The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. Albert Einstein As a first-year student at orientation in a large room filled with hundreds of other aspiring lawyers, one thing stuck with me. The dean...
General Practice Articles
The Lawyer’s Mind: Attention
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. Arthur Conan Doyle In recent years, I have been amazed at how much I have missed by not paying attention to things — many, many things — right before my eyes. Most of the...
THE LAWYER’S MIND: DECISION FATIGUE
Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue? John Tierney, The New York Times. Magazine, (August 17 2011). The short answer for lawyers and judges is: Yes. This occurs when you are working a block of time without sufficient breaks practicing a core...
THE LAWYER’S MIND: ENDURANCE
As a young lawyer in the late 1970s, I marveled at how my colleagues working for large law firms, (now called “Big Law”) could work at least 12 hours per day for at least four days a week and then some on weekends. My observation was that they were...
EMPOWERING WITNESSES
“I knew [he] was going to be a bad witness by the enormously confident way that he marched into the box, held the Bible up aloft and promised to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He was that dreadful sort of witness, the...
THE LAWYER’S MIND: NEGOTIATION AND PERSUASION
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” Dwight D. Eisenhower Although representation in transactional work differs from being counsel in a claim or litigation, my experience as an advocate, mediator, and arbitrator has enabled me to...