Law21 Twitter Updates- Lawyers don't want to hear about future of law involving automation: http://t.co/Hnj5K41e (kind words, smart observations by @ernieattorney)
Category Archives: Satisfaction
The legacy of work-life balance
I think we’ll soon be closing the book on one of the legal profession’s most-used and least-understood phrases of the last decade: “work-life balance.” It was still all the rage just a couple of years ago — new lawyers invoked it as a mantra, talent recruiters bandied it about, and many legal publications (including those [...]
Also posted in Big Firms, Billing, New Lawyers, Purpose, Talent 13 Comments
Trading money for time in your legal career
One of the unexpected benefits of this blog for me is the correspondence I’ve received from people who’ve read something I’ve written and have struck up a conversation about it. Recently, I received an email from a reader in the western US, and I thought you might be interested in both his question and my [...]
Also posted in Careers, New Lawyers 4 Comments
What are you afraid of?
I spent several hours, Sunday before last, co-presenting a media training session for a group of in-house counsel. Among the many standard warnings we give to lawyers in these sessions is to proceed with caution around reporters, reminding trainees of the two ineluctable rules of the media: 1. Journalists are not your friends. 2. Nothing [...]
Posted in Satisfaction Leave a comment
There’s no such thing as work/life balance
There are a lot of reasons to dislike the term “work/life balance.” It’s grammatically absurd, for one thing, implying that work and life are two equal sides of a coin, which is a far more disturbing concept than any 2,500-hour billable target: work is part of life, not its opposite number. “Work/life balance” has also [...]
Also posted in Big Firms, Billing, Clients 10 Comments
Give up on anything but yourself
A thought-provoking post by Seth Godin today that isn’t really about politics, even though it asks whether Hillary Clinton should quit the Democratic race. What it’s really about is quitting, which Seth endorses in a book (that I endorse) called The Dip, and the danger of changing who you are in order to achieve your [...]
Also posted in Ethics, New Lawyers Leave a comment
Beyond work/life balance
Seth Godin, whom you’ll see linked fairly often in this space, writes about the new workaholic, the person who’s motivated not by fear but by passion: “The passionate worker doesn’t show up because she’s afraid of getting in trouble, she shows up because it’s a hobby that pays. …[T]he new face of work, at least [...]
Also posted in Big Firms, Generations, New Lawyers, Purpose Leave a comment
Waking the neighbours
Ten years ago, it was rare to see more than a passing mention of law practice management or legal business issues even in the legal press. Today, the legal press has finally caught up, but the mainstream media also seems to be warming to this topic. In recent weeks, we’ve seen prominent articles on lawyer [...]
Also posted in Publishing 1 Comment
A long look in the mirror
I don’t have much to say about “the Maclean’s cover” that hasn’t already been said, eloquently and accurately, by the CBA’s current and past presidents. The CBA was right to defend lawyers’ good name against an offensive piece of hack journalism. The less said about that article and the book that inspired it, the better. [...]
Also posted in Purpose Leave a comment
Mom and Dad, Esq.
Somebody asked me, after I returned to the office following three months’ parental leave, “Did you enjoy your time off?” “I enjoyed the last three months immensely,” I said. “But trust me, ‘time off’ does not in any way describe it.” If you’ve spent more than a few weeks raising a child hands-on, you’ll probably [...]
Also posted in Billing, Careers, New Lawyers Leave a comment
Can’t buy me motivation