| April 2010 | e-Newsletter |
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Celebrate National Be Kind to Lawyers Day on April 13
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The NBKTL Story
Many inspiring, breakthrough ideas have exciting and illustrious beginnings. The apple falling on Newton's head. Hewlett and Packard tinkering in the garage. Reese having his chocolate bar "mishap" with the peanut butter.
National Be Kind to Lawyers Day shares this great tradition. Steve Hughes, a mild-mannered non-lawyer from St. Louis had been working with attorneys for several years in the presentation skills arena. He liked his job and the clients who hired him.
However, whenever Steve mentioned to friends and neighbors that he worked with lawyers he was met with crinkled-up faces, snide remarks and sarcastic sighs. They would say things like, "Lawyers? I bet that's a treat." Or, "Lawyers? You poor thing." (Can't you just feel the animosity?) Suddenly he found himself playing defense counsel for an entire profession.
Then one day as Steve was putting away the decorations from National Bubble Wrap Day (late January) his thoughts drifted to National Ice Cream Day (late July) and then it struck him. Why not a special day for lawyers? Lawyers are just as good as bubble wrap and ice cream; in fact, they're better. Thus, the idea for National Be Kind to Lawyers Day was hatched.
After extensive planning, detailed research and countless reviews by a team of legal experts, National Be Kind to Lawyers Day was established as an annual holiday celebrated on the second Tuesday in April. This date was chosen because it is strategically sandwiched between April Fool's Day and Tax Day April 15th.
So now lawyers of every stripe can be honored and treated like regular people for at least one 24-hour period every April.
How to Participate
The best part of National Be Kind to Lawyers Day is that you're the judge of exactly how much you participate. Here is a brief list of idea starters to get your legal kindness flowing.
- Take your favorite lawyer out to breakfast or lunch (make sure it's not billable!)
- Send your lawyer a "just because" greeting card or a bouquet of flowers
- Switch your ring tone to the "dah-dah" sound from NBC's "Law & Order"
- Abstain from telling lawyer jokes for 24 hours
- If you can't abstain, tell your funniest lawyer joke but switch out the lawyer with your profession (we bet it's still funny)
- If you accidentally say something wrong or inappropriate on this day, just follow it up with the words, "Strike that from the record." Then continue talking as if nothing happened.
- Salute the flag as you walk or drive by your local courthouse
- Watch your favorite legal drama and pretend you're the one delivering the powerful closing argument. Some suggested films: "The Verdict," "To Kill A Mockingbird," "A Few Good Men" and "And Justice For All"
- Do some simple repairs around the house with a gavel instead of your trusty hammer.
- Try to slip words like "I object!" or "You're out of order!" into your everyday conversations
- Try to write up your own Articles of Organization for an LLC or draft your own will. See, it's harder than it looks.
- Take notes at a meeting on a legal pad. Don't you just feel smarter looking at the glorious yellow hue of that 8-1/2" x 14" pad?
Go ahead, be creative. What are some ways you can be kind to lawyers today? Be sure to let us know so that we can add your ideas to our list.
Feature Article: Adopt Healthy Habits
by Julie A. Fleming
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One of the keys to creating good work/life balance is building the right habits and structures. Healthy habits, perhaps including getting a nightly minimum of sleep (preferably more) and enjoying a certain amount of activity, are the foundation of work/life balance, but they’re not necessarily easy to implement. Anyone who has ever made a New Year's resolution or gone on a diet knows how easy it is for good intentions to fail, especially in the face of stress. Entrenched habits become default behavior. If you want to create change, you must create a new default.
Intentionally designed habits carry many benefits. Self-discipline becomes largely irrelevant, because a well-planned habit operates even when self-discipline might falter. For example, most people have a nighttime routine that might include brushing their teeth, washing their faces, perhaps removing and cleaning their contact lenses. Because this ritual behavior requires little or no conscious thought, it will happen every night, except in truly extraordinary circumstances. Your task, then, is to create energy-maximizing rituals that operate automatically and from purpose.
When designing your energy-enhancing rituals, consider the following suggestions.
- Ensure that your basic ritual creates periods of engagement and selective disengagement. The engagement builds and expends physical, emotional, mental, and purposeful energy, while the disengagement allows renewal of that energy. By defining periods of selective disengagement, you'll reenergize at a time of your choosing, rather than becoming exhausted and disengaging from your professional or personal responsibilities simply because you have no more energy to give. For example, Randy wanted to break his habit of running through his day at a breakneck pace and feeling tired and irritable by midafternoon. He created a ritual of beginning work at 7:30 AM and working until 10 AM (engagement with his work), then pausing for a healthy snack while listening to music (selective disengagement). He'd work again from 10:15 until 11:45, at which point he'd disengage from his work, exercise for an hour, and eat a quick, nutritious lunch. His day would continue with similar periods of concentrated work alternating with short periods of disengagement from work. After living with this schedule for a short time, Randy discovered that although he was working fewer hours, his work was substantially more effective and his energy carried him easily through the day.
- Focus on setting specific intentions. For example, rather than simply deciding to begin meditating, you might decide to meditate between 6:00 and 6:10 each morning. When you're moving substantially outside of your comfort zone, it is especially important to state your plans in specific, concrete terms. This will help ensure that you put those plans into action.
- Create incremental change. If you decide to increase your physical energy by getting more sleep, exercising more frequently, drinking water instead of caffeinated beverages, reducing your intake of fat, and increasing your intake of fruits and vegetables—and you decide to do all of these at once—your chance of success is not great. Taking on too much change at one time is simply overwhelming. Instead, choose one change that is both challenging and attainable. When you've mastered your new ritual (maybe drinking water throughout the day from a stylish glass pitcher on your desk), then it's time to add another and build on your success.
- Create affirmative rituals. Don't think of a pink elephant! A directive that tells you what not to do brings into your mind the very behavior you’re trying to change. The same holds true for decisions not to drink coffee, not to lose your temper, or not to interrupt someone who's speaking. Instead, phrase your intention in the positive: choose to drink water or other decaffeinated beverages, to take a few deep breaths when you feel your temper rising, or to wait for a speaker to finish his or her thought before you begin to talk.
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Julie A. Fleming, J.D., A.C.C. provides attorney development coaching and consulting to law firm associates and partners, focusing on topics such as leadership, client, and professional development; career strategy; and work/life integration. A certified leadership coach (Georgetown University), Julie publishes the weekly email newsletter Leadership Matters for Lawyers and posts often on the Life at the Bar Blog. Learn more at www.LifeAtTheBar.com or by contacting Julie by telephone at 800.758.6214 or by email to jfb@lifeatthebar.com.
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Cartoon: Stu's Views
by Stu Rees
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©Stu Rees. All rights reserved.
Like this cartoon? Send it to friends, clients or colleagues on greeting cards. To order, visit The Billable Hour Card Store.
Questions about ordering greeting cards from The Billable Hour Card Store? Check out our greeting card FAQs.
Did you know that Stu licenses his artwork for use in newsletters, presentations, print publications and on websites? He even offers special rates for student and teacher use.
You can also purchase original artwork and custom prints (framed or unframed) from Stu.
Timesheet readers get 15% off all licensing orders, original artwork and custom prints (use coupon code BILLHOUR). Click here for information on licensing or purchasing Welcome to Hell, other tax and IRS cartoons, or any of the hundreds of images Stu offers. For more information on original artwork and custom prints, click here.
Cartoon: Courtoons
by David Mills
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Courtoons are the creation of David Mills, an Ohio appellate lawyer who works with litigants and law firms involved in civil and criminal cases in federal courts across the country. Visit David's law firm website at www.MillsFederalAppeals.com
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Video of the Month: Machete
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To watch more hilarious law-related videos from around the web, join us at The Video Venue!
Lawtoons
by Suzan Charlton, Esq.
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click here to enlarge (large file; please be patient)
Like this cartoon? Send it to friends, clients or colleagues on greeting cards. To order, visit The Billable Hour Card Store.
Suzan Charlton is a professional cartoonist who is rumored to practice insurance coverage law as a hobby for a major Washington D.C. law firm. Her cartoons cover a wide range of law-related topics, from law school grades to law firm romance.
Song of the Month: Court TV
by the Bar & Grill Singers
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(sample)
Available on Grilling Me Softly
Menendez and Dahmer and the Unabomber
Kaczynski, Lewinsky and the British Nanny
Lorena, John Bobbitt, OJ’s trial was on it
Judge Ito
Someday I wanna be in a case on Court TV
My friends will envy me and my celebrity
Letters from my fans, the media eating from my hand
I’ll retire on my fees from the book deals and the
Talk show scene when I’m on Court TV
CHORUS:
Menendez and Dahmer and the Unabomber
Ted Kaczynski, Lewinsky and the British Nanny
Lorena, John Bobbitt...OJ’s trial was on it
That’s why I’m saying after Court TV
I’ll never have to work again you’ll see
That’s where I wanna be, is on Court TV
(I will be on MSNBC)
People will pay me to speak at banquets for a fee
I’ll appear every night on shows like 20/20
Newsweek and Time will feature my whole life
Newspapers will say that I’m a Top 10 Lawyer
And worth the price when I’m on Court TV
CHORUS
(I’ll do my thing tonight on Larry King)
Everybody knows a place where washed up lawyers go
Now they all have their own prime time TV legal shows—
They’re all on Court TV
CHORUS
Just one of the hilarious songs on
Cartoon: Law and Disorder
by Paul Brennan
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Like this cartoon? Send it to friends, clients or colleagues on greeting cards. To order, visit The Billable Hour Card Store.
Cartoon: Jonny Hawkins Collection
by Jonny Hawkins
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©Jonny Hawkins. All rights reserved.
Like this cartoon? Send it to friends, clients or colleagues on greeting cards. To order, visit The Billable Hour Card Store.
Questions about ordering greeting cards from The Billable Hour Card Store? Check out our greeting card FAQs.
Did you know that Jonny licenses his artwork for use in newsletters, presentations, print publications and on websites? He even offers special rates for student and teacher use.
You can also purchase original artwork and custom prints (framed or unframed) from Jonny.
Timesheet readers get 15% off all licensing orders, original artwork and custom prints. Click here for pricing information. You can reach Jonny at jonnyhawkins2nz@yahoo.com.
Litination: Attorney Forgets to Settle Case
by Court Jester
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When Paul Hastings partner Jeffrey Schmidt flipped through his calendar this past Monday he was utterly mystified at what he saw. Friday, the day he was planning to leave early to "drum up business" at the local racquet club, was completely blocked off for a jury trial in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. "It couldn’t be," Schmidt thought to himself. "That case for Wilkinson Oil has to have settled." Then it hit him, in the midst of consistently ignoring phone calls and emails, he had totally forgotten to settle the case. As a result, Schmidt was potentially encountering something he hadn’t seen in more than a dozen years of BigLaw practice—a case that actually needs to be tried in front of a judge or jury.
Frantically, Schmidt scanned his brain for the name of the associate who handles the Wilkinson Oil case. After some trial and error, he reached Elizabeth Cummings, a fifth year that he only remembered as someone who sent way too many emails. Cummings was ecstatic at hearing from Schmidt. "Jeff, thank God you called—where have you been? I have been trying to reach you since the court denied our summary judgment motion three months ago! I’ve been flying this ship without a proper license and I need your help." Schmidt apologized for being "out of pocket" and agreed to meet Cummings in a conference room on the 22nd floor to get up to speed.
Two hours later, Schmidt finally made his way to the conference room where encountered a bleary Cummings surrounded by stacks of boxes, notepads and take-out containers. "What in the world have you been doing in here?" Schmidt asked with incredulity. "Isn’t this just a breach of contract case?" Cummings, resisting the urge to dive at Schmidt and stuff every piece of paper in the room down his throat, calmly replied, "Well Jeff, per my daily emails and voicemails I have been finalizing our exhibit and witness lists, preparing deposition designations and filing motions in limine by last Friday’s deadline!"
As Cummings spoke, Schmidt got immediately distracted by how much she looked like his niece from Colorado before getting completely overwhelmed by a pounding headache. "Cummings!" Schmidt interjected. "Please stop. My brain can’t take all of this at once. I’m going to talk to the client about resolving this thing so you can stand down." Cummings again quickly counted to 10 before asking if Schmidt got the "settlement is not an option" email from the client last week.
Schmidt feigned anger, muttered "of course I did" and stormed out of the room to return to his office. Alone in his office a moment later, his heart racing, Schmidt tried to calm his emotions before turning to his computer, pulling up Google and typing in "books on how to try a breach of contract case." Good luck Wilkinson Oil, good luck.
Court Jester is a member of the Litination who believes that the practice of law requires a sense of humor. His goal is to provide an entertaining diversion from the regularly scheduled billable hour or law school seminar. He provides fake legal news and links to real headlines at www.Litination.com. His hope is that one or the other will provide you with a laugh in an often unnecessarily stressful day.
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