The Red Velvet Lawyer

Enhance Your Willpower  and  Reach Your Goals Robert Hatch, owner of Human Business Works , a business coach, and an author, sent me some advice this morning on making and achieving New Year's Resolutions. I can sum it up with a quote from Wayne Dyer:  "Once you begin working on your problem areas with small, daily, success-oriented, goals, the problems will disappear." What I like about Hatch's iteration of the way you must operate to reach a specific goal is the acknowledgement that we only have a certain limited reserve of willpower. He is so in to the idea, he eats the same thing for breakfast every morning. It limits the drain of will power and reduces, by one, the decisions he must make as entrepreneur through the rest of the day.  Ok, not me.  But, interesting. For the science on willpower, take a look at this Stanford School of Medicine blog .  Two things can enhance your reserve of willpower: Meditation and regular exercise, partly because

Arbitration Fairness Act And, now a look into the debate about pre-dispute arbitration clauses found in consumer and employment contracts. Several witnesses testified about the problems with these clauses. Then, Senator Al Franken questioned a U of Georgia Law School professor, Peter B. Rutledge , who planned to support the clauses. Watch the video here . From the Consumerist : Earlier this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on mandatory binding arbitration clauses, those fun bits of contractual language that take away your right to sue a company and force you into a resolution process that is heavily weighted in the company’s favor. The hearing was chaired by Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, who earlier this year introduced the proposed Arbitration Fairness Act , and so he obviously has a thing or two to say on the topic. * * *   Starting at around the 1:55 mark in the above video, Franken cites the professor’s own previous statements that cer

Merry Christmas! To my family, friends, colleagues, and students: I wish you a wonderful time with your family and friends this week. 

My Picks  from the  7th Annual Blawg 100 In December, the ABA Journal published its  7th Annual Blawg 100 issue listing those law blogs it identifies as hosted by dedicated, creative, and engaged bloggers. Polls closed for voting on the current list, but I've used it to update my blog roll. One of the unanticipated benefits of having a blog is the opportunity to build a blog roll. Postings on the blogs I track keep me inspired and up-to-date.  I also hope the list gives you a quick way to link to some of the top law bloggers that may be of interest to you. So, here are the blogs I'm adding: Arbitration Nation Dewey B Strategic JD Careers Out There Jotwell Law School Cafe The Legal Watercooler The Legal Whiteboard Real Lawyers Have Blogs Small Firm Innovation Technology & Marketing Law Blog And, I am dropping nine blogs from the roll.  After a year of tracking them, I find that I did not like the quality of the content, the infrequent posting

"Folks, the change is here.  We’re living it." Jordan Furlong, a partner in Edge International, a leading management consultancy, describes the "revolution" that is ongoing in the legal field and in legal education in a recent posting he calls: You say you want a revolution?  He opens his posting this way: If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m convinced of a couple of things: (1) Fundamental shifts in the legal services environment will spawn a diverse population of new providers that will expand access to those services while destroying lawyers’ market exclusivity; and, (2) This is, on balance, a good thing. I’ve never been more certain than I am today, at the close of 2013, about the first — but I’ve never been less certain about the second. After summarizing evidence of the revolution, he offers some predictions for the future, and asks regulators, bar associations,  law schools, courts, and lawyers to take action n

Appalachian School of Law  Offers Two Courses  Over the Winter Holiday Break  January Intersession Introduction to Natural Resources Law ASL will offer this 2-credit hour course on its campus the week prior to the resumption of January classes (January 6-10, 2014). This intensive course will run from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 9:00 a.m. to noon on Friday.  The course will familiarize students with the legal, business, and environmental aspects of the natural resources law. Although broadly covering natural resources, the course will include a basic introduction to the U.S. legal and governmental system relating to environmental, natural resource, and energy laws, including hard mineral law, oil and gas law, water law, environmental law, energy policy, land use law, renewable energy law, and issues related to climate change and sustainability.  Four faculty members will co-teach the course. More specifically, they have designed the c

Robin, Launch, & Wealth During the past month, I've talked about goal setting twice: here and embedded here .  I just found this interesting discussion on how one successful entrepreneur works with goal setting.  Among other things, he picks three words to guide him over the next year.  They help keep him focused on his priorities. Take a look here .  I'll wait. For 2014: My three words for 2014 are these: Robin :  I am referring to Robin Wright Penn, the actress who plays the wife, Claire Underwood, to Kevin Spacey's character, U.S. House Majority Whip Frank Underwood, in the TV series, House of Cards .  As Claire, she portrays a strong, independent, ambitious, powerful, effective, kind-hearted, stylish, and fit woman who is trying to change the world through her non-profit foundation.  This, folks, is what we all want "50" to look like (even if she is actually 47).  Robin, the actress, has been choosy about the projects she will do and t