Thanksgiving is around the corner and I thought a little list of things a young lawyer should be thankful for is appropriate. I am thankful for the following:

1. That for a period of four days over the holiday, I will not have to account for my day in 6 minute increments. But if I had to, I could see my timesheet reading something like this:

a. .8 – Waiting for Turkey Day dinner to start, but sneaking pieces of white meat while mom is not looking.

b. 1.5 – Dinner with family.

c. .5 – Nap.

d. .3 – Eating dark meat.

e. .2 – Regretting eating so much at dinner.

f. .5 – Eating dessert.

2. For those legal mentors that give you wise and useful advice, even when you don’t ask for it. Usually they are right, even if you don’t want to hear it at that very moment.

3. Pleading Causes of Action in Maryland – I am thankful each and every time I draft a complaint that I can consult this publication.

4. The Daily Record for starting this blog, in which young lawyers in Maryland now have a forum to discuss being a young lawyer in Maryland.

5. Lexis Nexis and Westlaw – legal research was probably a little tougher when you had to use books.

6. Good staff – a wise attorney once told me that once you find a good legal assistant, paralegal, or secretary, do whatever you can to make sure they stay with you. Some attorneys don’t know all of the little things that the staffers do on your behalf.

7. Holiday gift baskets – the period of time after Thanksgiving, where baskets magically appear in your office kitchen and you find yourself eating olives stuffed with gorgonzola at 3:30 in the afternoon.

8. Colleagues that are friends – we spend so much time in our offices, these are the people that help us solve problems, from how to proceed with a case to whether going to Indian buffet for lunch is a good idea.

9. The MSBA Identification card that lets me bypass the line into most Circuit and District Courts in Maryland. Whenever I use it, I feel special and in the back of my head, I think I have finally made it as an attorney.

10. That last legal victory, whether a favorable jury verdict, a motion granted, or a case settled to the benefit of your client. It’s nice when all of your hard work concludes in a win for your client.

These are just a small listing of things that I am thankful for. What are yours?

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In about three weeks I will “celebrate” my three year anniversary as a member of the Maryland bar.  It’s been an exciting three years colored with a great deal of adversity, a good amount of success, and a little bit of failure.  Thankfully, the good has easily outweighed the bad and I am finally reaching the point where I am satisfactorily comfortable with the practice of law (you know, the one thing they don’t really teach you in law school).

As the Thanksgiving Holiday has approached I’ve spent a good amount of time reflecting on my journey to this point in time.  It’s amazing to think that what started out as an excuse to indulge in more higher education has blossomed into what I hope will be a life-long career representing those injured by the carelessness of others.

However, and to use a too often used cliche, it hasn’t always been a stroll in the park.  There have been those times, both during and after law school, where I felt deflated, overwhelmed, and defeated (which really is par for the course).  Through an incredible support group, though, I was able to pull through to the point where I am today; ready to take on the world!

To keep with the holiday spirit I’d like to use this space to thank those who have put up with my work-related stress and drama over the past years and to thank those who have played a part in helping me get to this awesome point in my career.  In Grammy-acceptance-speech-fashion, I apologize in advance to anyone I inadvertently left off this list. Read the rest of this entry »

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Earlier this week, I attended a Risk/Loss Prevention seminar presented by CNA, an insurance carrier that provides professional liability coverage.  Honestly, I was not looking forward to attending this four-hour tutorial that I had predetermined to be a glorified Professional Responsibility class.

It was only going to reaffirm the idea that a member of the Attorney Grievance Commission was lurking behind every corner, waiting to sanction me for not promptly replying to my client’s 10th e-mail of the day.

To my surprise, the session proved to be quite insightful.  After the jump are a few tips and pieces of information that were offered to help attorneys protect themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

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I’m a generally organized person. I keep binders, folders and redwells of all of my cases, projects, blog ideas, and even reading lists. I have one major deficiency, though.

E-mail.

It is my nemesis. Don’t get me wrong—I like e-mail’s functionality. The fax machine is an antiquated device, basically useless compared to the quick and instantaneous e-mail. I can’t believe people still use them. E-mail is preferable to the telephone—it is quick, to the point, and you are only limited by how quickly you can read. For telephone conversations, you have so much chit-chat that you are really just wasting time with every call.

The problem with e-mail in my life is simply a matter of organization. As of this moment, I have 2,138 e-mails in my inbox. There is no way for me to know the majority of what is in there. Here is a rough approximation of my ever-evolving system of dealing with the e-mails: Read the rest of this entry »

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At last week’s Generation J.D. launch party, I was once again made aware of how small the Maryland legal community is and how your reputation precedes you.  During normal chit chat with other fellow happy hour launch participants, I became reacquainted with a woman that I used to play indoor soccer with many years ago (back when I was a much younger and much more athletic young lawyer).

During the course of conversation, I met her husband, also an attorney, who I had handled cases with and against, but ironically, never met.  Her husband had just arrived at the happy hour after spending the day in Anne Arundel Circuit Court with a partner at my law firm, jointly arguing for a temporary restraining order.  He was filling in for one of his partners, who I went to law school with.

The reason that I am going to great length to discuss this random confluence of relationships between lawyers that I know, centers on the idea that, as a young lawyer in Maryland, there are only a few degrees of separation between you and the rest of the bar.  Think about it – you are probably only a few degrees separated from the Honorable Chief Judge Robert Bell himself or opposing counsel or the Circuit Court Judge that will be hearing your motion on Tuesday.  And with such a small degree of separation, everyone knows your name.

Are you that attorney that refuses to grant extensions?  Are you the one that refuses to call opposing counsel back?  Maybe you’re the one that has the rules of evidence memorized or the lawyer that always has legal research to support any arguments presented?  Whatever it is, your reputation is who you are as an attorney.  And your reputation starts on Day One.

Remember that the next time you plan to use scorched Earth tactics against opposing counsel or when you will oppose an extension of time.  Protect your reputation and it will serve you for the rest of your legal career.

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Alright, alright…so I know we technically started Generation JD on Tuesday, October 27 in conjunction with the launch of our new Web site, but last night you could say we “officially” got things underway.

We held a launch party/happy hour at the B&O Restaurant in downtown Baltimore (pictured) where the state’s young lawyer crowd came together to eat, drink, schmooze and meet our Generation JD writers and Daily Record staff.

We had a great time and we hope you come back here to get your fix of legal analysis/commentary from our talented writers.

When is it okay to not call a Judge, ‘Your Honor‘? Should cell phones be allowed in the courtroom? And what is the best way to organize a trial binder (hat tip: John Cord). Those are a just a few of the posts that have already been submitted.

Enjoy and Happy Reading!

(Top row, left to right) Michael Siri, Ryan S. Perlin, John Cord (Bottom row, left to right) Allie Wright, Lila Shapiro-Cyr, Rob Erdman (Missing from photo: Keith Forman)

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