PracticingOnPurpose's blog

The CEL News Feed highlighted an opinion piece by recent Berkeley Law grad Michael Serota in the National Law Journal(http://www.cuttingedgelaw.com/newsfeed/make-job-satisfaction-priority-na... ). In the article, Serota asserts law schools need to help students align personal values with professional values - it's almost like he's read my blog!

Last week a friend told me he was thinking about going to law school to study elder law and probate law, and his reasons would resonate with any collaborative practitioner. My advice was that he was a step ahead of the curve for knowing why he'd want to be a lawyers, and as long as he was able to keep his head and heart together without succumbing to the stressful competitive mindset he'd probably find law school a breeze.

I think law school could be a much more positive experience for lawyers-to-be, looked back upon fondly as a time of personal growth rather than as an ordeal or grueling rite of passage.

The ABA Journal's Question of the Week this week focuses on "work/life balance," asking "What's your personal work/life balance, right now—and are you happy with it? How many hours have you worked in the last seven days? How many of the last seven days have you taken off from work? Is this typical?"

I'll be following the answers posted on the ABA Journal website and their Facebook page, and I'm interested to see if responders speak of "priorities" and "sacrifices" as has been the theme thus far.

The ABA Journal recently picked up a Texas Lawyer article by coach and psychologist James Dolan on the fantasy of achieving a perfect "work-life balance." While Dolan's article is thoughtful and hints that finding this balance requires some introspection into the meaning and purpose of one's life, the ABA Journal's distillation is flat and trite. The article reduces his advice to "work toward a schedule that allows personal and family time, knowing that sacrifices have to be made on one side or the other."

You may have heard of the catastrophic pipe failure near Boston over the weekend that required millions of area residents and businesses to boil water used for drinking, cooking, and food preparation. I live in one of the affected communities, and while the precautions were inconvenient, my family made it through just fine.