Associate's Mind

  Over at the Philly Law Blog, Jordan Rushie has a post up on the hustle required to make it as a new lawyer: Monday: Confer with FNA Board to discuss PTSSD grant, which involves a significant amount of money coming into the neighborhood for civic projects Tuesday: 6:30pm – 9:00pm – Hosted an FNA [...]

  I was recently corresponding with a friend and the topic of extra-curricular projects came up. I rattled off a list of 6 or 7 things I’m doing outside of work.1 Bar committees, speaking engagements, article writing, writing a book, etc. All of them, taken with the day-in, day-out grind of being a lawyer, can [...]

  There is a parking deck right next to our office building. The monthly fee is $80. Cheap, in comparison to most cities. Affordable. Four blocks away from our office building are the bridges going over the railroad tracks that bisect Birmingham. The bidges are lined with parking spaces whose parking meters have all been removed. So parking is [...]

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.” - Arthur Schopenhauer, quoted in the latest Scientific American Mind. Despite most lawyers healthy appreciation of their own intellect and prowess, very few actually qualify as a genius. While it might be a blow to their egos, many lawyers are likely [...]

  First off: God I hope this book becomes popular. It’s not perfect, but an entire generation needs to hear its message. I recently received a review copy of Cal Newport’s “So Good They Can’t Ignore You.” Newport achieved a cult following in the past couple of years while finishing his computer science PhD at [...]

  Yesterday I went for a run, my usual. 5k. I had given some thought to going further then normal but when I got to the point where I could keep going – the trail crossing over the creek was flooded. I was stymied. Guess I’ll be sticking to 5k. Time to turn around. I [...]

Only boring people get bored.

  Sometimes you just need to take a break. Unplug, desync, disconnect as I’ve said in the past. Blogging well takes effort. Sure you can crank out insipid, trite observations about marketing, technology, and other vaguely related legal topics like clockwork. But producing something that is self-satisfying and genuine takes time. Sometimes you have the [...]

  An old year falls, a new one rises. People will dedicate to change. They will tell themselves that this year will be different. They will commit to change their appearance, their friends, their family, their job. Goals will be set. Plans will be made. Motivation will be high. Intentions strong and good. Time will [...]

  There’s a lot of noise being made about new lawyers going solo straight out of law school. Considering the dismal market for legal jobs, many new law grads are headed towards solo practice out of necessity. A large number of the people I graduated with headed deliberately into solo practice, with no desire to [...]