The Practice

Write A Book - The Right Way!

As you know, I wrote a book about Litigating MIST Cases - a type of personal injury case. Well, I did it the hard way. Okay, not the very hard way. But, a hard way. I just found out there is a better way. You can publish a book without tearing out your hair. (Okay, I admit it. I have no hair to tear out!!)

Anne Loehr is an executive coach, speaker and author. She published her book, "A Manager's Guide to Coaching" (by American Management Association) in the arguably record time of 6 months. She learned a lot along the way, and now she's teaching a one-on-one course for others who want to take a shorter route along the rocky road of publication.

Anne is teaching the 10-week course to help you capture an agent's attention, get the right endorsements, and grab attention for your new book. Price is $1,500. Mention you saw it here and get 15 percent off (take the course for $1,200). Read about the entire training package that Anne offers.

A discount. Imagine that. Hey wait, I keep giving you guys information on discounts. By the way, publishing a book fits in well with Ben Glass' Great Legal Marketing!

Jump Start 2008

Ben Glass of Great Legal Marketing fame is having a conference in January in Fairfax, VA. Jump Start 2008 is going to help you learn to take control of your law practice and make it so your law practice will serve you instead of you serving your law practice.

Ben, as you know, is the creator of GLM, the system I use to market my practice. His methods work. He will teach you how to make your practice a tool to help you instead of you being a slave to the practice. I wish I could make it, but alas, it is three days before a scheduled trial and someone has to keep the bad guys at bay, right?

If you go, and you should, let me know what you think.

Secretaries, Oh My

Why am I not a big fan of legal secretaries? Because they get in the way. Oh, don't get me wrong. A good secretary is worth her weight in gold. The key word here, however, is good. And those are hard to find.

Not only are good legal secretaries hard to find, but a legal secretary can get in the way of communication. You see, if I want to invite someone to lunch, I pick up the phone and call. It is pretty easy. However, there are many attorneys, and I mean many, who tell their secretary to call.

Great, so you say you want to take me to lunch, but you can't spend the 5 minutes setting up the appointment yourself? You send someone else to do it. What does that say to me? It says - in loud words - "I want to talk to you, but not that badly."

If you must have a secretary, find a good one. And let her do him/her do his/her job. But do not let him/her get in the way of you doing your job and communicating with people. After all, attorneys are communicators!

Great New Book: The Party of the First Part

I just finished reading this new book from Adam Freedman. He is the "Legal Lingo" columnist for the New York Law Journal Magazine and author of the website by the same name as the book.

This is a great, quick read. The book provides a history of legal terms that you use everyday in your law practice. He then provides a plain English meaning of these words. What a relief! I wish I had this when I was in law school.

Interestingly, I think the book will also help you be a better writer. I know I try to avoid legalese at all costs in my writing. But, I know some gets left in. After reading this book, I am going to redouble my efforts to get all of that nonsense out of there whenever possible.

Go out there and give the book a read. And post a review here.

Nominate bad legal writing!

We have all seen it - bad legal writing. Some of it is worse than others. "By all men these presents known" is how an old insurance release started. What? Huh?

Well, now you can nominate it for the Party of the First Part hall of shame. Now, I don't know if I would nominate opposing counsel for writing a letter where, say, he claims how smart he is, how busy he is and how great he is. (Yes, it comes from a real letter.) I would, however, send it in while taking off one's name from it. (No, I haven't done that yet. It reads better as an exhibit to a motion.)

By the way, from the fine folks who bring you the website:

The debate over Plain vs. Precision English rages on in courtrooms, boardrooms, and, yes, even bedrooms. In The Party of the First Part, Adam Freedman explores the origins of legalese, interprets archaic phrasing (witnesseth!), explains obscure and oddly named laws, and disputes the notion that lawyers are any smarter than the rest of us when judged solely on their briefs. (A brief, by the way, is never so.)

Enjoy!

Use a name

No, not your own name. Use the other person's name. If you are calling me, say "Hi Jonathan." When we are done, if I have helped you, say "Thanks, Jonathan."

Two caveats:

1. Do not shorten someone's name unless they do it. Jonathan does not become Jon. Judith does not become Judy. Michael does not become Mike. I usually go by Jonathan. It is annoying when people call me Jon.

2. Do not screw up the name. If you are unsure about how to pronounce it, just ask.

Why do you do this? Because you show the person you are talking to that you are paying attention. It helps to make the other person feel a bit more important.

Interesting new blog

I admit it is not law related, but this is a cool blog that I came across.  The blog is written by an Econ professor at Sac State. (I have an Econ degree from Sac State, but none of my professors were cool enough to have a blog. Of course, back then, we didn't have blogs!)

I think it is interesting because a professor has her blogged linked off of her school website page. This makes it accessible to her students. And, guess what? She comes across like a real person! Her students get to know her. And, I am guessing they really like her.

This is just another example of one of my mantras: be yourself. Now, as an attorney, you may not want your practice blog to be this familiar, but you should be yourself in your blog and let your personality come through.

Practical Advice

No, not practical advice from me. I give you enough of that. But, practical advice TO people.

See, the law is a framework with which to resolve problems. But, too many lawyers get caught up in the law. What happened to practical advice?

For example, if someone comes to you over a $1,200 dispute, you may know that legally they are right. But, if they will spend $5,000 to collect $1,200, does the law really matter? Are you going to tell the client that they are right and you should sue to collect $1,200? Or, are you going to be practical and say "Look, you can collect your $1,200 but it will cost you $5,000. That just doesn't make sense to me."

Part of being an attorney is giving advice to your client. Make sure you give practical advice, even if it means not getting a client. In the long run, it will pay off.

Angels fly........

because they take themselves lightly. At least, that is what The Razor on KNBR tells us at the end of every show. Attorneys, on the other hand, sink because they take themselves too seriously.

Face it, most of us are not dealing with life or death issues. Sure, we may be dealing with a client who was injured. Or a contract dispute. Or an employment matter. But, most of our clients are not going to die over what we do.

I have two cases that I can think of where opposing counsel apparently thinks that this is a case of such great importance that they need to be a*******. I don't get it. They are disputes about money. That's it. Either they win money or I win money. End of story. What is so important about money? Sure, it helps, but its just money.

Remember not to take this too seriously. It is important, but it is not life and death.

I'm back

WOW! It has been almost  4 months. But, I had to drop something and this had to be dropped. Where was I? Practicing law. Playing husband. Being a father. Living life.

I won't go into too many details here. But, my oldest son was diagnosed with Autism almost two years ago. I have fought for him to get the services he needs. In February, I had to take a step back. I went most of the month without doing much legal work. I put out fires, but stopped marketing, stopped doing everything that was not necessary.

I spent a lot of time yelling. I know, lawyer shouldn't yell. I should know how to deal with situations without yelling. Let me tell you something, there is a time and a place to yell. Sure, not at the judge. Not at opposing counsel. Definately not at your client.

But, remember that you should not be defined as a lawyer. You are a person. You are a father, a mother, a brother, a son. You are a friend. And, you are an advocate. Not a lawyer, but an advocate.

I spent a lot of the last 4 months being an advocate. An advocate for my son to get the treatment he needed. An advocate to get my family what we needed. An advocate for my wife to get what she needed, even when it was more of me. An advocate for my two younger sons who sometimes just needed breakfast with mommy and daddy.

And, an advocate has to have many tools in his arsenal. The power of reason. The power of the brain. The power of the written word. The power of speech. And yes, the power of being loud. Sometimes, you can try logic, reason, writing, and being very nice to people. But, at the end of the day, you sometimes just need to yell. It may get you what you want, or need, and sometimes it just feels right.

So, after that, I am back. I am going to post less often than I used to post. I am trying to get things back on track with my practice. I am trying to keep things in perspective.

Let me know what you want to hear from me. Let me know what ideas you have.