It’s the time of year to review all that has happend in the last 12 months. Everything from McCain stating that the fundamentals of the economy are strong on the morning Lehman Brothers declared bankrutpcy to the Olympics. Here are some of the year in reviews:
21 Dumbest Moments in Business 2008
The Year in Pictures - these are enjoyable
And a survey of predictions on things to come in 2009. Take it and let’s review in a year.
Happy New Year from PhiLAWdelphia and all the best in 2009!
Merry Christmas to all and enjoy the upcoming holiday break (for those of use who are fortunate to get Friday off too)!
It’s definitely not the most normal of times in which we live. You need only pick up The Legal Intelligencer to see news just about every other day of firms laying off significant numbers of staff, including attorneys (Great Christmas present, right?). Other firms have instituted hiring freezes. Many third year law students don’t yet have jobs, and some who had offers have found them either rescinded or altered. It doesn’t exactly instill a lot of confidence in the state of the legal market.
But we’ve gone through tough times before. Things always rebound, and firms will eventually start hiring folks soon. Sure, that’s little solace for folks who are jobless. Give it some time, though, and things’ll get better.
It’s a difficult question that most of face annually at work this time of year. No, not how many more hours do you need to bill the rest of the year to make your quota. Rather, what do you get your secretary (and other support staff) for the holidays?
There’s never an easy answer or even basic guideline that applies to all. Each person’s secretarial situation is different. Some attorneys have two secretaries who work part time. Others have a secretary in name only and must do most of their work themselves.
I have run the gamut at my firm in terms of secretarial situations, starting off with two secretaries, then having secretaries who felt pressured to do the work of the sharing senior attorney, to having a part time secretary who worked four days a week, to finally having a full time secretary for the past four and a half years. It’s been rather pleasure to have a secretary who is extremely competent and helps me get my work done properly. In speaking to some friends, I know that others are not quite as fortunate. As such, I always have to make sure that the holiday present properly reflects my gratitude.
So here are my own personal guidelines I’ve used in terms of secretarial and support staff gifts:
· Check with peers in the office – I ask my friends in the office in similar secretarial situations on what they give, and that provides a nice starting point range. But make sure to ask those in very similar situations, rather than just anyone in the office. Some of my firm’s satellite offices, due to the smaller size and closer relationship, have developed their own gift guidelines that apply only to that office.
· Don’t get shown up – Try, if possible, to coordinate with an attorney who shares your secretary and figure a price range of the present. You can even possibly do a joint present to keep things fair. Otherwise, you may find yourself giving a “lesser” present, inadvertently hurting your secretary’s feelings and having less work done for you.
· Keep first time gifts conservative – If you’ve just started at your firm, as I did when I was a first year, or if you’ve only started your secretarial relationship in the past couple of months, give a fair but not excessive gift. Something around $50 or so would be considered more than fair, in my opinion, for such a new relationship.
· Increase, and never decrease, the amount of the gift through the years – You can always increase the amount of the gift, but you really can’t decrease it as time goes by. If you find out after a year or so that your relationship with your secretary is not terrific, but you’ve already set a bar of $100 holiday gifts, then you’re stuck with giving at least that.
· Ask your secretary for ideas – It doesn’t hurt to ask your secretary for ideas for presents that she (ignoring, for our purposes, the less than one percent of secretaries who are male) would want. Feel free, though, to ignore suggestions such as Jimmy Choo shoes, Dolce & Gabbana handbags, diamond jewelry from Tiffany’s, etc., unless you really, really owe your secretary big time.
· Thoughtful gifts are good, gift certificates are almost as good – I have not always been a proponent for providing cash or gift certificates as presents for weddings or for secretaries. Still, it’s not always easy to find something specific for your secretary that she will definitely appreciate. So, while it’s not exactly the most creative gift idea ever, a gift certificate serves the purpose of giving your secretary a chance to buy exactly what she wants. You can even pick the specific store (e.g., Macy’s, Sephora, One Liberty Place) so long as your secretary can and would go there.
So that’s what I consider for getting my secretary a Christmas present. I get my law clerks presents as well, albeit on a lesser scale. I would love to hear other ideas for presents for secretaries. And for those shopping for me, I will be happy to e-mail my wish list.
I promise a break from the PSAs soon, but this is an important issue that relates to law. A VeloNews column, Legally Speaking with Bob Mionske – The real daily distraction, outlines the complexity of people’s frustration with criminal laws when cyclist are injured by automobiles.
What is interesting is that Mionske printed a letter from a district attorney who declined to prosecute a driver whose car killed a cyclist in Kansas. The DA included a copy of Kansas case law. The column noted,
[o]ne of the elements that is needed to prove vehicular homicide is a ‘material deviation’ from the standard of care that that a reasonable person would observe under the same circumstances. While the Kansas Supreme Court has indeed said that this ‘material deviation’ requires something more than simple negligence, it has also been quite clear that gross negligence is not required—a material deviation falls somewhere in between.
Mionske posed the question to his readers of how the law should be applied to those who are “distracted” by cell phones, putting on make up, using GPS devices, texting, reading papers, etc. and posted replies from readers who were both lawyers and non-lawyers.
When you are driving, let the telephone call go to voicemail and wait until the car is parked to return the call. Just because someone texts you does not mean you have to give an immediate response. Until drivers wilfully make an effort to be less distracted, cyclists, pedestrians, pets, children and those in other motor vehicles continue to be in avoidable danger.
I noticed something the other day that further confirms a sign of the times. I have a Facebook social networking account (just like I have MySpace and LinkedIn accounts as well). For those unfamiliar with the mechanism of site, one of the features is the ability to “tag” one’s posted photos with the links to the Facebook sites of the persons in the picture.
So what was noticeable was not just the sheer numbers of folks who are in their late 20s and early to mid 30s who now have accounts. What I found really remarkable was that for a lot of posted photos on my account or my friends’ accounts, just about everyone who appeared in photos was “tagged” to their own Facebook accounts. In other words, a great deal of my friends who I see around (including many fellow YLD Executive Committee members) and are in photos with all are on Facebook.
Of course, the big problem with the digital age is that people can get a little too carefree about what is posted on personal sites without considering the impact. More and more, potential employers are “Googling” candidates and checking out what’s on their social networking sites. I have a friend pushing for a new job in the President-elect’s administration, which is using a pretty extensive vetting process. One of the much-discussed questions is whether a candidate maintains a blog, Facebook, MySpace or other related pages. Another one of the questions on the 7 page / 63 question long questionnaire that may impact a lot of folks is whether there are any embarrassing emails that exist from the past 10 years. I think most people I know probably would have something to report for that question.
Certainly, neither the maintenance of such a site nor the existence of such an e-mail would be an automatic disqualifier. And it’s hard to imagine staffers perusing every single site. Still, those of us out there who are young professionals who are interested in government jobs or even seeking other places of employment may be wise to clean up our sites of potentially-embarrassing pictures or posts (and request others to remove certain photos of you from their respective sites as well). For a more concrete example, see the discomfort that the future White House director of speech writing currently faces for certain photos. . .
I already wrote about this on PhiLAWdelphia, but in light of the articles in local papers about a young lawyer who is struggling and is currently in jail and the fact that a lot of people struggle around the holidays, I thought I should write about it again.
If you or someone you know needs help, call Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers at 1-888-999-1941.
LCL is an assistance program which offers confidential help to lawyers, judges, and their family members. LCL was incorporated in 1988 by recovering lawyers and judges to assist their colleagues struggling with substance abuse and addiction. LCL is a comprehensive assistance program designed to meet the unique needs of lawyers, judges and their family members who are struggling with:
Support is provided by a network of Volunteer lawyers and judges from around the Commonwealth, other states, Canada, and Great Britain. These Volunteers are the foundation of LCL. Many of the Volunteers have been assisting colleagues for over 30 years. You do not have to be a lawyer to call on behalf of a lawyer or judge.
LCL has NO connection with the Disciplinary Board, Judicial Conduct Board, Board of Law Examiners, or the Pennsylvania Bar Association regarding the identity of those they help.
Calling Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers could be what saves someones career or even their life.
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