The following is a brief update on the firm’s recent activities.
1) Practice growth has led the Law Office to sign a short-term lease with Businessuites for space that overlooks the Owings Mills Mall. at 10451 Mill Run Circle. After the lease expires, the Law Office will probably either remain in its current space, move down the hall to another unit. So far, it’s working out well.
2) The latest edition to the Law Office is a high-powered Fujitsu ScanScap S1500M scanner, a highly-rated piece of office equipment that earns its reputation through lightning-fast performance. The device is helping the Law Office to go mostly paperless (some documents must remain in dead-tree paper, but most can simply scan and shred.) Client files are maintained in electronic format in a secure, off-site server for access by the firm’s practice management platform, and are simultaneously synced with the Law Office’s local drive, so that both are correct, both are complete and if one gets destroyed, the other is secure. The Law Office uses a very similar storage tool to handle non-client document.
The bane of attorneys is clutter and I am naturally no organizer at all. But the ScanSnap has already made the move towards (mostly) paperless practice so easy; it’s a better document-trapping model in a busy office. It’s the gold standard and my clients and I are both reaping the benefits.
3) As previously noted here,. on June 14, 2012, I will be giving a presentation at the “Gone Geek” section of the Maryland State Bar Association Annual Meeting in Ocean City on “30 Tech Tips in 30 Minutes.” It’s early in the program so I will be staying over in Ocean City for at least the night before and possibly for the full convention, my docket permitting. Although the Bar Association has the rights to the final, full 30+page presentation, I am posting a small excerpt here:
4) My online lessons at the Solo Practice University video course on Unemployment Insurance: Law, Practice and Procedure continue. I have gotten a little bit better at handling the video editing deftly and a little better at handling “me” well, if not deftly, somewhat more smoothly on the video. A new lesson on state-by-state comparisons of unemployment insurance procedures and regulatory environments is coming up.
5) The Law Office has joined the American Prepaid Legal Services Institute, a trade association for legal plans. I worked for a number of years with a law firm that handled an account with a major plan within that trade association; while I am not and will not be affiliated with that specific plan, I do serve as a referral attorney for several of the member plans already and will be working with additional such plans in the near future.
6) As a matter of practice, I am reluctant to discuss the specifics of my cases on this blog because it’s difficult to judge how much privacy is necessary to secure client anonymity and confidentiality. I can state, however, that the Law Office reached a major Title VII discrimination settlement in the last 60 days. The case involved a large employer and a sales professional. It was a case in which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had made conducted a meaningful investigation leading to an ultimate finding reasonable cause to believe that illegal discrimination occurred. We (my client and I) were successful in reaching a settlement with the counterparty shortly before the right to sue letter 90 day expiry date. That’s all I can say. I am extremely proud of this case because the claimant in question was and is, like myself, a father who worked very hard as a provider. Handing him his settlement check was my 2nd or 3rd happiest professional moment of my career to date, on par with my most important trial victories.
7) A personal note. I am writing from the 4th floor of 10451 Mill Run Circle in Owings Mills late at night from my compact but comfortable, professional office. 15 years ago I used this office complex as my base when I was first starting out and when the Rouse Company owned the operation; I didn’t have permanent space here and only recently did I commit here to hard space this spring. Now I have a window with a gorgeous view over the Owings Mills Mall (soon to be demolished and, per plans, rebuilt into a Town Center in the manner of Hunt Valley or White Marsh.)
If I had had any idea that the practice of law could bring me this much fulfillment then, I have no idea what I would have done differently. If I knew then what I know now, ugh….! In the intervening 15 years, I have survived a house fire in my parents home, a reformulation of my practice model, relocated how many times, gotten married, gotten divorced, became a Daddy, done an immense variety of work. I have lost a few friends along the way, a few by estrangement, a few for reasons I actually don’t know and one to a drunk driver.
I discovered that an ex-wife – more politely but equally accurately – the mother of my beautiful children and even her husband can actually be my good friends despite, well, history and personal shortcomings (specifically mine.) I discovered that not only does life go on, but it oddly goes on quite well.
While I am non-religious, I feel oddly fortunate in the way that sincere, decent religious people do when they offer prayers of thanksgiving. Despite problems, life is going eerily well. What a fortunate man I am. I can say that I could die happy today – not that I want to die, as I have a lot of important things to do for my boys, my family, my clients! But how fortunate I am. I don’t know if I am at the “I am the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” level of Lou Gehrig’s famous speech. But I feel peculiarly fortunate – fortunate to do work I enjoy for clients who seem grateful for the work done. How lucky I am.