experience.   And since Blawg Review is a carnival, nothing says carnival in an uniquely Iowa way like bicycles, spandex, pork chops, pie, frivolity and 10,000 of your closest friends!

"Moyer to lawyers: Fight foreclosure for free" [using mediation]

Excerpt:

Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, a Sandusky native, knows home foreclosures are a big problem back home in Erie County and across Ohio.

Moyer is asking the courts and Ohio attorneys to reach out and help as many homeowners as they can.

The chief justice has asked judges who handle foreclosure cases to use mediation to resolve as many cases as possible.

And he's asked Ohio lawyers to volunteer in foreclosure cases to help families who can't otherwise afford a lawyer.

Click to read the rest of "Moyer to lawyers: Fight foreclosure for free."

New Web site: Law Is Fun

Excerpt from Law.com Legal Technology:

Fun Law Site Standing Out in Its Field
Attorney making enjoyable blogs, games and forums part of online legal community

By Douglas S. Malan
The Connecticut Law Tribune
February 19, 2008

Michael Fryar is launching a new Web site based on two revolutionary premises: the practice of law should actually be enjoyable, and lawyers by and large have great senses of humor.

The current state of the legal profession doesn't always lend itself to believing those two points, but Fryar's recent launch of Law Is Fun is aimed at spreading the word.

The profession is "shifting away from the idea of attorneys as accessible and friendly and more toward a corporate environment, jacket and tie and making sure you get your billable hours," said Fryar, a Hartford attorney who serves as the Connecticut Bar Association's program development specialist.

"Law is fun in the sense of enjoying what you're doing," he said. "This Web site is about getting back in touch with why you became an attorney."

The site purposefully strays from the typical, legal-related corporate Web sites both in design and content. It will serve as a community site for lawyers to share opinions and stories about a range of topics regarding life in the profession, rainmaking and tips on the restaurants that offer the best atmosphere for client development and meetings.

Click to read the rest of "Fun Law Site Standing Out in Its Field."

Invigorate your brain to prevent neuroboomeritis and stay sharp

Ever made a poor decision? Was it because of cognitive flabbiness? Want to achieve high cognitive fitness to improve the quality of decisions—and more easily solve problems and deal with change and stress? In short, want to become the kind of lawyer your firm and clients most value? A recent article in Harvard Business Review includes many tips for improving your cognitive fitness.

We know a lot about exercising our bodies and are learning much about exercising our brains. Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts, in their article "Cognitive Fitness," [excerpt and ordering information at that link] describe a 10-point "personal program" for brain exercise. They say:

While there is much to learn about the intricacies of cognitive enhancement, we believe that the following exercises are a good selection.

Their list includes:

Manage by walking about. Leave the executive dining room and drop by the company cafeteria, production floor, or loading docks. This could put you in unfamiliar territory, which is a good thing for broadening your perspective. What’s more, the very act of walking and moving about invigorates your brain. That’s why when you have a mental block on some problem you are solving, getting up and changing your environment can lead to an “aha” moment.

[For more about the relationship between movement and ideas, read this article from The Boston Globe: "Don't just stand there, think."]

Read funny books. Humor promotes insight and enhances our health – even the immune system seems to love a good joke, as it is strengthened by the use of humor and the perspective it offers.

Try new technologies. Playing with that new touch screen and downloading that goofy video from YouTube on your iGadget to display on your megascreen TV activates innumerable brain channels linking your auditory, visual, and tactile networks with your limbic system and your prefrontal cortex. Talking about it and sharing your emotional energy with your friends will extend the activity throughout the brain. Even your brain stem, which keeps you wakeful and engaged, will get a workout.

Exercise, exercise, exercise. Your brain is not an island – it is part of a system that benefi ts from cardiovascular exercise, good diet, and proper sleep habits. One of the most consistently identified defenses against developing Alzheimer’s disease is a good exercise regimen. Very specific beneficial biochemical changes, such as increases in endorphins and cortisol, result from both cardiovascular and strength training. Those benefits literally flow through your blood vessels and reach your muscles, your joints, your bones, and, yes, your brain.

The authors also suggest suggest four interrelated steps "for maintaining an engaged, creative brain." Step 1 is 

Happy Valentine's Day!

"Just tell stories and forget the rest."

In his book The Journey toward Reconciliation, John Paul Lederach presents the excellent advice of his daughter:

Before I spoke at one meeting, my daughter, Angie, gave me the most solid piece of advice I had received in some time: "Daddy, just tell stories and forget the rest."

Lederach adds:

Stories are different from definitions, exegeses, or theoretical explanations. They can take on the qualities of a person, someone we interact with and learn from, someone we struggle and disagree with, someone who affirms and challenges us. Stories engulf both our hearts and minds. We talk a lot about stories in mediation and the work of conflict transformation. We work to create a space that honors the experience shared in people's stories.

I have posted before about how stories influence. For more, you may find useful "Why vivid storytelling inspires giving," an interview on that topic by Perla Ni, JD, in Stanford Social Innovation Review. An excerpt:

I had read of Wharton marketing professor Deborah Small’s groundbreaking research on how statistics can suppress giving.  I followed up with her by phone with this interview about how nonprofits can use her research to more effectively fundraise.

Q: There are so many nonprofits trying to figure out how to fundraise better.  Your research on appealing to emotion is path-breaking. Can you elaborate on how people can appeal to emotion?  I know you use the example of one child, and you say it should be a “vivid” story.  Can you elaborate on that? 

A: The more vivid the story – through narrative or through imagery – the more emotionally arousing. And emotions are what triggers the impetus to help.  The more surprising finding is that showing statistics can actually blunt this emotional response by causing people to think in a more calculative, albeit uncaring, manner.

Good advice for anyone in the business of persuasion.

"Doctors and Lawyers and Government! Oh, My!" (and why David Harlow blogs)

Here's an interview of David Harlow at Medscape.com titled "Doctors and Lawyers and Government! Oh, My!" by Nicholas Genes, MD, PhD. Some excerpts (including Harlow's reason for blogging):

David Harlow has been working with doctors and healthcare agencies for his entire career...as a lawyer. He shares his views and experiences online at his Web site, HealthBlawg. I recently corresponded with Mr. Harlow about his work, the problems he sees in healthcare, and what he accomplishes online.

Dr. Genes: As a lawyer who works with healthcare providers, how would you say most doctors view your fellow lawyers? How are you perceived by the medical community?

David Harlow: It's a truism that lawyers are often seen as obstacles to rational development of clinical and business arrangements in the healthcare field; this also finds expression in jokes like:

- What do you call 1000 lawyers on the bottom of the ocean?
- A good start.

I certainly get that vibe sometimes. However, as I always tell clients and prospective clients, I practice preventive law. My clients appreciate the fact that I'm not the kind of lawyer who routinely says, "No, you can't do that." Often, a client will describe a proposed business deal to me, and I will suggest restructuring it in order to avoid regulatory land mines -- be they Stark, anti-kickback, state licensing issues, etc -- while achieving approximately the same business results. I like to be there at the inception of new relationships between physicians and hospitals; physicians and diagnostic imaging or radiation therapy providers; nonacute facilities and their vendors; etc, so that I may assist in designing business relationships that can withstand both the tests of time and the scrutiny of government agencies, rather than arriving on the scene later and defending a client facing allegations of wrongdoing.
. . .

Dr. Genes: You told The New York Times that you started blogging when you left a large firm to start your own group. How has the experiment worked out? You've gained a few clients via the blog, but have other clients been wary of your publicly aired opinions? As someone who seems to do his share of lecturing and academic writing, how have you approached the "dashed-off" nature of blogging?

David Harlow: I blog for several interrelated reasons, in no particular order: My blog is a public relations and

Lincoln's birthday: Abe advises lawyers to be honest

Nice article today in The Christian Science Monitor about Abraham Lincoln in honor of his birthday. From "Lincoln's Love for the Law:"

"I am not an accomplished lawyer," said Abraham Lincoln. Yet his courtroom panache is still taught in law school today as a classic on how to conduct cross examination. In his virtuoso defense of a falsely accused client, Lincoln used simple schedules of moonlight in an almanac to expose lies that had almost convicted a man of murder.

When I began teaching law students in Israel several years ago, I searched for a vehicle not only to convey theories of jurisprudence and the nuts and bolts of law, but also to inspire young people by showing them how their profession can enrich the world. So I tell them about Benjamin Cardozo, wealthy son of a crooked New York judge, who in shocked reaction to his father's ignominy became the most ethical of jurists. I mention Hugo Black, one-time member of the Klu Klux Klan, who turned his back on segregationism to champion individual liberties as a Supreme Court justice. I talk about Robert Jackson, Frank Murphy, and Owen Roberts, the courageous trio of Supreme Court dissenters in the Korematsu case of Japanese-American internment, who rejected the slippery slope that wartime dangers excuse racism.

Read the rest of "Lincoln's Love for the Law."

Don't forget today is also 2/12. Water boils at 212 degrees. What are you firing up on this Tuesday in February? Are you aspiring in the fire? Grilling your goals? Lukewarm is for losers.

Image credit: nas10589 at photobucket

A Storied Career: A valuable resource for both storytellers and fans of storytelling

Check out A Storied Career, the blog written by Dr. Kathy Hansen. (For a reminder of why lawyers should pay attention to storytelling, read Interview of Diane F. Wyzga, RN, JD: Storytelling in the practice of law.) Hansen is on top of what's happening in the world of storytelling.  For a taste of what she offers, here are some of her recent posts:

• Do Pictures or Words Tell a Better Story?
• Storytellers: A Running List of Folks Telling the Story of Who They Are
• Story Practitioners: A Running List of Story Practices, People, Initiatives, and Organizations
• Story Wisdom: A Running List of Powerful Quotes about Story
• How to Convey YOU in a Job Search
• Six-Word Stories
• Story Log: Running List of Storytelling in Marketing and Pop Culture

Pre-Valentine's Day post with a very odd love song: Why don't you write an ABC love song too?

Watch the ABC love song here. Click to read how it was made. And here are just a few of the song's letters:

K- You make my heart jump like a kangaroo
L- my heart bubbles like a lava lamp when I’m with you
M- I’m drawn to you like a powerful magnet

N- I’ll protect you like a ninja
O- Like an Octopus my hug will surround ya
P- We fit together like perfect pieces in a puzzle

Now how about writing your own? Let me know when you have finished your song. That, I will want to sing!

When the time of our particular sunset comes
Our thing, our accomplishment
Won't really matter a great deal.

But the clarity and care
With which we have loved others
Will speak with vitality
Of the great gift of life
We have been for each other.

-Gregory Norbet, from "Wherever You Go"