Attorney-Client Relationship
Why Do This Job?: Reflections on my 1,000th CLE Talk
Greetings from the Cordele, Georgia, Cracker Barrel. I am out and about and doing some client interviews today. Yesterday, I spoke to a group of law students about criminal defense. As is often the case, I was the only private practitioner on the panel. I am what is known in the biz as a “paid…
Read MoreIs This the Hill You Want to Die Defending?
There has been much ado about a controversy at Duke Divinity School. I will leave aside, for purposes of this blog the elements of race, gender and politics. Those articles and blog posts are being written. For a few paragraphs here, I want to discuss this controversy as an opportunity for a practice pointer when…
Read MoreHow We Interview Trial Counsel
Ineffective counsel claims are probably the least fun part of the job at the state level in Georgia. Unlike the Federal system, where an evidentiary hearing on an IAC claim is often left for habeas proceedings, Georgia IAC must be raised at the first available opportunity, or it is deemed to be waived. This system…
Read MoreStoicism and the Modern Lawyer
Marcus Aurelius seemed to know the modern lawyer (though he died centuries ago). See if you can identify with the following sentiment: Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of the ignorance of real good and ill… I can neither be harmed by any…
Read MoreHow We Close Cases in Our Office
Many of our cases take months or years to take from start to finish. But the way we finish is as important as how we start. I’ve written in a previous blog post that we take on cases with the knowledge that we will often be engaged in the process for quite some time. Direct…
Read MoreWhy Some Law Practices Struggle
I sometimes find myself having the same conversation with different colleagues several days in a row. It may be that my thoughts find their way into the conversation or that there are certain trends. It may be pure coincidence. In the most recent version of the repeating conversation phenomenon, I have heard colleagues complain about…
Read MoreGiving the Client a Voice in the Process
Yesterday, I took a drive out to the hinterlands to visit a habeas corpus client. I met up with a law school intern for the visit. During the time we spend together, the client what to know what he could do to assist in his case. Over the course of my career, my thinking has…
Read MoreThe Myth of Expertise
We just ended a bad week for experts. I was in Athens, Georgia, Saturday for a football game. Auburn was a 10.5 point favorite to win. It turns out that they did not even score 10 points, losing 13-7. Earlier last week, the presidential candidate whom most experts predicted to have somewhere between a 66% to 75%…
Read MoreBreaking into Appellate Law
A few days ago, a newly-minted attorney asked me about what it takes to become an appellate attorney. I was initially at a loss for an answer. I never exactly set out to do this for a living. In law school, I was quite sure that I would be a trial lawyer. Only now am…
Read MoreA Big Lesson From a Short Failed Race
On Monday, I stood at the start line of a hot, humid, and crowded 10k. Before then, I had done longer races, including a couple of half marathons and a full about seven months ago. And over the last three months I had been working with a coach to up my game. I had even begun…
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