Toronto Call to the Bar Ceremony, September 18, 2013
Photo Credit: Lorne Sossin via @DeanSossin

So, you’re a lawyer now.

After a memorable day of Call to the Bar ceremonies and celebrations, you’ve finally crossed the finish line.  Goal achieved, marathon endured. Mission accomplished

The future is as bright as it is now undefined.  Perhaps you have a position secured. Perhaps you are still looking, or are considering hanging your own shingle.  Or maybe you will opt for a travel break, a bit of R and R, or a non-traditional career, outside the mainstream of legal practice.  These are all …

♫ It was the night things changed, can you see it now?
These walls that they put up to hold us back fell down
It’s a revolution, throw your hands up, ’cause we never gave in..♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by Taylor Swift.

“Change the firm but don’t change anything about how I work”

Those were the instructions that I received from one managing partner after being called into a firm to help them with coming up to speed on a number of fronts.  They knew they needed to change…in many fronts..such as in technology and other areas.  The …

Summer wanes, the harvest abounds, and we ready ourselves for a return to our higher-octane existences.  New beginnings, new chapters, and for those of us observing Rosh Hashanah, a new year begins with contemplation and taking stock of the year gone by.

It is also a time to reflect on and appreciate the people in our lives, personal and professional, whose contributions and presence have made a difference.

In that spirit, I will firstly say thank you to my Tips partner, David Bilinsky, for inviting me to join him here in collaboration, discussions and debates on “all things law practice.”   …

♫ Will remind, will remind, will remind me…♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by Röyksopp.

I admit that I have more than a typical fascination with technology.  But this tip is about as low-tech as you can get. I have used this system for all the time that I have been in practice, when practising in  firms as well as at the Law Society and I have found that it works exceedingly well.

In the image you can see a dry-eraseable 4 month calendar.  By placing this calendar in a prominent location in your office and assigning someone with …

♫ Hey Jude, don’t make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her under your skin
Then you’ll begin to make it better…♫

Lyrics and music by Lennon & McCartney.

This column was written shortly after attending a wine tasting session.  One of the themes of that session was how adding different types of grapes to a wine increases the complexities and the structure of a wine and, done right, this blending makes the wine more enjoyable and interesting. During that session (I have to admit that part of my mind was still thinking …

As coincidences go, it’s probably not such a big deal.

It turns out that both my PracticeTips partner, David Bilinsky, and I happen to be immersed in home reno projects of some note this August.

Convergence or not, I enjoy the coast to (almost) coast symmetry.

Now when it comes to home renovations, well, that’s often one of the things summer is for.  Relaxing, catching a few rays, and spending every other waking moment addressing a cacophony of questions about materials, labour, colours, patterns, high-ends and low-ends, creative decisions, intra-home negotiations, extras, costings, and the occasional legal document or two, …

Take a moment to consider the many ways we use the internet and other telecommunications tools in our daily work as legal professionals. Phone calls, scheduling and calendaring, legal research, online filings, our omnipresent emails, and more generically, “Googling” for everything from court addresses to legislation to the phone number of that pizza place that feeds us on a late night deadline-driven drafting marathon.

We’ve all read articles (and perhaps even attended at conferences) focusing on security in the cloud.  We’ve all been warned about the perils of the guy who might be peering over your shoulder or …

Jack Welch has been often quoted in terms of leadership and management for good reason.

“Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.” Jack Welch 

How many of us work in environments where instilling self-confidence in others is seen by some managers as threatening?

Management at times and in certain people’s eyes,  is seen to be equivalent to control.  Perhaps in some organizations and in some situations this is necessary.  But I think that in the vast majority of institutions, and I count law firms and other professional service …

Do law firms need leadership and teams?  The author would state that at no other time in the past has the legal profession needed leadership as they need it at the present.  The legal profession is facing unprecedented pressures from all corners.  In the author’s view, if we fail to respond to these pressures in a timely and appropriate manner, then the failure is due to the lack of leadership within the profession.

We need to learn how to build teams in law firms. We need to learn how to respond to competitive pressures by building teams that can respond …

We tend to focus on topics of how to increase effectiveness and efficiency in this column as well as how to strive for heightened performance.

This one will be completely different.

Today we are going to highlight the benefits of getting away from it all and taking a vacation.

Why focus on taking a vacation?

According to advantagebehavioral.org there are at least 5 benefits to taking a vacation. These are:

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