idealawg

What do lawyers appreciate? Looking back on answers to that question from half a decade ago

To balance (or maybe supplement) all the news about lawyer unhappiness, Julie Fleming and I, in December of 2006, instigated a round of appreciation from lawyers in the blawgosphere. To see how we organized the roundup, read Lawyers Appreciate… A 10-day countdown (Julie's description) and 10-day countdown: Lawyers Appreciate . . . (mine).

Five years later, let's look back and see what nearly 40 blogging lawyers wrote about what they most appreciate. Many of the entries were beautiful messages about being thankful; click to read them. (Or click to see Julie's list of links to what lawyers wrote; I think her list and mine are nearly identical.)

To those lawyers who participated: what do you think about what you wrote half a decade ago? To all lawyers: what are you appreciating about your profession as 2012 approaches? Please feel free to answer in the comments below or on your blog.

Teleconversation on December 2: The Soft Skills of Lawyering

On Friday, December 2nd, at 1 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, Professor Susan Daicoff, currently visiting at the University of Florida, will [present] The Soft Skills of Lawyering. Her description of the topic is below.

The call-in information is as follows: Dial-in: (605) 562-3000; Participation code: 471738#.

The Soft Skills of Lawyering[1]

The legal profession is in the midst of rapid and dramatic change, fueled by longstanding dissatisfaction within and without the profession, inflamed by the economic recession beginning around 2007. Changes in the profession are propelling (or consonant with) concomitant changes in legal education. Lawyers can no longer rely simply on excellent legal analysis and advocacy, written and oral communication skills, trial skills and traditional prelitigation negotiation and settlement. The legal profession is rife with commentary exploring how to be more marketable in the law profession of the future, given the rapid changes fostered by technological advances, disruptive concepts and strategies, the need for sustainability, and outsourcing. Law schools are under fire for providing students with unsatisfactory returns on investment, when students compare their employment prospects with the cost of legal education. A reevaluation of the competencies needed to be a 21st century lawyer, thus, seems appropriate. Some even assert that it is time to decisively redefine both the role of the lawyer and the content of legal education.

Law firms are becoming more selective when hiring attorneys and are experimenting with different interviewing methods and processes, including performance-based tasks and simulations. Law schools

New book on "comprehensive law practice"

Susan Daicoff, author of Lawyer, Know Thyself: A Psychological Analysis of Personality Strengths and Weaknesses, has written another book titled Comprehensive Law Practice: Law as a Healing Profession. Click to read the Table of Contents and Introduction. Excerpt:

I have been researching and writing about the legal profession since the early 1990s, when I became interested, as a lawyer enrolled in a graduate program for clinical psychology, in lawyer distress, dissatisfaction, wellbeing, and ethical decisionmaking. That research led me to survey 40 years of empirical research on lawyers. I concluded that there were about eight distinct traits that distinguished lawyers from nonlawyers, psychologi- cally and decisionmaking preference-wise. In the mid-1990s, I argued that these “lawyer traits” were adaptive to the modern practice of law, which at the time demanded that lawyers be unemotional, rational, objective, amoral, zealous, and partisan advocates and representatives of their clients.

However, a number of developments in the law and in the world since then have eroded that

Want to improve the brain-friendliness of CLE programs? Join me at ACLEA in New Orleans!

Come to New Orleans in January; join me and Continuing Legal Ed (CLE) professionals from near and far at ACLEA's 48th Mid-Year Meeting. I will present on designing brain-friendly CLE.

From the flyer:

Join us in New Orleans for the party of the year. Here’s a taste of what we’ve got planned:

• Tips on designing “brain-friendly” CLE that translates into real learning.
• Insights from “3 Geeks and a Law Blog” blogger Toby Brown.
• Effective strategies to make social media marketing work for you.
• Surprising success stories in CLE, publishing, and marketing—weird ideas that worked!
• Popular “hot topics” roundtable discussions so you can learn from your colleagues.
• Sessions that help you develop tomorrow’s leaders from within your organization or help you develop your own leadership potential.

And while you’re enjoying all that New Orleans has to offer, you’ll also be learning from the best minds in CLE and legal publishing.

This is one party you can’t afford to miss!

Will I see you there? Click to register now.

Lawyer honored for his work with depression in the profession

News release:

Dave Nee Foundation Bestows Uncommon Counselor Award on Michael J. Lane of Anderson Kill & Olick for Work Countering Depression in Legal Profession

New York, NY (October 12, 2011) -- Anderson Kill & Olick is proud to announce that Michael J. Lane, a shareholder in the firm's New York office, is the recipient of the Dave Nee Foundation's 2011 David S. Stoner Uncommon Counselor Award, bestowed on Mr. Lane for his commitment to the betterment of the legal profession and his compassion and concern for his fellow attorneys and for law students.

Mr. Lane, a civil litigator with over twenty five years of experience, is also an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University School of Law, where he has taught Legal Research and Writing to first-year students since 1993.

The Dave Nee Foundation was created in the wake of the 2005 suicide of Dave Nee, a brilliant law student at Fordham University who struggled silently with depression for many years. The Foundation’s Uncommon Counsel program fights depression and works to prevent suicide among law students -- recognizing that attorneys have the highest rates of depression and suicide of any profession, and that 40% of law students in their third year of school report experiencing symptoms of

2011 Futures Conference: Hey, lawyers, the future includes the brain

I happened to see the brochure for the upcoming conference [pdf], being held in Chicago, which will focus on "Challenging the Law Practice Management Model." Looks like it includes some excellent presentations. And I have a question . . .

Neuroscience, the science of understanding the brain, has key information for components of the practice of law, including marketing, managing, advocating, learning, counseling, creating, remembering, mentoring—indeed almost any activity in which a lawyer participates. And yet the event includes not one presentation on how what we are learning about the mind and the brain can affect and improve the practice of law in this new century?

Odd that a futures conference leaves out this huge piece of the future. By looking at the huge explosion of books and seminars on how the brain impacts personal and professional development, management of self and others, decision-making, leadership, persuasion, and much more, we can say that neuroscience is also a part of the present, too.

I am curious. Where in the legal profession is attention being paid to this valuable information? Isn't it an integral piece of a conference on the future of the profession? This gap gives a new twist to the meaning of "no-brainer."

New initiative at University of Denver: Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers (ETL)

This initiative is part of the Insitute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver. From the Web site of Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers:

Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers ("ETL") is dedicated to advancing legal education that trains new lawyers to the highest standards of competence and professionalism. By offering a structured and highly collaborative approach, ETL is creating a foundation for ongoing inquiry, exploration and measurement.

ETL leverages the Carnegie Model and the work of law schools and professors committed to legal education reform to align legal education with the needs of an evolving profession by providing a supported platform for shared learning, experimentation, ongoing measurement and collective implementation.

Our effort focuses on integrating years of insights and knowledge, as well as sharing current educational models to achieve that purpose. By offering a structured and highly collaborative approach, ETL is creating a foundation for ongoing inquiry, exploration and measurement.

Click to learn more.

Note (added August 22, 2011): Additional information about the new initiative:

• Colorado Public Radio interview of Marty Katz, dean of University of Denver law school
• "Denver University law school launches website on interactive learning" (Denver Post)
• Press release from University of Denver
  
  
  

Senior US District Judge John Kane advises brand new lawyers on how to have long, fruitful careers

Excerpt from Judge Kane's speech to the newest members of the Colorado Bar (thanks to Law Week Colorado):

Many lawyers become steeped in the belief that justice is irrelevant and present even morally based decisions as if they were products of a mechanical and value-neutral process over which they have no control. They are known to say to clients, “I don’t know whether you should say this or that. My job is to tell you what the law says and leave the right or wrong decisions up to you.” Some judges slink off the bench saying, “Right or wrong, this is the law.” My suggestion is that if you presently find yourself accepting that position, move on to another line of work now before it is too late, and if you haven’t accepted that position, don’t go there or you will find yourself condemned to a life of mediocrity.

Other lawyers have worked very hard for years and then quit with what is commonly called “burn-out.” To them, the profession of law no longer seems worth the effort of carrying such great weight of responsibility. Still others, however, practice into their dotage, eager and passionate for the

"Law schools and the law of supply and demand"

Excerpt:

If law schools were publicly traded companies and you held some in your portfolio, I would be strongly advising you to sell. Fast.

...

This isn’t about the recession or the financial crisis anymore; this is about a serious misalignment between the industry that trains new lawyers and the marketplace that employs them.

Click to read the rest of "Law schools and the law of supply and demand" (Law21).

Aesop's old hound and the greying of the bar: What to do with old dogs?

As I have posted about before, there often is a tension between honoring an aging lawyer's past service and protecting the best interest of his or her client. This fable by Aesop describes one part of that tension.

The Old Hound

A Hound, who in the days of his youth and strength had never yielded to any beast of the forest, encountered in his old age a boar in the chase.

 He seized him boldly by the ear, but could not retain his hold because of the decay of his teeth, so that the boar escaped.

His master, quickly coming up, was very much disappointed, and fiercely abused the dog.

The Hound looked up and said, "It was not my fault, master: my spirit was as good as ever, but I could not help my infirmities. I rather deserve to be praised for what I have been, than to be blamed for what I am."

Of course, in this tale, there is no ethical responsibility on the part of the hound to protect the best interest of his master, and capture the boar. If there were, what should the master do with the dog? If there is no ethical responsibility to capture boars, would your answer be different?