Here we are at the end of the series on creating a Personal Vision for your life and career. The approach I’ve outlined is certainly not a quick solution to finding success, happiness, and your “dream career.” But I can personally attest to the fact that it is worth the [...] Read more »
Use Your Long-Term Goals To Motivate You
“In the long run you only hit what you aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had better aim at something high.” –Henry David Thoreau What do you want to be, do, and have in your life? These questions are the adult version of “What do you want [...] Read more »
Your Personal Vision Statement: A Template For Change
“I have learned this, at least, by my experiments; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” - Henry David Thoreau, Walden Are you living your life your [...] Read more »
Attorneys Should Use Appreciative Intelligence To Work Smarter
More than ten years ago Ralph Palumbo and Otto Klein, two partners of Heller Ehrman’s Seattle office, presented to their firm’s chairman a 20-page document. Though its official title was “Creating the Law Firm of the Future,” it came to be known as “The Manifesto.” And it was nothing short [...] Read more »
Career Profile: Pam Scholefield
“When I was finishing college, my mother and I talked about my pursuing a law degree,” Pam Scholefield said while sitting in her San Diego law office where she practices breach-of-contract litigation and transactional work in the commercial construction industry. “But because I’d just finished five years of an intense [...] Read more »
How Can Lawyers Thrive In An Uncertain Economy?
During uncertain times in the legal market, a law firm that wants to survive and thrive must stabilize its core and align all of its efforts with specific, identified long-term strategic goals. Professional Development (PD) is the perfect structural tool to achieve that stability and alignment. PD can equip associates [...] Read more »
The Creative Lawyer Thinks Laterally
How does creativity relate to professional achievement and personal fulfillment? How can creativity help us move toward the elusive goal of becoming “the complete lawyer?” These are the questions this article and others in this series will answer. Creativity is not only a skill that can be developed, but also [...] Read more »
Top Law Firm Rainmakers Tell All
“It’s a sorry dog that won’t wag its own tail.” That favorite expression of the late U.S. Attorney General, Judge Griffin Bell, sums up what top legal rainmakers told me recently about marketing and self-promotion—it’s necessary and never stops being important, no matter how successful you become. Regardless of practice [...] Read more »
Professional Development Is A Necessity, Not A Luxury, For Today’s Associates
As law firms grow larger and associate salaries rise, overhead inevitably increases. Higher overhead creates pressure to bill more hours. Pressure to bill more hours makes it difficult for senior lawyers to find time to train and mentor junior lawyers. It also makes it harder for junior lawyers to find [...] Read more »