I’ve noticed that summer associate season is in full swing — not only because clients are mentioning their summer programs, but because I’m seeing more and more summer associate-related searches that people have entered before landing on the Life at the Bar blog. So, it’s time for me to trot out my favorite topic not [...]
Welcome back from the holiday weekend. I hope everyone enjoyed some relaxation over the long weekend!
I’ve observed over and over that lawyers tend not to be very good at managing in-office problems. It’s easy to try to wait out conflict when there’s a lot going on otherwise, because the work that must be done can’t [...]
Happy Memorial Day weekend, all! Today’s entry will be brief — let’s say it’s in observance of the holiday, since I’m running to catch a flight to DC, so I can spend the weekend gardening in southern Maryland. But I wanted to post because I’m excited to be announcing the creation of a bundle of [...]
I’ve been intending to post about a New York Times article I read a few months ago, and today’s the day. I have noticed recently that I’m receiving a lot of emails informing me that the sender is now limiting the number of times she checks email in the course of a day, and to [...]
One of the most important pieces of coaching rests in illuminating distinctions. I have several favorites that come up in the course of a great many coaching engagements: reaction vs. response, hearing vs. listening, assertion vs. assessment, interesting vs. purposeful, and so on. One distinction is particularly relevant to effective action: busy vs. productive. My [...]
Do you ever feel that you’re just one small lawyer in a large sea? New lawyers often begin their practices wondering how to distinguish themselves from the hundreds or thousands of other lawyers occupying the same niche. And that feeling isn’t limited to new lawyers, by any means. Though the question may fade, it certainly re-emerges [...]
Have you ever had the experience of sitting down to write something important, having a rough idea of what you wanted to say, and yet finding yourself so tired or so distracted that you have significantly reduced ability to get the writing done?Â
I’m not talking about ordinary writer’s block or waiting for a muse to [...]
I’ve been rereading First Things First, by Stephen Covey, A. Roger Merrill, and Rebecca Merrill recently, as I’m creating my list of “must read” books for clients concerned with time management, work/life balance, and the like. This book was first published in 1994 and I read it then. Perhaps the best accolade I can give [...]
One of my clients (”Bob”) has had numerous bad experiences with opposing counsel. Over the last few years, he’s felt more and more worn down by angry phone calls, disingenuous arguments, and general incivility.Â
(A sidenote: a question we addressed is whether Bob is really surrounded by opposing counsel out to gain some advantage by making [...]
The WSJ Law Blog has an interesting post asking whether women lawyers are reaching a crisis point. The MIT Workplace Center has issued a report titled “Women Lawyers and Obstacles to Leadership,” which states that of the 1000 Massachusetts lawyers surveyed, 31% of female associates and 18% of male associates had left private practice, as [...]
May 30, 2007 
