The Red Velvet Lawyer

The Satisfaction of Completion This last week, the Dean declared three snow days.  I feel like a kid when that happens.  Yes, I did play in the snow a bit.  But, mostly, I enjoyed what my business coach, Christine Kane , calls the "satisfaction of completion." On Sunday and Monday, I completed my tax returns for 2013 and 2014, and I plan to use the refunds to pay off most of my debt.  Ka-ching! On Thursday, I began writing the minutes for the Admissions Committee on which I serve. Last night, I completed the first drafts.   Those two big projects had been hanging over my head for a long time.  I'm glad they are behind me because their completion frees up so much energy that I can now focus on new projects, including a couple of law review articles I want to finish this week.  P.S. The photo features a nearby view.  Thanks to alumni, Darryle Ronning, for sharing it on Facebook. 

Still a Good Option If You Can Get  a Bargain on Legal Education For the full story, see  here .

How is Your Own Stuff Affecting the Negotiation? Bill Ury has published a new book : Getting to Yes with Yourself and Other Worthy Opponents .  I've not read it yet.  But, as the big storm of 2015 began dropping snowflakes on Grundy, I watched an hour-long video featuring Ury at a Google-sponsored event during which he describes the book, tells several stories as examples, and engages the audience in a discussion and a role-play. First,  I do love the "getting" series of books.  I've read them all.  I have assigned Getting to Yes to all my students over the last thirteen years of my teaching career.  In another week, my current students will start reading it.  I use Getting Disputes Resolved in my Arbitration seminar, partly because it refers to a labor dispute in a coal mine located not far from the Appalachian School of Law.  I also use it because it was one of the first books written on dispute resolution system design.   Power of a Positive No: S

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 discussions with

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 ref

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, manifes