American Inns of Court: A Valuable Tradition
One of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had as a lawyer in recent years has been my membership in the Harry Phillips American Inn of Court. The Inn provides lawyers with the opportunity to meet, share meals, and work side-by-side with judges, community leaders, and well-respected lawyers across town. Attendance at the Inn’s monthly programs supplies nearly all the CLE credit needed in a year. More than that, I have been pleased to find that the Inn not only seeks to better its members, but seeks strategic ways to better the legal community at large as well.
American Inns of Court are patterned after the English Inns of Court that date back to the 13th century. Those inns emphasized the value of learning the lawyering craft from those already established in the profession in a collegial environment that nurtured professional ideals and ethics. In 1977, after a visit to England, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger sought to establish a similar society in this country. The result, the American Inns of Court, was inaugurated to “foster excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility, and legal skills for judges, lawyers, academicians, and students of the law in order to perfect the quality, availability and efficiency of justice in the United States.”
Nashville now has two Inns of Court. The Harry Phillips AIC was formed in 1990. This year, the Belmont University College of Law AIC is being chartered. If you have any interest in joining either Inn, I encourage you to do so. (If you live outside the Nashville area, go to the Inns of Court website and locate an Inn near you.) Contact a current member, let them know of your interest, and ask them to nominate you for membership. If you do, I believe you will find the experience a rewarding one — both personally and professionally.
By Is Rocket Lawyer the World’s Largest Law Firm?
Less than ten days ago, Google unveiled that it invested $18.5 million into Rocket Lawyer, the self-proclaimed “fastest growing online legal service.” Unlike other internet-based legal repositories such as LegalZoom or Standard Legal, which offer standard legal documents, Google is taking it a step farther. Rocket Lawyer will give paying consumers access to legal documents (using the Google Docs platform), as well as interactions with real lawyers who provide legal advice at no additional cost for certain matters (e.g., document reviews up to six pages, representation in court, etc.). With this huge association of lawyers, this begs the question: isn’t Rocket Lawyer just a really cheap law firm?
I think the answer is yes . . . and I think Google is okay with that. There’s a need for consumers to have access to cost-effective legal services when there’s no complexity and when it’s okay that the “real” lawyer has little “real” incentive to provide above-and-beyond customer service. Rocket Lawyer can be a great tool in this respect. The problem lies in the fact its marketing ignores the reality that legal documents often need to be tailored based on specific needs of the business or individual. It’s painful to think about someone downloading a form and getting advice from a free lawyer to work through a sophisticated transaction. Especially if the person’s business or livelihood is riding on it. Even seemingly straightforward deals can have many considerations and consequences that a form or initial consultation can’t address. Although the Rocket Lawyer mega firm can be very useful for some transactions, I hope the market realizes that it’s not a viable one-stop shop for all legal needs.
Practitioner’s Note - Speaking of Google, it offers a pretty decent and free legal search engine that you can limit to either law articles or case opinions and legal journals. See Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/.
Getting Things Done
This weekend, I picked up a copy of Getting Things Done by David Allen, according to TIME magazine, the defining self-help business book of the time. The book has a simple premise: a person’s productivity is directly proportionate to his or her ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear will we achieve the most effective results. According to Mr. Allen, the best way to clear your mind is to capture all the things that need to get done — now, later, big, little, at work, and at home — by writing them down in a system that you trust. He then encourages readers to make front-end decisions about each of these items: if it can be done in less than 2 minutes, go ahead and do it now; if not, write down the very next action that needs to be taken in a list (one of several) that you review regularly.
The book’s premise has held true in my experience: if I write something down, be it a simple to-do list, a project plan, or litigation timeline, it does tend to free my mind and allow me to think about it only when I want to. At the same time some of Mr. Allen’s advice seems slightly impractical — he advocates keeping a set of 4 or 5 lists, which are no doubt useful but look like a pain to maintain. Also, the idea of setting aside two days to capture every task in one’s life seems unlikely to happen for most. That said, I found in the book dozens of useful insights that both validate my current practices and that I plan to implement to increase my own productivity. I think both lawyers and business professionals alike could benefit from Getting Things Done.
Feel the Music
We have all seen a sax player completely immersed in his playing; lost in the music. One of my favorite things is to watch singer-songwriter-musicians while their own songs are being performed. They close their eyes and start moving with the music. Since I have almost no musical talent, I am left to imagine what they are seeing with their eyes closed. I imagine in that moment they are becoming one with the rich tapestry of sound and feeling that they created. (For Star Trek buffs, think of the Traveler from Tau Alpha C; http://bit.ly/qpf9la) Their art is so ephemeral that they need to close their eyes to see it.
The “art” of what we all do is often just as short-lived and transient. There is always going to be time to worry about money, and what the competition is doing, and how to find and keep good people, and how to find your next client. But, whether it is your own personal work, or a small project group, or leading an organization, sometimes you need to let go and just feel the music. You can’t lead when you are looking over your shoulder at the problems. You need to trust where you feel the music is taking you and go there.
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