When I was a kid, I ate up mysteries. I collected code and cipher books, had an Apple Jacks decoder, read every Sherlock Holmes story I could find and played both Clue and Master Detective Clue (I was always Professor Plum). As a child, it was exciting to solve the whodunit, to role play mysteries with friends and to live vicariously through the great detectives. Other fictional role models included The Three Investigators (the stories had the coolest titles — “The Mystery of the Screaming Clock”) and, I’m a little embarrassed to say, The Bobbsey Twins.

As my friends know, I’m a science-fiction fanatic. With “Star Trek” off the television airwaves, I’ve had to find enjoyment elsewhere. I’ve come to know and love the British series Doctor Who and recently discovered that one of the writers of Doctor Who also created a modern spin on Sherlock Holmes for the BBC.

I’m a little late to the game — I started last week with season two (it airs Sunday nights on PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery!). I watched the first episode of the season and highly recommend it. (Nerdy sci-fi note: the actor who plays Sherlock in the BBC production is also cast in the next “Star Trek” movie. Reports are that he will play Kirk’s (original timeline) nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh).

It got me thinking about the how our profession is like a mystery story. For personal injury lawyers, many cases are about unfolding mysteries. Sure, there are some garden variety automobile accidents, but almost every case brings something interesting to the table. I’ve found defendants through Facebook, surveyed hours of MTV video footage to identify the events surrounding a crowd crush incident and pored through tens of thousands of pages of documents to identify corporate wrongdoing. Particularly in the beginning, when that new phone call comes in and the facts need to be pieced together to determine if something actionable happened. It’s a thrill.

The thing about mysteries is that they are not usually as sexy in real life. Rarely solved through Holmesian deduction, they require methodical plodding and fact-checking. One of the smartest and most effective lawyers I know was an investigative journalism major — his depositions are a wonder to behold. The key in this line of work is to keep pushing, to keep asking questions and to accumulate as much data as possible. That’s how crimes get solved.

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On the heels of my last post, I had to take advantage of some of that solo flexibility I was talking about. Our youngest daughter, 17 months old, came home early from daycare two weeks ago with a fever and then spent a Thursday and Friday home with Daddy. She’s a late bloomer as far as teeth are concerned — we are just now seeing an onslaught of incisors — and we initially thought the fever was related to teething. But then we noticed the blisters and spots, so we made an appointment with our pediatrician.

Apparently, the ominous-sounding hand, foot and mouth disease had struck our little girl. The doctor told us that she would likely be fine by Monday and, as long as the blisters were gone, she wouldn’t be infectious and could return to daycare (meaning also that Daddy could return to his daily routine).

Some new law grads sometimes ask me what I think about working from home. I thought about that option before I went solo, but with two kids who get home at 4 p.m. every day, the reality is that it is just impossible to get work done. (I mean, how can you not be distracted by the cutest kids in the world?) Work on the weekends is means nap times and a post-8 p.m. bedtime.

If you don’t have kids and you can set up a nice little home office away from all distractions, I’m sure it could work. Otherwise, the temptation to help out is just too great. Of course, if you can’t afford an office, the decision is made for you.

While the baby was sick, she napped for long-stretches during which I was able to be productive (all you need is a phone, a laptop and Internet access). But when she was awake, my time was spent soothing her, cleaning and watching DVR’d “Star Trek” movies. As far as productivity goes, the day was a net loss. But with a few extra days (and nights) of work, I was able to catch up.

Once again, the flexibility of a solo practice saves the day.

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One of the benefits of striking out on your own is that you can finally have the law firm you’ve always wanted. All of those experiences from prior jobs can be distilled into your firm’s philosophy, used to create your ideal work-life balance and inform the technological purchases you make.

Actually, it might be more accurate to say that you can eventually build the law firm you’ve always wanted. So many of those first decisions are based on necessity.

One of the common complaints from BigLaw lawyers is that the only option is a work-life imbalance weighted heavily in favor of work. The culprits are common enough: long commutes, heavy billing requirements and a need to impress the higher-ups in hopes of access to the partnership track. In that type of culture, it can be difficult to ask for time off or to suggest some type of alternative working arrangement (like once-weekly telecommuting).

I think smaller firms tend to have a better track record for some things — telecommuting seems a little more common, for example. All of my past firms have been understanding on the time off issue. My biggest concern has long been the ability to get two days off with almost zero notice when we get foster care calls. Fortunately, it has never been a problem.

My second concern, as most parents know, is being able to call out on days when the kids can’t make it to daycare. Somehow it always worked out, but I can’t help but feel a bit guilty about taking unplanned time off.

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I’m not sure if anyone really falls for the commercial April Fool’s Day pranks anymore. It was novel a few years ago, but it is so widespread that we come to expect it (or, if you have some time to spend in front of the computer–you seek it out).

But, the point is not so much to fool consumers as it is to impress us with their cleverness.

Here’s my top five list of 2012 April Fool’s Day Pranks:

• No. 5: Google Analytics — Interplanetary Reporting.
• No. 4: The YouTube Collection on DVD — discs delivered to you for those days when the Internet is down.
• No. 3: Apple prepares to enforce its patent:  ”A quadrilateral having all four interior angles of 90°, opposite sides that are parallel, and congruent diagonals that bisect each other.”
• No. 2: Google 8-bit Quest maps. “Your system may not meet the minimum requirements for 8-bit computations.”
• No. 1:  Though the Star Wars’ Admiral Ackbar Singing Bass is a close runner-up (“It’s a trap!”), being the devoted Trekkie, I have to go with the inflatable Star Trek Captain’s chair. The product description is fantastic, and the video, though completely inane, is somehow compelling. I found myself hoping that, in the spirit of the Tauntaun sleeping bag, ThinkGeek would hear the cries of thousands of Trekkies, and get this product made. For fun, I clicked the “Buy Now” button. It’s real.

Did I miss any others? What are your favorites?

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When I began preparations to go solo four months ago, the most important thing I did was to create a business plan. I didn’t think I had time to do it— I would have rather continued to prepare my forms, create procedures and protocols, work on the website and try to secure more referral sources.

I do mostly plaintiffs’ personal injury (auto accidents, workers’ compensation and medical malpractice) and I was of course wanting to hit the ground running because of the long lead time for income in those cases. Settlements don’t typically happen for about nine-to-12 months in a routine auto case, and it can take longer if a lawsuit needs to be filed.

Four months out, however, the business plan is something I refer to at least once a week and I’m glad I made it.

My bank required one to accompany my application for a business line of credit. They told me to hire an accountant, an expense that was not in my budget (even before I made a budget), so I did it myself. Creating a business plan took me a full week of work and my line of credit was approved (I haven’t tapped into it yet, and I don’t intend to; it’s a nice safety net). An accountant probably could have made it better, but this is where the law of diminishing returns comes into play.

My business plan followed the pattern of “worst-case scenario.” (Worst case except for abject failure, anyway.) I tried to be conservative with all of my expectations; I deliberately underestimated the number of new cases I expected to receive every month, the amount of time from intake to resolution and the likely fee for each of those cases. I tried to overestimate my expenses. This is the plan I submitted to the bank.

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Technology should make our lives easier. Properly harnessed, it can do just that. Left to its own devices, however, it’s less “Star Trek” and more like the worst parts of “The Matrix” — you remember, the scary part with computers and machines taking over our lives. Here’s one Word 2010 tip that will make your life easier.

Rule 2-341(e) of the Maryland Rules of Civil Procedure requires:

Highlighting of Amendments.  Unless the court orders otherwise, a party filing an amended pleading also shall file at the same time a comparison copy of the amended pleading showing by lining through or enclosing in brackets material that has been stricken and by underlining or setting forth in bold-faced type new material.

(Curiously, this rule, based on Local Rule 103(6)(c) of the Rules of the United States District Court of the District of Maryland, applies to circuit court cases but there is no counterpart for district court cases. Perhaps the Rules Committee figures that district court practice is too fast-paced to warrant this protocol. I bet if they knew how easy it was to comply, they would change their tune.)

Some people try to do this manually — going through a pleading, selecting a portion to be excised, right-clicking it, selecting Font, and then clicking strikethrough to show a deletion. But try doing that in a 100-paragraph pleading.

If you want an easier way, this is it:

– Find your original pleading. Open it up.

– Under the File menu tab, click Save as. Name it something easy, like “P AMD Complaint (02-28-12)”

– In the Review tab, click Show Markup. This will allow you to choose what revisions show up in the new document.  I put checkmarks next to Comments, Ink, Insertions and Deletions.

(You might choose formatting, too, though those changes appear in balloons to the right of the document, which can appear unwieldy.  I’m not aware of any courts that have taken a position on revealing changes in document formatting.)

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