The Red Velvet Lawyer

Teaching Students to Serve Future Clients This week, I've been designing my class that will be a part of ASL's Introduction to Natural Resources Law course.  We are offering the course as a one-week intensive before regular classes start in January. Through it, we hope to encourage students to earn our Natural Resources Law certificate .   My day-long class will focus on shale gas production in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays located in mostly Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and New York.  The class will include an overview, presentations by a couple of guest speakers, and then a simulated negotiation of a mineral lease.  I am expecting it to provide good coverage of the topic and a fairly interesting way to spend an 8-hour day of class. I am trying to frame perspectives from the industry, the environmental protection community, and health officials.   My slide show is almost done.  I've really enjoyed the required research and my...

Happy Holidays  to my  Friends, Colleagues, and Students Hope you are enjoying the day with your families. P.S.  This modern interpretation of the three wise men comes from the photos I took in Dubai earlier this month.  I snapped it in the lobby of the Burj Al Arab, a six-star hotel on the Gulf that overlooks the man-made Palm and World Islands. 

Happier for Having Kept It For over three years, I have kept a gratitude journal at the suggestion of my entrepreneurial business coach, Christine Kane . Several researchers have found profound affect on emotional, psychological, and physical well-being associated with being grateful for all the wonderful things that come into our lives -- big and small. It enhances our social networks, personal relationships, and our careers. It enhances happiness overall.  I've noticed it helps me shift from being self-oriented to other-orientated,   The Harvard Medical School's Health Publications blog defines gratitude and then suggests ways we can cultivate it.  Note that the author suggests keeping a gratitude journal. Gratitude is a way for people to appreciate what they have instead of always reaching for something new in the hopes it will make them happier, or thinking they can't feel satisfied until every physical and material need is met. Gratitude helps people r...

Successful Growth Requires that You "Outlearn" Your Peers I've spent the last few days catching up on blog posts, my favorite shows on Hulu, and the New York Times, all of which I missed while spending a week in Dubai on vacation. One blog post really stuck with me as I was working on my goals for next yea r. In a post called, In 2015, Be the Best at Getting Better , author Dharmesh Shah talked about the simple commitment of being the best at getting better.  He explains: [C]ommitting to a one-time goal like learning to code or dropping 10 pounds can get lost amid the rush, assigned a lower priority, or just become uninteresting after a time.  A commitment to becoming the best at getting better requires only a fundamental admission that you’re not perfect and a desire to outlearn your peers on a daily basis. I love that!  I can handle that sort of personal and organizational commitment for 2015.  I can apply it to all my goals -- whether well-being, ma...

Live with Heart Last Year’s Words A year ago, I shared the three words I wanted to represent my goals for 2014. They were: Robin, Launch, and Wealth.  So, how did I do? Robin was a bit of a miss. I had wanted it to remind me to work towards greater fitness. But, year-long problems with my orthotic shoes, which compensate for a fused ankle and heel, made regular exercise difficult without access to an indoor swimming pool. Yes, I launched my web-based mediation training program – Mediation with Heart -- and got terrific feedback from enrolled students. Now, I need to implement my marketing program in connection with it. Yes, I generated more wealth and cash flow. I also shared more of that wealth with others throughout the year. Words for 2015 It’s time to select three words for 2015. Surprisingly, this process has not come easily this year.  Well-being came early to mind – both emotional and physical. I recently completed a book...

My Home Town's Journey This recent communication from my mediation community touched me deeply. From: Sandy Heierbacher [ mailto:sandy@NCDD.ORG ] Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2014 8:11 AM To: NCDD-UPDATES@LISTS.THATAWAY.ORG Subject: [NCDD-UPDATES] What can the dialogue & deliberation community do after Ferguson? Message to the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation community, from NCDD’s Director... Hi, everyone. Many of us are reeling from the events in Ferguson. Some of you may be involved in protests in your own cities right now. Last night, President Obama addressed the nation after it was announced that Darren Wilson would not be indicted. In his remarks, I couldn’t help but think he was talking about the work that many of you do. The juxtaposition on the split screen of Obama encouraging protestors to stay peaceful on one side, and tear gas canisters being thrown by police in riot fear [sic?] on the other side was bizarre. But what Obama ta...

Keeping Track of Good Advice Several of the bloggers I follow write on solo practice.  I want to start aggregating their advice in one of my posts.  So, here I go: 20 Law Practice Empowerment Tips by Peggy Greunke. Product Development for Lawyers by Carolyn Elefant. Lead Management: 3 Steps to Slash Your No-Show Rate  by Steven Fairley. On Building a Digital Law Library by Jean P. O'Grady. The 12 Best Legal Marketing Tips from 2014 by Steven Fairley. Last Minute Guide to 2014's Best New Books for Content Marketers by Roger C. Parker.  You are Better Off Having Experts Manage WordPress Hosting Environment by Kevin O'Keefe. Law Firms Assume Known and Unknown Risks in Operating WordPress Blogs  by Kevin O'Keefe. The 12 Best Legal Marketing Lessons from 2014: #9. Why Aren’t Lawyers Getting Paid? by Stephen Fairley. New crowdfunding site helps individuals raise money for legal fees by Martha Neil. Podcast # 3: Carol Elefant on Advan...

Graduate Competence or  Design and Scoring Problems? On Monday, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reported the onset of a debate about the surprising drop in bar passage rates on a national basis.  It said:  A steep decline in bar exam scores on the most recent test has led to an outbreak of finger-pointing over who’s to blame for the downward swing.  In a sharply worded letter , the dean of Brooklyn Law School on Monday reproached the head of a national bar exam group for suggesting to law school leaders that their graduates who took the July exam were less prepared than students who sat for the test in previous years.  The dean’s letter came in response to an October memo by Erica Moeser, the president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners , addressed to law school deans across the country in which she defended the integrity of the group’s exam and raised concerns about the ability of the would-be lawyers who took it. .....

Another Gap  Created by  Retiring Baby Boomer Lawyers Over the last several years, several state and local bar associations have focused on under-served clients living in rural areas.  Twenty percent of the U.S. population resides in rural counties, but only two percent of law practices locate there.   The October 2014 issue of the ABA Journal re-visits the topic again, profiling a number of lawyers practicing in rural North Dakota and South Dakota.  The article, Too Many Lawyers? Not Here. In Rural America, Lawyers are Few and Far Between by Lorelei Laird, gives a general overview of the situation, identifies a number of resources, and suggests the adaptations to rural practice required of young lawyers. An associated podcast is here . Additional states -- including Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, Vermont, Montana, New Hampshire, and Maine -- have started various types of programs designed to encourage younger lawyers to practice in rur...

A Touch of New Orleans  and  the Kentucky Derby Melded for a Charitable Cause Several years ago, our Dean, Lucy McGough, joined us after having lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana most of her academic career.  Soon, events linked to that history came to campus. First, came the sale of home-made gumbo to raise funds for a local charity.  Then, ASL had its first shrimp boil.   Last month, the local chapter of the Lion's Club sponsored  the second shrimp boil on campus along with a corn hole tournament designed to raise money for its many worthwhile projects.  The local organization especially focuses on the needs of the low-income residents of Buchanan County who need eye exams and eyeglasses.   I profiled the Lion's Club as a student organization here . Students and faculty at ASL enjoyed a meal of spicy shrimp, sausages, corn, and potatoes. Many of the students participated in the corn hole tournament.  Josh Kinzer ,...

What Happens When  Baby Boomers Retire? In April 2013 , I wrote about the possible opportunities for new lawyers created by the increasing age of lawyers -- who will eventually retire.  Bill Henderson, of The Legal Whiteboard blog, provides a very interesting analysis of his data on this topic  here .  One of his findings: The big surprise here is that the proportion of young lawyers (under age 35) has been declining for several decades. And not by a little, but by a lot. During this period, the median age went from 39 in 1980, to 41 in 1991, to 45 in 2000, to 49 in 2005. Some of his conclusions: The analysis above suggests that the JD Advantage / JD Preferred employment market started to take shape several decades ago, long before these terms were put in place by the ABA and NALP. Yet, we really don't know about these careers. To construct a more useful, informative narrative, we'd have to systematically study the career paths...

Feeling Like a  Master of the Universe! As many of you know, I spent the last year in a mastermind business coaching program that has made me comfortable with web-based platforms designed to build communities, deliver content, and market services.   I have proved that old dogs can learn new tricks.  In fact, this old dog is teaching the new tricks to folks much younger than myself.  My latest focus is on the "flipped" or "blended" classroom. These classes use the best of on-line education married with more traditional classroom approaches.   The Instructional Technology blog from Albany Law School provides a number of links to information about the "flipped" classroom.   Other resources include the following: Sean F. Nolan, Using Distance Learning to Teach Environmental Problem-Solving Skills and Theory , 28 J. Envt'l Law & Litigation 211 (2013). Gerald F. Hess, Blended Courses in Law School: The Best of Online and Face-to-Fa...

Remembering  How I Became  a Teacher My mom, Jo Ann Drinkwater Young, died of colon cancer this month seventeen years ago.  She was only 61. Her death caused me to live life with more urgency, intention, and love. Last week, a family friend sent some photos of her as a teenager that I had not seen before.  She is posing with her best friend, Leotta, shortly before Leotta's wedding.  Mom was seventeen or eighteen years old.  Even dolled up as the bridesmaid (blue dress on right), she still looks so very young. She married at eighteen, had four kids by the time she was 24 years old, was always a loving and supportive spouse, and gave me a very happy childhood. Despite her youthful commitment to family, she had an old soul, even as a young mother. To say I miss her is an understatement. To say that her death released an energy in me to live the life I wanted would be deeply true.   As many of you know, I am celebrating my silver jubi...

60,000  Page Views Friends, family, and colleagues: Another milestone reached! 60,000 page views! My blogging experience started in March 2013. Like everything, success relates directly to the attention and energy invested in the project. As I blogged more frequently, built my relationship with other bloggers, got more posts shared by my FB friends, and continued to create content I hoped you would like, page views grew exponentially. Here is a summary of my experience: 5,000 page views on August 2013. 10,000 page views on November 7, 2013. 15,000 page views on November 27, 2013. 20,000 page views on December 9, 2013. 25,000 page views on January 1, 2014. 50,000 page views on July 17, 2014. 60,000 page views on Oct. 10, 2014.