Money can’t buy me love. – Paul McCartney As a corollary to psychologist McCartney’s insight, money can’t buy lawyers (much) happiness. That’s one of the key findings of Lawrence Krieger and Kennon Sheldon’s impressive study, What Makes Lawyers Happy?: A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success. This post includes excerpts from this article, sans … Continue reading What Makes Lawyers Happy? – And How Can You Help?
Life can be darn irritating. In a NYT op-ed piece, Arthur Brooks argues that “When I am working for myself, any disappointing outcome is a stressful, unpleasant reflection on me. When I am serving, on the other hand, the work is always intrinsically valuable because of its intention. Adopting a service mind-set guarantees some measure … Continue reading Satisfaction Through Service
Recently, I was asked to write a post for a state bar association blog with highlights from my article, My Last Lecture: More Unsolicited Advice for Future and Current Lawyers. Then I thought, heck, I should post it here too. Understand Your Clients’ Interests. Lawyers often assume that they know what their clients want–to get … Continue reading Tips for Lawyers Who Want to Get Good Results for Clients and Make Money
Several weeks ago, I posted an item about an article with advice for law students (and, to some extent, lawyers): My Last Lecture: More Unsolicited Advice for Future and Current Lawyers. I would love to get any comments or suggestions about the things that students do to drive you crazy (crazier?) and what they might … Continue reading Request for Comments on My Last Lecture
For the first time since 2004, this fall, I will not teach our required 1L course, Lawyering: Problem-Solving and Dispute Resolution. We had several sections each year and so I had a chance to impart my views about lawyering to a substantial part of our class. I felt passionate about the value of good lawyering … Continue reading My Last Lecture in Your Course
Have you seen “Inside Out” yet? It’s the delightful Pixar movie portraying the conflicting emotions of an 11 year-old girl grappling with the difficulties of a move from Minnesota to San Francisco. Indeed, the emotions are characters themselves: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Sadness, and Joy. The film’s producers consulted psychologists who wrote a piece in the … Continue reading Damn Emotions!
This post stimulated a conversation with Peter Benner about planned early dispute resolution (PEDR), beginning with the exchange of comments below. There are six additional posts in this conversation. At the end of each post, there is a link to the next post in the conversation. _______________________________________________________________ Early mediation is a waste of time. This … Continue reading Planning is Critically Important for Early Dispute Resolution
I can’t resist commenting on Andrea’s lighthearted post showing a sign at a Starbuck’s with President John F. Kennedy’s famous statement, “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate!” This reminds me of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s statement, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” I … Continue reading Fear and Negotiation
If you are sick and tired of hearing me sing the praises of multi-stage simulations (MSS) and don’t want to see any data about it, read no further. Some Background Before I start singing, let me provide some background. I started using MSSs when I began teaching negotiation several years ago. Related to my research … Continue reading Great Value of Students Playing Clients in Multi-Stage Simulations
BARBRI’s “State of the Legal Field Survey” reports that “71 percent of 3L law students believe they possess sufficient practice skills. In contrast, only 23 percent of practicing attorneys who work at companies that hire recent law school graduates believe recent law school graduates possess sufficient practice skills.” This finding is puzzling and astounding. It … Continue reading Illusions of Competence
