The Complete Lawyer

An old joke that has floated around recovery circles for years tells the story of a relatively young man who passes away. Among his acquaintances, it was a well-known but not acknowledged fact that he couldn’t stop drinking. At the wake, one of the deceased's old friends who had not seen his widow in quite some time approached her solemnly and after offering condolences, asked, “How did this happen?” “Oh John,” she said, “the sad truth is Frank simply drank himself ...

The globalization of the legal industry is changing the skills lawyers need to succeed in practice. Thanks to technology, travel, and global business expansion, lawyers increasingly operate in a world of disappearing borders. A growing number of law firms have offices, lawyers and operations worldwide. The National Law Journal’s largest 250 US law firms employed 15,231 lawyers in their foreign offices in 2007, an increase of more than 11% from the year before.1 Even sole practitioners may represent clients with international ...

In my last article I reviewed the “rule of 25” as a means of calculating how much retirement income you will need to live a good life in retirement. It’s a handy rule, but it doesn’t take into account two important factors: inflation, which may increase the amount of retirement income you’ll need; and the state of the market when you’re ready to retire. In real life, timing is everything. Pop quiz: how many "down" years (measured by the S&P500TM) did ...

As I walked through the corridors of a large law firm recently, I came upon a conference room strewn with boxes and papers, notebooks and standing file holders, dirty coffee mugs and pizza boxes. It had been a long time since I’d seen a document review room. I stopped for a moment and imagined the work that had been done in that room—mundane work, most likely—done by first- and second-year associates looking through boxes of documents, flagging those that met ...

This is the second article in a series of six articles that explore non-traditional career options for attorneys both within and outside the law. You know you are unhappy; what you don’t know is what to do about it. At this stage, the most natural questions lawyers ask themselves are, “What kind of job can I get with my law degree and experience? Who will hire me?” Those questions won’t help you. Whether you are in law school or out ...

There is hardly a professional on the planet who doesn’t want to be more successful. Virtually all of us want to achieve more, influence more people, and frankly, earn more. That’s perfectly natural. What many lawyers struggle to understand is how to make that happen. The truth is, none of us can throw a switch and create a different world. None of us can assume that every client we represent will take us to the pinnacle of our profession. And we ...

“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 way? Is your career what you want it to be? How do you feel when you think about going to the office? Is it with a sense of excitement and anticipation for ...

This is the seventh in a series of eight articles exploring The Eight Critical Success Factors[1. McDonald, Bob, Ph.D., and Hutcheson, Don, E., Don’t Waste Your Talent: The 8 Critical Steps to Discovering What You Do Best, The Highlands Company, 2005.] necessary to create a personal vision for your career. If you’re new to the series, you may want to take a look at the previous articles. (See Anne Whitaker’s articles.) Who are you? This isn’t a rhetorical question—I’m really asking ...

If you have been following this series, you know that a key to a satisfying and successful career is to have a Personal Vision for your career and your life.  (See Personal Vision, Moving From The Stress Cycle, The 8 Critical Turning Points, and What Are Your Natural Talents)  However, creating your Personal Vision and examining the various areas of your life we call the Eight Critical Success Factors is not a quick fix and does not happen overnight. You ...

In this series, we have been taking a look at how you can create a career that brings you greater success and satisfaction. Previously, I described how to create a Personal Vision1 for your career and the importance of considering the Eight Critical Success Factors (See Personal Vision, Moving From The Stress Cycle and The 8 Critical Turning Points). We examined the first of these success factors in the last article--your Stage of Adult Development. In this segment we ...

Do you enjoy your career? Is it what you want it to be? If not, do something to change it. In the previous two articles in this series, I described how you can do just that: create a Personal Vision 1 for your career that takes you as a whole, complete person into account. This will move you from the Stress Cycle into the Balance Cycle and set you on the path to a career that fits ...

It is possible to have a career that you are excited and passionate about. A career that truly fits you and brings you satisfaction and fulfillment - even if you feel overwhelmed, frustrated, burned out, out of time, or you don’t have a clue where to start. In the first article of this series I explained what a Personal Vision is and why it is crucial to you having a satisfying career. As Steven Covey said, you can “work ...