Chuck Newton

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN POSSIBLY JOINING ME IN A THIRD WAVE SUMMIT OR SABBATICAL TO JAPAN NEXT SUMMER? PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

Did you know the Biblical Sabbath is the origin for the present-day practice of "the weekend", meaning Saturday and Sunday in which most do not have work scheduled, or where, like me, your work schedule is more relaxed.  It comes from the Hebrew Shabbat meaning literally a "ceasing" in work.  It is meant to be a hiatus.  Also from this comes the concept of sabbatical, which is an extended version, which traditionally lasted a year.  But, in recent time sabbatical has come to mean any extended absence in one's career in order to achieve something.

Many times what we want to achieve away from work is just a better understanding of things.  We just want to get away and experience new and much different surroundings.  To open up our minds to new possibilities.  To avoid the mental restrictions and constraints under which we live from day to day.

There is just something about being away for a while, and I do not mean simply near a computer or cell phone in a different location.  I mean out of pocket and mysteriously away from the action long enough to consider other things and other factors that might positively impact our lives.  To get away to someplace you might not otherwise go on your own.

So, although I have not made any plans, I would like your input on what I am thinking.

I am thinking about ditching it all for a week next summer, leaving the country for a more foreign culture, in an effort to see how the rest of the world lives and works -- literally.

I am thinking about a Third Wave conference, or really more of an un-conference of sorts (a sabbatical if you will) wherein we legal professionals (lawyers, assistants, law students, techies, consultants, bloggers and the like) can commune and discuss with each other the concepts, the benefits and the nuts and bolts of the Third Wave Practice of Law, including the home-based practice, the virtual law firm, the niche practice of law, cheap tech, marketing and growing a non-traditional law practice, and collaboration, just to name areas.  While, at the same time, getting our minds clear and our horizons adjusted and calibrated properly, by experiencing a different culture, a different environment, seeing the sights, and studying really comparative law or legal practices.  How does the law differ in different places of the World?

CLE would be great, and with some planning there is no reason why this could not be added or achieved so as to kill two birds with one stone.  This might also add some tax incentive to the trip.

Get away from the kids, the pets, and the pressures of the home and office for a week.  Leave the cell phone and the email behind.  Travel and experience and share and learn in a group of like minded law professionals.

I am thinking that maybe we can plan a trip together to Japan thinking that what will change our perspective culturally will assist us in changing our perspective about the practice of law in our country, and allow us to more fully understand what is truly possible.

It also goes to better understanding and appreciation of the concept of work-life balance or blending.

Japan, it would seem, would offer us that difference, enjoyment and entertainment we all want.  And, with its mass transit, it could very well offer us something reasonably affordable.

My daughter, Mary, knows the county well, has worked there, has a degree in Japanese and is fluent.  Many in Japan speak English as well.  She could be our guide, and in that she will have finished her third year of law school by that time, she fits in our criteria and has our interest at heart.

I would hope that along with seeing the traditional sights, that we could arrange to visit a Japanese law school, a law firm and government offices to get a perspective how how things differ and not.

I understand that it is a lot to consider, but I would like to be able to gauge the interest out there for such a trip next summer.  There is no reason to go to the effort over the next year if there is not enough serious interest.

So, here is what I would ask of you.  If you would be interest in attending such a retreat and learning experience next summer (alone or with your significant other), please email me and let me know.  I want to start by compiling a list of possible participants that want to understand more about the Third Wave practice of law and other cultures.  I am looking for both newbies and those who would have the capability and would care to share your expertise with everyone about related matters, such as law firm tech, blogging, marketing, networking, collaborating, niching a practice, working from home, unbundled legal services or the like.  Obviously, there is no obligation at this point and no money to put down for the trip, but I would like to have a list of people who would be greatly interest.

Email me at -

chuck@chucknewton.net

And, give me your contact information and any ideas that you might have for such a trip.

Other bloggers and social media types, please help me spread the word to other legal professionals.  Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

If we get enough interest, we will start planning and organizing something more formal for your review.

Now This Is What I Call A Summer Internship!

The University of Virginia School of Law is considered one of the finest law school in the country.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is derided by conservatives and embraced by liberals and libertarians alike in that it seeks to defend the individual rights and liberties of every person guaranteed by the Constitution even when those rights are unpopular.  Las Vegas is known as "sin city".  For lucky law school summer intern it now represents a very fortuitous combination.

According to On the Record, Leo Wolpert, on leave from UV Law and working as a summer intern for the ACLU in Las Vegas, pocketed $650,000 by winning a World Series of Poker event during his spare time in sin city.

Wolpert is 26-year-old and a native of Fairfax, Virginia.  He played poker professionally for a while before using his earnings to pay for law school. He said he became fascinated with law after reading a blog entry about a Fourth Amendment case.

I guess this proves the old adage that law school is a gamble.

Mary Gets Married

Well, my oldest daughter gets married on Saturday, June 13, 2009.  How somebody juggles all of the tasks and duties she has, I am not sure.  I do not know how her husband to be will handle this little ball of fire, but I ask if the world is ready for this over achieving lawyer - -

 

Taga

We try to cover work/life issues here and, let us face facts, there are a good number of parents of small children that have decided it is in their best interest, and that of their families, to work from home.  This gives them time to work, make a living, and be with their children throughout the day.

It is the being with the children and trying to stay physically active that is the hard part.  To do this you can purchase any number of attachments to bikes, but versatile they are not.

Introducing the Taga.  It is a stroller and a bike.  It is arrangeable.

The Taga is presently only in Europe, but it is destined for the states.  It weighs in at 44 to 64 pounds depending on the configuration.  It features an aluminum-alloy frame.  Coming soon the Taga will soon sport options for a double child seat, a car seat, shopping basket, and a wooden double-seat trailer.

What Will Happen With Chrysler's Electric Cars?

Some are or were promising, the question is how can Chrysler now produce them?

Oh Twitter

What About A1940s Texas Grain Silo For A Home Office?

Sure this is a wonderful example of adaptive reuse.  It would also make a wonderful home office.  In 2007, Gruene Homestead Inn purchased the 1940s grain silo and remodeled the interior and exterior.  The Silo includes one bedroom and one bathroom in a loft-type setup for the rental price of $175/$210 a night. Regardless of of the fact this is used as a motel room, my point is that you can find office space -- and especially home office space, just about anywhere.

The Law School Scam?

There is a lot of truth to this video contending there is a law school scam.  I personally think there is a law school scam, but probably not for the reasons stated in this video.  For you see, you can argue that a lot of law school graduates are not getting employed immediately after law school, and that traditional law job are falling, but I hardly think it is because of India and China or the relatively small increase in law school seats.  The truth of the matters is that all traditional jobs in this country are dissipating.  It is simple not the way we work any longer in this world.

Alvin Toffler said, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn".  It is a flexibility that too many law students lack, or it is a mode they get into that hurts their chances at good living.

We are being washed by the Third Wave and work styles and opportunities are changing.  They are not less.  They are not worse.  You can call it the "post-industrial" society and the "information age" if you prefer.  But, this society is represented by "subcults" or diverse lifestyles, "adhocracies" or fluid organizations that adapt quickly to change, and where information begins to substitute for most material resources.  As to the latter point, information becomes the main material for workers, each of which is only loosely affiliated.  Mass production is replaced by mass customization; offering personalized and cheaper goods and services.  Third Wave lawyers, like Third Wavers in every field work from homes or cubicles or small shared offices free from the confines of standardization, centralization, concentration, synchronization and bureaucracy, which have primarily contributed to the dissatisfaction of lawyers with the practice of law.  Third Wavers support and fight for diverse lifestyles.  Third Wavers do not employ other lawyers or staff so much as we operate within theseadhocracies or fluid organizations in which we as attorneys and firms come together only to work on specific cases or tasks.  In other words, we are freelancers.  We survive not on libraries, expensive associates, in-house computer systems, and high rise offices of marble and mahogany, but off the Internet, online research, information and social media.  In short, we do what attorneys were programmed to do -- we collect information, process information, analyze information, repackage information, and sell it in packages or in a means to make the lives of ordinary people and organizations better.  Shorter still, Third Wave law firms and lawyers provide personalization and mass customization of the law for the consumer or prosumer in a more cost effective manner.

And frankly, law school graduates are not ending up on skid row, as the video might suggest.  They are slowly finding and developing a life in the law in this Third Wave environment.  It is a shame they have to do it on their own.

The scam that law schools perpetrate is that ranking systems do not keep up with reality.  Law school are trying to please the ranking gods.  They do this by perverting statistics.  Then we expect them not to use these statistics to promote their law school.  Therefore they develop systems, training, and realities that do not reflect what is actually happening in the "real world".  Law schools are a bit like Ward and June Clever.  Those old show are fun to watch, but they are not realistic either.

The problem with law schools engaging in this deception is that they are wholly failing to prepare, train, or educate their attorneys for this "real world" or Third Wave environment.  They sell something that is not true, which is shameful because they could easily sell that which does reflect what is going on and what is likely to happen on graduation.  Sure, it has to be disappointing to go through law school being told there is a standard Dagwood or GeorgeJetson type of job out there for you when you graduate, and there is not.  But, there is work for you and lots of it.  The problem is that the law schools have mainly ignored (or just minimally complied with) any type of practical education.  They need to be producing practice read attorneys, without a lot of debt, that can take on the market because that is the reality of the situation.

There is no allusion in other professions about this.  Most doctors now they are going out on their own or into small group practices when they graduate.  Dentist know this.  Nobody has to solicit those to become a Realtor based on promises of high paying salaries, fast cars and an easy life.

The lie really needs to stop.  I agree.  I just do not agree that there is as much dissatisfaction out there as this video would suggest.  Maybe some initial upset as law graduates must learn on their own to adapt.

I wish I could start a law school that recruited students with the correct information, prepared them for the right things, and trained them for the real world experience of the Third Wave.  I think it would be one of the best law schools in the country, one of the cheapest law school in the country from a tuition standpoint, and one of the lowest ranked.  Why?  Because the rankings do not care about real world issues or real world matrix.  They are designed to sell advertising.  Statistics are combined to deceive.  I am not even sure such a law school could achieve ABA approval, but with a lot of work, maybe it could.

TexaPlex

There has been a lot of talk, thanks to Governor Perry, about Texas leaving the Union.  Although I think this is more than silly, here is a video which shows just how dynamic Texas really is in comparison to the rest of the country.  I think if you are considering a low cost, lower tax place to start a law practice or grow a practice, this is the place.

You traditional law firm types might be interested in this.  If in all of your commuting and running around in your real life hamster wheel you do not get enough face time with green space, a group of students Dalhousie School of Architecture — David Gallaugher, Kevin James, and Jacob Jebailey — have decided to remedy this problem with a street-ready grass-lined wheel.  The wheel is just plywood, mesh, fishing line, and sod.  Have fun.