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Another lawyer switches careers and walks down the path of published writer

Every week I see a fun life-after-law story, and these days it seems, at least from reading popular print media, that attorneys most often turn to yoga or writing. Here's another lawyer-turned-author tale, this time in Fast Company. From "How To Change Careers Completely--And Write Yourself A Happy Ending":

FAST COMPANY: What prompted you to leave law and take a chance on something as crazy as writing books for teens?

DAYNA LORENTZ: After finishing law school at Fordham, I started working at Debevoise & Plimpton, a great international law firm doing criminal defense and product-liability litigation mostly. I did that for a couple of years and then got a clerkship in federal court. One of my co-clerks was this incredibly smart, talented guy who would get to work in the morning and read all the circuit court opinions that had just been released, the SCOTUS blogs about all the clerks working for the Supreme Court justices, and stuff like that. He had this intense passion for being a lawyer. He was in his element--you could just see that. And I remember talking about this with a friend of mine from college who was also a law clerk. She said, “You don’t need to be like that to be a lawyer.”

But I felt that if was going to be a lawyer, that’s the kind of lawyer I wanted to be. I want to be a person who’s getting up in the morning and is psyched. The law is a fantastic place for people who want to be doing that, but I realized that what I wanted to be doing was telling stories. I had been doing some writing on the side, but like many people, I had convinced myself that this wasn’t something I could do as a real job. But now I started pursuing it more seriously--going to workshops, taking classes, trying to understand what was going on in the industry.

Click to read the rest. Click to read other stories about Life After Law.

Not everyone wants a shorter work week: Many motivated by, say, thirst for knowledge, or service to the world or clients

The notion of expanding leisure time has been addressed here before in several posts, including those linked to below. Regarding the work-life balance campaign—some treat it as a crusade—I am a contrarian. That's why I appreciated this blog post by one of the neuroscientists for whom I have much respect Ian Robertson. (See the books by him I have recommended in my book lists at Brains on Purpose™.)

From More leisure and less economic growth? – The psychology of achievement motivation:

...A system that makes people work 70, 80 and a 100 hour weeks is essentially a middle class Gulag to which our youngest and brightest are sent.

Yet there is something about their argument I cannot quite buy. In my laboratory at Trinity College Dublin I have some very, very clever and hard working young people who work longer hours than I do because of a hunger to find out things about the world. The last thing they are motivated by is power – they are driven by a pure and rather beautiful drive to achieve something for the world – new knowledge, both for its own sake, and for the possible applications for the cure of disease that it might bring in its wake.

The thought of inculcating them into a 15 hour per week leisure culture just seems plain daft. The need for achievement for the worthiest of purposes motivates in a way that leisure dose not – leisure is the down-time from our life’s work, not its aim.

Amen to that!

Past posts on balance:

• Hot, cool and cold worms: A contrarian look at work-life balance and so-called "workaholism"
• A better way of looking at work-life balance, don't you think?
• More posts here.

This octogenerian lawyer would probably be at home at next month's Purposeful Planning Rendezvous

In just three weeks, the second annual Purposeful Planning Rendezvous will begin. I am pleased to be presenting again this year, and am looking forward with excitement to spending time with a group of committed and forward-looking professionals. If you have read my prior posts about the event (here and here), you may recall that this is a group furthering ways to broaden the concept of trusts and estates beyond the monetary and tangible. Their notions of legacy encompass much more, including significant and essential values, expansive wisdom, and sagacious foresight.

In reading this uplifting article about octogenarian lawyers who are happy with, and in, their practices (Chicago Lawyer Magazine), I felt certain that one of them would fit right in next month at the Rendezvous. I have been told by very senior lawyers that the broad definition of legacy being explored and furthered by the Purposeful Planning Institute, although not the norm these days, was common decades ago. Meet Harry Rosenberg:

[He] has spent six decades writing wills, setting up family trusts and handling estates. It's an area of law that almost demands a personal connection with clients.

And that's what motivates Rosenberg, 83, a partner at Reed Smith, who said he aims to give his clients comfort and peace of mind.

"I like the idea that I'm 75 percent a lawyer and 25 percent a psychologist, priest, rabbi or minister," he said. "I would be very, very uncomfortable working on SEC regulations, commercial code or big corporate work. It's just never attracted me. I've always been attracted to dealing with people and their families."

... He still gives his clients the sort of personal touch a person would expect from a solo practitioner. He insists on meeting with clients inside his personal office rather than a more impersonal conference room.

"I think this office tells something about me the conference (room) never would," Rosenberg said,

I've climbed some strange trees: Here is the fruit of one of them

I have had many careers, ranging from lawyer to candymaker to cocktail waitress to probation officer, and several jobs in between. During one or two of those roles, I was somewhat New Agey. For the most part, I try to minimize the memories of those fluffier days. Around my most staid friends, those memories are primly hidden, the hippie is fully stashed, the fluff is sharply amputated.

But there are some shimmering images that persist. The lighthearted, improvisational freedom that accompanied those hippy-dippy days occasionally calls my name. Especially when I think of Snoopy.

And when I get tired of the dull and constrained way conflict resolution often continues to be practiced, I feel grey and weary, and miss most my bright Snoopiness.

Today I was missing Snoopy more than usual so I looked for something I had written about him. Here's an ode to the wonderful beagle that I wrote many, many, many years ago. Scoff, stare, point, if you want (especially my lawyers pals), but maybe just for a minute do as I suggest below.

Be Like That Beagle

Snoopy delights us as he becomes a pilot, a dancer, a writer, a scout leader, a vulture. You can delight yourself by becoming whatever you want. A trusty and certain way to Loosen Up, Lighten Up (LULU) is to have a Snoopy Day.

We get so stuck in our roles that we may go through life as if in a trance, or a string of trances. There’s the wake-up-ritual trance — make the coffee, get the paper, read it, make breakfast, brush your teeth. Then you shift into the go-to-work trance.

Break out in a major way. Have a Snoopy day. Follow the lead of that imaginative beagle and be anything you choose. Become an artist, or a cowperson, or a poet, or a vulture, or whatever else you want most. Fill with your whole being a role of which you have only dreamed before.

A Ballerina In My Workplace?

You knew how to do this quite well as a child, remember? Think of all the things you became when you were young. Think of the absolute freedom “make believe” gave you. Snoopy days are “make believe” days and are not just for children. You can be anything we want to be — no matter what that is.

Are we saying that you should go to work acting as a ballerina? If a ballerina is what you choose to be on a Snoopy Day, it would be ideal if you could go to work as one as long as it did not interfere with your

Retirement mediation: When couples don't agree on how and when to quit working

Couples may seek mediation when ending their marriage but they also may consult with a mediator when ending their careers. For those of you who have not heard of that use for mediation, take a look at this article and you may see why this use of mediation is obvious.

From "How Couples Decide When to Retire" (Wall Street Journal):

Let's say you have managed to stay married—or even remarried—by the time you hit middle age. Get ready for one more marital hurdle.

The odds are your spouse won't feel the same way you do about when to retire. A recent study by Fidelity Investments found that well over half of couples—62%—disagree on the timing of their respective retirements.

...

"There's a lot more for a couple to negotiate now," says Maximiliane Szinovacz, a professor of gerontology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. "It's no longer one retirement and one drastic transition." Indeed, some negotiations seem to go on and on, ... .

Another article is aptly titled "Get Real" (Investment Advisor):

“I think our profession [investment advisors] tends to paint retirement as being too pretty and unrealistic,” says Robert Laura, president of Synergos Financial Group in Howell, Mich., and author of “Naked Retirement.” “It’s often depicted as an idyllic life of leisure filled with contentment and joy. But just like any other phase of life, it can come with a dark side that’s not usually discussed and rarely planned for.”

A book reviewed in USA Today may provide more clues about how to navigate this turn in a marriage:

A "myth about retirement is that as long as you're financially secure, everything else will fall into place," they write. "But money, in and of itself, does not buy love, companionship, friendship, respect, self-esteem, joy or a sense of being part of something greater than oneself. This essential life lesson, once learned, can bring a great deal of comfort and joy in the second half of life."
That's hard to argue with. How do you prepare for a happy retirement?

Click to read more about the book The Couple's Retirement Puzzle: 10 Must-Have Conversations for Transitioning to the Second Half of Life. Or here.

April 13-15 in Phoenix: Lawyers as Peacemakers and Healers

News release:

Phoenix, AZ (April 4, 2012) – Phoenix School of Law (PSL) invites law students, lawyers, judges, mediators and other legal professionals to an exciting conference taking place on April 13-15th centered around an international law movement gaining more notoriety around the world known as Comprehensive/Integrative Law. The comprehensive law movement contains many models and practices. Some practices, such as peacemaking circles, originated among tribal societies. Others are more recent developments. At times, seemingly identical new models have arisen in different geographic areas. Different names developed, some of which are still used in making reference to the movement. Comprehensive law has been or is sometimes called integrative law, renaissance law, transformational law, visionary law, conscious lawyering, holistic law or holistic justice, creative lawyering, and relationship-based lawyering.

The conference begins on Friday evening which is open to the public and continues on Saturday and Sunday with various panels for interested legal professionals. “Phoenix School of Law is very

"Which should be uppermost in students’ minds: a good job or a good life?"

Does law school have a role in teaching wisdom? Values? Integrity?

Or is the role of a legal education to impart the "doing" of law? Never mind, the "being" of a lawyer.

If the question of the role of law school has been occupying any of your thoughts, this Macquarie University Annual Lecture given by Professor Steven Schwartz may fuel further thought. You may say that he is talking about the role of undergraduate education. If so, are students coming to law school having completed (or begun) a process such as Schwartz describes? If not, is that of any consequence to the profession? To clients?

Does this lecture provoke questions or thoughts in your mind? I found it so rich that I have read the talk a number of times, each time coming away with new impressions and ideas.

Excerpt from "The dangers of knowledge without wisdom":

The Vice-President of an American university recently asked his students: “Why have you come to university?” The students said, “I want a good job” or “I need a degree to get a promotion at work”. Not surprising. Just what he expected. But, when he framed the question in a larger context: “What kind of life to you want to be leading five or ten years from now?” the answers were different. Students talked about purpose, meaning, identity, integrity and relationships.

There is a hunger for the kind of insight and wisdom that a narrow skills education cannot satisfy.

...

Whatever profession students choose to pursue, they will benefit not only as professionals but also as human beings from being exposed to the greatest works of fiction, history, biography, philosophy and science.

It is from these sources that they will learn about love and loss, about memory and desire, about loyalty and duty, about our world and our universe and about what it means to be a human being.

Click to read the rest (MercatorNet).

Kind of like CLE for law students: Keystone Professionalism & Leadership Program for Students

When I saw a notice for a meditation class for students at University of Chicago Law that said attendees would get "10 Keystone Professionalism and Leadership Program points in The Well-Rounded Lawyer category," I looked to see what that meant. Here's the answer:

The University of Chicago Law School has long understood that success in the workplace cannot depend on a strong academic background alone. Our students have opportunities throughout the year to develop social and leadership skills that are crucial to thriving as an attorney and advancing in a career.

Now Law School students will have even more incentive to cultivate these skills. With the start of the academic year, the Law School launched the Keystone Professionalism & Leadership Program (KPLP), a new program designed to help students prepare for their legal careers.

To get students in the habit of enhancing their education outside a formal learning or work environment, KPLP was structured to operate much like the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs that many licensed attorneys attend. Law School administrators identified ten categories of social and leadership skills that lead to becoming an effective attorney. Events at the Law School that meet certain criteria in one or more of these categories are then assigned a point value. For example, a day-long Microsoft Office training program is worth 60 points in the “Practical Skills” category, and a lunchtime talk on how to be a good mentee is worth 10 points in the “Building Your Career” category. Students earn points by attending the events, and those with at least 200 points by May 1, 2012, will receive special recognition and are eligible to list participation in KPLP on their resumes.

Click to read the rest. Anyone know how this program is being received by the students? Do other law schools have programs like this?

Another attorney who turned to writing for her life after law

Susan Cain's forthcoming book shows some signs of being a hit. It is ranked high on Amazon before it has been released (approaching the top 100 today), and, in my little part of the world, there is a long waiting list for it at Denver Public Library.

From her bio page:

Before I became a writer, I practiced corporate law for seven years, representing clients like JP Morgan and General Electric, and then worked as a negotiations consultant, training all kinds of people, from hedge fund managers to TV producers to college students negotiating their first salaries. My clients have included Merrill Lynch, Shearman & Sterling, One Hundred Women in Hedge Funds, and many more. I went to Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

 From all this you might guess that I’m a hardcore, wonderfully self-confident, pound-the-table kind of person, when in fact I’m just the opposite. ...

The book is titled Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. From early indications, one might guess there are lots of introverts out there, and they like to read!

I wish Cain all success with her writing life after law.

Click to read other stories of life after law.

 

Intensive weekend for lawyers: Manitou Springs, CO, next month

I received this announcement about "Lawyers as Agents of Evolutionary Change" from friend Kim who is one of the co-facilitators. (The early bird deadline has passed but I am told there may have been an extension. Check with Kim.)

J. Kim Wright is partnering with James O'Dea, former Executive Director of Amnesty International, Washington, DC; former Executive Director of Institute of Noetic Sciences, author of Creative Stress for an intensive, personalized retreat in Manitou Springs on February 9 to 12.

Lawyers, Are you solving the problems that matter in the World? You went to law school to