One of the partners at my law firm is a walking legal database. Whether I need to know a case dealing with fiduciary duties of a prior owner of a company or the last case in Maryland dealing with notices for mechanic’s liens, there is a high probability that he will know the case (or have information to quickly locate the case).

We all know of these individuals (and some of the readers of this blog may be those individuals). I’ve heard of stories about recently retired Court of Appeals judge who could not only cite cases regarding various legal topics but provide footnotes and pin cites.

Alas, I am not one of those individuals. To make up for my inability to recall the specific passage and verse of every single case I have ever read, I needed to develop a system to ensure that I was up to date with each new opinion pertinent to my practice. Fortunately, as a business attorney with a focus on construction law, I do not need to read every single opinion that is drafted and published (though I enjoy reviewing some of the criminal law opinions because they made for some good story telling).

So, I’ve developed a personal law library. In order to keep track of new opinions, I initially review the Maryland Lawyer section in Monday’s Daily Record, which provides a list of all of the previous week’s cases and a handy summary for each case. I circle cases I deem important for my practice and then have my legal assistant download them from the Judiciary’s website (a process that is free and environmentally friendly).

After I review the case and make electronic notes (I’ve only scratched the surface of PDFs’ wonderful features, though John Cord has written about this), I save the electronic version of the case in a folder in my Dropbox account (a cloud account that is free for the first 2GB).

Over the past few years, I have created an online, readily-available personal law library for myself. If a legal issue comes up, I can quickly determine if it’s something I already have researched. Obviously, I make sure the law is still good, but its the start that saves me time and our client’s money.

While this method works for me, are there any other methods that you use to help organize relevant cases you use?

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After approximately 10 years of teaching, a profession in which being a good colleague means showing up at an occasional department meeting, maybe cracking a few jokes and not offering any substantive comments that force the meeting to last any longer than absolutely necessary, I found myself in the legal world, where colleagueship has a completely different meaning.

All of a sudden, there was work to be done on deadline and I wasn’t the only one who would be doing it. Where I used to mark up students’ papers with abandon and be the final (and only) arbiter of quality and subpar work, I would now actually be working with other people who would mark up my work product (gasp!) and make suggestions for improvements to opinions, briefs and everything else I drafted.

Do I now know what it means to be a good colleague after a couple of years following this somewhat uncomfortable transition into the legal world? To see how much (or how little) I knew, I asked several attorneys I know — one government attorney, one at a large national firm, and one at a small firm — what they believe makes a good colleague.

Surprisingly, all of us (yes, even me) produced similar answers. So, with spring training right around the corner — Orioles pitchers and catchers report Feb. 18 — I have craftily compiled the main measures of attorney colleagueship into measurable statistics based upon familiar baseball stats. These can be used to evaluate all attorneys — new associates, senior counsel and even partners.

1. ERA (Earned Run Average) = meets Expectations, is Reliable and Accountable

In the feedback I got from almost every attorney I asked, these three traits appeared the most. Just like the baseball stat (which, yes, I know, is already a thing of the past) measures a pitcher’s reliability, this colleagueship statistic measures how well you do what you say you are going to do so that others can rely on you.

An implicit part of this aspect of colleagueship is actually understanding what you’re going to be able to accomplish over a specific time period and communicating that effectively to other colleagues. Unlike baseball, a high ERA as a colleague is a good thing. It means your colleagues can count on you, which means they will like to work with you.

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Between revisions for the Bowie & Jensen website, trying to organize a Team in Training team for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and debating the importance of a Pinterest account with staff members, I have been dealing with firm-related issues for the better part of the morning.

Most of these issues involve working with our staff. Like any other organization with lots of people, there is a hierarchy that exists. When I was a law clerk for Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge M. Brooke Murdock, I assumed the hierarchy was either judge/legal assistant/law clerk or legal assistant/judge/law clerk. (Notice how the law clerk was always last.)

In a law firm, you have different groups, including partners, associates, paralegals and staff. Early in my career, I was provided with two pieces of sound advice: if you find a good secretary/legal assistant, never let him or her go; and always be nice to those you work with (and the court clerks).

Paralegals, legal assistants and interns can save you (and your case) when time is short and a deadline is near. Staying late, working through lunch and taking extra care with the task at hand comes easier when a mutual respect exists. Talking down to or poorly about your staff to others only builds resentment. And blaming others for something that is ultimately the attorney’s responsibility is merely trying to deflect responsibility from yourself. As a general rule, it is my responsibility to make sure that there are no mistakes in any document that has my signature on it.

As such, I want to take the time to thank the staff and paralegals I work with and assist me in the zealous representation of our clients. Thanks Tina, Erin, Laura, Brad, Colleen, Tina M., Lisa N., Lisa B., Jean and Nancy.

Do you have staff that you want to commend? Do so in the comments section.

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I ran across a thought-provoking article a few weeks ago: “High-achieving women need more than a bubble bath.” By “high-achieving” women, the article means women who are accomplishment-focused and achievement-oriented— yes, that includes you, my fellow attorneys!

Actually, I found the article — as well as the book on which it was based — to be eerily accurate, as did a few friends of mine.

The article refreshingly recognized the traits of “high-achieving” women are much the same as those found in “high-achieving” men. The difference is in the assumptions that tend to underlie women’s thought processes. Assumptions such as “I have to prove myself to everyone,” “I can’t relax until I finish what I have to do,” and “I should be able to manage it all and accomplish it all without feeling stressed or tired.”

Now, I’m not sure that I would agree that these assumptions are uniquely held by women. I think the assumptions are fairly commonplace in the legal field where, as one article states, “My boss wants innovation as long as it’s done perfectly the first time.”

But I do agree the stress invoked by operating under these assumptions cannot be solved — at least not in the long-term — with bubble baths or vacations.

It makes sense that it isn’t as much about getting rid of the stress; it is about building “stress resilience.” Don’t try to make everything balance perfectly — it is more of a constant give and take, a juggling act, if you will.

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It’s that time of year, when the holidays are over and reality sets in. Back to the grind. I find myself busier than I can remember in years past, although I’m sure that is not the case. I probably made the same statement this time last year, and the year before that, and the year before that…

While there is a lot of advice I could dole out regarding a busy season (deep breaths, make time for exercise, stay organized, etc.), the most critical lesson I have learned is to make a list. Prioritize your “to do’s” in order of deadlines and time demands. Take one item at a time and literally block out everything else from your brain but the item you’re working on (to the extent possible). I call this the “Sticking My Head in the Sand” approach.

I find that I when I run through the list in my brain of all of the things I need to do, I immediately become overwhelmed, the doom and gloom sets in and I am convinced that I’ll never get through this. Yet, each time, I do get through it, thanks to making my list and focusing on one item at a time. It’s a systematic approach to the chaos that also helps keep my stress levels in check.

Start the day by attacking first the thing you want to do the least. The thing I want to do the least is usually the most burdensome and overwhelming. If I attack that thing first thing in the morning, the rest of the day or week does not seem so daunting.

Remember that your workload is going to wax and wane throughout your career. I would never say that I’m ever “not busy,” but certainly some times are more manageable than others.

It is easy to miss the forest for the trees when you’re overwhelmed with “to do’s” and to convince yourself that you’re never going to dig out. You will, one “to do” at a time.

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I was at a networking event last week, carefully attempting to balance my plastic glass of wine while simultaneously eating enough of the hors d’oeuvres off my plastic plate to make it “dinner.” Just as I was stuffing a piece of bruschetta into my mouth, an older gentleman sauntered over and greeted me pleasantly. I returned the greeting and asked him how he was doing.

We got to talking, and he asked what I did… which, frankly, is why I come to these events. Since I work at a full-service law firm, I approach business development and networking events like this one with the mindset that everyone I meet can be a client or refer me to a client — if someone needs an attorney, my firm can handle it.

I told this gentleman that I was an attorney. He immediately made a face as though he just taken a bite out of a lemon.

“Ewwww,” he said as he grabbed a piece of yellow pepper off his plastic plate and took a bite. “You know what Shakespeare said,” he grinned while chewing on the pepper.

“Yes, ” I told him, “I do know, but I and my firm do a lot of important work for our clients.”

I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, although I was pretty sure that was a mistake.

He stopped chewing long enough to reply.

“Yes, but you lawyers ruin everything. I mean, how many people really need an attorney?” he asked, dragging it out so that it was clear what he thought.

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