Chuck Newton

The Third Wave In Exile

Sorry I have not been available on my blog of late, but this is how I feel.  I am stuck in a cheap motel with my wife, youngest son and beagle having sold the home office and awaiting the renovation of a new home and office.  But, the experience is teaching me much as to the practical aspects of running a virtual style practice.

For Love Or Money Or Love Of Money?

Carolyn Elfant of My Shingle fame has a good post on solos and small firm attorneys practicing longer than maybe Big Law attorneys. 

She sites Reuben Landeau, who practiced with his son (in his seventies) until he passed away at 103.  His son wanted to call it quits long before Dad.  (These kids today). 

In law school I remember a lady from Florida who was in her early 60s and she was just starting law school.  But, the issue is why do they do so.  Is it for love of the law or the practice of law, is it because they need money, or is it that they love money?  (The later I guess is a sin). 

Truth be known it is all three (and more).  I do not think it is a secret that most Americans today do not have the money set aside on which to retire.  My father-in-law is still practicing law (although not as strenuously) even though he is well into his 70s.  It cannot be said that he does not like what he is doing in life.  But, it can also be said that he, and I, and many others can use the extra income.  I have got to admit that I was never concerned with money in the practice of law other than to pay bills and the like, until I found myself with one daughter in law school, two others in college, and one only a couple of years away from college.  Retirement savings is not the priority right now.  Maybe that is not the best advice I can give myself (and Susan Cartier Liebel over at Build A Solo Practice rightly lectures me that there are no scholarships for retirement), but I feel that what I want to leave my children is no debt on which to build their lives.  So, we make choices.  Some are good.  Some are bad.  Some are indifferent.  The end result is that, as with many non-lawyer professionals, minus winning the lottery, we are not putting aside sufficient sums to retire at a younger age.  That is part of the reason that we seek a work/life blending or balance.  It makes it more palatable.  We love what we do (and if you do not, you should change professions or practice area), but we also want to live in a certain life style for as long as we can.

Avoid Staid Old Images

Ever since I started viewing lawyer ads in phone book (remember those) I have thought that lawyers need to avoid the old, and sometimes what appear to be harsh images, associated with law firms.  Most people who design these ads or spots just beat these to death.  That was the reason that I found interesting the post on Peter Darling's Business Development blog in which he list many of the images that lawyers "should never, ever use in law firm advertising, no matter what..."  These are:

1. Gavels
2. Eagles
3. Courtrooms
4. Courthouse Steps
5. The Scales O’ Justice
6. Piles of Law Books
7. Nautical Themed Stuff (unless you’re an admiralty lawyer)
8. Compasses
9. Groups of Middle-Aged White Lawyers in Suits

Oh Hillary, Those Guys Cannot Keep Their Minds Off You

Talking Points Memo counts the Hillary references at the recent Republican debate.  It is amazing to me just how threatened these old white men feel by a prominent woman in the race.

Forbes: Houston One Of The Best Places For Real Estate Deals

Forbes.Com rates the greater Houston, Texas area as number 3 in the best places for real estate deals.  It is not that every part of the country is affected by the real estate bust, it is just that Houston is relatively stable.  The market has strong fundamentals and prices will jump more than the flat 1.4% they increased during the boom in real estate for the rest of the country.  This is important for home office attorneys to know for two reasons.  First, your home office is likely to appreciate well in value if you locate in the Houston area.  This represents the generation of real wealth over time.  Second, if you are an attorney looking for a practice area and you think that might be real estate, you might as well establish your practice in an area that is likely to keep growing steadily.

Move Your TV To Another Room? Move Yourself.

I have read a number of articles of late about moving your TV out of your home office.  I could not agree more because I am not a big fan of duplication.  Multiple TVs in the house seems silly, as opposed to having a fine TV system in the main room of the house.  Therefore, I have a better idea.  Move yourself to another room.  You do not need a home office as much as you need an office home.  In the new house in which we are about to move, that is my philosophy.  My new home office will be substantially smaller than present, and its main purpose will be to provide a central location for things like my dock, a second monitor, a scanner, a printer and the like.  But, every room will be hardwired and there will be wireless as well.  Why?  Because I want to move about.  My work and life is a blending.  I admit it.  I also crave a regular change of environment.  As it is now, I leave my home office constantly.  Something is up and I go watch a little C-Span.  I go to the kitchen.  I go to the back porch for a break.  Now, I think I will just carry my office with me.  I will have my iced tea at the kitchen table.  I will work on the back porch for a while.  I will blog using the flat screen in the family area.  Heck, I will just go sit up in bed and work.  When my youngest son gets home (the last child in the house), I will go to my much smaller home office and finish up.  When I think about it, it is the way I progress through the day anyway.  Only, my office is more static.  No more.  I have watched my children, who grew up with technology, and this is how the naturally operate.  Sure you can say they need to seclude themselves and study.  However, they are all A students and that is hard to argue.  The truth of the matter is that the younger set does not feel the restrictions that we do in that they have grown up in an increasingly wireless and paperless World.

Justice Clarence Thomas Is Seriously Deluded

When Justice Thomas says that his Yale Law Degree is only "worth 15 cents", and that is justification for him to oppose affirmative action programs, you can only think he has been drinking to much of the cool-aid of the ultra right.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has a 15-cent price tag stuck to his Yale law degree, blaming the school's affirmative action policies in the 1970s for his difficulty finding a job after he graduated. Of course, the problem with the argument has less to do with the good intent of Yale and the law as it had to do with racism in general, the latent effects of which he seeks to deny.

Thomas says in his new book, ""I learned the hard way that a law degree from Yale meant one thing for white graduates and another for blacks, no matter how much any one denied it."  Of course, who cannot deny such a thing.  The problem with Thomas has been, and is now, that he deludes himself into thinking the problem was affirmative action, when the problem was and is racism in general, which affirmative action seeks to help overcome.  He blames the cure for the disease, and that is the problem.

Thomas' black classmate at Yale Law, William Coleman III, says it best: "I can only say my degree from Yale Law School has been a great boon," said Coleman, now an attorney in Philadelphia. "Had he not gone to a school like Yale, he would not be sitting on the Supreme Court."  It was Coleman's Yale roommate, Bill Clinton, appointed him general counsel to the U.S. Army, one of several top jobs Coleman has held over the years.

Thomas' other minority classmates, that graduated with him, all had some degree of difficulty, and all have done very well professionally, despite the slights.

It is unfortunate, I think, that Thomas is so scornful of those who gave him a chance to be a Supreme Court Justice.  It is so disconcerting to all of those who are in law school now and who want to succeed that he makes such idiotic statements and works most days to deny his fellow minorities and the impoverished the basic chances that he had.

It is difficult to understand how somebody who has gotten so many breaks in life because of his intellect, can sit there and have a pity party about all that Yale, society, and the American system has done for him despite our prejudices.  If Thomas wants to be a martyr, he should resign from the Supreme Court.

Judge Sanctions Human Rights Attorneys For Bad Pleadings

A federal judge in San Francisco sanctioned three human rights attorneys after three of their clients disavowed having suffered from the injuries the lawyers alleged in their complaints filed over a year earlier.

You can read the sanction award by clicking HERE.

Great Law Firm Names

We all know the made up law firm names that are conjured up as the best for jokes.  Well, The Wall Street Journal Law Blog found some real dooseys.  You have got to love these:

1.  Payne & Fears;
2.  Low, Ball & Lynch;
3.  Slaughter & Slaughter;
4.  Weiner & Cox;
5.  Smart & Biggar.

Victor Borge & Dean Martin - Musical Phonetic Punctuation

Great.