By Katie Cowan A year ago LexisNexis asked me to spend a year answering questions and offering insight into how to get the most out of a life in law. It remains a stupendous privilege. In this last column, in the vein of a graduation commencement speech, I thought I Read more…
By Katie Cowan I am worried about how to get going in my career in law and have a few questions. I want to be a lawyer. How do I find a job as a lawyer? How do I find my niche in law? Is it better to start off Read more…
By Katie Cowan Believe it or not, I was a reluctant therapy attendee. You wouldn’t know it now, what with my “Therapy for every adult!” soapbox, but it’s true. So as a convert from sceptic to evangelist I thought I would illuminate therapy a little, for any readers who are Read more…
Readers, I want to give you permission to quit things. Not reading this column (oh how we laugh), but all that obligation detritus that builds up over a lifetime of doing one’s best. If you’re anything like me, you grew up with strong parental and pop culture messaging to the Read more…
How do I reconcile my motivation for studying law being to help people, with the reputation lawyers have for being greedy and ‘slimy’? – Cait, 22 This is a great question. I take slimy to mean cynical, aggressive, manipulative, scheming, underhanded, and possibly unethical or even corrupt. (I also take Read more…
by Barbara Vrettos, The Legal Forecast How we transact, interact and behave is underpinned by how we trust. Blockchain technologies, however, provide an alternative that can industrialise the reliability and predictability that fosters trust. Thus, blockchain technologies can scale trust at lower costs than traditional human avenues. This calls into Read more…
Last post I answered Ryan’s question about habits that can support a great career in law, which left me dying to write about habits themselves. In a world of SMART goals, habits can get lost. Yet they are a much better route to a life you want than goals are Read more…
What are some habits I can develop in law school that will help me in my career? – Ryan, 19 Man I love this question. It took me until I was about 29 to learn that a good life was more likely built on the shoulders of habits than goals, Read more…
Most hard things are off-putting to most people. We experience things as difficult because parts of our brains and bodies say, “No, no, not this; try anything else”. Feelings like unease and anxiety come up, and often self-criticism. But complex things take time and repeated engagement to learn.
Readers, I have been on a journey. I invite you to join me for a recap. I recently gave a talk to senior lawyers about being a human and a manager of lawyers. One of the topics I was anxious to cover was how millennials[1] are people and not some Read more…