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Posted by Arnie Herz on January 20, 2010
Dear Legal Sanity Community:
In light of the recent tragedy in Haiti, Legal Sanity® is joining IF Management (a NYC media management company owned by my brother Steve Herz) to co-host a fundraiser tomorrow, Thursday, January 21st, to help support the victims of the earthquake.
The cocktail evening will take place from 6 pm - 9 pm at the World Bar located at 845 United Nations Plaza (Between 47th Street and 48th Street) New York, NY 10017.
Guests will be invited to make a $10 donation at the door, and encouraged to continue to make donations throughout the night. 10% of all drink proceeds from the evening will be gifted to the Haiti relief effort.
If Management clients involved with the event include Jenna Wolfe, national correspondent for NBCs Today and weekend Sunday Co-Anchor, Midwin Charles with Tru TV and Dr. Jeff Gardere, television psychologist, all of whom were personally connected to Haiti and will be present to show their support.
All are welcome to come and support so please feel to forward the invitation along to family, friends and colleagues.
We hope to see you all this Thursday. Your contributions will be greatly appreciated!!
Arnie Herz
Posted by Arnie Herz on October 2, 2009
Due to the summer posting hiatus, it’s been a little while since the last installment in my series of posts on redesigning legal services around the client experience.
I’ve always been a proponent of the idea that it’s really hard for unhappy lawyers to provide great client service. To put it another way: The lawyer experience and client experience are two sides of the same coin. You can get a good sense of what I’m driving at by sampling some of my archived posts on the subject:
lawyer experience management
creating a firm culture that enhances the lawyer experience
lawyers as user-innovators
can law firms change to meet user demand?
With the recession-fueled law firm shake-ups, the lawyer experience has become a front burner issue for many displaced practitioners as they contemplate their next professional steps.
Kathleen Brady is an expert in career planning for lawyers. I first met Kathy when I was a student and she was Assistant Dean of Career Services at Fordham University School of Law. I asked her to dialogue with me about her work with lawyers going through career transition.
AH You must be busy.
KB Yes, I’m incredibility busy doing outplacement work for law firms.
AH Is it frustrating? How do you deal with fact that there are more lawyers than jobs?
KB We’re not head hunters, so our success isn’t measured by the number of jobs we help people get. Rather, we help lawyers move through the transition process.
AH I like that, helping people through a process. What emotions do you come across?
KB Emotions across the board – from truly relieved because they hated what they were doing to shocked, devastated and appalled because they did everything they were supposed to do and still find themselves out of work.
AH How do you help people deal with the emotions?
KB It’s really important to let them feel what they’re feeling and work through that. If they don’t, the emotions come out at the worst times, like, during job interviews.
AH What does it mean to let them feel what they’re feeling?
KB It means encouraging them to express their feelings – to vent, cry, etc. We let them know it's OK to be emotional. But, the key is to not let them get stuck in their emotions. To prevent this immobility, we help people focus on effective steps they can take to move forward in their career. That said, when people present additional issues – such as depression, eating disorders or substance abuse - it’s important to recognize the limitations of your counseling abilities. A few psych courses in college or grad school doesn’t qualify me, or most other career counselors, to address those issues. You have to know enough to know when you need to make a referral.
AH What’s the biggest challenge to getting lawyers-in-transition to experience and embrace this forward momentum?
KB The biggest challenge is convincing them that the job loss, especially a layoff, isn’t personal. It’s challenging because there’s nothing more personal than losing your job. This is where support groups and other resources (bar associations, alumni groups and virtual communities) are vital. Being able to see the common ground, how the recession is hitting everyone, makes it less of a personal slight.
AH Is there a silver lining here when it comes to the lawyer experience?
KB Yes there’s a huge one; particularly for new lawyers. Before the most recent recession, many lawyers moved into their careers without thinking about long-term goals. After a few years, they’d look up and realize they were miserable. Then, they would go through a process of figuring out what they wanted from their career. This process of taking a hard look at your career is happening en masse now and it’s a good thing. Lawyers have a chance to be more deliberate in how they shape their career in the law or on a more non-traditional path.
AH Is there one skill that’s vital to successfully navigating this path to a positive lawyer experience?
KB I’d say networking and business relationship skills are vital. For example, many lawyers spend all their time searching for a job on the internet. They send out 500 resumes to little or no avail. The best way to find a job is to use all your resources. If you see something online, find someone you know at the firm and get your resume to them. If you don’t know anyone there, use your network to make a connection. Connecting with people can be hard work, but it’s a great skill to hone because it’s the same skill set that helps you build relationships for business development and career advancement.
AH Any final words of advice?
KB Young lawyers need to reset their expectations. Some still are convinced that they need to work at the biggest and most prestigious firms. But, they really need to consider where they can acquire the skills they need to get where they want to be in the long term They need to seriously consider: “Does this job take me closer to my dreams or take me away from them?”
Thank you, Kathleen, for helping us better understand how we can optimize the lawyer experience, even in these difficult times.
Posted by Arnie Herz on August 30, 2009
These last days of Summer, my kids are busy reuniting with friends and preparing for school. (Shockingly, I now have a middle- and high-schooler in the trio.) Their don’t-quite-know-what-to-do stir craziness is ironclad proof of the change that’s in the air. Truth is, it’s hard to segue into the Fall. The more laid-back Summer is a welcome respite from the normal work-life routine.
During my recent vacation, I had the chance to go through the virtual folder where I store ideas for blog posts. Here’s a sampling that resonated for me as I prepared to return home and re-engage my solo law practice. I hope it gives you a bit of fuel for the seasonal transition. As always, if you have any other ideas or stories to share, please send them along.
At Harvard Business, Peter Bregman tells us how we can benefit professionally by ignoring our gut and pausing before reacting. If you’re in the throes of a career change (or just fantasizing about a new day job) you can add a soundtrack to your endeavors courtesy of Steven DeMaio’s wonderful Quitter’s Playlist.
With a compelling visual aid, Spike at Brains on Fire reminds us that, more often than not, it’s the little things that make companies (and the people behind them) remarkable.
Over at AmEx’s Open Forum, Chris Brogan offers some great pointers for improving our email communications while Matthew E. May gives us some insight into honing our observation skills.
Those of you who find business inspiration in great design will enjoy this Fast Company selection of Tasty Design Treats for the Fall. And, if you happen to have lost touch with your inner child this Summer, Jenny Williams will help you reacquaint in the cool Fall air via her Wired article on 30 Classic Games for Simple Outdoor Play.
Posted by Arnie Herz on July 29, 2009
When it comes to the topic of (re)designing client-centric legal services, I’ve found a muse in Spike Jones. One of the visionaries at Brains on Fire, a company at the crossroads of identity development and word of mouth marketing, Spike helps organizations build movements.
Having drawn from his observations a bunch of times, I was delighted to have the chance to talk to Spike about his work and how it relates to the law. We opened the conversation by recognizing that we’re kindred spirits of sorts in that lawyers belong to the #1 most mistrusted profession while advertisers rank at #2.
AH: What’s the essence of your work at Brains on Fire?
SJ: We specialize in creating word of mouth movements by helping organizations roll up their sleeves and forge deep connections with their customers and employees.
AH: Can this work for modern-day law firms?
SJ: Well, I’ll use our company as an example of why it can. Marketing firms, even niche ones, are commodities. For each one, there are thousands of others doing the same thing. At Brains on Fire, we differentiate ourselves by trying really hard to make sure people know who we are and what we stand for. We got rid of time sheets, which are standard in our industry. This was huge. We try to embrace our kindred spirits by offering resources to a range of people - even those who won’t end up working with us; even our competitors. Differentiation happens when people come to you because you’re the thought leader who has new ideas and is trying new things.
AH: I can see this approach working for a smaller law firm. But, I wonder if it can work for bigger firms.
SJ: It can. Big companies like Microsoft are doing it. We call it opening the kimono. They’ve given hundreds, if not thousands, of their employees the freedom to blog on company time. In this way, they’re connecting with customers, each other and others in very authentic and meaningful ways. They’re letting people see Microsoft for the bumps and bruises it has, as well as the stuff it does really well. Southwest Airlines has a similarly open company culture. It starts on the inside, with this willingness to give individual employees their voice.
AH: This kind of transparency, this willingness to expose bumps, bruises and missteps, doesn’t seem to exist right now in the legal profession. Firms are very guarded and, at best, give their lawyers limited freedom to blog on the firm’s time.
SJ: This is huge. Companies are made up of people and people are fallible. When you go around saying “our company never messes up,” people see right through that and they can’t wait for you to mess up because then they can call you on it. So, if you say, “look, we don’t do this well, but the only way we can get better is with your help,” this is a refreshing entry into a conversation that goes on with or without you.
AH: I love that “we need your help.” It’s a wonderful way for law firms to engage their clients and employees. These are people who want to step up and be valuable and important.
SJ: Yes, and this plays into the point that there’s a need inside people to be part of something that’s bigger than they are. The firms who figure this out win. You’re no longer a law firm made up of lawyers, you’re a law firm made up of people. And people connect with people.
AH: Yes, that’s right. When you connect with other human beings in meaningful ways, you’re no longer a commodity. You’re a service provider in the true sense.
This was a very inspiring dialogue and I thank Spike for offering his insights on how law firms can engage clients and employees to ignite a movement.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 29, 2009
My introduction to Jason Mendelson came by way of a compelling how-to blog post he wrote titled: Quick Ways To Get Fired as a Lawyer. From the first read through, it's clear that Jason knows what he’s talking about. As a self-proclaimed “recovering lawyer” and successful VC with his own company, Foundry Group. he’s gained insight into the best and worst of legal service delivery from both sides of the fence.
Through the wonders of six-degrees-of-separation (many thanks to Debbie Huttner and Michael Huttner), I connected with Jason and had a lively discussion on the topic of re-designing legal services around the client experience.
AH: How many lawyers have you worked with over the years?
JM: 2,000-3,000.
AH: What percentage of these lawyers were excellent?
JM: 5%
AH: What makes a lawyer that pretty rare kind of advisor that inspires client evangelism – someone who provides such meaningful service that clients voluntarily shout his or her praises?
JM: I think it’s a combination of factors:
1. Team Feeling/Proactive Representation: You want to get the sense that your lawyer is part of your team and interested in your business. You want them to be there for you and thinking about you/your business when you need them to, and also thinking about you/your business even when you don’t need them for a particular matter. This sounds obvious but it rarely happens.
2. Consistency: This means not swapping out people. For example, in the initial meeting, you meet with certain lawyers, you build rapport and a connection with them and then you end up with different lawyers working on your deal.
3. Creativity: If you can think creatively and strategically on how to manage the legal issue in an efficient and effective way, you will get into the Lawyer Rock Star Hall of Fame.
AH: That gives us a good sense of the lawyer’s side of the coin. Are clients at all responsible for creating their own positive experiences with legal service consumption/delivery?
JM: The irony is that people who hire lawyers have no idea if the lawyer is any good. I give entrepreneurs 5-6 questions to ask potential lawyers when interviewing them. But the truth is that any lawyer can get past those questions. The best is to ask present or former clients of that lawyer/law firm and to ask other lawyers who have worked with the lawyer on opposite sides of a deal or dispute. Lots of lawyers can get a great reference, show up and woo you in a board meeting but then they don’t really know how to get the work done. They don’t do quality work.
So, yes, I think the client has some responsibility for ensuring their own positive service delivery experience. I riff on this in my Lawyer Bill of Rights. If a client doesn’t follow it, the client has no right to complain.
Thanks, Jason, for lending your insights into client experience design and helping us build legal sanity.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 22, 2009
Even though there’s been a bit more encouraging news about the state of the economy, the media (mainstream and otherwise) still inundates us with story after story of global, national, local, professional and personal crises in the face of the financial undertow. Even my 8-year-old - who’s mood largely rises and falls with the performance of his beloved New York Mets - told me the other day that people on the news look so unhappy or angry that “they should just call it the ‘bad news hour.’”
He makes a great point. As lawyers, on the professional front alone, we consume huge helpings of bad news every day – from mainstream media coverage of the economic downturn to niche stories on the sorry state of the legal profession and the latest tallies on law firm firings and closures. It can be a real challenge to not get weighed down and stressed out on this steady diet of negativity.
So, I was very heartened to read a great Harvard Business post in which leadership consultant John Baldoni compels us to Find Ways to Make Good News. Baldoni opens by crediting CNN for its coverage of the life and death of Stephen Tyrone Johns, a Holocaust Museum security guard who was shot and killed in the line of duty by a white supremacist. He then asserts that business leaders owe themselves and their “people” a “break from the relentless progress of bad news.” To help them along, Baldoni suggests that they find and share one piece of good news every day. Or, taking it a step further, they can make some good news via their own positive actions.
You’ll find some complementary tips and tools in this New York Times story on Dealing with Recession-Related Stress. If you’re in the Washington, DC Metro Area on June 24-26, my friend and colleague Charlie Badenhop is leading a stress management workshop for coaches, consultants, leaders and other professionals. You can learn more about it here.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 16, 2009
Regular readers here know that I’m a big fan of author/right-brain-champion Daniel Pink and his take on our new Conceptual Economy that places a premium on creativity in business.
Lawyers aren’t known for being a creative lot. This is evidenced by the enduring nature of the billable hour over alternative fee structures, among other business practices. Some will undoubtedly say: “You can’t change our stripes. Creativity is best left to other professions.” But, I think this is a copout. There’s a wealth of creativity to be tapped in our ranks if we can just find the right inspiration and outlets.
On the inspiration side, you can take a look at a great series of Fast Company posts on the business of creativity, including one featuring the 10 Most Creative People in Sports and one on the Top 10 Most Creative People in Health Care. Imagine what a post on the Top 10 Most Creative People in the Law would include.
On the outlet side, maybe it’s about taking baby steps to tapping and expressing our creativity. Marketing is one area that’s creativity-friendly. Lawyers are already venturing into this creative realm via LinkedIn; Twitter and Facebook.
For more on the marketing front, there’s a great new book from legal marketing expert Paula Black titled: The Little Black Book: A Lawyer’s Guide to Creating a Marketing Habit in 21 Days. If you purchase the book in the next 48 hours, you’ll also receive The Smart Lawyer’s Toolkit, a compilation of advice from more than 30 sought-after experts in the legal arena (including yours truly). My advice comes by way of an interview I did with Gerry Riskin, author of The Successful Lawyer, about the challenges facing attorneys in today's economy. You can learn more about Paula’s book and complementary toolkit here.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 8, 2009
Lately, when I’ve been out and about for business and socially, I’ve noticed that conversations often turn to the topic of happiness – what true happiness is; what makes us happy; what makes us unhappy (and variations on these themes). The topic also seems to be winding its way through the commercial space, where you’ll find sentimental/upbeat ads like this one from Allsate and this from Target. I suppose this all makes a lot of sense. When we’re challenged in our lives – physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually – we start asking the “big questions” about meaning and fulfillment.
In its first incarnation, this blog focused quite a bit on the malaise plaguing the legal profession and people who inhabit it. As part of my investigation into the problem and search for solutions, I read and commented on the rocky road to lawyer happiness. In one of the more recent posts on the subject, I mentioned the important work attorney Daniel Lukasik is doing through his website, Lawyers with Depression.
Part of decoding happiness in any given population is getting an honest accounting of what might put that milestone out of reach. Daniel offers us that candid insight via his website and new companion blog. You can gain additional insight from lawyer Timothy A. Tosta’s article on Overcoming Stickiness, this post on lawyer burnout and this article offering help for attorneys in crisis.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 3, 2009
When she was little, my eldest daughter loved to watch Sesame Street. Sitting on the floor surrounded by stuffed versions of her favorite characters, she’d sing and comment away, all the while patiently waiting for the day when her age miraculously was the number of the day (it only happened a couple of times). It’s hard to believe that the show turned 40 this year. Many of its characters are truly ageless, like my personal favorite, Oscar the Grouch.
Cantankerous as can be, Oscar also has a some very endearing qualities, like the love and care he gives his pet worm, Slimey (BTW, if you haven’t heard/seen Tony Bennett sing Slimey to the Moon, you really must). Even as a toddler, my daughter could tell that Oscar has a good heart. He offers up a great lesson on seeing the whole of any person (or, monster) that we engage with as lawyers.
Echoing this lesson is a compelling post describing how one big firm associate very constructively dealt with an ornery senior partner. In my experience, the ability to look at a person in his or her entirety has a lot to do with empathy. As writer Katherine Bell posits, empathy is a not-so-soft skill that entails “an act of imagination in which you try to look at the world from the perspective of another person, a human being whose history and point of view are as complex as your own.” This kind of gestalt, or holistic, approach to relating is something that most lawyers could benefit from.
One organization dedicated to helping lawyers embrace this approach is the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers (IAHL). This year, the IAHL is hosting its annual conference on June 11-14 in Chicago. The theme is: Voices of the “New” Lawyer: Finding and Expressing Your True Voice in Your Practice. The conference features a comprehensive, interdisciplinary training on collaborative family law practice. Near and dear to my heart, there’s also a dinner/tribute program honoring my friend, Steven Keeva, on the 10th anniversary of his groundbreaking book, Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in Legal Life. You can register for the conference here.
Posted by Arnie Herz on May 27, 2009
A couple of months ago, I wrote a post around this question: What inspires you in the law and in life?
I’m very drawn to the topic, and exploration, of inspiration. In these uncertain times, discovering what inspires us can be both grounding and uplifting.
Over at her blog, Build a Solo Practice @ SPU, Susan Cartier Liebel tells us about the lifelong inspiration she’s gained from her mom’s aversion to the words “I Can’t." We can also find inspiration in great design and natural beauty.
Some times, when we’re feeling particularly challenged professionally or personally, inspiration comes in the form of another human being; a friend, colleague or total stranger who gives us a sense of hope or much-needed perspective on the possibility life holds. My mother recently sent me a video story about golf enthusiast D.J. Gregory.
Born with cerebral palsy, the 30-year-old, against all odds, walked every hole of every 2008 PGA tournament. In all, he traveled through 44 tournaments, 180 rounds, 3256 holes and over 900 miles on foot. I was so inspired by his story and believe you will be, too. Watch the video. It's well worth the 12 minutes.
Posted by Arnie Herz on May 19, 2009
In my last post, I noted that we’ve entered a new age of radical transparency in which businesses must be keenly aware of their consumer community (or, communities) and make it easy for community members to offer feedback and comments. For most law firms and lawyers, this requires a big shift towards understanding, valuing and heightening the client experience.
I recently spent some time talking to law firm consultant Gerry Riskin. A co-founder and principal of Edge International, Gerry is a widely recognized expert on managing professional service firms. He shares his views at his terrific blog, Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices, and via Twitter. I asked Gerry for his thougts on client experience management.
AH: How important is the client experience?
GR: It’s extremely critical and I base that on what people have reported to me about firms they’ve worked with. For instance, the general counsel of a huge financial institution hiring literally hundreds of law firms described his favorite firm this way: “When I get there, the receptionist greets me by name and offers a decent refreshment. There’s good, current reading material in the waiting area. The person who I’m there to see comes out promptly. But, even before that, other people come along and say hello to me while I'm sitting there.”
AH: So, his experience didn’t turn on the quality, quantity or price of the legal advice he received.
GR: Right. And let's be honest, if he was in Buenos Aires and needed immediate brain surgery and the one and only brain surgeon in Buenos Aires was a jerk, he would use that jerk brain surgeon because he had no choice. But, when it's anything that more than one person can provide of equal quality, it comes down to the experience. I think – and I will include myself here - all of us would like to think of ourselves as having expertise, as being special and particularly knowledgeable. We don't like to think we're easily replicable. But, the truth is in most respects we're not unique.
AH: So, given that most firms and lawyers are indistinguishable in terms of their expertise, client experience becomes a key differentiator?
GR: Yes. And I don’t base my theory on that one example. It’s a common theme. In fact, on a recent plane trip, I sat next to next to a billionaire who's on the board of many pharmaceutical companies. I asked him to tell me about the law firms he likes and doesn’t like. Anyway, the punch line is, here is a powerful, powerful, powerful man whose biggest complaint about a law firm is his reception area experience and what he perceives to be the arrogance of partners walking through without bidding him good day. And, I bet those partners who walked by without acknowledging him were completely unaware of what they were doing (or not doing).
AH: So do you have a couple of nuggets of advice on what it takes to create the optimal client experience?
GR: Well, at the highest level of abstraction, you need to have complete empathy. Ask, “If I were the consumer of this service, what would I want?” The challenge is that we get blind spots based on familiarity. So you need fresh eyes and the best source of fresh eyes is your clients. Ask them: “Of all the law firms you've ever been to, of all the lawyers you've ever worked with, what do you like best and what should be done differently?” That allows your clients to be very candid without attacking you or your firm. You can also transpose your own experiences. Lawyers use other services, lawyers get annoyed by bad service here or delighted by good service there. Take a moment and analyze what makes your experience good or bad. Then ask the next question: “Do we do any of that in our environment?” Last, but of course not least, is training. Knowing is not doing. But, people have a very hard time getting that. They think once they know about something, they’re doing it. It's like listening. My wife says I should listen to her better so I think, oh, okay, I know the concept of listening so I'll listen to her better. But, it's not until I practice it, maybe get trained in it, maybe understand the structure of listening that I really listen better.
AH: Gerry, you’ve offered great insight into the client experience. Thanks so much for helping us cultivate legal sanity.
Posted by Arnie Herz on May 11, 2009
I’ve been interested in psychologist Daniel Goleman’s work since reading his book on Emotional Intelligence years ago.
Along with thinkers like:
Dan Pink
Hugh MacLeod
Kathy Sierra
Chris Brogan
Tim Sanders
Pam Slim
Goleman has inspired me to look at the legal profession through a broader social-cultural lens.
As a culture, we’re becoming more and more right-brained in orientation. We now place a premium on authenticity, emotion, creativity, meaning and honesty in our personal and professional interactions.
In a recent post for Harvard Business, Goleman writes that consumers are calling for a new kind of openness - a radical transparency that “converts the chains that link every product and its multiple impacts — carbon footprints, chemicals of concern, treatment of workers and the like — into a force that counts in sales.”
To keep up with this demand, Goleman notes, businesses should engage their consumer community (in the law, this would be a firm’s clients, lawyers and non-legal staff) and make it easy for community members to offer feedback and comments. If they drop the ball on this front, big brother is ready to step up in the form of open mike watchdog sites like GetSatisfaction.com.
Posted by Arnie Herz on May 7, 2009
The other day, I passed by the Shake Shack in NYC’s Madison Square Park. The crowd was thick. But, as always, people seemed more than willing to wait it out for a delectable burger or frozen treat. As I watched the scene, I caught myself thinking, “Another amazing experience brought to you by Danny Meyer.”
A restaurateur of major note, Meyer has multiple long-lived, successful eateries in a city filled with very discerning palates. In a recent talk he gave at NYU Stern, he attributed his success, in part, to “enlightened hospitality” – a focus on how the delivery of a product or service makes its recipient feel. He said you have to make customers feel that you’re on their side.
Interestingly, he also noted that, when it comes to creating a hospitable business culture, you first have to extend hospitality to the people who work for you. Only after setting this foundation can you extend it to others - like your customers, suppliers and investors.
This idea of hospitality makes a lot of sense to me and I think it's very relevant to the law. I’ve always believed that a positive law firm culture roots in a positive employee (legal and non-legal) experience. So, law firms looking to build - or rebuild - their business environment would do well to take Meyer’s lead into the hospitality business.
For more on creating a positive consumer experience (lawyers, after all, are prime consumers of law firm culture), you can take a look at these posts and articles:
Triage Customer Service
How to Nurture Relationships with Your Gem Clients
Coddle and Keep Customers
A Lesson from the Dentist
Posted by Arnie Herz on April 20, 2009
If you’re a regular reader here, you know that I devote a good bit of this space to nurturing the conversation on the lawyer-client connection. I take a bit of an unconventional approach by tapping into similar dialogues going on in other industries and disciplines - like design, health care, business management, marketing, music and non-profit development. Really, anywhere there are customers/constituents/clients, you’ll find vibrant discussions about offering them meaningful, relevant and engaging experiences via products and services.
Like thousands (millions?) of others, I gain a lot of insight on this front from marketing expert Seth Godin. Some time back, in a post titled 1000 true fans, he pointed to Kevin Kelly’s popular article by the same name.
According to Kelly:
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living. A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. [ ] True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate. [ ] Instead of trying to reach the narrow and unlikely peaks of platinum hits, bestseller blockbusters, and celebrity status, [you] can aim for direct connection with 1,000 True Fans. It's a much saner destination to hope for. You make a living instead of a fortune. You are surrounded not by fad and fashionable infatuation, but by True Fans. And you are much more likely to actually arrive there.
While Kelly works his theory with creatives in mind, I think it applies to lawyers, especially solos. It strikes me as a second cousin of the customer evangelism theory (pdf) I’ve visited (and revisited) here - the idea (and reality) of offering such great service that your clients shout your praises until the rafters ring (or permanently ink your name on their bodies).
The challenge, and opportunity, is to figure out how to nurture and support our True Fan base. I’ll try to shed some light on this in future posts.
Posted by Arnie Herz on April 14, 2009
Authentic. Transparent. Human.
These three words come up again and again in conversations about creating and sustaining business relationships in the current marketplace. For lawyers, this really isn’t about a new way of relating to our clients, prospects and colleagues. It’s about getting back to our roots as service providers and connecting with the people behind the legal matters we take on. The practice of law has always been about helping people solve problems, overcome challenges and meet goals. But, somewhere along the way, the legal profession (with the help of law schools) lost sight of its human nature.
Over the years, I’ve posted on the importance of bringing ourselves back to our work so we can authentically relate to our clients and others:
In his new book, Fuel the Spark: 5 Guiding Values for Success in Law & Life, Colorado attorney Kevin Houchin shares practical wisdom on cultivating an authentic life in the law. Legal Sanity Co-producer Lori Herz asked Kevin for his thoughts on (re)designing the lawyer-client relationship for a better client experience.
LH: You set out five guiding values in your book: Accept; Show Up; Pay Attention; Many irons In The Fire; and Stewardship. They’re all relevant to cultivating a meaningful life in, and outside of, the law. But, I’d like to focus on the first one – Accept. In the chapter on this guidepost, you write something that I find particularly compelling:
“There are many things about the legal profession you must simply accept because you cannot change them. But there are also many things you can change because you control your outlook, your goals, and your choices. To maintain balance in your practice and your life, you must first identify what you are willing to accept and what you are willing to accept the responsibility for changing.”
How do you think this pertains to the way lawyers can connect with clients and others in everyday practice?
KH: The possibilities here are as endless as the combinations of lawyers, clients and matters.The first level of this value aims to help us think about the types of cases we take on and what that means to society. For instance, I don't accept criminal or divorce cases. Accordingly, since I don't accept personal responsibility for changing those situations for those clients, I have accepted to let those situations exist as they are - hoping other attorneys will accept the responsibility to take the necessary steps to help society.
At the next level, we can choose how we will interact with our clients, but it's important that we don't judge either our clients or ourselves too harshly. Each client is different, some are very business-like and don't want a lot of small talk, especially if they think the "clock is running.” Others simply want someone to listen to their full story and empathize, even if we could jump in with the answer after only a few minutes. I talk a little bit about this in the section discussing my theory that to receive respect from our clients and peers, we must first surrender our instinct to judge.
LH: Yes, in that section you encourage us to identify what we must surrender in order to receive the changes we want in our law practice. As an example of this surrender-to-receive dynamic, you write:
“When you surrender judgment, you automatically open up to the possibility that the other person is worthy of respect. In turn, that makes it easier for the other person to open up to the possibility that you are worthy of respect.”
I really like this couplet. I call this “mutuality” in business relationships – a genuine kind of give and take. Is this what you’re getting at?
KH: "Mutuality." I like that word. I hadn't thought of it exactly that way, but it works. To some extent, we have to put ourselves emotionally in the trenches with our client's immediate challenge. When they know that we are with them emotionally, as well as physically and intellectually, something changes. The trust deepens. As I discussed before, I don't take on criminal cases because I don't know if I could let myself be that open to the client in those situations. That's just me. The important thing is to know yourself well enough that you do your best to only take on cases where you are able to form this kind of emotional bond with your client. It helps you be a better lawyer, and on a practical note, it will shorten the time it takes to get paid for your work because the client knows you're not just helping them for the money.
LH: To surrender our judgment in the lawyer-client relationship, we need to really listen to our clients and not talk over and around them with a deaf ear. This syncs with another of your guiding values – Pay Attention. You write:
“We sometimes deal with clients during very difficult times in their lives, so paying attention to how they are saying something may allow you to alleviate some discomfort, heal some harm, remove some shame, and get to the bottom of the problem.”
Can you share a personal experience with this?
KH: The simplest thing happens fairly often in my office because I'm a true solo and do not have a receptionist. The phone will ring in the middle of a meeting and my client might look at me with some surprise that I don't move to answer it. This gives me a chance to let them know that I'm paying attention to them in the moment. Take it a step farther and you're squarely in the active-listening techniques. In those active listening situations, you find the chance to make the emotional connection. Showing that you have personally made the same mistake the client made in a situation, letting them know they aren't stupid, or that others have done the same thing pretty often removes their shame and fear and helps you start solving the problem. The next step of paying attention is watching for ways to help your clients when they're not in the room - referrals or becoming a fan of their product on Facebook are good examples. Following them on Twitter is another. Basically, becoming their friend instead of just their attorney will go a long way toward helping you be a better lawyer. It will also bring you more business and help you reach your own personal goals for success.
LH: Kevin, thanks for sharing your thoughts on client service and helping us cultivate legal sanity. We wish you all the best with your new book.
Posted by Arnie Herz on April 3, 2009
I’m happy to announce that I’m launching a new feature here called the legal sanity mentor.
Each month, experts and influencers across a range of fields will share their views on and around the topic of designing client-centered legal services.
This is a topic – and a mission - that’s taken on a lot of personal and professional significance for me as I’ve grown my solo practice. It’s also gained a great deal of attention outside the law due to the advent of a consumer culture valuing meaning, positive experience and emotional connection.
I’m publishing the first post in this series next week. It’s an interview with Smart Design founder Dan Formosa (full disclosure: Smart design is my client). With products like OXO Good Grips kitchen tools and Ford’s new SmartGauge instrument panel to its credit, Smart Design has pioneered the art and science of understanding and designing for the consumer experience.
If you want to preview Dan’s insights and work, he’ll be today’s guest on Debbie Millman’s VoiceAmerica radio show, Design Matters. You can listen to the live stream at 3PM EST. For time shifters, it will also be available at iTunes.
I look forward to presenting the legal sanity mentor to you and, as always, welcome your feedback and suggestions about it.
Posted by Arnie Herz on March 6, 2009
I’ve been following coach/consultant Susan Cartier Liebel online since she launched her terrific blog, Build A Solo Practice, LLC. Susan’s been immersed in a new venture of late – a Web-based educational community and networking forum for lawyers and law students called Solo Practice University (SPU).
I’m very happy to announce that I have joined SPU’s faculty of working attorneys and other legal professionals and will be teaching a monthly course, Legal Sanity Career Strategies: Work Smart and Live Fully. Here’s a snippet from the course description:
Legal Sanity Career Strategies: How to Work Smart and Live Fully is a highly interactive course in teleseminar format, designed to help solo lawyers embrace the unprecedented change, challenge and opportunity impacting the legal profession today. Arnie will facilitate a dynamic learning process centered around participants’ actual challenges. The course will be real, relevant and practical. Arnie will draw upon the wisdom of other participants and guest speakers, offer practical advice and tools for managing each scenario, and provide the inspiration and support for translating knowledge into action. The course will enable each participant to build their knowledge, skills and confidence as a solo practitioner.
If you have any questions about the course, feel free to contact me.
Posted by Arnie Herz on March 2, 2009
With the harsh changes in the economic climate and rising jobless rate, I’m hearing and reading a lot about the importance of personal branding. My introduction to the concept came through management consultant Tom Peters’ 1997 Fast Company article, The Brand Called You. In it, he stated this “simple” and “inescapable” truth: “We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.”
There now are companies and consultants dedicated to helping us identify, establish and protect our personal brands. There are also experts who caution that it’s easy to misconstrue what this kind of branding is all about. As marketing guru Tom Asacker observes: “Being the head marketer of brand you is NOT about being interesting [ ]. It's NOT about cosmetics and ‘promoting a persona.’ It's about being interested in the dreams and desires of others. It's about creating an expectation and delivering on that expectation, such that people will trade their attention or money for it.”
While reasonable minds may differ on what personal branding is, I think most would agree that we are our own brand stewards and can’t delegate that authority to anyone else. Lawyer Shai Littlejohn recognizes this in her insightful article, Self-Marketing Is Key to Being a Top Lawyer. She writes: For those young attorneys who dream of becoming top lawyers, the key is to be three parts lawyer and one part marketing agent. [ ] Decision-makers give top jobs to the attorneys with the strongest brands. These are the brands that demonstrate shared values like reputation for responsiveness, accuracy, discretion, political savvy, family and participation in lofty priorities beyond day-to-day work.”
There are many ways to cultivate our personal brand. One that is gaining and holding enormous attention these days is online social networking. If you want to know more about social networking, like Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog, I’m a big fan of the video tutorials produced by Common Craft. Here’s one on social networking and another on social media.
I think this information pairs well with Jennifer Laycock’s piece on How Social Media (Didn’t) Change Business. Sharing personal, and very touching, anecdotes about her grandfather’s business ethic as an independent insurance agency owner in her small hometown, she observes: “My grandfather practiced the original form of 'social networking.' Back before everyone started focusing on making a bazillion dollars, people had time to make relationships without worrying about how those relationships might 'advance' their career. [ ] Social Media isn't some amazing new concept that's changing the way we do business. It's simply amazing new technology that's allowing us to return to the way people USED to do business.”
Laycock makes so much sense. We should keep her words in mind as we go about building the genuine relationships that, organically, help us cultivate our personal brands.
Postscript: After writing this post, I saw Kevin O'Keefe's recent commentary on personal branding for lawyers in the age of Google. Citing Seth Godin's post on the subject, Kevin offers some really concrete and practicable ways for us to establish our personal brands online.
Posted by Arnie Herz on February 26, 2009
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
~Victor Frankl
I’ve always been drawn to this quote. When faced with hard times and uncertainty, I think it’s human nature to look around us and think: “If I could just change this [job, relationship, assignment … you fill in the blank] things would be better and I’d be happy.” There’s a real lure to focus on the external circumstances of our lives when we’re feeling off kilter. And, truth be told, sometimes, changing those circumstances offers real relief. But, there’s bound to be another challenging situation to face and then another and another.
That’s where the meaning of Frankl’s quote lies for me. Eventually, in looking to change our external situation, we come to see that the change really starts with (and within) us – with shifts in our attitude, understanding, perspective and self-perception.
Almost a year ago, I stopped blogging here at legal sanity. It wasn’t a premeditated decision. It happened pretty organically in response to the increasing demands of business and life. Once I stopped blogging, I figured that I’d just devote the freed up time to addressing and alleviating some of these work-life demands. As you might guess, things didn’t go exactly as planned. Especially with the economic and market downturns, the demands I was experiencing remained just as demanding.
In the midst of all this, I realized that I missed posting and engaging with the community of bloggers.
So, on a recent afternoon, I sat down at my computer, went to legal sanity and spent some time in the archives. I noted the topics that still held interest and excitement for me and ones that felt tired and weighty. I also asked myself some questions about the direction of my training and development business and the book project I’m involved in. Broadening my focus, I thought about all the new and seasoned lawyers who, like me, are trying to achieve in a particularly challenging profession in particularly challenging times. How could I best support them? What information would they find meaningful, relevant, practical and timely?
After some time, I came away with a new vision and roadmap for this blog. While it will have the same look and voice, the content will focus on mentoring and coaching lawyers to embrace change and get unstuck so you can work smart and live fully. Drawing from different fields and disciplines, I’ll present motivating and inspiring articles, interviews with experts and other material to help you build your knowledge, skills and confidence as a firm or solo practitioner.
All of the archived content will remain on site, as will the original content categories. I’ve added some new categories to organize the fresh posts. They are:
- Business relationships
- Career strategy
- Managing + marketing yourself
As in the past, legal sanity continues to be part of a group of offerings. There will be a companion monthly e-newsletter and complementary training and development opportunities presented through an updated legal sanity programs. Also, as always, you’re essential to what’s happening at legal sanity. This is an open forum and an ongoing dialogue. The blog comments are activated and you’re welcome to email me with any questions and ideas you have for posts and newsletter content.
I’m very happy about these changes and look forward to recreating legal sanity with you.
Posted by Arnie Herz on March 31, 2008
A few weeks back, I wrote about the importance of
creating a connection culture in the law . One of the best ways for law firms to create connecting points for their lawyers is to gain insight into points of disconnection. As I’ve previously noted, two frequently cited
causes of lawyer disconnect are the competitive nature of the business and long working hours.
According to a post from
Chris Bailey at the always-interesting
Bailey Workplay blog, another major cause is
invisibility. Bailey attributes this problem to incompetent leadership. Specifically, he asserts that managers can do a lot of damage when they ignore employees. Ignoring actions, in turn, can take different forms, including:
- Not acknowledging contributions
- Not recognizing expertise
- Not seeing the individual worth
As this
post from Matt Homann suggests, anxiety can also promote lawyer disconnection. Homann points to a Harvard Business article that tells us
How to Deal with Anxious People. The piece leads with an anatomical fact: When we’re anxious, our minds constrict and we’re more apt to cut off our rationality and act impulsively. Consequently, law firm leaders looking to alleviate anxiety – and the disconnection it can foster – need to talk
to or
with anxious lawyers rather than
at or
over them.
The article goes on to instruct that the best way to navigate these challenging talks is to observe the anxious person’s body language. People who feel that they’re being talked over will “leave the conversation at the earliest opportunity.” When they’re talked at, people tend to tuck their chin down or stick it out to show that they’re intimidated or ticked off, respectively. By contrast, when you talk to an anxious person, they’ll “nod from the neck up.” Similarly, someone who senses that they’re being talked with will usually relax their shoulders and neck, “as if you've told them: ‘It'll be okay. We can work this out.’”
Posted by Arnie Herz on March 10, 2008
A little while back, I wrote a post on
creating a more fulfilling legal career. It conveyed my thoughts on a
New York Times article describing the diminishing lure of the law.
One of the resonant complaints I hear from lawyers is that they feel very disconnected from their colleagues and firms. They attribute their sense of isolation to, among other things, the competitive nature of the business and long working hours. These kinds of complaints inspired me to write posts like:
Their common theme is
connection – the damage caused by its absence and ways to build it in the legal profession.
Connection is also the theme of a new
ChangeThis manifesto by leadership expert
Michael Lee Stallard. Titled
The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage (pdf), the manifesto poses the compelling question:
What is it about connection that makes it so powerful?
Stallard offers up this gem of an answer:
“[W]e are humans, not machines. We have emotions. We have hopes and dreams. We have a conscience. We have deeply felt human needs to be respected, to be recognized for our talents, to belong. [ ] When we work in an environment that recognizes these realities of our human nature, we thrive. [ ] When we work in an environment that fails to recognize this, it is damaging to our mental and physical health.”
He then explains and explores the core elements of a workplace Connection Culture:
- Vision (“everyone in an organization is motivated by the organization’s mission, united by its values, and proud of its reputation”)
- Value (“everyone in an organization understands the universal nature of people, appreciates the unique contribution of each person, and helps them achieve their potential”)
- Voice (“everyone in an organization participates in an open, honest and safe environment where people share their opinions in order to understand one another and seek the best ideas”)
Stallard aids our understanding, and amplifies his message, by giving examples of businesses and business leaders who have successfully embraced these core components.
Posted by Arnie Herz on February 7, 2008
I'm no Luddite. Some have even suggested that I’ve hot glued my Blackberry to my hand. Still, I’d be stretching it more than a bit if I called myself a techie. It’s my general belief that people should connect more with one another and less with their gadgets.
Nonetheless, yesterday, I found myself happily taking in the sights and sounds of
LegalTech New York. Although there was a free breakfast offer, I was actually drawn there to share the company of fellow
law.com bloggers, including:
(I held back on engaging Monica in a conversation about Mets newcomer Johan Santana. She's a Yankees fanatic.)
After eating and chatting, I went to the exhibition floors and was pleasantly surprised.
I first stopped at
C2Legal (e-discovery and document management tools) where I interacted with a gizmo of interlocking nails that mocked me as I tried to disentangle it. After way too much time, I caved and asked Jeffrey Stolter, the consultant manning the table, for help. He kindly obliged and I was delighted that something so simple could so engage me and a lot of other people. I asked Jeffrey about the importance of relationships in a technical world. He said, "software is software, but the relationship behind using the software effectively creates a bond of trust with your client. This bond is what sells the product." Wow. Who knew software could be so human.
From there I visited
probono.net (resources for pro bono and legal services attorneys and others working to assist low income or disadvantaged clients). Their case management tool facilitates information sharing on pro bono matters. Four big firms have already signed on to use it. What a fantastic channel for technology -- helping law firms more effectively help people in need of free legal services. While I was checking out their wares, one of the reps asked if I know of any disgruntled lawyers who’d like to employ their legal knowledge in a non-legal/tech capacity. If you’re ready for a career move, here’s a link to
the company’s job openings page.
Navigating the sea of information, people and booths at this event can be overwhelming and exhausting. So, you can imagine how happy I was when
RVM, Inc. (e-discovery and litigation support solutions) invited me to kick up my feet in one of their massage chairs. Ten minutes later, I was refreshed and ready to learn about their products and services. Taking steps to first restore the depleted energy stores of potential buyers is a great sales tactic. It fits nicely with the
XE Factor model I often write and speak about.
I met a lot of other great folks and learned quite a bit about their business offerings. I found that, even in the technology world, it’s all about people. The better you are at engaging them, meeting their needs and improving their lives, the more likely it is that you'll successfully sell your products and services and feel good about what you’re doing.
Posted by Arnie Herz on February 3, 2008
The
FC Experts Blog recently featured
a three-part interview with Mike Dulworth (
part two and
part three), the author of a new networking book called
The Connect Effect: Building Strong Personal, Professional, And Virtual Networks.
Dulworth, the head of a professional networking business, defines
The Connect Effect as “the positive outcome derived from having a strong, vibrant, diverse network.” He also describes a complementary concept of entering
The Network Zone. Like an
elite athlete who achieves flow during a game or competition, business people enter the network zone when their “network is so broad and deep that almost anything can be accomplished more efficiently and effectively through” it.
According to Dulworth, we can cultivate this kind of peak networking performance by assessing our NQ (yup, that stands for
Networking Quotient). Like our
EQ (emotional intelligence) and MQ (moral intelligence), our networking intelligence isn’t fixed. We can raise it. The first step is to honestly appraise the “scope and strength” of our network and our networking activities. Beyond this candid assessment, Dulworth says, the key “is to find a way to build and maintain your network that is comfortable for you.”
I’ve addressed the importance of charting our own networking paths in posts like this one on
re-connecting with your business network and this one discussing
how to grow an organic business network . My friend Curt Rosengren adds to this point – and does us a major favor -- by publishing this extensive compilation of articles on
networking for shy people.
For more insight into the art and science of building strong business connections, you can take a look at lawyer/marketing consultant
Cole Silver’s new
Expert Audio Series. I’m one of the contributors, along with a host of other legal bloggers, including:
Stephanie West Allen
Larry Bodine
Carolyn Elefant
Jim Hassett
Daniel Hull
Dennis Kennedy
Patrick Lamb
Susan Cartier Liebel
Ed Poll
Gerry Riskin
Posted by Arnie Herz on January 24, 2008
It’s probably no mere coincidence that at a time of
political challenge and
economic uncertainty in the United States, there’s been a flurry of coverage on the subject of …
happiness.
For some time now, I’ve been intrigued by the science and study of happiness, as evidenced in this post on
the road to lawyer happiness and this one that puts l
awyer happiness under the microscope.
So, I eagerly read a pair of recent
Christian Science Monitor articles on the subject.
The first piece - titled
Actually, Happiness Isn’t Within - challenges the “firmly held and particularly American belief that happiness” is an internal quality; a state of being, or wellbeing, that we cultivate from the inside out. Citing new findings by social scientists, the article asserts that our happiness is a byproduct of external factors. Topping the list of those outside influences “is the quantity and the quality of our relationships.” (Journalist Penelope Trunk echoes this point in a post that offers a few tests for discerning
what we need to be happier.)
Given this new happiness formula and the amount of time most of us spend on-the-job, it stands to reason that our happiness must be strongly linked to the quality of our work environment and business relationships. If we’re routinely unhappy doing what we do for a living, it’s a sure sign that these external components are unhealthy and stacked against us.
This is the underlying message of
Alexander Kjerulf’s CSM commentary on
cultivating happiness at work.
According to Kjerulf, it’s the norm for U.S. workers to be dissatisfied with their jobs. That’s because managers and employees alike fail to make workplace happiness a priority. This isn’t a
gosh, well, I guess that’s too bad fact of life. As Kjerulf puts it: “Hating your job is not an inconvenience, it's a serious problem. It can cause stress and depression. Ultimately, it can kill you.”
Lawyers should be acutely aware of the seriousness of this issue. As
Sue Shellenbarger (pdf) writes in an article on
Lawyers Opening Up About Depression, studies have found that about “19% of lawyers suffer depression at any given time, compared with 6.7% of the population as a whole.” While some might question the exact correlation between career stresses and depression, it seems that it’s
well accepted that the “practice of law, with constant conflict and billing pressures, can take a toll.”
Attorney
Daniel Lukasik contacted me last week to let me know about a
website he’s launched to support himself and other lawyers who are living and coping with the day-to-day realities of depression. I checked it out and it presents as a terrific and much-needed resource.
For another perspective on lawyers and depression,
Stephanie West Allen points us to a new book exploring the “benefits of negative emotions” and “how we might view depression in a more constructive way.”
Posted by Arnie Herz on December 31, 2007
My friend and business associate
Keith Ferrazzi emailed me about his goals for 2008. He shared his belief that, “to be a successful goal-getter,” we need to take a few preliminary steps.
First, we have to define our goals. Keith believes that goals usually fall into one of seven categories (he calls them the “seven aspects” of our “personal success wheel”):
Step two is to make sure that the goals we define are SMART, which stands for:
The third step in Keith’s goal-getting approach is a crucial one. We need to get some positive reinforcement by asking three friends to be our “accountability buddies.” The idea is to create a vibrant support network so that no one has to go it alone and everyone stays accountable.
To help us take these steps, Keith and his team have created an application called
Goal Post that’s housed at
Facebook, the social networking site. According to Keith, Goal Post is “an easy and visual way to set your goals, choose your accountability buddies and keep track of your progress.”
If 2007 found you questioning your job or career path, you can find some guidance and inspiration for the coming year in
Curt Rosengren’s new book,
101 Ways to Get Wild About Work.
I was fortunate enough to receive and review an advance copy of the book. Curt offers a lot of practical insight and action points for reenergizing our current work or reorienting towards a different job or career that rewards us on many levels – financial, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. There’s a hefty helping of material here. But, Curt makes it very easy to consume by breaking it down into bite-sized tips, ideas and inspirational perspectives.
I wish you all a happy, healthy and meaningful 2008.
Posted by Arnie Herz on December 17, 2007
Some of the topics I regularly cover here are:
When I’m on the road delivering my learning programs, law firm partners and managers often share how these related issues are not easy to parse through and address in the real world of law. Their frustration is palpable and understandable.
On Wednesday, December 19, 2007,
Joshua Fruchter and I will give a live, 90-minute webcast entitled:
Attorney Retention: Preventing an Exodus of Talent. Presented by
West Legalworks, the program is CLE-accredited in a number of states.
Among other practical tips and strategies for redressing the related problems of attorney attrition and retention, participants will learn how to:
- Recognize telltale signs of lawyer unhappiness
- Energize attorney productivity
- Foster meaningful communication between lawyers and management
If you’d like to register for the webcast or learn more about the presenters, content or CLE credits, please visit this
details page. When you use this link to register, you’ll receive a 15% discount on the price of the program.
Posted by Arnie Herz on December 11, 2007
Like many lawyers – solos and others – I often emerge from the whirlwind that’s work and life to find that I’ve fallen out of touch with people in my business network. Especially at this time of year, when closing out the old and ringing in the new, I’m pulled to fix these broken connections.
I know that many professionals send out holiday cards and gifts as means to this end. While these offerings certainly can connect us with clients and business associates we’ve lost touch with, they’re largely one-way lines of communication.
A better route to re-connection runs two ways. It’s an
organic dialogue that lends a
human dimension to our business relationships.
Curt Rosengren illustrated this point when he invited me to be part of his
Reconnection Revolution. Noting that “there's something about that real time ear-to-ear interaction that just takes the connection to the next level,” Curt pledged to have “30 conversations in 30 days with people I've never actually spoken with (as in voice) before. No particular agenda to the conversations – just seeing what I learn, how I’m inspired, and what new ideas pop up.”
I “know” Curt from
the blogosphere and regularly link to his work from
legal sanity. Still, ours was an arms-length association at best. We reduced a good bit of that distance during our hour-long phone conversation. We discussed our personal and professional backgrounds, goals and challenges and offered one another advice and support.
Reflecting on his
30-day mission, Curt said: “People start talking, building relationships, exchanging ideas, even finding ways to collaborate. Next thing you know – hey presto! – the positive potential has just grown exponentially.”
Lawyers and other service providers can use Curt’s model to repair the broken connections in our business network. As he points out, we don’t have to follow his 30-in-30 formula. We can customize it to make it workable for us: think 5-in-5 or even 5-in-10 and see what happens over time.
Posted by Arnie Herz on November 22, 2007
I want to wish all of you celebrants a very Happy Thanksgiving.
My co-publisher,
Lori Herz, and I are grateful for this opportunity to “visit with you” and share our ideas and perspectives on cultivating
legal sanity. We’re equally grateful that you share your ideas and perspectives with us.
Every day affords us another chance to contemplate all the blessings in our lives and all the people and things that we’re thankful for. But, it’s nice to have an official 24 hour block of time devoted to this pursuit.
Enjoy!
Posted by Arnie Herz on November 12, 2007
Last week, I was a panelist and presenter at a two-day conference on
Law as a Healing Profession. The presentations and discussions centered on some interesting themes, including:
- The Lawyer as Therapeutic Agent
- Cultivating Cross-Cultural Competence
My panel addressed the subject of
law and spirituality. Of course, to many practitioners and observers, this seems to be as potent a combination as oil and water. But, as I’ve explored
here at legal sanity and in my
training and development programs, there is a potential connection between the two.
To realize that potential, it’s important to understand that
spirituality isn’t necessarily synonymous with
God or
religion. Rather, spirituality can refer to how we infuse what we do for a living with a greater (or higher) sense of
meaning and purpose.
When I was at the conference, I met
David A. Hoffman. David is the founder of the
Boston Law Collaborative, a firm devoted to conflict resolution and collaborative law practice. David pointed me to a
commentary on collaborative law he recently wrote for the
Christian Science Monitor. The piece offers a well-rounded, insider take on the history, risks and benefits of this “healing approach” to the law.
To me, David’s perspective on the law’s ability to heal, rather than divide, people goes to the heart of the law-spirituality connection. It’s this healing effect that many discontented lawyers are looking to reclaim in their practice. In turn, the more practitioners find their way to reclaiming this kind of meaning and purpose in the law, the healthier the profession will become.
Posted by Arnie Herz on October 23, 2007
Back in May, I wrote about
Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession, a group composed of top-tier law students who have joined forces to propel profession-wide reform.
Law.com, by way of
Legal Times, recently profiled the group’s mission and goals in an article titled
Students Seek a More Reasonable Law Firm Life.
The other day, I received an e-mail from the group announcing its release of “a series of reports ranking large law firms in New York and other major legal markets on gender composition, diversity, billable hours, and pro bono participation.” The reports aim to help law students make more informed – or, perhaps, more reasonable -- choices in deciding where to work. You’ll find links to the reported firm rankings, by geographic location, on the sidebar of
the group’s blog.
Fostering a healthier legal profession is also the focus of a November 4-5, 2007 conference on
Law as a Healing Profession. The two-day event takes place at the
Touro Law Center in Islip, New York. I’m participating as a presenter and panelist. Panel topics include:
- The Lawyer as Therapeutic Agent Practice
- Practice, Spirituality & Religion
- Cultivating Cross-Cultural Competence
You can register for the conference and download the event brochure
here.
Posted by Arnie Herz on September 28, 2007
"We want employees to have an experience that revitalizes them and changes their thinking – that brings them back with brand-new ideas and perspectives. If they're not growing as people, we're not growing as a company."
When you read and re-read this quote, what does it trigger for you? What kind of business leader do you attribute it to? Most likely, you can envision the statement coming from the top tier of a progressive, worker-centric company like
Apple or
Yahoo.
But, these words were spoken by lawyer
Lee S. Rosen, CEO of the
Rosen Law Firm. Rosen is one of the employers featured in a recent
Christian Science Monitor article on
the benefits of employee sabbaticals.
Borrowing a custom from academia, some corporate employers are offering these paid and unpaid time outs as part of their employee recruitment and retention efforts.
Rosen encourages his employees to use the time to “do something that’s
meaningful to them” (the link is mine). Lisa Angel, a Rosen lawyer who’s profiled in the piece, says that she “needed a change from the rigors and emotions” of her work in divorce law. She spent her 3-month sabbatical traveling solo in China and Southeast Asia. The time away, she asserts, changed her “perspective about the balance of work and life and “enabled her to continue practicing law.”
Offering sabbaticals is one way that law firms can foster a culture of meaning and nurturing. Complementary avenues of cultural change in the legal profession will be explored at Touro Law Center’s upcoming conference on
Law as a Healing Profession.
The conference takes place on November 4-5, 2007 at Touro’s campus in Central Islip, New York. I will be there as a keynote speaker and panelist. To see the roster of other presenters and for more information, you can
view the event brochure here (pdf).
Posted by Arnie Herz on July 30, 2007
I’ve previously expressed
why blogging is a boon to me. As one of its biggest benefits, blogging allows me to partake in a thriving community of thinkers and innovators in the law. I've met a number of great people in this online community. While some remain virtual acquaintances, others have crossed the cyber border for connection in real time.
Not long ago, a number of
legal bloggers gathered in New York City at the invitation of Neil Squillante and Sara Skiff of
TechnoLawyer. We came together to celebrate the pre-launch of
BlawgWorld 2007 (pdf), an eBook compilation of thoughts and commentary from 77 leading legal bloggers.
Today marks the official launch of
BlawgWorld 2007. This free 345-page eBook is a solid introduction to the world of law blogs and an informative read for anyone interested in what’s going on in today’s legal profession and marketplace. The essay selections are timely, relevant and very easy to navigate thanks to a user-friendly proprietary design.
I’m proud to be a contributing author (page 95).
You can access the 77 essays and companion information by downloading your free copy of
BlawgWorld 2007. The folks at TechnoLawyer encourage you to share the eBook with your associates and friends. If you’d like to distribute it, visit
TechnoLawyer’s eBook Press Kit page for instructions.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 29, 2007
I’ve written two articles on meditation for lawyers:
First Steps to an Uncluttered Mind and
Meditation: Tool for a Clear Mind and Competitive Edge. Over the years, I’ve coupled my own meditation practice with the physical practice of
yoga. The interest in yoga runs in the family. My kids enjoy it and my wife --
legal sanity’s co-producer
Lori Herz -- is a certified yoga instructor and devoted practitioner.
I just spotted this
Small Firm Business feature titled:
Personal Injury Solo Finds Salvation Through Yoga. In it, California solo Mark Webb shares how yoga helped him rise from a low point in his personal and professional life.
Now, 30 pounds lighter and possessing “a cooler mind-set in trial,” Webb wants to educate other lawyers about yoga’s benefits. So, he’s launched a website,
yogalawyers.com, and is arranging an
introductory yoga workshop in San Francisco on July 15-16, 2007. The site links to an engaging
Yoga Journal article about Webb’s transformation through yoga.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 28, 2007
In my last post about
business coaching for lawyers, I suggested that an important part of the coaching process is moving from assessment and strategy to action. As in sports, coaching success is determined on the playing field. A coach’s ideas, inspiration and guidance mean little to us if we still lack the ability-skills-tools we need to translate them into action points, realized goals and personal or team victories. That’s why our choice of business coach is so critical. First and foremost, we need to ensure that the coach we decide to work with can help us set realistic goals and take action to achieve them in our practice arena.
Stymied by the prospect of choosing the right business coach for you? You’ll find some great tips on getting started in the selection process in this
Fast Company leadership post called
Executive Coaching – Fuel or Folly? Among the pointers offered are: (1) have a general idea of what you’re striving for; (2) ask about the candidate’s coaching style, process, philosophy and experience; and (3) know what kind of coaching you want (relationship skills v. business growth v. psychological insights).
For a broader perspective on the benefits of coaching, take a look at
Edward Poll’s (congratulations on your new grandson, Ed!) terrific article called
Coaches Teach What Law Schools Don’t. It details how coaches with real world lawyering experience can help young practitioners bridge the skill and knowledge gap between the study and practice of law. Poll also addresses how lawyers learn to define and refine their idea of
success through the coaching relationship.
Rounding out this mix of resources is
Rosa Say’s post on how
blogging has boosted the coaching industry. As part of her coverage, Say features my recent blog entry on coaching for lawyers (thanks!) and provides links to a roster of blogger-coaches in her vibrant
Ho'ohana Community.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 6, 2007
I’m a big fan of
business coaching for lawyers. I’ve been a consumer and provider of coaching services for many years. There are different coaching approaches and styles and, as with other personal and professional pursuits, it’s important to take the time to find the right coaching fit for you.
In a recent ABA Journal article titled
Coach Me, Jenny B. Davis profiles the work of three professional coaches and their lawyer clients. I’m one of the featured coaches. The interesting thing about this inaugural run of the
ABA Journal Coaching Project was it’s time frame. The coaches had just one month to help our clients “achieve peak performance.”
I worked with Larry Koch, a partner at a midsize Minneapolis firm looking to build his book of business. As I thought about the most efficient use of our relatively short time together, I decided to focus in on Larry’s existing business relationships to see if they offered any new avenues of opportunity for him to explore. Once we had this focus and a corresponding strategy, it was exciting to witness how much Larry accomplished in four weeks.
Sometimes, when we have an open time frame in which to meet our professional goals, we end up our spinning wheels, rethinking our steps and getting mired in details rather than
taking action. The curtailed nature of this coaching assignment actually proved to be a very positive motivator. It kept us moving and on track.
Posted by Arnie Herz on May 14, 2007
I’m happy to be hosting this week’s
blawg review, a carnival (or roundup) of recent law blog commentary. Thank you to all the bloggers, readers and others who sent in posts for my consideration. I read them all and learned a lot from them. Below, you’ll find the submissions that worked best with my chosen theme of
creating successful business relationships in the law. I hope you enjoy reading the selections as much as I enjoyed putting them together. So, here we go:
Tom Collins posts on a study finding that
Law Firm Clients Prefer Smiles. Apparently, smiles are contagious. As Collins points out, “What you project through your mannerisms is often what you get back from the person you’re dealing with.” Simply put, people want to deal with people who improve their day.
Reflecting on the publicized, unsavory conduct of a particular lawyer,
Sheryl Sisk Schelin notes that
incivility in the practice of law (and elsewhere) “always – always – has an impact on those who observe it.”
In a post evidencing the relationships fueled in the blogosphere,
Tom Kane points us to
The 12 Rules of Client Service authored by fellow blogger
Dan Hull. The rules are excerpted from a practice guide Hull’s firm gives to its associates and paralegals. Among the
relationship-oriented rules Hull imparts is “Rule Four: Deliver Legal Work That Changes the Way Clients Think About Lawyers.”
David Maister shares his take on research showing that
Happiness is Relative. He observes that, for most people, happiness lies in “whether or not you have more or less than others.” It all comes down to who you’re comparing yourself to. Maister ends by questioning how we pick the groups we use as reference points in determining our happiness quotient.
In a post on client relationships titled
Don’t Treat All Your Clients The Same,
Michelle Golden writes that it’s okay to calibrate our service offerings to the type of client we’re engaging (very best v. good v. base line). Drawing an analogy to the airline industry, she suggests that with each step up in the client hierarchy, we can step up our level of service.
Looking at the foundation for our business connections,
Anthony Cerminaro writes that our business relationships thrive when we
Live Authentically by being true to who we are – to our values, passions and needs – in our work. In another post called
Seven Habits of Servant Leaders, he shares his views on how leaders can create strong workplace relationships.
Also exploring leadership in the law,
David Jacobson opines that law firms and their business relationships benefit from having a
consigliere in the firm's top management team.
Carolyn Elefant refers us to a handy checklist that associates can use to vet the employee-law firm relationship and assess whether they’re
Living in a Dead-End Job.
Offering us additional insight into the law firm-associate relationship,
Nathan Koppel posts about one firm’s decision to host
etiquette events (focused on table manners) for its fleet of summer associates.
Taking us from the dining table to the larger networking circuit,
Bruce Allen presents his latest installment in a series of posts on
Developing Face-to-Face Networking Skills. He says that it “makes a lot of sense that most of us are not getting any relationship mileage from the people we’re meeting” at networking events. Allen goes on to tell us how we can up our mileage in a few easy steps.
Taking a look at the tech side of facilitating successful business relationships,
Tom Mighell introduces a discussion of
Wikis for Lawyers and refers us to a
radio show he recently did on the topic.
That’s the roundup for this week.
A new blawg review is published at a different law blog every Monday. You can visit
Blawg Review for information about next week’s host,
Enrico Schaefer, and for
instructions on how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.
Posted by Arnie Herz on May 6, 2007
I’m happy to announce that, on Monday, May 14, 2007, I’m hosting Blawg Review #108, a carnival (or roundup) of recent blog commentary on the theme of creating successful business relationships in the law. If you’d like to submit a relevant post from your own or someone else’s blog, feel free to do so by Saturday, May 12th. You’ll find submission guidelines here.
As I’ve previously mentioned, the topic of creating successful business relationships and avoiding unsuccessful ones has become a focal point of my coverage here at legal sanity as well as a mainstay of my learning programs business. The law firm-lawyer connection is one of the key relationships I consider on both fronts. In past posts, I’ve looked at it from the perspective of:
Offering another point to consider is this Brazen Careerist post on the evolution of employee loyalty. In it, Penelope Trunk notes that the incoming generation of workers has a different notion of loyalty than its predecessors. In this age of job-hopping, loyalty doesn’t mean sticking with one company for your entire work life. It means being “loyal while you are there.”
So, what creates this new brand of loyalty?
For employees, loyalty derives in large part from finding “a place that contributes to your core needs, in a way that gives you the opportunity to express passions in significant ways.” Employers, in turn, attract loyalists by rallying employees around a common mission or by making it easy for them to pursue their individual missions in and outside the workplace. Trunk gives us some good examples of loyalty-generating business initiatives.
Echoing her take on the subject is this post from Cali’s Work + Life “Fit” Blog discussing how companies can better support employees caring for children with special needs. Citing the unique challenges facing these working parents (on a national scale, 1 in 12 employees has a child with special needs), the post lists flexible work options, more comprehensive healthcare, on-site support groups and educational programs among other constructive employer efforts. It’s not hard to envision the kind of loyalty that naturally results when an organization recognizes and positively addresses the needs of a sizeable employee population like this one.
Posted by Arnie Herz on April 10, 2007
While I was away on a business-family trip last week, I took a little time to vet the online hopper where I store fodder for my blog posts. Although it’s all worthy of more in-depth attention, I decided to present the hopper’s article, post and other content to you here in condensed form so that you can consume it sooner rather than later. Enjoy!
Addressing one of my favorite topics, happiness, are the following:
What is “happiness,” anyway? and What is happiness? are two great posts from Gretchen Rubin at The Happiness Project;
Debbie Call’s commentary Make Money - Get Happy - Not? and link to an underlying Mother Jones article on human well-being called Reversal of Fortune;
Tom Peter’s take on Passion or Indifference;
Pamela Slim’s provocative newsletter feature entitled Is your inner tiger choking on a short leash? and her related blog post;
Last, but certainly not least, my friend Michael Cohen posts on the science backing the positive effects of meditation.
The next set drawn from the hopper considers workplace matters. They are:
Forbes’ coverage of work-life balance;
Views on employee engagement provided by Curt Rosengren and Motto Magazine in What is employee engagement (and why does it matter)?;
A two-part posting at Be Excellent on Employee Engagement and Generational Differences and employee engagement statistics and tips;
Fast Company’s insights into Caring, the Corporate Way.
This last group offers valuable guidance to newly-minted lawyers:
Blogger and Edge International consultant Patrick J. McKenna writes about ways to ask for business;
Dan Hull shares his philosophy on the same subject in a post titled Asking Clients for Work: “Why are Lawyers So Shy?”;
Rounding out the offerings is an article highlighting how law schools are not preparing graduates for solo practice. The piece quotes blogger and solo-advocate Susan Cartier Liebel.
On that note, this coming Monday, April 16, 2007, at noon, I'm speaking to Harvard Law School’s graduating class about fearless networking. This program is part of the school’s pilot effort to better prepare students for the real-world practice of law. If you’re in the Boston area and would like to attend, please let me know.
Posted by Arnie Herz on February 6, 2007
Since 1994, the College of Law Practice Management has promoted and honored “innovation in law practices around the world.” As part of its efforts, the College sponsors the InnovAction Awards, “a worldwide search for lawyers, law firms, law departments and other providers of legal services who are currently engaged in some extraordinary innovative efforts.”
Entries for the 2007 Awards are now being accepted. The winners will be presented on September 8, 2007 at the College’s annual meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
To learn about the application and selection process, visit the College of Law Practice Management online. If you’d like more insight into the College’s important mission and work, you can check out its new blog and the latest issue of its InnovAction eZine (pdf).
Posted by Arnie Herz on January 10, 2007
I’m thrilled to announce that our new eGuide,
Beyond Balance: How to Cultivate Work-Life Synergy in the Law (PDF) is finished and now available as a complimentary offering from
Legal Sanity Learning Programs. Here’s an excerpt:
What Are We Really Looking For in the Name Of Work-Life Balance?
If you ask lawyers (whether male or female, seasoned or newly-minted) to describe their work-life issues, you’ll get many different responses, including:
· I love my work, but I don’t have time for personal pursuits
· I don’t like my work and have no time for personal pursuits
· My work life is dull and boring compared to my personal life
· My work and personal lives are both unfulfilling
· The people I deal with at work are draining
· My work tasks are unchallenging and depleting
At first glance, these complaints seem quite distinct.
But, on closer inspection, we can see that they’re all expressions of discontent with how practitioners are engaging and handling the lawyer experience and its three component parts:
1. Time
2. Relationships
3. Tasks
We feel distressed when any of these three components is deficient and depleting us. And if more than one of the triad is impaired (as is usually the case), our distress and discontent only increases.
Lawyers feeling the fallout from this impairment often wonder: “What is the purpose of this? I want to experience more meaning in life. How do I find my way to happiness?”
While some people dismiss work-life issues in the law as bunk, articles like this one about
workaholics and this one about
the best companies to work for evince that this is not a red herring matter for a profession populated by stressed, unhappy and defecting practitioners.
Work-life synergy is a subject that’s been near and dear to me as I’ve traveled my own career path and developed content for this blog.
I’d love for you to read the eGuide and share it with your co-workers and friends in the service professions. Also, please feel free to give me your feedback on the Guide and its core message about moving beyond balance.
Posted by Arnie Herz on December 24, 2006
In this time of giving and receiving, I want to thank everyone who reads and engages this blog for receiving what I have to offer in the form of ideas and commentary on bettering the practice of law. I’d also like to thank you for giving me the gift of your great insight and input on
legal sanity. I wish you all joyous and fulfilling holiday celebrations.
Here are a few resources offering the gift of guidance for lawyers. The first is a roundup of
Inc.com’s best
articles on mentoring, an important inroad to employee engagement in law firms.
The next guidepost comes through a
Fast Company article called
Finding Their Calling. It highlights the point that
employee engagement and fidelity derives in large part from a particular kind of
fitness -- the degree to which an employee’s values match (or
fit with) those of the organization and/or team that he or she is a part of. The greater the level of fitness, the more likely it is that employees will deem their work “meaningful, purposeful, and important.”
The final source of guidance is the
October/November 2006 issue of GP/Solo Magazine. In it, you’ll find an array of articles addressing lawyer distress and pathways to wellbeing. Among the subjects covered are: ADHD; addiction; mental illness; lawyer assistance programs; and meditation. It’s always comforting to learn that we aren’t alone in facing personal and professional challenges and that there are people and programs here to help us.
Posted by Arnie Herz on December 17, 2006
Blogging is a boon to me in so many ways. It gives me a wonderful avenue for engaging and sharing my own and others’ thoughts on optimizing the practice of law. It allows me to express and experience how my life as a lawyer intersects with the values I hold most dear. And it exposes me to a host of powerful and inspiring ideas for cultivating a meaningful career.
Another great boon is the network of people I've met through the blog. While some of these people remain virtual friends, others have crossed the cyber border for real-time interaction.
Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting a program at fellow blogger Mark Beese’s Colorado law firm, Holland & Hart. Mark set the tone for a terrific, interactive session with a warm and welcoming introduction that included a nice ping for my blog. On this same trip, I met with Stephanie West Allen, who writes about many interesting aspects of lawyering at her blog, idealawg. Stephanie recently interviewed me for her regular Legal Highlights feature.
The blog-fostered connection continued with an invitation from fellow blogger, coach and author Rosa Say to contribute to her Ho’ike’ike 2006 (blog forum) on leadership. This was a gem of an opportunity to join in a community of like-minded thinkers by sharing my views on leadership in the law. You can check out all the thought-provoking leadership forum contributions at Rosa’s excellent blog, Talking Story.
I really enjoyed the sense of kinship that came from answering Rosa’s call to action. But it was her generosity of spirit – her spirit of aloha - that really touched me. Soon after submitting my post for the forum roundup, I received two fabulous gifts from Rosa – twin copies of her highly regarded book on business management, Managing with Aloha. It was clear that these were gifts from the heart. Rosa inscribed one copy with a personal note to me and my wife, Lori. The other copy is, in Rosa’s words, “to share.”
Sharing, community and connection – all attributes that Rosa Say personifies – form the triad of influences that keep me blogging along.
Posted by Arnie Herz on November 17, 2006
The
rainmaking roundup has become a fairly regular feature here.
The latest round of commentary on this popular topic includes this
CareerJournal.com piece on
Networking Strategies for Shy Professionals. While it focuses on the hunt for a new job, the article’s tips apply equally well to the type of networking-for-client-generation lawyers typically engage in under the rainmaking umbrella.
The tips compel us to think of networking as “using shared interests to develop and maintain mutually beneficial relationships.” Considered in this light, networking is “as natural as eating and sleeping. Whenever you talk with others and seek their opinions to make an informed decision -- even if it's just to find a good restaurant, movie or electrician -- you're networking.”
The piece goes on to suggest that reluctant rainmakers “connect” with their passion – a “product, service or cause” that excites them. Focusing on these passion-driven interests allows us to “talk with conviction and insight, which can reduce [ ] networking jitters.”
For more insight into buoying the reluctant rainmaker-networker, you can check out the article I wrote for the
Legal Marketing Association on
Fearless Networking (pdf).
For another interesting perspective on rainmaking, you should read
Bruce Allen’s commentary on
How to Become an “A” Player Attorney. Among the pearls he shares are:
· “Be principled, honest, giving, open-hearted, and dedicated to helping other people achieve their dreams.”
· “Believe in yourself enough to be able to say, ‘No.’”
· “Treat people as if they are far more important and interesting [ ] than yourself.”
I’ve also found a lot of valuable information on rainmaking in blogger
Jim Hassett’s new book,
Legal Business Development. One of the points that really resonates for me is Jim’s emphasis on taking action instead of just planning and thinking. As I say:
Ready, fire, aim.
Posted by Arnie Herz on October 27, 2006
Here’s a quick note from the road (or the train, as it were) as I make my way to a give a program on advanced mediation skills at the Association for Conflict Resolution’s Sixth Annual Conference.
I just finished Jones Day partner Mark Herrmann’s very funny and quite practical guidebook for budding and seasoned lawyers alike: The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law. I really enjoyed it and suggest that you grab a copy for yourself and the other lawyers in your life.
Monica Bay (who goes from e-mail to post at a rate of speed that would make any New York Yankees pitcher reel with jealousy) nicely captures my thoughts on Herrmann’s book in a mailbag roundup at her terrific blog, The Common Scold.
Check it out.
Posted by Arnie Herz on October 9, 2006
I'm very pleased to announce that tomorrow, October 10, 2006, at 9:00 p.m. EST, I'm hosting a live interactive podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com. I'll be engaging a dialogue on a topic that's become a mainstay of my Training + Development programs for lawyers and other service professionals - XE Factor: Relationships for Business Success.
As I've discussed here before, the XE [Energy Exchange] Factor is a teaching model of human energy exchange I devised to help people better understand how a particular person, issue, interaction or job impacts them on an energetic level. I believe that much of the work-related conflict, stress and discontent we experience stems from our inability to gauge, protect and renew our personal energy stores.
You can read more of my archived posts on the XE Factor here; here; and here.
I look forward to sharing some ideas and conversation with you on this important topic during my pocast tomorrow night.
Posted by Arnie Herz on September 25, 2006
I'm very pleased to announce that my wife and blog production partner, Lori Herz, is launching a freelance business writing venture – LH Wordsmith.
Her goal is to evolve the legal sanity brand and mission she co-created by helping lawyers and other professional service providers produce clear, concise and powerful written work.
Lori has played a major role in legal sanity’s day-to-day operations since its inception in 2004. She’s overseen the blog’s physical and content design and taken the lead on researching and drafting its posts. Her role at legal sanity complements, and draws support from, the extensive business experience she gained through a federal clerkship, criminal and civil appellate practice and work in nonprofit governance.
The writing at legal sanity reflects Lori’s ability to clearly and succinctly organize, synthesize and communicate ideas and information from diverse sources. Largely as a result of this ability and her passion for her work, legal sanity has developed a wide audience and online visibility that’s grown with its recent inclusion in the law.com network’s Legal Blog Watch.
With her work at legal sanity, Lori has cultivated in-depth knowledge of today’s professional service marketplace. She closely follows important trends in the law and other service industries and understands the enormous business value of adept educational-promotional writing.
Marrying her business experience, knowledge and wordsmith skills, Lori has written articles for legal trade publications. She’s also created content and collateral materials for legal industry training and development programs. Topics covered by Lori include: business development; career contentment; client relations; communication skills; employee engagement; leadership; marketing trends; and work-life synergy.
Lori imports this depth of marketplace knowledge and writing experience into her offerings at LH Wordsmith. In her new role, she’ll help busy service providers stand out in the competitive marketplace by producing high-quality written work that showcases their expertise; engages and educates their business prospects, clients and employees; builds their reputation and visibility; and fosters success, satisfaction and sanity in their work life and beyond.
If you would like to learn more about Lori’s business writing services, you can contact her at lori@loriherz.com or (516) 655-6955. Her business Web site will launch soon. In the interim, you can sample her written work at legal sanity’s main page and via its sidebar menus.
Posted by Arnie Herz on September 11, 2006
To commemorate the events of Sept. 11th, this morning at 8:45am, I shut my office door, closed my eyes and placed my hands on my heart for a few minutes. The resulting positive shift in my energy state, thoughts and emotions was palpable and profound.
This simple act, which I've repeated a few times, has enabled me to stay focused and connected to others throughout the day. It’s also given me some much-needed insight into how I can gain perspective and rebuild my energy stores when they’re depleted by the stresses and uncertainties of work and life.
Because it’s so simple and portable, I’m adding this exercise to the set of tools I use to help myself and others better understand how the XE Factor – the dynamic of human energy depletion, generation and management – plays out in our professional and personal lives.
Please feel free to give the exercise a try and share your experiences with me.
Posted by Arnie Herz on August 24, 2006
Bruce MacEwen of Adam Smith, Esq. recently announced the publication of InnoVaction (pdf), the College of Law Practice Management’s new e-zine covering innovation in the practice of law. Among the noted and notable contributors are MacEwen himself and Gerry Riskin of Amazing Firms Amazing Practices.
I’m about midway through the magazine and it’s terrific. It approaches the subject of innovation from a variety of perspectives and, in doing so, demonstrates the power of collaborative thought and action.
As Riskin points out in a recent post, the collaboration on this important topic continues in a new blog, Blank Sheet of Paper And a box of crayons. The blog is the work of Merrilyn Astin Tarlton, the editor-in-chief of the ABA’s Law Practice magazine.
Collaboration is something that fortifies any effort to compel positive change in the legal profession. A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to experience this kind of collaborative power when Riskin and MacEwen volunteered their time and energy to help me test run my new training and development program on the XE Factor.
The input and diverse ideas they offered during our day together have proven invaluable and the program - as it’s since evolved – reflects the boons of our very constructive collaboration.
Posted by Arnie Herz on July 21, 2006
Management consultant Lisa Haneberg has a new book out called Focus Like a Laser Beam: 10 Ways to Do What Matters Most. I’m looking forward to imbibing the insights Haneberg offers up here. I’ve been a regular reader of her blog, Management Craft, for quite some time. She’s got an easy and engaging writing style and I find her thoughts on leadership and business effectiveness highly relevant to my professional focus on helping people energize and optimize their life in the law.
According to the book’s promotional material, in this latest endeavor, Haneberg extols the virtues of focus as a vital business and leadership skill. Launching from the premise that the “ability to focus helps separate the good from the great in all professions and disciplines;” Haneberg looks to the qualities and mechanics of laser beams for instruction and inspiration on developing the focus we need to survive and thrive in today’s fast-paced and rapidly changing business environment.
For more on Haneberg’s book, you can check out an interview and review linked to in a recent 800-CEO-Read blog post. Hanberg has also launched an excellent podcast series called Fireside Chats about Management and Leadership. These “informal conversations with respected business thinkers and bloggers” converge around the “theme of helping people focus and succeed.”
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 27, 2006
There’s a good deal of discussion and debate out there about
the new era of customer relationship management in which the emphasis is increasingly placed on understanding and optimizing
the customer experience.
While reading up on this subject for my training and development business, it occurred to me that law firms and the legal profession would greatly benefit from pursuing something I call
lawyer experience management (LEM). LEM initiatives would afford invaluable insight into how and why lawyers are -and aren’t - energized, fulfilled and inspired by their work. Toward this end, they would assess how lawyers typically
feel when interacting with their firms and fellow professionals. They’d also gauge how lawyers commonly
react to the true culture of their firms and profession over time.
Of course, this kind of self-scrutiny would require a huge amount of openness and honesty on the parts of practitioners, firms and professional associations. But, there is precedent for this kind of candor. In order to ensure sustainability and curb attrition, organizations are taking steps to
identify and reform arrogant and abusive executives. They’re also using
executive coaching to cultivate effective leaders.
In any kind of self-inquiry - including the corporate version that LEM would require – adding a healthy dose of humor to the candor often helps the process along. In this spirit, I highly recommend that you get a copy of blogger-author
Jeremy Blachman’s very funny new book,
Anonymous Lawyer, which offers a hiring partner’s (maybe-not-so) satirical look at life at a prestigious firm. You’ll get a flavor for the book from the related
Anonymous Law Firm site.
While, ultimately, each of us is responsible for optimizing our own life in the law; concerted efforts to understand and buoy the lawyer experience within firms and in the field can only work to our collective benefit.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 14, 2006
I am a regular contributor to Office-Politics, an online help site where a panel of professionals responds to reader inquiries about dealing with workplace dilemmas. I really enjoy being part of this real-world dialogue. Some of the questions and answers fielded through the site inspired its originator, Franke James, to create an innovative board game - also called Office-Politics - that aims to teach us how to play, and laugh, at our everyday office challenges.
In my recent Web wanderings, I came across a few articles that touch on the topic of navigating office politics. The first, from CareerJournal.com, shares pointers on The Right – and Wrong – Way to Deal with a Lousy Manager. According to the piece, a baseline tactic is to ask ourselves: “Is this a bully, or simply a case of two personalities that don't get along?” To lend some clarity to this query, we’re given an expert depiction of a “bad boss” as someone “who's sadistic, completely indecisive, cruel, gives no feedback, treats you like you're a bad smell, [and] takes credit for everything you've done.” In addition to helping us distill the conundrum we face, the article highlights an assortment of possible recourses, such as getting a transfer, quitting, talking it out or going to a higher up.
Offering a different perspective on the players in our office dramas is this interesting USA Today article [tipped at the Worthwhile blog] discussing how many CEOs are introverts by nature. As part of the coverage, we learn that introverts “are not shy by definition, but they become drained by social encounters and need time alone to recharge.” They also “prefer to know a few people well, which fits many CEOs who often say that it's lonely at the top and that they confide in a small circle of friends.”
I’ve previously posted on different aspects of the lawyer generation gap and its effects on law firm dynamics. The conversation continues in the June 2006 issue of the ABA’s Law Practice Magazine, which features a number of articles addressing this important component of law office politics today.
Posted by Arnie Herz on May 1, 2006
I’m thrilled to announce the official re-launch of
legal sanity. The blog sports a new look, updated features and a publishing platform upgrade courtesy of the talented and patient folks at
lexblog. They’ve worked tirelessly to bring my concept of simple, clean and organic layout and navigation to fruition and I’m a very happy and grateful client. We’ll continue to tweak the site until it’s just right and I’ll return to my regular posting schedule this week.
As you’ll see at sidebar, this revamp also marks the debut of legal sanity’s affiliation with the
Law.com Network. In that capacity, I’m joining some terrific bloggers teamed as
Inside Opinions: Legal Blogs. You can catch coverage of our work at the
Legal Blog Watch.
As legal sanity moves into its third year of publication, I look forward to sharing fresh and engaging ideas, observations and news on building our skills, success and satisfaction in the law and beyond. I’m also looking forward to sharing my experiences as I continue to grow my training + development business.
Posted by Arnie Herz on April 10, 2006
I'm in the midst of putting the finishing touches on a site redesign for legal sanity - a task I'm sharing with the very patient and talented folks at lexBlog. While taking inventory in my research folder, I came across some great business relationship resources I've been meaning to share.
In a post on The 12 Rules of Client Service, Dan Hull presents his final version of the "rule-by-rule '12-step' program for lawyers, professionals and executives" he's been working on for quite some time. He aims to help us "align the interests of clients/customers and service providers to the fullest extent possible."
Paying homage to his own and others' commentary over the last few months, Jim Hassett offers us a detailed, two-part guide on How to Conduct Client Satisfaction Interviews (and Part 2).
Having depicted law firm leadership as key to cultivating both employee evangelists and deeply satisfied clients, I was happy to find that the Center for Creative Leadership's homepage sidebar links to archived articles from its monthly e-newsletter, Leading Effectively.
Completing this resource roundup is a CareerJournal.com article tendering an annotated Reading List for Leaders On Their Way to the Top.
Posted by Arnie Herz on March 23, 2006
In my readings today, I came upon a great postscript to my commentary on Big Law's Missing Women. The newest Coast to Coast podcast by bloggers Robert Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams addresses the gender gap in the legal profession. Among the guest commentators is Lauren Stiller Rikleen, a law firm partner who - along with her new book Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women's Success in the Law - features prominently in the recent New York Times article that's launched multiple discussion threads on the paucity of women in Big Law's partnership ranks.
Posted by Arnie Herz on March 15, 2006
In conjunction with JD Bliss, on Tuesday, March 28, 2006, I'm giving a webinar on "Fearless Networking" How to Get Past Your Fears and Network Effectively.
The 60-minute program offers practical guidance on overcoming the fear and misunderstanding that compels many lawyers to avoid this key form of business prospecting, often to their own detriment.
The program material derives from my own experience as a big firm and solo practitioner. It also draws on information, ideas and dialogue I've cultivated over time as a provider of training and development programs for lawyers and other service professionals.
Along with other networking skills, strategies and pointers, webinar participants will learn:
- Why networking is not about hard sells, palm-pressing and ego-boosting
- Conversation tips that help you instantly connect with other people
- How naturally shy people can become effective networkers by choosing their comfort zones
- Why the typical elevator pitch is a myth
- Networking techniques that foster valuable, long-term personal and professional relationships
- A 15-day game plan to bring your networking to the next level
You can register for the webinar online - the early bird rate applies through March 21, 2006.
I hope you'll join me on March 26th. If you want to sample my take on the topic in the interim, you can read an article on Fearless Networking (pdf) I recently wrote for Strategies: The Journal of Legal Marketing (an offline publication of the Legal Marketing Association).
Posted by Arnie Herz on March 11, 2006
Since starting this blog almost two years ago, I've regularly read and pointed to the insightful posts at Chris Bailey's The Alchemy of Soulful Work. Well, Chris has been hard at work revamping his site. It's now called Bailey WorkPlay and Chris welcomes us to his new venture with this message: "Bailey WorkPlay believes that great work and exciting workplaces are defined by their ability to actively incorporate elements of workplay on an everyday basis. It's workplay that drives us toward greater meaning in our work and actions [original emphasis]." In one of his inaugural posts - entitled Is There Room For 'We' In Your Elevator? - Chris provides a great addendum to my recent musings on self-expression and business relationships. I'm grateful for his clarity and wisdom on this and other topics. Also boasting a redo is Patrick J. Lamb's In Search of Perfect Client Service. His blog's sharp new design is courtesy of Kevin O'Keefe's lexBlog, which helped me launch legal sanity back in the day. Check out both new sites and note the changes for your blogroll and feeds.
Posted by Arnie Herz on March 3, 2006
Dispute resolution expert Leonard L. Riskin of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law sent me an e-mail about upcoming programs on mindfulness in law and dispute resolution. In a two-part interview he did last year with Mediate.com, Riskin defines mindfulness as a "way of paying attention moment to moment without judgment to whatever is going on in the mind and in the body -- including thoughts, physical sensations and emotions." He adds that "one cultivates mindfulness, or the ability to be mindful, in meditation and then brings a mindful perspective or awareness into everyday life." The benefits of applying mindfulness to the practice of law are also nicely set out in this article on cultivating Peace of Mind. If you're interested in learning more about how mindfulness relates to lawyering and dispute resolution, check out this list of mindfulness events coming soon to a venue near you.
Posted by Arnie Herz on February 8, 2006
Back in November, I talked about goal mapping as a way to examine where we stand vis-à-vis our vision of career success. As a companion resource, I linked to this great set of goal mapping templates and instructions (pdf) from the folks at Lift International. Adding to this career assessment brew is an article I recently found at lifehack.org called 9 Steps to Define your Goal Destination and Devise a Plan to Get There. The piece refers to "goal destinations" as the main things we want to accomplish in life and that we'd regret not doing if we suddenly found ourselves with "a limited amount of time left on the earth." It then walks us through the process of identifying our goals, setting a time-frame for reaching them and creating action points that move us towards our destinations. For more inspiration on working and living in line with our real goals, passion and purpose, check out Patricia Digh's terrific blog, 37 days.
Posted by Arnie Herz on January 24, 2006
I've previously posted on collaborative law, a relatively new approach to conflict resolution where the parties and their lawyers agree to work through disputes without resorting to the courts. I've also discussed the rising tide of lawyer incivility. I had a bit of an epiphany after reading this new article and this one on these crisscrossing topics. There's a new type of collaborative lawyering going on that has little to do with dispute resolution, but does much to counter the decay of professionalism in our field. The new collaborators are the law bloggers who support one another every day by sharing their ideas, insights and resources. I've previously stated my belief that no lawyer is an island. We need to surround ourselves with a network of advisors and mentors, regularly exchange our knowledge currency with others and acknowledge people for the perspective they offer us. The blogosphere provides a great avenue for this collaborative effort, as beautifully illustrated in this post from JD Hull; this one by Tom Collins and this one from Jonathan Stein.
Posted by Arnie Herz on January 20, 2006
I want to give you a heads up about two upcoming programs that fuse the worlds of law and spirit. On Friday, February 10, 2006, from 7-10pm, the New York Open Center will present The New Legal Paradigm: Conscious Lawyering and Holistic Professionalism. According to the promotional copy, this program for lawyers "seeking to bring awareness and presence to their personal and professional lives" will include "meditation, exercises, lectures and group discussions." With the guidance of Cheryl Conner - a Harvard-trained former federal prosecutor and educator "committed to integrating spiritual perspectives within the legal and business systems" - participants will "gain new tools to better serve their 'whole' legal clients, balance and heal conflicts, craft legislation, and relate to organizations from a holistic perspective." You can register for the program here. A bit further down the road, on June 19-23 and June 25-29, 2006, the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative (HNII) is holding its Summer Learning Forum, entitled Spirit in Action, at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA. Part of Harvard's renowned Program on Negotiation, HNII aims to "explore what mindfulness and the great wisdom traditions have to teach us in the negotiation and dispute resolution field." You can learn more about HNII here and investigate its upcoming program here.
Posted by Arnie Herz on January 11, 2006
As many of you know, I'm a big fan of the blog Creating Passionate Users. My thoughts on the thoughts of its proprietor, Kathy Sierra, have featured prominently at Legal Sanity since its inception, as evidenced in this post, this one and another (among others). Sierra's insights on how to meaningfully connect with, and convey information to, our users (a/k/a clients or consumers) are among the lodestars of my new training and development business. While her ideas are typically fresh and well-expressed, this post and this companion summary distilling learning theory basics just blew me away. Generous in content and spirit, they offer us a "crash course on [ ] learning techniques gleaned from cognitive science, learning theory, neuroscience, psychology, and entertainment (including game design)." Sierra points up that, contrary to popular belief in the halls of law schools everywhere, learners aren't "empty vessels waiting to be filled with content pushed into it by an expert." Rather, she says, learning is a form of "co-creation between the learner and the learning experience." As educators, it's our job to enhance the learning environment in a way that optimizes this co-creative force. Sierra provides tips to ease our effort, like using visuals, redundancy, variety and surprise to convey our message in a way that makes the learner feel relaxed and confident. She even includes a handy (pdf) outline to keep us relaxed and confident as we try to employ what she's helped us learn about learning.
Posted by Arnie Herz on January 5, 2006
Around this time of year, people often check their career pulse and, depending on the reading, think about changing jobs or starting a new business. For those in the throws of this regular checkup, Curt Rosengren offers up his new career change quiz. Using a ranked response format, the quiz consists of 15 statements concerning our current job, including: "The work I do energizes me; My work is a good fit for who I am; I would do this even if I didn't need the money; My work feels meaningful." Although the statements seem a bit redundant, I think the repetition serves to deepen our self-inquiry and heighten our honesty as we go down the list. Rosengren's quiz pairs well with this post from a new blog by venture capitalist and author Guy Kawasaki (heads up via Seth Godin and Lisa Haneberg). Kawasaki argues that businesses should forgo mission statements in favor of corporate mantras, simple and direct three or four-word statements that "help employees truly understand why the organization exists." I like this idea a lot. And it can be tweaked to aid folks contemplating career change. To gage our career satisfaction, we can devise personal mantras that reflect why we choose to help the organization (people or person) we work for exist. To put it differently; in four words or less, state why you expend your time, energy, passion and other resources on the work you now do in the world. For example, my mantra might run something like this: "to extinguish lawyer burnout" or "to optimize client relations." For more career change insights and tips, you can check out this recent article and this one.
Posted by Arnie Herz on November 12, 2005
As I've shared before, I help people optimize their skills, success and satisfaction in the law through my individual and group coaching practice. It's an aspect of my work that I find incredibly rewarding. My coaching clients come to me for different reasons, but the greatest common denominator is a desire to claim, or re-claim, their power to build a meaningful and lucrative career that meshes with their real life interests and goals. Here's a new article from the ABA's Law Practice Management Section discussing how the legal profession "has been reaping the benefits of" executive coaching. Recognizing that law schools don't sufficiently equip today's practitioners for multi-tasking as "supervisors, rainmakers, and team and project leaders, as well as citizens of their firms and advisors to their clients," the piece lists some of the chief reasons why lawyers engage coaching. These include a desire to: "Build interpersonal and communication skills; Create a personal client development plan and learn skills to implement the plan successfully; Clarify long-term career goals and execute steps to achieve those goals; and Find ways to create more balance between work and the rest of life and increase enjoyment in the practice of law." The article concludes with an "action plan" for anyone interested in using a coach. The plan contains a couple of good resources for learning more about the coaching process.
Posted by Arnie Herz on November 9, 2005
A recent entry from Dan Pink's blog alerted me to a great companion piece to my recent post about meditation and lawyering. The Council of the District of Columbia has recognized this week (November 6-13) as the District of Columbia Meditate DC Week. According to the official Web site, as part of the week's events "churches, synagogues, meditation and yoga centers around the metropolitan area will be sponsoring lectures, workshops, and open houses to explore the benefits of contemplative practices." This Washington Post article provides a nice overview of Meditate DC's offerings and happens to open with one DC lawyer's remarks that meditation has "improved her conflict resolution skills." That same lawyer, Susan Green, has organized a workshop for Saturday, November 12, 2005 at which a "panel of legal experts will discuss how meditation can help lawyers and mediators by boosting their 'mindfulness' -- the inner capacity of being fully aware of the present moment." You can learn more about that workshop here (pdf).
Posted by Arnie Herz on November 3, 2005
No, this isn't the lead in to a lawyer joke. I previously discussed the benefits of meditating in this post and this one. Two meditation articles I wrote for the Solo Newsletter are now online here and here. They include a basic overview of the practice, simple meditation instructions and this invitation to quell your inner self-doubter: "The beauty of meditation is its accessibility. Anyone can meditate. You don't need to renounce your worldly ways, or even dramatically change your daily routine to reap the many physical and mental benefits of meditation. Best of all, you simply can't do it wrong." Meditation's rise as a mainstream relaxation technique is nicely depicted in this piece profiling companies that encourage and facilitate their employees' meditation practices.
Posted by Arnie Herz on October 21, 2005
About six months ago, I had recently returned from LexThink! Chicago and shared my thoughts on this open-space gathering where we explored "innovative, intuitive and soul-satisfying ways to practice in our chosen profession." I had a terrific time there and, like my fellow bloggers here, here, here and here (among very many), am happy to share that the pioneering spirit of LexThink! is alive and well. On November 11-12, 2005, LexThink! alum and others will again gather in Chicago for BlawgThink 2005! Billed as "a bold new approach to learning about legal blogging," this "first of its kind two-day event brings together the largest group of legal bloggers ever assembled for two days of education, innovation, fellowship and fun." Given the roster of attendees and presenters, the conference promises to deliver the practical and insightful content, dialogue and action points we need to better our lives in the law. Attendance (on one or both days) is by invitation only. If you're interested in going, you can contact the event's organizer, LexThink! founder Matt Homann, at matt@lexthink.com.
Posted by Arnie Herz on October 20, 2005
My post here announced that today is the fifth annual Mediation Settlement Day in New York. But, I've just learned that the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) has also proclaimed it the first ever Conflict Resolution Day. According to the announcement on its Web site, ACR hopes to "increase public awareness about conflict resolution and its many benefits" by "coordinating its efforts with other conflict resolution organizations and [ ] reaching out to local, state and international groups to build interest in holding local celebrations in conjunction with Conflict Resolution Day." Fellow blogger Chris Bailey - a great guy doing terrific work at ACR - discusses the day's events and import over at the Alchemy of Soulful Work. He nicely captures the gist of an e-mail I received from John D. Willis - the Director of the Graduate Studies in Dispute Resolution at Sullivan University - outlining ways we all can recognize and honor Conflict Resolution Day, including: (1) forgive, accept an apology and move on; (2) analyze why you are angry and get control of it; (3) tell the truth all day; and (4) sit with a lonely person and listen carefully to them.
Posted by Arnie Herz on October 17, 2005
I recently received an e-mail about the LL.M Program in Dispute Resolution offered at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) School of Law. MU is widely recognized for its contributions to dispute resolution scholarship and practice. The 1-year residential program attracts a diverse student body and a faculty that includes some of the leading thinkers in the field. According to its online description, the program is designed "for those with an interest in serious study and practice beyond the J.D. degree" and aims to provide "practitioners and scholars with a deeper understanding of theoretical, policy, design and ethical issues in dispute resolution." You'll find a program overview here and a synopsis of admissions requirements here. You can read the latest newsletter from MU's Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution here (pdf).
Posted by Arnie Herz on October 7, 2005
On November 17, 2005, the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative (HNII) will present its 3rd Annual Fall Dialogue: Wisdom for a World in Conflict: An Evening with Kenneth Cloke and Tara Brach. Part of Harvard Law School's renowned Program on Negotiation, HNII aims to "explore what mindfulness and the great wisdom traditions have to teach us in the negotiation and dispute resolution field." You can learn more about HNII here and RSVP for the upcoming program here.
Posted by Arnie Herz on September 26, 2005
My blogging's been a bit sparse of late as I'm preparing for my presentation this Friday at the Association for Conflict Resolution's (ACR) Fifth Annual Conference in Minneapolis, MN. In culling and organizing materials for my talk, I've thought a lot about reading I've done on learning styles. Each of us has an innate preference for learning in a particular way. It's a reflection of how our brain best takes in and processes new information. The main learning styles are: (1) Visual/Verbal [learn best from material presented visually and in written format]; (2) Tactile/Kinesthetic [prefer to learn by physically manipulating materials and watching demonstrations]; (3) Auditory/Verbal [readily digest information presented orally or through group discussion]. This site and this one will help you evaluate your primary learning style, including the attendant benefits and obstacles you might encounter. If you'll be at the ACR conference, drop me a line. If you're interested in going, you can check out the event offerings and register here.
Posted by Arnie Herz on September 16, 2005
On October 20, 2005, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and a coalition of other organizations will sponsor the fifth annual Mediation Settlement Day. The New York event "will showcase mediation as a form of alternative dispute resolution" through an "array of speakers, activities, and resources." You can read an overview of the day's offerings here. To learn more about mediation, check out some of my prior posts on the subject here, here and here, among others. For an in-depth look at the topic, I highly recommend this online mediation resource. You'll also find a blog discussing mediation and related matters here. As I've stated many times, I think mediation is a an indispensable approach to conflict management that lawyers should educate themselves about and regularly use.
Posted by Arnie Herz on September 10, 2005
I've read and heard quite a bit about what law firms and law schools are doing to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. I was very heartened to receive news of this pledge of assistance from my alma mater, Fordham Law School. From a follow-up e-mail, I've learned that Fordham has admitted 25 law students from Loyola and Tulane and will not charge them tuition or fees. The e-mail additionally reports that the law school is "offering to provide work space and communications support to Tulane and Loyola law faculty and administrators, and is discussing ways to provide assistance to victims through public service and pro bono projects when the situation stabilizes and such efforts are appropriate." I think this is a shining example of how a law school community can come together in the service of others and for the greater good.
Posted by Arnie Herz on August 22, 2005
I've written about the work law professor Lawrence S. Krieger is doing to "humanize" the law school experience and combat lawyer discontent. A recent trip to his site alerted me to two new booklets he's authored: The Hidden Sources of Law School Stress and Straight Talk about Your Career Choices. According to the promotional copy, the booklets commonly aim "to assist law students towards optimal performance and well-being in school and in the legal work they ultimately choose. A broader aspiration is to make a modest contribution, over time, to the improvement of the level of health, satisfaction and professionalism among lawyers generally." Given their content, these works can augment any law school class, clinic or program that might benefit from "a discussion of professionalism, professional skills, or professional stress." I can't think of any law school offering that wouldn't be enhanced by this line of discussion. The site links you to the booklets' content (pdf) for your reviewing pleasure.
Posted by Arnie Herz on July 18, 2005
Thanks to Curt Rosengren for directing me to Kirsten Johnson's blog, dream big. Kirsten's a life coach, a profession and process I've discussed here and here. She has a very easygoing, approachable writing style. Check out her most recent post on doing "what you love." Kirsten makes a good point about the company we choose to keep on "our quest to go after our dreams." We need to learn how to deal with discouragers and surround ourselves with people ready, willing and able to be "cheerleaders" for us as we go along. As Kirsten states: These are the people "who are hopeful about following their dreams and will relentlessly encourage [us] to follow [ours]." I decided a while back to closely associate with people who genuinely support my efforts to create a new training and development business. This has meant disconnecting from a number of well-meaning, but negative sorts who tend to focus soley on the hurdles and struggles I may encounter. Keeping this good company has been invaluable to me. Kirsten reminds us, and I've experienced first hand, that we need to constantly ask ourselves: "Who are [my] cheerleaders? Do [I] need to recruit more?"
Posted by Arnie Herz on July 15, 2005
As I've mentioned, I'm launching a new business venture focusing on my work as a speaker, trainer and consultant for lawyers and business leaders (I'll post my updated programs soon). As with any new venture, while I go along, I'm learning quite a bit about the nuances of business development and how to be a savvy solopreneur. From presentation skills to podcasts to teleseminars to e-commerce, it's been a nice learning curve. I've received a lot of assistance from the blogging community along the way. Michael Pollock is doing a fabulous job of helping folks like me through the information and insights he shares at his smallbusinessbranding and SavvySoloCast blogs. I also learn a lot about real world teaching and training from posts like this one from Kathy Sierra at CPU. In the spirit of true niche presence, there's even a blog devoted to informing training and development professionals. Beyond this Net support, I greatly benefit from the steady stream of wisdom and practical tips I receive in my work with T. Harv Eker's team at Peak Potentials Training and from many others. Paulo Coelho states it well in his book The Alchemist: "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." As I start this new solo enterprise, I'm very grateful for the strong support network I've cultivated and continue to build.
Posted by Arnie Herz on July 11, 2005
I previously talked about the science of happiness and the related field of positive psychology - which focuses on studying and building human strengths. According to a recent article, the University of Pennsylvania is bringing this positive scholarship into the mainstream by offering the first-ever master's degree program in applied positive psychology. At the school's Positive Psychology Center, students from a cross-section of professions will learn the history of the field and develop "techniques for incorporating the principles of positive psychology into their lives and jobs." At the end of the piece, the Center's director of education, James Pawelski, shares his hope that the program will help filter the precepts of positive psychology to other academic arenas, encouraging a "more holistic education that centers on self-development in addition to mental development." I think this would be a real boon to the standard law school curriculum.
Posted by Arnie Herz on July 7, 2005
Today's events in London are a sorrowful reminder of the conflict plaguing our world today and the innocent people who suffer because of it. I'm also reminded of how important it is for lawyers to acknowledge the significant role we play in managing everyday conflict. I recently gave two programs at the Rhode Island Bar Association's Annual Meeting. While there, I met RIBA's current President, Philip M. Weinstein, and heard his stirring talk about the role of lawyers in our society. His message is captured in this timely article in which Weinstein dedicates his year in office to raising "a consciousness amongst us as to what is important in life - not only as lawyers but also as people." Declaring lawyers "the peacemakers of society," he asks his membership (and, really, us all) to "take a look at how we conduct ourselves - be it at depositions, trial, negotiations, or anywhere else. Do we treat others as we would like to be treated?" Weinstein ends his commentary with the following poem by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. I think it well punctuates his rousing call for us to reconnect to who we are and what we value most.
Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Posted by Arnie Herz on July 5, 2005
Thanks to Carolyn Elefant at My Shingle for the nod to one of my earlier posts on networking and for the heads up that Keith Ferrazzi is giving a free seminar on Relationships for Success this Thursday, July 7, 2005, 12:00-1:00 p.m. EST. I think that those of us in the legal arena will find Ferrazzi's guidance timely and relevant. As I've discussed before, lawyers attending my seminars regularly declare their poor people skills one of the biggest hurdles in their quest to attain success and satisfaction in our profession. Lawyering is essentially about human relations and we need to understand and master our multi-faceted role as relationship navigators, managers and facilitators in order to optimize our lives in the law.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 26, 2005
I've finally gotten around to updating my blogroll. The additions are blogs and other sites from the legal and business worlds that I regularly read and draw information and inspiration from. I first discovered many of them while perusing other people's blogrolls and, in the same communal spirit, pass them along for your enjoyment.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 23, 2005
There's a buzz about the commencement speech that Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs recently gave at Stanford University. I read it via Fresh Inc. and found it very moving. Sharing his personal story, Jobs says much about moving through fear, uncertainty and failure at the intersection of work and life. He also conveys the importance of loving what you do for a living, stating: "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 19, 2005
I've been on the road for the last few days. I'm back home to celebrate my most important role with those most important to me. Happy father's day to all. The homemade cards and gifts I received from my three kids first thing this morning reminded me, yet again, just how important it is to find joy, meaning and contentment in my everyday endeavors.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 13, 2005
Mentoring has become a big part of my professional life and, as I've stated before, I think it's key to building our skills, success and satisfaction in the law. I very much enjoyed this new ABA article on the subject for its first-person accounts of the many benefits of mentoring relationships. People turn to mentors for different reasons. And, like any relationship, it takes candor, communication and common ground to keep the union going. As the article states: "A lot of people see mentoring as some sort of skipping through the daisies, Karate Kid sort of thing, and it's not." But, as the piece also captures, when mentoring partnerships work, "you [both] are enriched." As an aside for those of you familiar with his terrific blog and business, I believe I spotted Kevin O'Keefe of lexBlog and Real Lawyers Have Blogs among the mentoring enthusiasts profiled in the article. So, real lawyers need blogs and mentors!
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 10, 2005
I'm off to the Rhode Island Bar Association's Annual Meeting where I'm speaking on optimizing the attorney-client relationship and lawyering in balance. Although I've given many talks and programs for lawyers and business people over the years, this event stands out since it heralds the launch of my new training and development business. In creating this new venture, I've thought a lot about the law, the successful solo practice I've built and what I really want to do with my life. If you're contemplating similar questions, take a look at Bill Jensen's latest book What Is Your Life's Work? Reviewed from multiple perspectives here, the book contains candid and moving letters from people asked to write to a loved one about what really matters at work. What would you write?
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 3, 2005
I recently posted about my coaching work helping others optimize their life in the law. Ed Poll of LawBiz Blog has written a great primer on lawyer coaching for the current edition of Law Practice Today. Ed defines coaching as "a professional and personal developmental technique" in the "form of action-oriented consulting that helps you set and reach your goals." He aptly points out that coaches "do not have all the answers." But, they do add tremendous value by providing a convenient and regular "sounding board for your problems, questions, and ideas" concerning business development, human relations, work-life integration and more. The article includes a nice explanation of how coaching differs from other helping modalities, like business consulting, mentoring and therapy. As I've said before, coaching has helped me set and realign my professional goals as I've grown and changed my business over the years. I've also coached others through pivotal moments in their legal careers. Like Ed, I have no doubt that it's so much easier (and far less daunting) "to achieve your goals with someone at your side, supporting, advising, and pushing you along."
Posted by Arnie Herz on May 27, 2005
I consider this article (pdf) by Patrick J. Schiltz a seminal part of the growing pool of literature on avoiding malaise and cultivating satisfaction in the legal profession. I read it after I started practicing and found its message very relevant and profound. I think all 1Ls should read it to start an ongoing dialogue about life in the law. It would also compel important discussions when incorporated into CLE programs on professional ethics and work-life balance.
Posted by Arnie Herz on May 13, 2005
As part of my business offerings, I coach lawyers on achieving success and satisfaction and thwarting career burnout by building key skills in communication and negotiation, the attorney-client relationship and career success and fulfillment. I really enjoy helping other practitioners optimize their life in the law. I've also benefited tremendously from being coached at various points in my career. Along the way, I've learned that many lawyers are unfamiliar with the coaching process. This recent article provides a nice overview of executive coaching, which aims to help lawyers become more adept at client development. According to the piece, the 3-6 month regimen typically starts with "a needs analysis" and "setting individualized objectives" and fosters, among other things, "renewed energies to grow your business in today's demanding legal environment." Another article discusses the work of life coaches, trained professionals who "counsel people who need a nudge, guidance, or support (or all three) in matters ranging from health and wellness issues to financial and business affairs." While some quibble that this type of coaching is synonymous with psychotherapy, the piece aptly challenges that argument, stating: "Coaches offer action-oriented advice, focusing on forward-looking solutions instead of delving into a person's psychological past. Few have therapy or counseling backgrounds." If these articles peak your curiosity, there are a number of very good books about coaching - like this one - that will broaden your understanding.
Posted by Arnie Herz on April 20, 2005
Yes, a bit belatedly, but with much cyber gusto, I would like to alert you to the launch of TechnoLawyer Blog. Produced by Neil Squillante and Sara Skiff, this "amalgam of pithy commentary, industry news, and other helpful information" augments the newsletter and other offerings of the largerTechnoLawyer Community - a "leading online resource for legal technology and practice management information." You'll find the inaugural post here. Read, enjoy and increase your techno-prowess.
Posted by Arnie Herz on April 15, 2005
I recently returned from a week of business travel that started at LexThink Chicago, a very inspired and inspiring blogger gathering others have reviewed here, here, here and here. At LexThink, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting many terrific people and sharing ideas about optimizing our lives in the law. The event's fluid, open-space format facilitated connection and commentary within the main assembly and break-out groups. But it was the participants' palpable creative drive that really impressed me. People were not there to be mere spectators. We were all clearly pulled by a strong desire to use our creative energies to move the legal profession in a positive direction. Lawyers are often criticized for being robotic and soulless. And the law is not usually portrayed as a pathway for creative expression. LexThink proved otherwise. Anyone who sat in that venue for even a few minutes could tell that creativity is a key, if not the key, to finding innovative, intuitive and soul-satisfying ways to practice in our chosen profession. I look forward to future LexThink endeavors and send many thanks to Dennis, Matt and Sherry for fostering thought, dialogue and action on the law's - and our own - creative potential.
Posted by Arnie Herz on April 8, 2005
The ABA's Section of Dispute Resolution will host its 7th Annual Conference, the Golden State of ADR, from April 14-15 at the Los Angeles Millennium Biltmore Hotel. According to the event brochure (pdf), there will be more than 100 presentations "covering the diverse world of dispute resolution, organized into practice and interest specific tracks." There's also a series of "pre-conference workshops" designed to help practitioners of all experience levels grow and hone their conflict resolution skills. I went to last year's annual meeting in New York and really enjoyed it. So, if you're in the LA area or feel like a field trip, this is a great opportunity to learn - or to learn even more - about ADR practice.
Posted by Arnie Herz on February 25, 2005
Here are a few tests from Psychology Today for your enjoyment. I think they're all quite relevant to our work in the legal profession. Go on, see how much of a procrastinator you are; find out your emotional intelligence quotient; evaluate your communication skills; and assess whether all those people who accuse you of being "Type A" are right. The tests are comprehensive, informative and take time. Don't procrastinate. Find out where you stand.
Posted by Arnie Herz on February 21, 2005
I'm reading and very much enjoying Larry Schreiter's book, The Happy Lawyer. It contains some great insights and advice on finding our passion and purpose in the law. What makes it a standout, though, are its clear and concise written exercises on discovering (or re-discovering) why we went into law, who our optimal clients are and what practice areas really resonate for us. As you probably know by now, I think that the self-talk and introspection these types of exercises generate are essential to creating career success and satisfaction. This kind of internal dialoging might take us outside our comfort zone. But, I've found that the net results - less stress, better clients and work that pays off on many levels - make any temporary discomfort worthwhile.
Posted by Arnie Herz on February 1, 2005
This week's Legal Tech New York afforded me a terrific opportunity to dine with fellow bloggers Matt Homann, Dennis Kennedy, Bruce McEwen, Josh Fruchter, Marty Schwimmer and Johnnie Moore. Neil Squillante of TechnoLawyer was also there. It was great to get to know the folks behind the blogs I regularly read and learn from. The dinner conversation was lively and interesting and I came away with a strong sense of common purpose and community. It set the bar for some serious brainstorming and innovation at April's LexThink! Chicago.
Posted by Arnie Herz on January 14, 2005
It seems that lawyers can be a bit boorish or just plain boring when it comes to client wrangling. So, as this article details, some law firms are using training videos starring their own associates and partners to teach others "the art of business etiquette." According to the piece, "the development of videos focused on interpersonal skills is indicative of firms' increasing concern that, in an age of greater client mobility, their lawyers are not putting their best foot forward in face-to-face meetings." The volunteer actors deliberately overplay mock client scenarios to "illustrate a wide range of errors in judgment" - including improper attire, preoccupation with the ubiquitous BlackBerry and haughty requests to meet with "real decision-makers."
Posted by Arnie Herz on January 12, 2005
I'm a big fan of mentoring, which I've discussed here before. This article does a nice job of guiding junior associates on the quest for mentors. Stating that there's no magic formula for finding one, it compels seekers to: "Open your eyes and notice the mentors around you." Look to those who provide great feedback on, or help with, work assignments. And instead of singling out just one, try building a mentor network so you can benefit from your colleagues' different strengths and skills. "Take advantage of their collective wisdom and learn from their successes and their mistakes." The writer also advises mentor hunters to broaden the scope of the search by culling advisors from such sources as bar groups and alumni associations.
Posted by Arnie Herz on January 3, 2005
I recently posted on the ways lawyers might benefit from the practice of appreciative inquiry. According to the Renaissance Lawyer Cable, an MCLE seminar entitled "Reviving Your Passion for Practicing Law Through Appreciative Inquiry" will be offered twice this month in California. The promotional material states that "AI's well-researched guiding principles demonstrate how readily a positive perspective can bring dreams to fruition. You will come away with a working knowledge of the AI process and the ability to convert problems [into] positive questions that evoke dialogue, dreams and opportunities for innovative action, simultaneously advancing your clients' goals and your own professional objectives." The first session takes place in Martinez, CA on 1/21/05. To register, contact the Contra Costa County Bar Association at 925-686-6900 or email dkavulich@cccba.org. To register for the next session offered in Walnut Creek, CA on 1/24/05, go here.
Posted by Arnie Herz on January 2, 2005
I was on a family vacation when news of the tsunami broke. Although we tried to shield our young children from the barrage of news and horrific images that flooded the media, they soon learned about the devastation. As we did on 9/11, my wife and I spent a lot of time answering their questions and reassuring them of their safety. In the days that followed, we also took the opportunity to share with our children the importance of reaching out to people in need and acknowledging the good deeds of others. I just came upon the Christian Science Monitor's extensive list of aid agencies accepting contributions for those affected by the earthquake and tsunamis in Asia. On a more personal note, The Prasad Project, a humanitarian organization I've long-served as pro bono general counsel, is partnering with Direct Relief International to support the relief efforts. Times like these compel us to look beyond day-to-day hassles and stressors and focus on the things in our lives that we're truly grateful for. I wish you all a happy and healthy 2005.
Posted by Arnie Herz on December 21, 2004
Over at My Shingle, Carolyn Elefant introduces her latest column on growing and maintaining a solo law practice. The article sets out some common reasons why lawyers shun the solo career they really want. Nimbly navigating these potential roadblocks in turn, Elefant makes a convincing argument for making your dream solo enterprise a reality. I particularly like the closing paragraph, so I'll reiterate it here: "So, if you've been dreaming of starting your own law practice, let 2005 be the year you overcome what's been holding you back. I guarantee that when the year draws to a close, the only thing that you'll regret about the endeavor is not having done it sooner." Having moved from Biglaw practice through a small partnership and onto my current solo gig, I can say first hand that she's absolutely right. Solo work isn't for everyone and it certainly has its ups and downs. But it was always in my blood and I've never been happier professionally as I am now.
Posted by Arnie Herz on December 15, 2004
I've previously discussed the support network available to help lawyers dealing with alcohol and substance abuse, depression, stress and more. I know that the efficacy of any of these programs hinges on getting people to access them. But, I was genuinely surprised by this article's revelation that the Lawyer Assistance Programs (LAPs) in the attorney-laden part of New York where I work and live are vastly underutilized. Considering the cause of the problem, one program coordinator suggested that lawyers know about their offerings but are too prideful or arrogant to seek help. Yet another "regretfully called the available help the 'best kept secret' of the bar group." Leaders of my local bar association recently met to discuss ways to encourage more lawyers-in-need to seek assistance. I'll start by getting the word out here. Many bar groups have LAPs or lawyer assistance committees to help you through work-life challenges. Cases are kept confidential. The ABA's Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs keeps a comprehensive listing of programs by state here.
Posted by Arnie Herz on December 6, 2004
The ABA's Young Lawyer Division (YLD) has unveiled a new member service project called Unlock Your Potential. The project "will focus on the various career paths available to young lawyers and will provide programming designed to highlight various career options." This year, the project addresses the ins and outs of creating a law practice so young practitioners can weigh whether solo work is right for them. The aptly named Hanging Out Your Shingle program launches at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Salt Lake City with a keynote talk by Jay Foonberg, author of How to Start and Build a Law Practice. You can learn more about the project and February 2005 meeting here (pdf).
Posted by Arnie Herz on December 2, 2004
Joy London, a knowledge and training manager with Allen & Overy and author of Excited Utterances, has an article on lawyer blogging in this month's Legal IT. I like her overview of the boons of being part of this blossoming cyber community. She really hits the mark by highlighting how blogs have made sharing information and ideas on all aspects of the law a largely stress-free and tech-lite endeavor. I'm flattered and delighted that she's included legal sanity in a roundup of her favorite U.S. blawgs.
Posted by Arnie Herz on November 17, 2004
Yesterday, I was a panelist at the WCBS 880 Small Business Breakfast. The topic du jour was: "how do you use technology to grow your business?" I was there to discuss this blog and how blogging can be a great vehicle for educating clientele and marketing goods and services. The moderator, Wall Street Journal and CBS radio reporter Joe Connolly, asked the 650 or so people there whether they knew about blogs before coming to the meeting. I was amazed that about 90% responded that they did not. I pulled legal sanity up on my computer, which was projected live on large screens, and demonstrated how easy it is to navigate and post by blog (of course, I had to give props to Kevin O'Keefe and Lexblog for getting me rolling). I think the message really came through when one panelist, the owner of the New York Enterprise Report, announced an unwieldy URL for a Web offer of a free subscription to its print magazine, The Report. When the audience had trouble transcribing the URL, I quickly did an impromptu blog post incorporating a link to it. Judging from their immediate and follow-up responses, the audience of small business owners found this instant snapshot of blog power worth a thousand words.
NB - the NYER has kindly extended its free subscription offer to legal sanity readers who own businesses in the New York metropolitan area.
Posted by Arnie Herz on November 8, 2004
The International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers will host its annual conference from November 11-14 in Austin, Texas. Entitled Creating & Sustaining Community, the conference will address such pertinent topics as: "Practicing Law as a Source of Community Building: Advocating for the Greater Good While Serving Individual Clients' Needs; Community in Lawyer Life: Scarcity and Abundance; and Community Within Oneself - Walking in Both Worlds." You can download a PDF brochure here or via the main site.
Posted by Arnie Herz on November 3, 2004
The latest edition of the ABA's GP/Solo Magazine captioned "More Bumps in the Road" features articles about helping lawyers with substance abuse, mental health and other problems navigate their way to recovery and wellbeing. I learned a lot about multi-tasking lawyer assistance programs (LAPs), coordinated programs, "usually supported by a state bar association or related agency, consisting of trained professionals or volunteers charged with the duty of assisting members of the legal community—usually attorneys, judges, and law students—who are suffering from mental or physical conditions that may impair their ability to practice law." Other articles address important lawyer-life issues such as coping with grief, eating disorders and various stressors linked to burnout and unhappiness. Of course, these issues are not unique to the solo/small firm world and the articles were published with the hope that they'll be widely read, shared and discussed. As the editor states: "This issue of GPSolo is about you and those you care about. You may recognize yourself in this issue. Even if you don't, you'll recognize some of your colleagues, associates, partners, clients, friends, and family members. Don't be selfish. Share this issue with them."
Posted by Arnie Herz on October 25, 2004
I received an e-mail announcing that the Spirit Rock Meditation Center near San Francisco, CA will hold a retreat from November 18-21 for lawyers and other professionals in the legal arena who want to learn to meditate. The promotional material states: "This retreat will bring together members of the Bay Area legal community, local legal scholars and clinicians, judges, and mediators to learn and practice meditation together. Meditation can provide a practical tool for busy legal professionals to quiet the mind, enhance clarity and awareness, and restore a more peaceful balance to their lives." I've studied and practiced meditation for over 20 years and it's been indispensable in helping me stay grounded, focused and content in my work as a lawyer and in my personal/family life. I find that even a few minutes of meditation a day can be enough to de-stress and recharge me.
Posted by Arnie Herz on October 20, 2004
This announcement and this one detail the upcoming Fourth Annual Mediation Settlement Day on Thursday, October 21, 2004. The day's events are sponsored by "a coalition of over seventy alternative dispute resolution programs, bar associations, community based programs, schools, public and non-profit organizations concentrated in the New York City area and extending beyond to upstate New York, Illinois, California and Mexico." There will be "special programs designed to promote mediation and to educate potential parties and attorneys about the mediation process." The aim of the day is "to encourage parties to try mediation for the first time and to reinforce its value and effectiveness to those who have benefited from it before."
Posted by Arnie Herz on September 22, 2004
If you're in the New York City area between now and December, you might want to stop by the atrium lobby at John Jay College of Criminal Justice [899 Tenth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets] to view a unique exhibit titled "Dispute Resolvers in NYC Make Talk Work." For this joint project of the City University of New York Dispute Resolution Consortium, the Dispute Resolution Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the NYC Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings [OATH], dozens of dispute resolvers teamed with graphic artists to conceptualize and construct displays visually depicting how dispute resolution professionals work. According to the promotional e-mail I received, the exhibit includes displays by different curators focusing on dispute resolution in the following contexts: [1] Criminal justice; [2] School/Youth; [3] Government; [4] International; [5] Family/Health; [6] Corporate/Commercial; [7] Community; and [8] Employment/Workplace. More information will soon be posted on the CUNY DRC's website here.
Posted by Arnie Herz on August 13, 2004
This article announces that, this fall, Reed Smith will partner with Wharton's executive education program to create Reed Smith University (RSU). While enrollment in RSU is not mandatory, the firm will strongly encourage its nearly 1,000 lawyers and additional non-lawyer staffers to participate. According to the piece, the program's main purpose is to "develop and support existing and emerging leaders across the firm" by offering a year-round curriculum in leadership, business development, technology, professional support and law. Each course will have its own focus. "The leadership program, for example, will emphasize developing and motivating leaders and future leaders; the business development course will provide instruction in managing and developing business relationships; the technology school will assist employees in gaining the full advantage of the firm's technology investment; the professional support school will enhance the quality of support staff; and the law course will focus on expanding the legal skills of attorneys." I think this is a fantastic idea that any law firm with the resources should implement. As a young associate, I really would have benefited from firm-sponsored classes on business development that addressed how to talk to clients and potential clients to discern their real needs and interests in seeking legal counsel/representation. It would have also been great to "matriculate" and bond with others from my firm as we all continued on our path as life-long students of law, business and human nature.
Posted by Arnie Herz on July 9, 2004
I found this article from the ABA Journal on "white-collar lawyers with blue-collar backgrounds" a real eye-opener. I'd never really considered how a lawyer's socio-economic class of origin might impact his professional life. Of the law firm lawyers interviewed, all regarded their backgrounds as a "subtle disadvantage" and something they needed to "come to terms with" when they started working in the law. One suggested his blue-collar roots ultimately made him "a little hungrier" to achieve. Another said that it caused him to be self-conscious and very careful of how he comported himself at work and at work-related events. It's interesting to read this piece along with this recent article and this one from the Christian Science Montior discussing how Sen. John Edwards's background as the self-made son of a textile worker could give the Democratic ticket a vital boost in populist appeal.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 29, 2004
The International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) will be holding its annual Forum in Boston on October 22-24, 2004. The IACP is a leader in collaborative law, a relatively new dispute resolution paradigm described here and here. Parties to the collaborative legal process and their lawyers agree to work through disputes without resorting to the courts. If impasse arises and court involvement becomes necessary, the collaborative lawyers are disqualified from any further involvement in the case. According to the information I received, the IACP's Forum is a widely attended event that includes workshops on practice-related and ethical issues, a presentation of empirical research on collaborative law, and a dinner featuring Professor Robert Mnookin, chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 19, 2004
Here's an article from post-gazette.com discussing why relatively few lawyers opt to work part time. The piece mentions Deborah Epstein Henry's Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, "a networking and support group for lawyers who work a flexible and/or reduced schedule (or those who are thinking about working such schedules). Members, mostly working mothers who are juggling career and family, meet monthly for lunch to discuss topics relating to work/life balance in the law and occasionally hear guest speakers." Although I'm a content full-time practitioner, I recently accepted an invitation to learn more about the organization at one of its monthly meetings in New York City. I had a great time and met some terrific people. The FTL Web site lists upcoming meetings in New York and Philadelphia.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 14, 2004
I came across some information on an upcoming conference for law professors at Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington. Themed "Active Teaching and Learning," the conference will offer, among other things, "workshops that explore effective uses of Socratic dialog and active alternatives to Socratic dialog, such as discussion, simulation, writing, experiential methods, and others." You can access the full conference flyer (pdf) listing such interesting workshops as "Empirical Insights: The Personal Foundations of Ethics, Professionalism, and Well-Being" and "Art, Music, and Drama in the Law School." Law school wasn't this fun when I was a kid.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 10, 2004
This upcoming Mindfulness and Meditation Workshop presented by the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative will teach participants a "sophisticated method for working with people, resolving disputes, and enriching" themselves. The medical and corporate cultures have already tapped meditation as a professional resource and, according to Professor Leonard L. Riskin of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, the legal establishment should follow suit. In this informative article, Riskin discusses mindfulness meditation's potential for countering lawyer unhappiness and optimizing the attorney-client relationship.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 9, 2004
Many of us looking to reconnect with the heart, soul and spirit of our chosen profession have found an incredible resource in Steven Keeva's book Transforming Practices: Finding Joy & Satisfaction in the Legal Life. Steven is assistant managing editor of the ABA Journal and writes a regular column there called "Keeva On Life And Practice." NB - Steven has written about me and we did a presentation together. Our personal connection aside, he deserves much recognition for fostering a healthy and necessary dialogue within the legal profession.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 7, 2004
Having watched the Tony Awards last night, I'm inspired to take a moment to thank a few of the many people who've made this blog possible. After my tech-savvy friend Matt Timothy suggested that I start a blog to share my interests and ideas, I educated myself a bit (o.k., that should read "my wife the Web research fanatic educated me") and then I turned to Kevin O'Keefe of lexBlog. With infinite patience, Kevin and his team helped me translate my content, and my friend Michelle Shain's artistic vision, into this site. I was one of Kevin's first clients and closely followed the debate generated around the launch of his company. I believe (and this is an unsolicited endorsement) that lexBlog provides an invaluable service to lawyers who lack the time, talent or inclination to start up and maintain a blog all by themselves. Thanks, all, for helping me find my inner blogger.
Posted by Arnie Herz on June 6, 2004
If you've never taken a Myers-Briggs or other personality test to see if the lawyer life is right for you, this site provides some handy self-assessment tools.
