Chuck Newton

Pleasure Interrupted. Happiness? Not So Much.

I am pretty much a happy guy.  I like what I am doing even if it is not always cracked up to what I want it to be.  Like everyone, I have moments, and clients, and cases, and events that get in the way.  I try to move on.  So, you might say that I am sometimes unhappy, or that happiness is fleeting.  I have thought about, and I say no.

It was with interest that I read the post by Steve Ross and Olivia Rosewood entitled How To Find True Happiness.  I usually do not pay much attention to this carp, but I liked this distinction between happiness and pleasure:

Remember, true happiness is independent of circumstances. Pleasure is utterly dependent on circumstance. True happiness is prior and senior to the flickering phenomena of the world. True happiness transcends the boundaries of the mind and the limitations of conditioned propriety. True happiness is uninterrupted.

I think what this says is that true happiness is doing what you want overall.  If you want to move your office home, then do it.  If you want to transition into a new practice of law, then do it.  If you want to not work so hard or on so many cases, then do less.  All of that contributes to your happiness.  That is the overarching criteria as to what you are doing is worth it to you.  This is not to say that you will not find some aspects, some cases, some clients, some judges, some issues, or some situations displeasurable.  You will.  It is almost a given.  But, if you see these displeasurable acts as nothing but a bump in the road then the real issue is happiness and you are probably going to have to accept the fact that you are going to have to make serious changes to get that back.

Proof That You Can Practice Virtually From Anywhere

We talk about carpet commutes and work-life balance and blending, and in this I get a lot of resistance.  I get emails daily as to why some lawyer or some firm just cannot do it, or how it is just not practically possible.  Or, how my practice is an anomaly.  Well, it is not.  Someday, I believe the anomaly will be those practices and lawyers that do not do as I do.

But, it does not matter if you practice in a more traditional setting or at home.  What matters is that you are mobile and can practice from where you are, everywhere you are, whenever you want or need to.  That is what allows you to flatten your organization.  Flattening your organization is what allows you to cut overhead.  Cutting overhead is what allows you to keep more of what you make.  Keeping more of what you make is what makes life out of the office more enjoyable.  Do I need to go on?

As proof positive that this is possible, you can already set up and work in most Starbucks, hotels and motels.  But, you can now work from your computer in many RV parks and campsites.

I found interesting this article in the Austin Business Journal of the founder of TengoInternet, which installs wireless Internet access in over 300 RV parks and campgrounds around the country.  It has been a hard slog for him convincing RV park and campground owners to allow him to set up this technology, but the truth of the matter is that RVers and campers are demanding the access these days.  They need to stay in touch.  They need to do a little work while vacationing.  They want to work from where they are located.

Now TengoInternet is moving into truck stops.

About 19% of online consumers used public WiFi in 2007, according to Jupiter Research's 2007 U.S. Public WiFi Consumer Survey. Travel is a big reason why people use WiFi, says Jupiter Research analyst Ina Sebastian.

Talk about a carpet commute.

High Handshake Marks

Yahoo! News reports on another nutty research project about firm handshakes and handshake training bringing higher employability that week handshakes.  I like the term that people receiving "high handshake marks" rated most hireable.

The study, which appears in the September Journal of Applied Psychology, suggest that handshakes provide a glimpse of the real you.  In reality, handshakes provide a ready path to catching colds and the flu.  (Wash your had often).

The thing that really chaps me is that job seekers are "trained how to act in a job interview".  How to dress, to answer questions, how to look, and act and to shake hands.  Here is my advice.  Just relax and be yourself.  If the interviewer does not like you, then the hell with him or her.  Move on to some place that can or will more likely appreciate you for who you are.  What is the purpose of acting like somebody you are not?  If personality traits and differences really matter and you manage to fool the interviewer, then you are going to get fired or pushed out anyway.  There is a really good chance that you will not like working there because the person they hired is not the person you pretended to be.

It is often said that a jury can smell a phony a mile a way.  I can tell you that a lawyer recruiting for a law firm can sniff out a phony as well.

Also, "training" to reflect somebody that you are not is going to get you a job in a law firm that you will not like.  Let's say a Big Law firm likes how forceful you are, how firm and hard your handshake is, they like your backslapping abilities, your bull-shooting way, and how you can just cozy up just right on the edge of someone's comfort zone>  So, they put you in litigation when in fact you are reticent by nature and would be better suited for some kind of transactional work.  How long do you think you are going to last?  And, if you last, do you think you are going to be happy?

The same is true for marketing and networking as it is for employment.  People want to be remembered and treated half decently.  I have to admit that I am a backslapper and tend to have a strong enough grip.  I try not to hug ladies, and will touch cheek to cheek while shaking their hand if needed, but I do not want to be offensive.  That is not so much training as it is that I am uncomfortable doing it ... and, I have a tendency of eating onions for lunch (and kissing onions they are not).  But, the point is that you do not have to be somebody that you are not.  You just have to be there, and to be yourself.

Law Schools Of Louisiana

We now mainly remember Louisiana from Hurricane Katrina, but it is a state rich in history and culture.  It also has a fair number of law schools for its size, and all of them are in either the state capital of Baton Rouge or New Orleans, both towns are not far from each other, and both are located in the Southern part of the state.  Although Louisiana is the only state in the country that follows the Napoleonic Code, the law schools still train you for practice outside of the State.  The law schools are:

• Loyola University College of Law, New Orleans
  526 Pine Street, New Orleans 70118, Phone: (504) 861-5550 
• Paul M Hebert Law Center Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
  202 Law Center, Baton Rouge 70803-1000, Phone: (225) 578-8646 
• Southern University Law Center, Baton Rouge
  Roosevelt Steptoe Avenue, Baton Rouge 70813, Phone: (225) 771-2552 
• Tulane University Law School, New Orleans
  6329 Freret Street, New Orleans 70118, Phone: (504) 865-5939

Tips For Doing What You Do Not Want To Do

What I have found is that there is nothing in this World that you like doing that does not have some displeasurable aspects.  But, you know what?  If you want to do what you like to do, you have to do some of that for which you do not care.  And, you have to do it because it goes to marketing and money.  If you are by yourself there is nobody but you that can do it, and your work product is your marketing and your money machine.

Like you, I get into a funk now and then myself.  Well, Gretchen Rubin has written 6 Tips For Getting Yourself to Do Something You Don't Want To Do.  They are:

1.  Put yourself in jail . If you're working on something that's going to take a long time, and you have the urge to try to rush, or to feel impatient, pretend you're in jail. If you're in jail, you have all the time in the world. You have no reason to hurry, no reason to cut corners or to try to do too many things at once. You can slow down, concentrate. You can take the time to get every single detail right.

2. Ask for help. Why is this so hard? I have no idea. But whenever I ask for help, I'm amazed at how much it...helps.

3. Remember: most decisions don't require extensive research. This is another important Secret of Adulthood. I often get paralyzed by my inability to make a decision, but by reminding myself that often, one choice just isn't that much different from another choice, I can move on.

4. Take a baby step. If you feel yourself dismayed at the prospect of the chain of awful tasks that you have to accomplish, just take one step today. Tomorrow, take the next step. The forward motion is encouraging, and before long, you'll probably find yourself speeding toward completion.

5. Do it first thing in the morning. The night before, vow to yourself to do the dreaded task. And the next day, at the first possible moment - as soon as you walk into work, or when the office opens, or whenever - just do it. Don't allow yourself to reflect or procrastinate. This is particularly true of exercise. If you think you'll be tempted to skip, try to work out in the morning.

6. Protect yourself from interruption. How often have you finally steeled yourself to start some difficult project, only to be interrupted the minute you get going? This makes a hard task much harder. Carve out some time to work. Yesterday, I wanted to put a newsletter sign-up box on my blog. I figured this would be frustrating and time-consuming, so I waited to make the attempt when I knew I had two hours when I could work uninterrupted.

Oh, You Better Belive I Was Breast Fed!

I can see it now.  Instead of those bumper stickers that say, "My Lawyer Can Beat Your Lawyer", they will now read, "My Lawyer Was Breast Fed".

Are you smarter than the average bear? 

According to the study detailed on Live Science, children who were breast-fed exclusively for the first three months of life or longer scored nearly six points higher on IQ tests at the age of 6 than children who were not breast-fed exclusively.  This is on top of other studies that suggest that adults who were breast-fed as infants scored better on IQ tests and other measures of cognitive development, such as thinking, learning and memory.  "Long and exclusive breast-feeding makes kids smarter," said lead researcher Dr. Michael S. Kramer, of McGill University and the Montreal Children's Hospital, in Canada.

Why breast-feeding might increase cognitive skills is not clear, but it has nothing to do with differences between mothers.

For the study, a group randomly assigned 7,108 infants in Belarus to exclusive breast-feeding; another 6,781 infants received the usual practice of breast-feeding plus other foods.  When the children were 6.5 years old they were given a standard IQ test. Those children who were exclusively breast-fed scored, on average, 7.5 points higher in verbal intelligence, 2.9 points higher in nonverbal intelligence, and 5.9 points higher in overall intelligence.  In addition, their teachers said the breast-fed children had significantly better academic performance in both reading and writing, compared with children who were not breast-fed exclusively.

I am not sure I am ready to put the fact that I was breast fed as a baby on my resume just yet, but I am apparently willing to brag about it (along with my superior intelligence) on my blog.

Should everybody be asking their lawyer if he or she were breast fed for at least three months as a child?  Maybe the bar-tenders will now require such a disclosure by all lawyers in the future.  In the meantime, are there any studies as to breast feeding and those that elect to work from home?

I Answer The 10 Misconceptions Of Working From Home

A reader of mine sent me the 10 Misconceptions the Self-Employed Deal With Daily as published on LifeDev.  I think the article is bigger than just working at home, but it primarily deals with this issue.  Even though many of you do not know the secret handshake or have a decoder ring, I am willing to (partially) answer those misconceptions for you.  (Warning:  results may vary).

1. You are ALWAYS open for business.  The biggest problem is that this can be true if you let it.  If you let this happen, then it will not be long before you feel run down.  You have to know when to start, maintain reasonable hours, and when to stop.  But, truth be known, too many who do not have home offices find themselves in this trap as well.  They are permanently connected to the cell phone, and they are stuck away from home and family in some office tower.  As for me, I do shut down, but I too often check my email and respond when the answer is short.  I am just often watching some design show on TV with my wife.

Kitchen Nightmares

First, I love the TV show Kitchen Nightmares.  Second, I love Tom Kane's Legal Marketing Blog.  Third, I live and really love the concept of the niche practice of law as something that is inherently enjoyable to practice and at which to make money.  And, I appreciate the fact that Tom Kane has brought all of these concepts and programs together for his latest post.

As Tom rightfully points out, Scottish Chef Gordon Ramsey on his TV show Kitchen Nightmares works at turning around failing restaurants based upon “two key issues”.  First, there are too many items on the menu.  Second, the restaurant is not known as the best place to go for a particular dish.  And, that concept relates to law firm's as well.  It is a concept of reorganization he applies over and over again at one failing restaurant after another in this TV show.  And, it works.

You need to build niche practices in which you substantially reduce your menu of services down to something that is exquisitely manageable, knowable and marketable.  In doing so you will become known for being the law firm or lawyer to whom everyone should turn for a particular problem.  It is that narrowing and doing one particular thing very, very well that will get you known, that will help you market, and that will drive business to you.  But, just like the failing restaurants fight this concept tooth and nail, so do most lawyers and law firms.

Lawyer. Boxer. Am I Repeating Myself?

JD Bliss has a post about Buckhead, Georgia attorney Preston Halliburton in his pursuit of the practice of law and as a professional boxer.  But, I have to ask, is boxing and the practice of law pretty much the same thing?

Some Realtors Need To Get A Life

Money sometimes brings out the worst in people.  Even pretend money like some Realtor's perceived idea of what a property is worth can bring out the worst in both home sellers and Realtors.

Do yo watch those real estate shows on HGTV, Fine Living, TLC, Discvoery Home and the like?  The common result (if not the theme) of almost all of the shows on these channels is that Realtors have allowed their clients or customers to so greatly overpriced their homes that they have run off all potential buyers.

That is the reason that I found amusing the discussion on Bankrate.Com about what constitutes a low ball offer.

You have Realtors on both sides of the divide trying to figure out how not to, and why not to, outrage the seller of a property.  For example, Karen Monsour, a Realtor with Exit Realty Properties in Coral Springs, Fla., says any offer that is 25% less than the asking price falls into the lowball category.  She encourages buyers to offer at least 85% of the asking price because anything lower than that is "an insult to the seller."

Man, I am not sure I would want this person representing me in a real estate deal.

Pricing real estate is such a subjective thing, despite what everybody says about comparable properties.   The house down the street might have sold for X, but it had a pool, or it was staged nicely, or the people that lived there were not pigs that thrived in a pile of clutter like the present sellers.

I think Miriam Bernstein, an associate broker with RE/MAX Prime Properties in Scarsdale, N.Y., is right when she suggests that just about any offer could be labeled as "lowball" if it provokes the seller to outrage or anger.  Rather than discourage lowball offers, she believes buyers "should be able to put in whatever offer they want and provoke a discussion." After that, it's up to the broker to present the low offer in a manner that's friendly and non-confrontational.

I am not about to tip toe around some seller and pay them much more than what I think the property is worth just because they are in love their investment.  I do not care if they did the crappy tile job in the kitchen themselves.  Would you believe a stockbroker, when you asked to offered $10 a share for Microsoft stock, if he told you that he could not present that bid because it might hurt Bill Gates' feelings?  Somebody might not be willing to sell their Microsoft shares for that amount, but they would place the bid.

I had this experience in the last year.  We were looking to downsize the world wide home office because our kids had mainly moved out.  We sold our larger house.  The first house on which we bid the Realtor refused to take our "lowball offer" to the sellers because we insisted on paying only 94% of the asking price of the home.  She said it was an insult because the homeowner had just voluntarily reduced the price by $10,000.00 after only 6 days on the market against her advice.  I felt it strange that she would not even accept the offer and present it to her client or customer despite the fact that we were pre-approved for the loan and could close immediately.  (The homeowner was no longer living in the house).  So, we just moved on to a different house.  As it turned out, the homeowner ended up selling the home many months later for the exact same price that we had offered.  Apparently, the person making that offer was clean shaven and had taken a bath or something, but the Realtor did not find it offensive to take that offer to the homeowner.  Possibly she had some bills due and needed the commission.

Apart from allowing me to vent a little, the point is that you as a home office attorney cannot afford to overpay for a home despite what a Realtor or homeowner thinks.  Like it or not, houses for sale are a dime a dozen these days it appears.  Even when they are in short supply, it does not last.  Now is a good time to buy, but you have to buy it right.  After all, this will likely be your largest investment, and for you to make a good investment, you do not need to pay a price for a house just because somebody has some arbitrary value already in their mind, which your offer might offend.

7 Common Cooking Mistakes

Cooking is part of work-life balance or blending.  If you work at home full time or part time, you obviously have an opportunity to treat yourself with a home cooked meal.  This is especially true once you cut out the long commute to and from work.  So, this post is not irrelevant to Third Wave lawyers and carpet commuters.  Many spare room tycoons enjoy eating their own cooking.

In this regard, Real Simple has provided us with the 7 most common cooking mistakes we make.  In brief they are:

1.  You do not read the recipe all the way through before you start cooking.

2.  You overcrowded the pan.

3.  You did not preheat the pan, and your fish fillets turned out soggy.

4.  You cooked past in a small pot and ended up with a pile of gummy noodles.

5.  You sauteed wet greens.

6.  You used dried herbs in a recipe in place of fresh ones, resulting in a heavily over seasoned dinner.

7.  You fried food in oil that was not hot enough.

Cinco De Mayo - Like You Mean It

I am originally from North East Texas, but I love the South Texas culture, if not the lack of pine trees.  My wife (a/k/a my girlfriend) is from South Texas.  I went to college at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas.  I love The Woodlands, Texas because it is in Southeast Texas on the cusp of what is deep South Texas, but still in the piney woods.

One of the wonderful celebrations that I first experienced in San Antonio was Cinco de Mayo - Spanish for the 5th of May.  Cinco de Mayo is primarily a regional and not an obligatory federal holiday in Mexico.  Many people think that Cinco de Mayo represents Mexico's Independence Day, but this is not true.  That celebration falls on September 16th, and is the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico.

But, we are not Mexico, and Cinco de Mayo commemorates an initial victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Sequin over the France in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.  Now defeating France apparently is something with which we can all get behind.  As it has developed in the United States, Cinco de Mayo has developed into a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.  Take that fence builders!

Thugs

According to CBS News, during the annual North Carolina Democratic Party's Jefferson Jackson Dinner Hillary Clinton said she would not back Barack Obama if he is the party's nominee, and she will work hard for him.  That resulted in the Obama people to shout her down.

It is what we have seen from the Obama troops repeatedly throughout this campaign.  It is what the organizing is about.  It is reminiscent of the Bush-Cheney contingent constantly yelling down the well meaning Gore people in Florida during the recount.  It is particularly disgraceful.  It is the thought that you can win through intimidation. It is what makes Obama such a force in closed, in your face, and personal caucuses.

That and the assumptive close.  Acting like no matter what the opinion of anybody else might be, that the election is inevitable. That we the people do not have a choice.  In that he is intentionally condescending.  That is what is meant by elitist.  I recall it is just how Bush treated the 2000 election.

The question is do we need another Bush in the White House?  And, I do not mean from a philosophical standpoint, but from a strategy position.  We have had enough condescensions from this front runner. In person he discounts the self worth of everyone that simply does not agree.  In organization, he organizes his crowds to be thugs.

At the Jefferson Jackson Dinner the crowd of about 5,200 were about evenly split between Barack and Hillary.  The tactic is to shut down debate.  To shut down discussion.  You cannot have discussion and argument.  So, when you are evenly matched you yell, and disrupt, and allow the candidate to play the innocent.

In our caucus the Obama people were well trained.  They were trained to be rude and disruptive, as opposed to being constructive.

In Houston the Obama people tried to boo Shelia Jackson Lee off the stage at the country convention.  Someone that has fought tirelessly in Congress for nearly everything the Obama supporters want.

In 1976 I saw the Reagan people boo and chant President Ford out of prime time for his acceptance speech for no apparent reason than vindictiveness.

It is sore losership.  You feel your time has come, but somehow you just cannot seem to quite pull it off.  So you train your people and supporters in thuggery, and mask that as overwhelming support when it is not.

What you see on ground level is that this is not just about enthusiasm.  It is about the candidate getting up and preaching one thing, while organizing his enthusiastic supporters to do the polar opposite of what he is saying.  Again, the policies might be different, but that is Rove-ism.  That is Bush all over.  It is saying that you want to be a "uniter, not a divider", or you want to bring about a "kinder gentler nation", knowing that you are organizing around different principals for no better purpose than to win.

No matter how much I support the policies of the person running, I refuse to be shouted, intimidated, yelled, or mocked into supporting someone.  Being condescending and elitist in the sense that this is a forgone  decision and failing to be honest in dealing with the political environment does not help me.  If Obama ever wants my vote he is going to have to step down off of his pedestal, and out from behind his teleprompters, come out from the bubble in which he is living, be respectful to me and my own, and stop training his contingent to be thugs.   

Consumer Spending Is Up. Good News?

If so then we can herald the fact that prisoners are renting lofts and condos.

It never ceases to amaze me that as soon as the economy starts to tank, inflation starts to rise, and prices go through the roof, that the press (and the administration) says all is not lost because the good news is that consumer spending is up.

Right.  The Commerce Department took glee in announcing that consumer spending was up 0.4 percent, double the increase economists had forecast.

The problem is that consumer spending is not up because earnings are on the rise, or that all of us are fully employed, or that tech is greatly increasing productivity.  No, consumer spending is on the rise because everything from gas to groceries is on the rise.

Rising food costs, soaring energy prices and falling employment have pushed consumer confidence to its lowest levels in five years. Incomes in March rose a weak 0.3, but after removing inflation, after-tax incomes were flat.

Without increased income all consumer spending means is that people are hurting, and our government and the media tout that as something to cheer about.

And, do not think that this does not have an effect on lawyers.  When money is tight everybody from business, to government, to insurance and finance companies put downward pressure on the payment of legal fees.  Lawyers, therefore, can only respond by attacking aggressively overhead.

But, do not be fooled.  Most Americans, and most corporations for that matter, do not have disposable income from which to take these losses.  No matter what you call the debt, we live in a credit card world.  And, do not tell me that most lawyers do either.

So, let us all just tighten our belts and move on because the great news is -- CONSUMER SPENDING IS UP!!!

Are High Gas Prices Greening The Practice Of Law?

I do not know for certain, but it certainly seems this way.  More lawyers are moving home full time or part time.  I get emails weekly from lawyers in transition.  They are cutting overhead drastically as a result.  They are wanting to end their long commutes.  And, what is spurring this on?  High gas prices.  It might not be the full impetus for these actions, but  I think it does represent the straw that is breaking the proverbial camel's back.

Also, to those not moving home, the trend is to get rid of those gas guzzlers they have been driving to and from work, to and from court, and to and from every place else.

As the New York Times is reporting, the higher gas soars, more and more buyers are flocking to small cars.  Just looking around the courthouses, I am noticing this trend as well. 

In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.  “It’s easily the most dramatic segment shift I have witnessed in the market in my 31 years here,” said George Pipas, chief sales analyst for the Ford Motor Company.  “The era of the truck-based large S.U.V.’s is over,” said Michael Jackson, chief executive of AutoNation, the nation’s largest auto retailer.

Indeed, and good riddance.  I cannot tell you the number of attorneys I know that went off and purchased huge automobiles, which they used for commuting, because the Bush administration and Congress gave them unbelievable tax right offs on these gas guzzlers years ago.  In downtown Houston I use to watch the parking garage after court as one after another Escalade, Navigator, Sequoia, Expedition, Armada, Q7, Suburban, Tahoe, Durango and the like pulled out.  A veritable parade of heedless extravagance.

It is true that I use to drive mini-vans, but I also had four small children to tote around.  However, in later years I use to be amused by the one person in a gigantic SUV stuck in traffic because they could not use the HOV lane, or waiting in line to pick up their only child at school.  I use to think how painful that was for them.  However, with things as they are, I now find myself getting resentful -- especially the other day when I saw a lady waiting in the school line in her brand new (temporary tags on vehicle) Hummer.  I feel they are affecting the quality of my life and that of my children with the pollution, the gas prices, the higher grocery prices, and now the upcoming increases in school taxes and tuition due to the energy prices.  Tax deals or no tax deals there is not an excuse for such thoughtless disregard.

But, I calm down and realize that not all of us are perfect (especially me), and everybody could do more.  Most of us are trying our best.  Ultimately, I am happy to see the changes, and if gas prices represent the impetus for lawyers across our country to simplify and uncomplicated their lives, to cut their expenses and their stress, to buy cheaper and smaller cars, and to incur less debt then maybe it is worth it.

Pros And Cons Of Working At Home

Starting Off

I continue to get inquiries as to how you start off doing a certain type of case when you have not worked as an associate or in the trenches of the practice area for years.  I continue to give my typical answer -- you just start.

Is this not what law school is about?  To train you to research, experiment, and the learn as you go?

No matter if you have practiced law for 20+ years as I have, you are still going to run into situations, or have to venture into other areas of law of which you know very little.  But, you can somehow manage these because it is an offshoot.  The process is the same.  But, here are my suggestions of the first steps you need to take.

1.  Concern yourself first with just learning the basics.  Read some general texts about the area of law.  I find it very helpful to read through blogs on in the area, and to study the websites of firms and lawyers that practice in the area.  Believe me when I say you will pick up the basics as you would with any primer.  The idea is not to get detailed knowledge of anything, but help you feel knowledgeable enough to take the first step.

2.  Find an experienced, reputable attorney that will work with you through the first few cases.  Some might want part of the money, most of them will not want any of the money, but the point is to get some guidance.  There are attorneys out there that will help and will be happy to do so.  Almost everybody remembers starting off, and nobody likes that feeling of insecurity.  There are a few jerks out there that will tell you that the secrets of the golden practice belong only to him or her, but we all know there are really no secrets.  Move on and find someone that will.  Cold call if you have no other choice.  Read their blog and website and email them if you must.  After all, you do not want them to do the work.  You want them to supervise your work.  If you cannot find an attorney, look to the high priced staff of more established attorneys. They know a lot, especially about procedure.

3.  Find out if there is some reasonable modeling software for the practice area that other attorneys in your area are using.  In some areas like tax, trusts, and consumer bankruptcy such software is a must.  A lot of this software will help walk you through the process logically and will warn you about issues while inputting.

4.  Join the various bars dealing with the practice area.  Many of these organizations have guide books and form books that will walk you through the process.  The State Bar of Texas, for example, has a detailed book that will literally walk you step by step through the probate process with forms.

5.  Take some time and drop in on legal proceedings involving the practice area in which you wish to practice.  If you intend to practice in the area of probate, you should drop in at the probate courts and just observe for several hours at a time.  The same is true for bankruptcy court, creditor meetings, family law court, criminal court, tax court and the like.  Do not let it worry you.   Often time the cases being heard are convoluted and above your head.  That is why the court is having to hear them.  But, believe me you will learn a lot, and you will learn the players.

6.  Tell everybody that you know or meet that you are or wish to practice in this particular area.  After all, you cannot practice in a particular area until you have clients.  You are not going to have clients if people do not know your wishes.  So, shout it out.

If you do this you might not know everything, but you will know enough to take your first step.

Just remember, there is no experience like experience and the only way you are going to get experience is through experience, so get yourself on the way toward experience.

The Law Schools Of Washington D.C.

Maybe there is no greater concentration of law schools per population than Washington, D.C.  But, then again there is probably no better place to go to law school than D.C.  Below are the schools of the District of Columbia:

• American University Washington College of Law, Washington
  4801 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington 20016, Phone: (202) 274-4000 
• Catholic University of America  - School of Law, Washington
  3600 John McCormack Rd., NE, Washington 20064, Phone: (202) 319-5140 
• George Washington University Law School, Washington
  2000 H Street, NW, Washington 20052, Phone: (202) 994-6261
• Georgetown University Law Center, Washington
  600 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington 20001, Phone: (202) 662-9000 
• Howard University School of Law, Washington
  2900 Van Ness Street, N.W., Washington 20008, Phone: (202) 806-8000 
• University of the District of Columbia - David A. Clarke School of Law, Washington
  4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington 20008, Phone: (202) 274-5583 
• Washington College of Law - American University, Washington
  4801 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington 20016, Phone: (202) 274-4000

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of '08 Election

Hint - When Going To The Courthouse Leave Your Illicit Drugs In The Car

... And, please do not chalk this up to work-life balance or blending issues.

According to dothaneagle.com, when Malcom Williams entered the Houston County Courthouse in Alabama he poured out the contents of his pockets, like everyone else, to get through the metal detectors.  But, what did he pull out of his pockets in plain view of the deputies.  Two baggies of marijuana, a wad of cash, a cell phone, a knife and other paraphernalia.  As it turns out, Mr. Williams was visiting the Courthouse to visit with his probation officer and to pay a fine.

I guess after Mr. Williams realized what he had done, he tried to make a break for it.  The officers tried to use the Taser on him, but it was ineffective because of the clothing he was wearing.  (Note to self - wear a lot of thick clothing around Tasers).  So, he had to be shackled and handcuffed.

He is now facing not only revocation of his probation, but new felony charges as well.

So, this rule applies to lawyers as well.  When going to the Courthouse, leave your drugs, weapons and stuff in your car.

Should You Attend A Law School Based Upon Its Scholarship Award

It is law school acceptance time.  Some of you have choices and you are trying to make a decision based upon the scholarships being offered to you.  Well, Ann Levine at Law School Expert as some critical advice in this regard:

For those of you considering law school scholarship offers right now, please consider (1) whether the scholarship is renewable and (2) what is required of you to renew it. A 3.25 doesn't sound so hard to attain coming out of undergrad; but at some law schools that may be a GPA reached only by the top 20% of the class. If you're choosing a school primarily because of the scholarship then think about how you would feel without that scholarship 2nd and 3rd years. This is especially true if you would try to transfer because if you haven't hit the GPA requirement for your scholarship then you may not be the world's most competitive transfer applicant.

Sometimes I think for most of us the little bit of recognition that a scholarship offers us is too pleasing, but the scholarships offered to you need to be judge based upon what is likely and achievable.  Often a public law school is in the end cheaper than a private law school with what really amounts to a signing bonus of sorts because because of restrictions the scholarship offered is not going to repeat itself.  If you have a choice in law schools, do yourself a favor, and do not judge the scholarship based upon the appreciation you have for the recognition you believe it represents for all of your hard work, and try to determine if it amounts to real money compared to your other choices.

Hillary vs. Obama Death Match

The New York Post has an online game in which you can be Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama and fight out the issues on a boxing ring until both candidates are bloodied and bruised.  And, who says that online video games cannot be constructive or educational?  You can play by CLICKING HERE.

Cash vs. Profits

How many of us know lawyers or law firms that seem to generate lots of cash, but the lawyers or partners never have enough money?

We all know some lawyers in which this is true, and we have all been in this position at some time.  This is especially true with traditional law firms.  And, the reason is pretty simple.  These law firms or lawyers do not know the different, or appreciate the difference, between cash and profit.  In short, they mistake cash for profit and they are not the same animal.

Do not get me wrong.  You need both cash and profit.  Cash, for course, is the money that comes to the lawyer or firm while profit is the money that is left over after ALL expenses are paid.  The key is to find the equilibrium between overhead and cash flow.  If not enough money is coming in you can never make a profit.  However, if you allow your overhead to get out of control you will never have enough cash flow to allow yourself to prosper in the practice of law.

Law firms and lawyers try to run their practices by utilizing an income/profit or loss statement.  But, these do not show the cash controls in place.  Move home.  Get rid of your traditional telephone service.  Cut down on paper and print.  Cut your legal research costs.  Collaborate instead of hiring staff.  Stop commuting.  Cut back on using snail mail.  Each one of these things helps turn your cash to profit -- money that goes straight into your pocket.  What we call down here in Texas "folding money".

The other thing that is not well understood is that a law firm can grow and show a profit, but the lawyers involved will always feel like they are short on money if the timing of the cash flow is not correct.  It is important that you work constantly at accessing your cases and working to get money in as quickly as possible.

Especially if you are going out on your own, you had better get your overhead under control from the beginning, and work on bring money in quickly, so that you can feel comfortable in your practice.

Overhead And Message - I Have Traveled The Same Path As Peter Olson

Well, maybe not the same road to political enlightenment, but the one of lessons learned in the private practice of law.

We practice.  We learn.  We try to express ourselves to others so that they might find the trip a little easier than we did.

Peter Olson of Solo In Chicago posted about the two things he wish he knew or understood when he started his practice.  The first, is that you need to control your expenses.  Money not spent is almost as important as money earned, only most people discus the latter and not the former.  As he stated, "I still kick myself about throwing away money in the early start-up years. For me it was overspending on office space and commercial lawyer referral programs. A law firm can potentially earn you a nice living, but it's different than a non-legal start-up business where oftentimes you can really grow a business for 3-5 years and then sell it or go public".

The second gift of knowledge is that in network marketing you need to get in front of people who can refer you clients, but just as important (and what people do not tell you) is you need to have your elevator speech down.  How is it that you explain what you do to people.  As he stated, telling people something like "I'm a family law and real estate attorney" is not good.

I Am Not Sure Why I Did Not Make Time Magazine's List Of Least Influential Americans

It is really hard to say how this happened.  I work out of my home.  I do not have any staff.  I write a blog that a few read but the advice of which nobody follows.  Heck, my beagle, Mandy, will not even listen to me.  All I can do is promise that I will work harder at continuing to decrease my profile and influence until I can make this list.  It is going to happen someday.  I just feel it.  Thank you for not reading this.

Of Football Coaches And Law School Deans

Do you think that a person interviewing for the job of a football coach every goes into the interview explaining that he does not care if the team is the number one team in the country?  I seriously doubt a potential NFL coach can interview with a team and not talk about his plans to take the team to the Super Bowl in just a few years.  In systems, in training, in player recruitment, based upon schematics of Xs and Os I doubt there is ever a discussion about not caring to win the playoffs more than wanting to benefit or nurture the players.  The emphasis, whether a high school, college or pro football team is always about the school, the college or the NFL owners.  To the extent the players can contribute to the improvement of these power brokers that is acceptable.

Now, I have never been in an interview for a football coach or a law school dean, but I would suspect that apart from categories and subject matter the emphasis is the same.  No board wants to hear from the candidates for dean about how the candidates are not going to make the law school the premier law school in the country in some respect or the other.  Like the football coach, the candidate once selected that fails to achieve this goal will likely not be the dean very long. 

Important Information For All Of You Lawyers Who Just Cannot Make Yourselves Give Up Commuting In Traffic

Baylor University Law School

Smack dab in the middle of Texas in the smaller, away from the big city, Waco  (pronouned with a long 'A' sound and not a short 'a' sound), not far from George Bush country (Crawford), sits an outstanding little law school on the Baptist campus of Baylor University.

Founded in 1857, Baylor Law School is the oldest law school in Texas. Baylor claims one singularly mission  – to equip students upon graduation to practice law effectively and ethically. That is the key difference. Students are trained and mentored in all facets of law, including theoretical analysis, practical application, legal writing, advocacy, professional responsibility, and negotiation and counseling skills.

This is not hype either.  It is a small law school with an entering class of only about 65 students.  It is one of the few law schools that operates on the quarter system.  After they train you in the traditional sense, they take time to prepare you for the Texas Bar.  Their Bar passage rate is phenomenal.  It has had the highest bar passage rate in Texas of all law schools sense 2002, including a 97.85% passage rate in July 2007 and 100% in February 2007.

And the school has top facilities as well.

As a private law school tuition does not come cheap.  Still, running about $11,500.00 per semester, it is one of the cheapest private law schools around, and it does offer grants and scholarships to reduce this amount further.  And, although I personally feel that Waco is not one of the funnest places to live, it is one of the cheapest places to live (especially in the way of housing costs) in Texas and the Nation, and that helps.

You probably owe it to yourself to visit Baylor and make a decision for yourself if you are contemplating applying to and attending law school.

The Sweet Leaf Tea Lesson On Marketing

I was reading an article in the Austin Business Journal about Sweet Leaf Tea and its marketing lesson, and I wondered how that can be adapted to legal marketing.

Sweet Leaf Tea is one of the fastest-growing makers of ready-to-drink iced teas and sells its products on a national level through grocery chains such as Whole Foods Market, Kroger and Safeway.  The company just received $18 million to expand marketing and in doing so it had to consider its marketing and image on everything from packaging to business cards.

What the company discovered is that product and packaging has to be approachable.  It cannot be so slick or so professional that it scares people away.  I think that is true for many lawyers that especially deal directly with consumers.  Many of these lawyers are so concerned about their staid image that it just screams painful meetings, confrontation and money.  So, the marketing needs to be more personable.

This includes stationery, note cards, envelopes and business cards, especially in regard to those lawyers that market primarily through networking.

In the case of Sweet Leaf Tea, each business card card lists the employee's information, title and favorite flavor of tea, with the image of a full bottle on the front of the card and an empty bottle on the back.  The image is not what would typically be on a business card, and the company points out that they do not see a lot of business cards that has a product image on it, which is a shame if you fully believe in the product or legal services you are providing and the quality of your work.

The lessons learned by Sweet Leaf Tea is that business cards and letterhead can be valuable advertising tools and that simple messaging is best.

But, is not the problem for law and legal service that the product is intangible?  How do you picture a bankruptcy or a divorce or an injury or a real estate closing or a contract or an arbitration in a way that is not often gruesome?

In thinking about it I believe the way is to present to people your clients and success stories on your business card, stationery and the like.  How?  Why not on the back of business cards, note cards, stationery and other paper place quotes from your clients as to how you helped them.

"Attorney Bill Bob closed on my new home in 36 hours without a glitch".

"Ida Smith got me out of that confounded marriage and got the kids the money they need".

"Cooter Jones got that no count insurance company to pay me $36,567.24 for my injury without even goin' to court".

"I was in bad straights, but Big Billy Bower got those creditors off my back ... quick".

We put some of this stuff in TV ads and we put a little on websites, but why not put it on the document the potential client or referral source is likely to keep.

Just because of the work that I am in, I have seen tons of letter mailed to those facing foreclosure or being sued on a debt for bankruptcy services.  These are not nice moments for people receiving this mail.  Also, they do not get mail from just one attorney.  What sets you as the attorney out from the rest?  What makes you appear less ominous?  Would this not let them know they are not alone?  Would it not show them that you are approachable and can help and understand?  It is a little something that can help personalize the situation and you as the lawyer.

The point is that it helps make the intangible tangible.  It helps humanize the process.  And, it makes the lawyer and legal service seem approachable and doable.

So Much Work To Do This Friday And This Weekend, This Pretty Much Represents How I Feel

What Does How You Sleep Suggest The Type Of Lawyer You Are?

What is your preferred sleep position, and what does this say about you as a person and a lawyer?

I am not sure I buy all of this but Janet Kinosian recently posted about this on HuffPo.  She reviews the prevailing wisdom about what position you take when you fall off to sleep says about you as a person.  Certainly, all of these traits establish how you manage and react as a lawyer.

The four positions and what they mean are:

1. In the prone position, sleeper lies face down on the stomach with arms extended and bent, usually framed above the head. People who regularly sleep in the prone position tend to have strong compulsive tendencies and stubbornness in their personalities and are persistent and goal-oriented.

2. The royal position is the geometric opposite of the prone. The royal sleeper lies supine, fully on the back, with arms slightly akimbo at the sides. It is an open, vulnerable and expansive position, and these people display self-confidence and self-involvement. Workaholic businessmen and entrepreneurs often prefer this position.

3. The most common position, the semi-fetal, has sleepers lying on their sides with knees slightly bent, one arm outstretched above the head, the other resting comfortably on the opposing upper arm to cradle the head. Conciliatory, compromising, non-threatening, non-shakers; sleep experts claim this to be the optimal sleep posture position.

4. The full-fetal is the characteristic womb position. Sleepers lie curled on their sides, with knees pulled all the way up, heads bent forward. Usually a pillow or blanket mass is centered at the stomach. These people are highly emotional, sensitive, artistic, and have intense one-on-one relationships.

How to Arrange An Office Desk Ergonomically

This does seem so simple, but straight on is the best way to organize a monitor and keypad.

Love The Lincoln Commercial And The Work At Home Dad

Election Reform

Yeah it matters to solos, carpet commuters, Third Wavers and all attorneys because in this day of cheap tech our current system is antiquated and wrong.

A Palace Of Pain

These are the stories that you must wonder about.  According to the Dallas Business Journal the Dallas office of the Washington, D.C. based law firm Patton Boggs has leased 114,000 square feet, or 4 and a half stories, of a new class A office space in Uptown Dallas, off downtown.  At $39 per square foot per year, plus electricity and other costs the law firm will pay substantially over $444,000.00 per year to house their attorneys, not counting annual rent increases.  Much of this does not cover interior finishes, furnishings, computer and other equipment and the like.  I say the law firm will have to pay for this, because in reality it will costs their clients this much more.  With cheap tech it is possible send most of these attorneys and staff home and collaborate in other ways, but then you will not feel like you are on top of the World.

Dull Jobs Numb The Mind

... Sorry ... where was I ... um, I was saying ... oh yeah ...

According to an article on BBC News, boring jobs turn our minds to autopilot or rest mode, whether we like it or not, which foreshadows mistakes.

So you real estate closing attorneys take head.

In the study reported on, participants were asked to repeatedly perform a "flanker task" - an experiment in which individuals must quickly respond to visual clues.  As they did so, brain scans were performed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).  What the experiment found was that the participants' mistakes were "foreshadowed" by a particular pattern of brain activity, and the scientist could detect a distinct shift in activity up to 30 seconds before the mistake.  This is because the brain starts to economize, and there is a reduction in activity in the prefrontal cortex.  And, it is not similar to going to sleep, it is more like autopilot.

I wonder if this is the same sensation that comes over us when we drive for long duration on the interstate highway, for example?

Scientist are working on this very classy pre-warning device.

Hillary Clinton Now Leads In The Popular Vote

The Obama camp and the old media can distort numbers any way they want, but the truth now remains, according to The Fact Hub, that Hillary Clinton's decisive victory in Pennsylvania leaves more people having voted for her than Barack Obama.  According to Real Clear Politics, Hillary Clinton has received 15,095,662 votes to Barack Obama's 14,973,720, a margin of 120,000 votes.  Also, ABC News reports that "Clinton has pulled ahead of Obama" in the popular vote.  This count, of course, includes the certified vote totals of Florida and Michigan.

Here is the problem.  The Obama people were the ones that started this mantra that the Super Delegates should not be allowed to overturn the will of the popular vote.  It is an interesting take on the the rhetoric of the 2000 election, but it is not that simple.  Why?  First, we do not have a national primary.  Second, when we talk about popular vote, we have to ask what popular vote?  If it is the popular vote of each state that should dictate the Super Delegate vote, then Clinton should have already won.  Third, Obama only wins the popular vote now if you exclude Michigan and Florida, but how is disenfranchising people fair?  Those were legitimate elections, that were certified by the secretaries of state of both states.  Fourth, it is impossible to count the caucuses.  This is so because many of the caucuses do not release the raw vote so the political camps and news outlets can only guess as what that might have been, and it is all over the place.  Also, in places like Texas that had a primary and caucus, that would mean that some people get to vote twice.

In the long run, you have to be careful about that for which you ask.  Obama defined it as the national popular vote.  That was the standard he set, and now he does not have it.

The Fear Of Disposing Of Paper

I have received several emails of late, and one in particular and on point, concerning what I might describe as the fear of disposing of paper. Fear might be an over-exaggeration, but many of you know what I mean.  You are scanning documents, saving files online or on DVDs, cutting down on paper, but feel apprehensive about disposing of originally signed documents, such as retainer agreements and settlement documents.  There is just that lingering doubt that you should not either destroy the original document or return it to your client.

So fear fits.  You want to scan and destroy the document, but you cannot because of lingering doubts that something bad is going to happen because of it.  But, we have to remember that FEAR is just an acrostic which means False Impressions Appearing Real.

Despite knowing this, I understand this fear.  I have experienced it myself. 

I am just an old country lawyer of sorts.  As such, I have struggled with this issue, not only now but over the last 15 years before computers and scanning was what it is now. When I closed down or got out of consumer bankruptcy law in 1998 and 1999 I had a little over 4,000 closed files. I was afraid to get rid of them because the bankruptcy courts at that time was not imaging documents or maintaining the documents online. I contacted the bar and asked how we might purge these, and they had no real good solutions. I ended up renting two huge storage facilities and maintaining them at the cost of thousands of dollars until 2005. It was past all statutes of limitations as well as we could tell, so I paid a good deal of money to have a company come, take the files and incinerate them. Although I have not received any nasty or angry responses, I am still getting requests for paperwork from client or inquiries that they might have given me original documents that they cannot now find.   I do remind them we had a policy of giving all original documents back to them, and then apologize that the files were destroyed. I do not know why I still sweat bullets over this, but I do.

So, I understand the worry, but I also understand the problem with maintaining paper, especially working from home. First, is the