I don’t “practice” law. I don’t work in a firm or prepare briefs, nor do I have any desire to ever set foot in a courtroom. In fact, I often tell people it was never my intention to become a lawyer when I went to law school. But I am a lawyer; I’m an advocate for my clients, albeit in a different setting. As a lobbyist, my job is to facilitate or prevent changes to the law that will benefit or hurt my clients.

I was a lobbyist before law school and went to law school basically to become a better, and presumably higher paid, lobbyist. Law school for me was one of those “I’ve always wanted to do this” things. When I found a career I enjoyed, I knew going to law school would make me a better professional and a better advocate.

And it did. I can say that it makes a difference. Legislators in Annapolis or their staffs (especially those who are JDs) find it a little easier to discuss a complex change they are trying to make to the Maryland Code if they know they are speaking to a lawyer.

Likewise, the confidence I gained through law school allows me to go toe-to-toe with other lawyer-lobbyists. I speak the language, you could say, and even though I don’t practice law in any traditional sense, being fluent (OK, let’s not kid myself – conversational) the language of the law is a very valuable thing.

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Multitasking at home or in the office has pretty much become an accepted part of life. Many job descriptions even include “ability to multitask” among the requirements for the position, and it’s generally thought of as good and helpful skill.

But a local management consultant says multitasking is not a good thing.

Jodi Daniels says that despite the fact that it has become professionally acceptable to multitask at work, multitasking does not lead to a more effective workforce or product. Even though employers and employees may think that they are getting more work done, work quality suffers because an employee who multitasks essentially is a distracted employee. In fact, Daniels says, the better a person thinks they are at multitasking, the worse they actually are at it.

I have mixed feelings about multitasking but I mostly agree with Daniels. As far as taking on certain tasks at the same time, I have found that regardless of how good I actually am at it (and I’m pretty sure I’m not), I just don’t like it. One of the big ones for me is the phone: that is, talking on the phone while I’m on the computer or checking my phone during face-to-face conversations. I just don’t feel like I can give my attention to both tasks and I don’t like doing it. Plus, we’ve all been in the situation where someone is doing this to us. It’s usually fairly obvious they’re doing it and, depending on the situation, it can get annoying.

But it can be difficult to force yourself to concentrate on one thing at a time, especially if you have a lot to do or if certain things on your to-do list are more routine tasks that don’t necessarily require your full attention.

In some ways I like multitasking. It’s always been easier for me to get things done when I have a lot on my plate. I can move on to another project for a bit if I hit a tough spot in the project I’m working on so I never feel “stuck”, so to speak.

How do you feel about multitasking? Do you have any tips for doing it successfully?

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If someone told me when I was a senior in college that I would go to law school, I would have said that that person was crazy.

Some attorneys knew at a young age that they wanted to practice law. Others, like myself, acquired the “esquire” title via the Robert Frost route.

I moved to New York City after graduating college, first working at a design studio alongside out-of-work actors while selling my family’s mushrooms (we have the last commercial mushroom farm in New York) at the Greenmarket on Saturdays to supplement my income as I continued to look for full-time employment.

I ended up taking the New York real estate licensing exam and became a baby agent minnow in the shark tank of Manhattan commercial real estate, which became a crash course in life lessons. In 2008, when the market turned, I rode back home on the mushroom truck, resumed my seasonal garden business and began to regroup.

I thought graduate school would be a good way to wait out the economy and, while I loved my major, it wasn’t tremendously marketable on its own. I reasoned that a law degree would create the widest spectrum of opportunity, not only in the way of building analytical and critical thinking skills but also because when you pass the bar, you are able to do a variety of things that you could not without your license.

Given my less-than-traditional path, I have found that most prospective employers aren’t quite sure how to handle my resume. “So, you started a garden design business, majored in international agriculture and rural development, worked as a commercial real estate agent, then law school, and now you’re telling me you want to practice transactional law?” [Cue Desi Arnaz: Justine, you got some 'splainin to do!] At times, even I struggle with explaining my varied path.

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The legal profession is notorious for demanding your full and complete devotion, sometimes every waking hour of every day. As full-time lawyer and a mother of two young children with an amazingly supportive husband, sometimes I feel like I am not doing enough in the mothering department.

Work-life balance debates and societal expectations aside, though, I think it is the kids’ perspective that counts the most. What matters to me is that my kids are happy, healthy, safe and that they know that I love them.

My daughter made a fill-in the blank “All About My Mom” letter in school earlier this week.  She left it on my keyboard at home, because she knew that was the first place I would look when I got home. The whole thing was adorable, but a couple of her answers really stuck out to me:

My mom always tells me: “I love you.”

It makes my mom happy when: she sees us. 

I love my mom because: she’s so sweet.

As long as that is her perspective, I must be doing something right. And that is good enough for me.

(Photo: Crazy Yet Wise)

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Sometimes you need to let the battery on your smartphone die in order to recharge your own personal batteries.

Being the father of two young (and often very crazy) boys, I want them to have different experiences and adventures. Sometimes it means simply schlepping them to a tee-ball game on a Thursday afternoon and others times it means buying and pitching a tent in the great outdoors.

As a child of parents that worked long hours to make sure there was a roof over our heads and food on the table (my parents owned a Thai carryout and a 24-hour convenience store, so they were always working), I do not recall many vacations or away weekends. (To this day, both of my parents work weekends and are the hardest working people that I know.) Luckily, I have more flexibility with my schedule.

In the last few months, I have taken the position that the Siri family needs to be more “outdoorsy.” Keep in mind that, prior to this decision, I had slept outdoors a total of two nights in my life. My idea of being “outdoors” usually involves a sand wedge or a running trail. However, camping appealed to me. I have always imagined myself being one with nature.  Still, various questions ran through my head: How much food would I have to bring? What if it rains?  How would I charge my iPhone?

Being the overly neurotic attorney-type that I am, I took a six-hour course from REI intended for back-country camping, where you would have to bring your food supplies, carry them on your back and hike to find water and a place to stay. I bought a tent and put it up more than once in my backyard to make sure I could it when the time came. I was thoroughly prepared for a couple of nights of car camping outside of Frederick.

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Email and social media have their place in today’s world but what about their place at law firms? Many of us take the ease and convenience of email for granted but some law firms have started to lock attorneys’ access to their personal email from their work computers.

The reason behind blocking personal email was not that attorneys were distracted but rather security concerns. Certain law firms thought that employees might accidentally click on an email containing a virus, which in turn could wreak havoc on the office’s entire system. There are other theories/reasons why a firm or other place of business might block its employees email, including privacy and liability reasons.

I have also heard of offices blocking websites, such as Facebook, and I am not sure of the rationale behind this practice. I understand blocking certain sites for security reasons, but it seems that the reasons for blocking other sites (Facebook) would be more related to productivity.

I generally think it is OK for employees to have access to their personal email unless there are some serious security issues. I wonder how effective the law firms that have blocked personal email have found this practice and what the employees think about it.

Does blocking personal email lead to attorneys and other employees using their work email for personal matters more frequently? If attorneys are given cell phones through the firm, I would imagine they would still be able to check their personal email through the phones. (This also goes for Facebook and other websites.) Attorneys will still be able to access these sites via cell phones, so is it worth it to block these sites if the only concern is productivity?

What do you think? Is it a good idea for employers to block personal email and certain websites on work computers?

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