Becoming a Resilient Attorney
Of all the professions, practicing law can be one of the most challenging and stressful. Attorneys deal with high stakes cases, long hours, tight deadlines, difficult clients, and the pressures of achieving success in a competitive environment. The constant demand for results and the need to manage multiple cases can take a toll on the mental and physical well-being of attorneys. Therefore, it's crucial for attorneys to develop resilience, which is the ability to bounce back from setbacks, cope with stress, and adapt to change. 1. Take car…
Better Remote Court Presentation
Remote court proceedings are not going anywhere. That said, many attorneys continue to appear in court with poor audio and video production. Your "production" is the new suit coat and shoe shine of pre-COVID court. Looking and sounding good does not have to be expensive, even if you find yourself looking like a cat sometimes. NOTE: This article contains affiliate links that help fund See Generally. Audio In a word, lawyers communicate. You need to be heard at your hearing. Looking back at the past year and the various remote h…
Establishing Justice in Both Fertile and Infertile Soil
The Preamble to The Constitution of the United States reads as follows: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. The first step taken by the Framers in seeking a more perfect Union was to “ establish Justice .” Justice with a capital J. As noted by Andrew R. Sh…
How Having a Child in the NICU Has Made Me a Better Attorney
Earlier this year, my brand new baby girl spent the first 28 days of her life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) after being born 7 weeks premature. Rural Idaho has several excellent hospitals with NICU facilities. My daughter is doing great now, thankfully, but this experience taught me a lot about what matters most and how to care for people. Some of those lessons apply directly to the practice of law. Lesson 1: Helping those most vulnerable means listening to what they are telling you. Premature babies are constantly sending out sig…
Ecliptic Thoughts: Combining the Ordinary to Make the Extraordinary
The town I live and practice in was in the path of totality for the eclipse this past Monday. It was a life-highlight. I watched the crescent sun fade in my black glasses to nothing. I took off my glasses to find this in the sky: I inexplicably wanted to cry and cheer and hug everyone around me. I could see planets and stars. The temperature dropped. 11:33 a.m. became twilight. I can not overhype what I experienced. The exactness of everything that made it happen left me feeling the divine order of our universe. That said, after the eclipse p…
The Decided Are Always Gentle: Lawyering Advice from James E. Faust
I recently read a talk by James E. Faust given in 2003 to the J. Reu ben Clark Law Society . Mr. Faust was a World War II pilot, the President of the Utah Bar Association, on President Kennedy’s Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, and in the Utah House of Representatives as a Democrat. In 1978 he left his profession as a lawyer and served the remaining years of his life in the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The remarks I read were called “Be Healers” and are available HERE . His thoughts showed great humilit…
3 Lessons from a Terrible Job Interview
After graduating from law school and taking the bar, I was interviewing for jobs… like it was my job. Image by Jonathan Mueller on Flickr CC BY 2.0. Some interviews went well. And then, of course, some didn’t. Some were obviously my fault: insufficient prep, fatigue, applying for jobs I knew I wasn’t a good fit for, blanking on softball questions like “what classes are you taking this semester?” Others, however, were not my fault: an interviewer singing a derogatory song about my faith, another complaining about women applicants getting pr…
What Can a Lawyer Give for Christmas? Withheld Judgment
A withheld judgment is a tool used by judges to incentivize compliance with probation terms and to allow someone to move on with his or her life after satisfactorily dealing with a mistake. As described by legalbeagle.com : A withheld judgment can allow the defendant to avoid a having a criminal conviction on his record. At the time of sentencing, the judge informs the defendant of the terms he must meet, which can include a probationary period, restitution fees paid to the court and victim, and rarely, jail time. The judge does not, however, …
Understanding Immigration Means Understanding Family
Like many others, I was profoundly affected by the images of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi found dead on a Turkish shoreline. You may see and read more about the story here and here but do note that it is highly disturbing . The migrant crisis today in Europe is massive, with 4 million Syrians having fled their homes, Aylan included. Concerning Aylan, the New York Times wrote: [I]t is not the sheer size of the catastrophe — millions upon millions forced by war and desperation to leave their homes — but a single tragedy that has clarified the m…
