Author: JMF

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Starting a Law Firm | Online fax resources for lawyers

While doing the due diligence and trying to set up faxing services for my law firm, I law firm fax number - Solo in Minneapolisdiscovered a nifty little comparison website for online faxing for lawyers.  Great!

I wanted to share my find with readers of this legal blog.

The fax comparison website is aptly titled www.faxcompare.com.  Cool!

The comparison site does a really nice job summarizing different pricing options for online or “e-fax” services.  I had heard of E-Fax and they do a really nice job advertising themselves.  The E-Fax service also looks great.  The problem?  It’s more expensive than its competitors.  It pays to do a little research.

I ended up choosing Extreme Fax – mainly because it appears to offer the most and it is cheap.  I don’t send a lot of faxes, but I have found that many attorneys either (a) do or (b) expect you to have a fax number.

I have also noticed that many online directories and websites that I have been signing up for have requested fax numbers for my new firm.  I was getting tired of saying “I don’t have one.”  It was kind of embarrassing.

Anyway, go check out the online fax comparison site.  I locked in a year’s worth of faxing for about $50.00.  If I use the service all the time there is likely going to be a cost; however, I don’t anticipate using it all that much.  Scanning and emailing is so much more efficient.  Yet, some curmudgeonly attorneys want to fax stuff to me.  Now they can.

Happy faxing!

 

 

-This post was written by Joseph M. Flanders, a Apple Valley MN lawyer who practices in the areas of family law and estate planning.

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Starting a Law Firm? | The Future of Law Practice and a Takeaway from the ABA Techshow

Great post by lawyer David Bilinsky on his blog Thoughtful Legal Management about the use of technology and the future of the law practice.

As a practicing family law attorney, I understand much of what Mr. Bilinsky is trying to say.  I do wonder, however, whether many lawyers are simply resistant to change because they are too set in their ways.

I invite you to go read the post and add your thoughts.  I don’t have a great deal to add other than the post is very interesting and though provoking.  I remember talking with another lawyer in a courtroom, lawyers-lounge a couple of years ago.  The lawyer was telling me all about how the IPad would revolutionize how he practices law.  I sat there doe-eyed as he discussed schedule management, billing, document storage, etc.  He said he could do all of this straight from the IPad.  At the time, I was a little taken-aback and skeptical.  Now, I laugh at my nievity.

I’m not saying that technology is the answer or that it is evil incarnate.  I’m just saying that the practice of law is undeniably changing and I’m not sure if it is for better or worse.

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Starting a Law Firm | The Benefits of CLE?

I think the basis and general idea of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) is great.  CLE is meant to be an opportunity for lawyers to hone their craft, learn new skills, and get updates on changes in the law.  However, too many CLE sessions, in my humble opinion, are simply opportunities for presenters to promote what they do while, simultaneously, giving lawyers a break from day-to-day work in a place where they can play games of grab-ass ( otherwise known as networking).

I apologize for the whining.

I attended a CLE today that I was really looking forward to.  Lots of great presenters.  Great looking names.  Cool topics.  The works.  I got to the CLE this morning with my notepad ready to be filled and with a mind open to obtaining new knowledge.  Yet, after a day of taking very few notes and listening to presenters drone on about trial rules which haven’t changed appreciably in ten years and case law that I have already read, I feel a little jaded.

I did pick up a few tidbits about things which I could do better and which might help my practice.  That may be worth the price of admission by itself.  However, I don’t really think so.

Perhaps we aren’t meant to absorb much in the actual CLE sessions, but, instead, read over the copious amounts of material given out at a later time.  I’ll buy that.  However, one questions why all-day CLE sessions are even necessary.  Why not just give us all a snippet and tell us to go read the information ourselves?

Here is the thing:  I like learning.  I like expanding my knowledge in a particular area of law. What I don’t like is being dissapointed consistently with dull presentations which go nowhere.  Now, I’m not saying all CLE’s are bad. Some CLE’s I have taken have been very, very good.  Yet, in my experience, those occasions are more the exception than the rule.

Perhaps the answer to this conundrum is for me to stop complaining and come up with an awesome CLE presentation of my own – one that defies all expectations.  I guess I’ll have to get working on that.

I am interested in knowing what other people’s experiences with CLE has been?  Am I jaded, or does everybody have a similar experience?  Feel free to comment.

 

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LSAT Test Taker Numbers Continue to Drop

As reported by the New York Times, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is reporting that there has been a 16% drop in the number of LSAT test-takers from the previous year.  That drop represents a decade low according to the Law School Admissions Counsel.

According to the Times:

The Law School Admission Council reported that the LSAT was given 129,925 times in the 2011-12 academic year. That was well off the 155,050 of the year before and far from the peak of 171,514 in the year before that. In all, the number of test takers has fallen by nearly 25 percent in the last two years.

Those are some pretty interesting numbers.

No doubt, the drop in the number of test-takers can be directly tied to the recent recession and the news of student’s suing their law schools for false employment data reporting.

My two cents?  I’m not at all surprised.

My wife asked me the other day if I would talk to one of the children of someone she works with about being a lawyer and going to law school.  The first thing I did was frown and say, “I hope she isn’t another liberal arts major that doesn’t know what else to do with her life.”  (Ok, I’ll admit to being a cynic and rather negative at times.  I’ll also admit that I was that liberal arts major).

However, I was speaking with a local judge in Minnesota recently about practicing law, starting a law practice, and, in general, being a lawyer.  It was a great, lawyer-to-lawyer, conversation.  I don’t have them all the time, but I enjoy the chance to speak with a good lawyer about what the law means to them.

We talked about many things related to practicing law.  The judge had been a solo lawyer for a while, he had been a public defender, and then he became a judge.  He talked about how he enjoyed nearly every aspect of the being a lawyer – no matter in what capacity.  His candor to me was refreshing.

The judge also made a statement that many people ask him “should my son or daughter go to law school?”  After all “isn’t there a lot of competition?”  His response?  If you like the law and you want to be a lawyer, yes, of course, I would recommend law school.

I smiled and nodded.  I don’t know if I would give the same answers to people who ask me if their son or daughter should go to law school.  I hope I would.  However, I knew what the judge meant.

The law is a service profession.  There is much joy in it if you like learning, having an active mind, enjoy competition, and like helping people.  It was the judge’s life work – his ministry, if you will.

So, I am thinking that maybe it isn’t the lawyer part that is bad.  Instead, it is the misconception that I think people have about what law school and being a lawyer means.  People shouldn’t think of it as a means to an end.  The law is the means.

Being a lawyer won’t make you happy if you are in it for the money or prestige or whatever reason you have.  You should only take the LSAT and go to law school if you want to be a lawyer.  If you don’t know what that means, I suggest you go intern a while and figure it out before you make the financial and life-altering leap that is going to law school.

 

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Starting a Law Firm | Questions about creating a law firm website

I’ve posted on the topic of creating a law firm website on several occassions already on this blog.  However, the lawyer website posts continue to be some of the most visited and frequently asked about posts.  So, here is another one!

New Jersey lawyer Jennifer B. Barr Swift sent me an email yesterday and asked for help with her law firm website.  I was more than happy to oblige and try to answer some questions.  I have spent an inordinately large amount of time designing websites and blogs in the past year.  (Probably because I was/am still waiting to be licensed to practice law in in the state I now live in).

Her questions are common to many I have been asked by other lawyers.  I asked permission from her to post her question and my answers.  I hope they help some people who are trying to start a law firm and design their own lawyer website.

I read your blog about starting a law firm web site, which was quite helpful because I am trying to do the same.  I hope you were serious about your offer to lend a hand with creating a web site, because I do have some questions . . . .

I already registered a domain name, but I haven’t chosen a host yet.  I think I’m leaning towards either GoDaddy or iPage, both of which seem to be easy to work with a Word Press theme.

I have chosen (but not purchased) the Elegant Theme Premium Word Press themes, because they do look very nice.

So, what do I need to do to now?  Do I sign up with a host, install the free Word Press software (which I believe is available through the host), then buy the theme?  Am I ready to start editing then, or do I also need the Photoshop software (which is about $300 from what I can tell).  Also, for the Elegant Themes, the price is about $40 per year; if I don’t renew after the year do I lose the theme and thus my web site?

Your web site is very nice – great job!

Below is my response:

Thank you for the email and questions.  I actually love getting these types of questions from other lawyers.  I’ve been amazed at what the blog has done for me in terms of talking with other lawyers throughout the U.S.

. . .

(1) I would choose Hostgator.com for your website hosting.  The plans are flexible and, best of all, affordable.  A year-long plan is something around $67.00 after discounts.  I haven’t found anybody else that cheap.  I used Winhost.com and they were a disaster.  Bad service, bad support. Additionally, since you are asking for my help, I can be more specific on what to do because I know how to use Hostgator’s software and user-interface.  Hostgator installs WordPress very, very easily.  It’s almost as easy as the click of a button.

(2)  I’m assuming you sign up for Hostgator, but I would guess that most of the hosts have compatible software.

(a)  After you pay for the hosting service, they sign you up for a thing called “cPanel”.  cPanel is simply their user interface.

(b)  In cPanel you can go to “QuickInstall” and, from there, click on “install WordPress.”

(c) The hosting service will then install WordPress, give you a password and a user name, and point you towards a log-in screen.  You log in and you now have a WordPress website.  It will look very plain and have the WordPress 2010 theme on it.

(d) Now, go to the WordPress “dashboard” in the upper-left-corner. In the WordPress dashboard you need to locate the area on the left hand side of the dashboard called “Appearance” and, from there “Themes”.  Once you are in themes, you will want to find the button called “upload theme.”

(e) Assuming you can get this far, you now need to purchase a theme.  You said you were going to use Elegant Themes.  Elegant Themes has many different themes to choose from.  Assuming you sign up and pay for the service, you pick a theme and then download the files to your computer.  They will be in a ZIP folder.  Leave them in the ZIP folder and remember where they are on your computer.

(d) Open up you WordPress dashboard again, click upload theme, and find the Elegant Theme ZIP folder on your computer.  Upload it and then click “activate”.  You should now have you own theme and website!

(3)  I don’t know what happens if you stop paying for Elegant Themes.  I don’t think you would lose your website as the files are on your computer.  However, I don’t really know the answer to this question.  If you are nervous about it, I suggest you choose a one-time payment theme option like Thesis, Woo Themes, or Theme Forest.  My two-cents is that $39.00 is so small that it doesn’t really matter.

(4)  Don’t buy photoshop software.  You don’t need it.  If you really want to edit photos, there are plenty of free services.   I use Paint.net and Photoscape.  Both are free and both are great.  There is a learning curve, but it’s free so who cares?  Google either one of those names, find them, and download them.  If you don’t like them you can simply delete them from your computer.  Also, I get most of my images from Stck.xchng.  You have to sign up to use the images, but most of them are free (although you may have to give the photographer credit).  I don’t pay for any images.  But, I should warn you that you can’t just take images off the internet.  You have to use images that have been approved for free use.  If you want to know more about this, please ask.

(5) Designing the website and including content is, obviously, solely at your discretion.  Designing the logo is a bit tough and I’m no expert; however, I think it’s fun.  Adding content is fairly easy as well.  However, every “theme” has its own way of uploading pictures and content.  You’ll have to play with it.

 

Finally, there is a learning curve to all of this.  It takes time.  I’ve screwed it all up enough times that I know how to make it work.  If you want specific help with anything, please ask.  I enjoy this stuff.

Good luck.

I hope that helps answers questions people may have.  As I’ve stated, I’m no expert and all of this takes time.  However, building your own website is not that difficult.

For anyone who is interested, you can find my website at www.flanderslawfirm.com.

If others have questions or would simply like some help, please email me at jflanders@flanderslawfirm.com.  Seriously, I’ll email you back.

 

 

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Starting a Law Firm | The Law School Bubble

I recently began receiving the ABA Journal as a card carrying member of the ABA.  I find this mildly amusing given that I didn’t begin receiving anything from the ABA – outside of CLE advertisements – until I started my own law practice.  If I get one thing out of being a solo lawyer, at least the ABA thinks I’m worthy of receiving a free copy of their magazine.

In the March, 2012 issue, the journal had some very interesting letters to the editor.  The letters were in regard to the so-called “law school bubble.”  For those who don’t know, the law school bubble refers to the notion that there are too many law school, too many lawyers, and too high tuition.  In essence, the argument that is taking place goes something like this:  because there are not enough lawyer jobs, law schools who charge high tuition are not creating a viable return on investment for the students attending the schools.

One letter in particular really grabbed my attention:

The ABA is a major contributing cause to the continually shrinking job market for attorneys.  It makes me sick every time I read that there has been a new admission of 300 attorneys in Kentucky in the past six months.  Not only is there no place for these new attorneys to work but the are driving down the salaries of more experienced attorneys who have to compete with them . . .

Good points, all.  However, I wonder, is it true that law school tuition has raised at such an exorbitant rate in comparison to national salaries, or is the recent recession to blame?

So I did a little research. Check out law school tuition statistics from 1985 to 2009 at private and public law schools as reported by the ABA. If you look at the statistics (and, no, I am not vouching for the source) the raise in tuition appears to be steady from a year-to-year basis for both public and private law schools.

In fact, since the recession began in or around 2007, private and public law school tuition has not risen significantly in terms of percentage from the previous year.  From the ABA’s date, it would appear that law school administrators are in fact aware of the recession and are considering tuition increases appropriately.

Now, you can certainly argue that just because tuition is not being raised doesn’t mean that there is no “law school bubble”.  However, it doesn’t appear that law schools have been entirely blind to the recession and the problems that it has created for law school graduates.

Students also have the opportunity to do a little research of their own before deciding whether their investment in law school is going to be a good decision for them.  Employment statistics are out there for people willing to look.  However, at lot has been made out of the fact that some law schools have allegedly skewed their post-graduation employment data.  Heck, even Congress is looking into it.  It is a big deal:

The ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has also been criticized for releasing post-law school statistics that are vague in terms of whether or not the employment is in the legal field, or if it is full or part-time. The ABA Section alleges that their future statistics will be more precise.

I will be the first to recognize that the allegations are alarming.  I would also like to be the first to posit:  maybe it’s not the law school, but, instead, society’s misconception about the value of a law degree?  Lying about employment statistics is one thing, failing to be aware of real job prospects is another.

I chose to go to a law school (University of North Dakota School of Law) that didn’t charge high tuition and who wasn’t hiding the fact that the legal job market wasn’t so good when I graduated.  Oddly, UND is not a “tier 1” law school according to the US News.   I didn’t pay a lot and I made a good salary when I graduated.  I felt like the investment was a good one.  My employers did not care at all where I went to law school – they looked at my grades, my employment record, and other standard “getting a job” related information.

My point here is that I made a choice to go to a less “prestigious” law school that charged a reasonable tuition.  The “ranking” of my law school has absolutely no affect on when I received a job and how much I was paid.  My employers didn’t care.  Why?  I would argue that it was because where I graduated from wasn’t important.  What was important is the person I was and my attitude about being a good lawyer.

In sum, I would argue that the recession has created a lot of problems for all kinds of people in all kinds of professions.  Lawyers are not alone in this.  I don’t feel sorry for myself that I’m a lawyer in a bad job market, instead, I do what I did in law school – I put my nose to the grindstone and start being proactive.  I certainly don’t blame the ABA or the law school system writ large when things go badly for me.

 

 

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Oath and Affirmation

Today, March 8, 2012, I took my attorney Oath and Affirmation before the Honorable Thomas Bibus, Judge of the First Judicial District, Goodhue County, State of Minnesota.  What a relief.

I haven’t posted on this blog since November of 2011.  Why?  Because I felt dishonest posting on a blog named “Solo in Minneapolis” when I wasn’t licensed in Minnesota.  You might say:  why didn’t you just blog somewhere else?  Well, I did.  I’ve been blogging as much as I can about family law, estate planning, and probate.  Go check out my blogroll if you care.

Ironically, the last post on this blog was about how, in order to practice law, you have to get through law school first.  I feel like I just went through some kind of right-of-passage which was akin to law school.  I have waited for nearly ten months to be able to actively practice law again.  I left Indiana in June of 2011, bummed around with my wife and new baby boy, and settled in Minnesota in August of 2011.  Due to complications with my bar exam and licensure, I was not able to apply for admission in the State of Minnesota until the end of October 2011.  After that, I waited, and waited, and waited.

Last week, on March 1, 2012, I received my notice letter that the Minnesota Board of Law Examiners had recommended to the Minnesota Supreme Court that I be admitted to practice law in the state.  Thank god.

For anybody out there who has been benched, sat-out-a-year, missed playing time, been hurt, struggled with depression, struggled with life, felt whipped, been tired of bureaucracy, I salute you.  I hope you made it through.  I did.  I don’t know what the world has in store for me, but I know I can move on.

I realized a few things:  (1) I really want to be a lawyer, (2) I’m stronger than I thought, (3) my son is awesome and I love spending time with him, (4) I have a lot to learn about life, the law, and the pursuit of happiness.  Now, hopefully, I can stick to my guns, feel good about my choice of occupation, and go out there and kick ass.

I’ll be posting here more often.  I missed my starting a law firm diary blog.  I’ll let you all know what I learn about being a good Minnesota lawyer.  I hope I can build up a readership again.  I was doing pretty well for awhile, but, alas, nobody visits my nonesense anymore.  I hope that changes.

I’ll part with this nugget:

I, Joseph Matthew Flanders, do swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and that of the State of Minnesota, and will conduct myself as an attorney and counselor at law, in an upright and courteous manner, to the best of my learning and ability, with all good fidelity as well to the court as to a client, and that I will use no falsehood or deceit, nor delay any person’s cause for lucre or malice, SO HELP ME GOD.

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Starting a Law Firm: You Have to Get Through Law School First

I can tell who reads the blog, where they come from, and what they were searching for when they find it.  The web is an amazing thing, but we should all be aware of how much our behaviour is monitored by sources we might not even understand.

One of the search terms that enabled somebody out there to find this blog today was “i’m going to fail law school.”  I don’t know how the heck my blog managed to rank for that search term, but it did.  However, I’m not very interested in why somebody found this blog using those search terms.  What I am interested in is that somebody must have been feeling a lot of pain when they typed those terms into a search engine.

I imagine that this person was not feeling too good about life.  I imagine that this person was wondering why they even chose law school in the first place  I remember what those feelings were like – I am not too far outside of those days.  I remember how scary it was.  I remember how I thought that I wasn’t meant to be a lawyer during my first year of law school. I remember it was really, really hard.

My first year of law school was an awful experience.  I wanted badly to be a good student and do well. I was reading the case law, I was participating in class, I was trying to stay on-top of things. I thought I was doing ok.  Then, I took my finals and I did horrible.  I got almost straight C’s my first semester of law school.  I was devastated.

The problem I had with law school at the beginning is that I approached it like I did my undergraduate education.  I thought I could just regurgitate the things I read and I would be ok.  However, I found out that I needed to be a little more analytical and active in my dissecting of case law and writing an great IRAC approved answer.  I also needed to grow up a little.

The point is that I didn’t do very well my first year and I really needed to change things:  my study habits, my attitutude, and my understanding of what I was reading.  I kept at it.  I became tenatious about learning.  I began to be more competitive.  I slowly became more analytical.  I learned how to dissect things.  Eventually, I became a good law student and learned how to “think like a lawyer.”  It was hard, but I did it.

So, if the student who got to this silly blog and is wondering what to do with his or her life because “they are going to fail law school”, I want them to know that many people had a difficult time with law school.  It isn’t easy.  You are not alone.  If you want to quit, fine, do it sooner rather than later.  If you don’t want to quit, get tenacious.  Start hustling.

For me, surviving law school is a lot like starting a law firm.  I am doing it because I have a drive to keep going and win even though it’s tough and I am sometimes afraid I’m not going to make it.

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I Went to Law School, Passed the Bar Exam, Now What?

I’m at a weird crossroads right now in my life.  Starting a law firm is taking up all my energy and – to be perfectly honest – it is beginning to stress me out.

To that end, I was forwarded an article by my uncle concerning how law schools are not teaching law students how to be lawyers which was in the November 19, 2011 edition of the New York Times.  My uncle said he found the article “interesting”.  I found it depressing.

These kinds of articles aren’t new.  They seem to pop up every few months.  My guess is that a reporter somewhere in the world had drinks with some lawyer sometime and the lawyer said something like:  “law school is a joke.”  Intrigued and looking for a scoop, the reporter then asks “why?”.  Later, we all get an article to read about how law schools don’t teach people to be practicing lawyers.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the public needs to be aware that law schools don’t teach their students how to be lawyers.  I worry quite a bit that some young lawyer will read this blog, decide they can start a law firm, and then go out and committ malpractice and screw up somebody’s life.  It might not even be this hypothetical person’s fault.  After all, they went to law school and took a ridiculous bar exam that doesn’t teach them one thing about being a good lawyer.

Ok, it’s not all doom-and-gloom.  A diligent, honest, and hard-working person can probably make it right out of law school.  I couldn’t have.  I’m not even sure I can now.  One of the mantras that keeps flloating through my mind is “I may fail.”  Luckily, I have a fallback in my wife if that happens.  Do you have a fallback?

Go read the NY Times piece if you want to wallow in the misery that is law school v. law practice.  Me, I’m going to take the four years or so I spent AFTER law school where I learned to be a practicing lawyer and I’m going to continue to get better and hone my skills. As the article so aptly points out:

To succeed in this environment, graduates will need entrepreneurial skills, management ability and some expertise in landing clients. They will need to know less about Contracts and more about contract.

“Where do these students go?” says Michael Roster, a former chairman of the Association of Corporate Counsel and a lecturer at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. “There are virtually no openings. They can’t hang a shingle and start on their own. Many of them are now asking their schools, ‘Why didn’t you teach me how to practice law?’ ”

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Starting a Law Firm: Checklists and Doing the Due Diligence

As I posted in the past, I have a lot of work to do before I (hopefully) get my Minnesota license to practice law.  I have a long, four month wait before my character and fitness investigation is completed.  I’ve finished most of what I can do and I am now in the waiting phase.  Thankfully, I have a lot to do before I get licensed and, to that end, I am doing my best to come up with a list of things to do before I hang-out-a-shingle and start a law firm.

Much of my work is focused on two things:  (1) gaining knowledge to ensure competency and (2) coming up with a marketing plan.

Starting a Law Firm Checklist

  1. Purchase and read practice related books and code on family law and estate planning in Minnesota.
  2. Purchase and read Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure.
  3. Conduct market research on family law and estate planning law firms in my community.
  4. Finish one website:  flanderslawfirm.com.
  5. Start and work on additional practice related website (more on this later).
  6. Research costs of office space.  This includes lease agreements for full-time office space arrangement as well as locating a potential virtual office site to meet with clients.
  7. Decide whether working out of home for first couple years is feasible and, if so, how to do it.
  8. Research approved bank accounts for business and IOLTA accounts
  9. Research and understand completely IOLTA trust account laws.  Ensure compliance with them.
  10. Come up with blogging/marketing schedule
  11. Talk to local attorney in practice area about possible mentoring relationship
  12. Go to courthouses, meet staff, introduce myself and ask lots of questions about filing, judges, the right and wrong way to do things, etc.
  13. Contact father-in-law (an computers specialist person) about antivirus, and firm computing protection devices
  14. Research online billing software and costs.  Or, do I want to simply use QuickBooks or other software?
  15. Research online receptionist and answering service.
  16. Contact phone company about separate fax and phone lines for (probable) home office.
  17. Make list of all potential referral resources and how to network with them.
  18. Research and find solo attorney resources in Minnesota and beyond.
  19. Re-read ethics rules.

The list could go on, but I hope that provides some help to any of you in the process. It might not be the best list, but it is something I can work on and grown from.  My goal is to fill in some of the information with options I have been looking at.  I’ll try and share them in a future post.

When working as an associate at my prior law firm, I realized early that planning, organization, and goals are everything.  Without a plan and execution, you are just fumbling in space (ok, maybe it is just me).  Making lists and setting goals helps me have plan of action that I can follow.

Now that you’ve seen mine, I’d love to see yours.  Does anybody have any resources or plans they have made that they wouldn’t mind sharing?  I showed you mine, you show me yours.