Monthly Archives: September 2010

Tiffany Farber is a solo practitioner who has been practicing law since 2008. As someone who has been through transition in her career, she understands the challenges lawyers in this situation face.

When people ask me what I do, I tell them I’m an attorney. When people ask me what I am, I tell them I’m an artist.

I have been a singer all my life, and I’m not talking about being a wishy-washy shower singer type either. I’m serious about my singing. I’ve sung in shows, at weddings and in competitions. For me, singing is exhilarating. Standing in front of people and bearing my soul is a meaningful experience.

I must admit that most of my closest friends are attorneys. But, I only think of them as attorneys after I have thought of them as artists. One of my friends is a brilliant painter, another is a photographer, another a musician, and the list goes on. I find artists to be some of the most talented attorneys because they approach situations with creativity, and shouldn’t law incorporate creativity?

Now, sure, there are talented attorneys who don’t have a creative bone in their bodies. They can write well or argue the law like champions. But, from my personal experiences, I’m never disappointed by an attorney and artist sharing the same body.

There are so many ways that lawyers can explore their creative sides. I will admit that when I was in law school, I forgot that I could be creative. I forgot that I was once close to applying for a Masters program in creative writing. I forgot these things because I thought I couldn’t be an attorney and an artist all at once. I was wrong. As I got older, I realized that I was more effective as both.

If you have passions outside of the law, and I hope very much that you do, you should indulge them. This past year I performed in the Chicago Bar Association’s Christmas Spirits Show. As a cast member, I met tons of artistic attorneys. Some sang, some danced (not me, I’m a dreadful dancer) and all of them had a great time. It was refreshing to meet attorneys who were interested in enriching their lives with art.

So, come on, work that right side of your brain! Go take a pottery class or start a journal. See a play or learn how to play the guitar. Just don’t be afraid to be an attorney with your muse as co-counsel.

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

Here is a wonderful story to give you new optimism, about a DePaul law school graduate, Agnes Prindiville who at 81 is probably one of the oldest law school graduates to be admitted to the bar.

I heard Agnes’s story from her niece and I was thrilled when I talked with her and learned more details. Agnes has always been, as her niece calls it, an “academic.”  She majored in math and computing and information and went on to teach math at various colleges for years. After the first of her seven children was born, she began taking classes, eventually earning a master’s degree in math along the way.

Agnes had always wanted to go to law school, but when she graduated from college in the 50s her family thought that was not a good idea. But, according to her niece, Agnes and her family are the type of people who say, “I want to do this” and they go and do it. It took her a while, but she finally found the time and the room in her life to do it, long after retiring at 64. She says, I am the type of person who likes to keep busy. No kidding!

I have friends who are around my age, some younger, who say that their brains don’t work that well any more, that they could not now undertake anything that requires complex learning and memorizing. But I wonder, is that because with age our brains go on an intermittent vacation or is it because we believe we can’t and therefore don’t try to do anything that is intellectually taxing after a certain age.

I see intellectualism losing ground, being smart and educated is not popular. So when I see people of an advanced age getting law degrees and many other older people doing things that require them to stretch and take risks, I see fresh contributors. Whether their contribution lasts 50 years, as with the twenty-year-olds going to law school today, or 10 years, is irrelevant. A great idea, or teaching or help given to someone who would otherwise not receive that help is reason enough to do whatever you can to improve yourself.

When I asked Agnes if she went to law school to make lots of money, she laughed. She went to law school because the law is really interesting and because as an attorney she can do things she couldn’t otherwise. Like give legal advice to people who are losing their homes to foreclosure, or people who are in a terrible marriage and need legal help getting out of it with their interests protected.

Agnes is also working on guardianship pro bono matters. She has done volunteer work throughout her life, but now, in addition to her law degree, she has also taken training or certification programs in guardianship, foreclosure defense, and divorce training and is excited about her work in those areas.

Our conversation turned to law school –  she enjoyed it, the classes themselves were not difficult, trudging around with those heavy books back and forth was tiring, and legal writing was a challenge. And now, she says, she has to be aggressive to get to do what she wants, but it does not sound like that will be a problem for her.

When we talked about whether she would do it again or recommend law school to anyone, she talked about one grandson (out of 20 she has), who is considering going to law school straight out of college. Her recommendation is that he work for a while before attending, just to get a feel for life before starting out on the law adventure. Well said.

Tiffany Farber is a solo practitioner who has been practicing law since 2008. As someone who has been through transition in her career, she understands the challenges lawyers in this situation face.

As I was walking home this evening, I passed a man wearing a shirt that said in large silver letters, “There is no such thing as the American Dream.”  I paused.  It’s not every day that you see such a poignant message displayed on breathable cotton.  This shirt begged the question, is the “American Dream” just a collective fiction?  Are we all scrambling to travel down a path that leads to nowhere?

This past week, a friend of mine from law school got the chance to address this important issue with President Obama at a town hall meeting.  Much like the man I passed tonight, my friend questioned the concept of the American Dream.  He explained to the president that he attended law school to pursue a life of public service, and he is now in debt and very disheartened by the dismal job market.  He is having trouble meeting his loan payments, and thinking about the future is making his head spin.  As a young person looking towards the future, he feels that he can’t attain the American Dream.

This issue was very thought provoking, and not just to me.  Several news organizations have since followed up on his question and interviewed my friend.  To him, the American Dream includes having a job, and having a home and a family one day.  When I think about the American Dream, I think about my ancestors who came here from Europe hoping to make a better life for their children.  I think about the rise of the suburbs in the mid 1900s, and the ever quickening heartbeat of progress that has pulsed through this country for many, many years now.  But now, it may be time to reevaluate what exactly the American Dream really means to us personally.

The American Dream is billed as a collective concept.  It presupposes that we all want the same things.   But, I believe the dream is something that is personal to each one of us.  It shouldn’t be marketed like the bulls eye in the middle of a dartboard.  It seems that now it’s about reevaluating what it is we really want and need.

For me, having a law license was something I felt that I needed to serve the public most effectively.  I’m sure that those of you reading this have your own reasons for becoming an attorney.  The common thread between us is we had “attorney” as part of the fabric of our dreams, and we didn’t give up until we achieved that goal.

There is no easy answer to the question of whether the American Dream is still alive and kicking.  Perhaps we should each just take positive steps towards living good, fulfilling lives without regard to whether we have checked “achieve American Dream” off of our “to do” lists.

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

I was on my way downtown on the L last week and I had to hear a very private conversation. I say had to hear because there was no choice for any of us on the train but to listen. Two men were standing by the doors and one was talking loudly about how much money he is making on his current job and how much he is going to make if he accepts a new job he’s been offered.

The conversation made me so uncomfortable that I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. He told all of us he is making minimum wage at his current job, that’s right, the lowest amount an employer can pay his employees. Now, if someone is talking loudly in public about his compensation, you expect that pay to be high, right? People usually brag about how much they make, not about making minimum wage.  Not this man.

That poignant conversation led me to thinking about how strange our habits are when talking about money, especially when it comes to how much we are paid for our work. There is such secrecy about how much anyone makes. Corporations make us feel as though it is an offense that might lead to dismissal to divulge our salaries or to discuss anyone else’s. Law firms seem to be more open about the topic, since new associates’ salaries used to be somewhat standard and known. But it is taboo to discuss this topic in most instances.

The lowest salaries (we know, for example, that most retail jobs pay at or slightly over minimum wage) and the highest salaries, CEOs at large enterprises, for example, are fair game. But it is all of us earning moderate amounts, stuck in the middle, that are held to this vow of silence. I wonder if that is because if we knew each other’s salaries we might make trouble, might demand equality, or explanations.

When a potential employer asks what we made on our last job, the smartest policy is to avoid the question, if possible. We don’t want to divulge a salary amount if we don’t know what the new job pays, maybe pricing ourselves out of the job. Nor do we want to quote too low a number, leading the employer to think they can offer less than market pay for the job, because we were at the low end of the pay scale at our last job.

There are ways to deflect the salary question. But if it is an electronic application or it is a required piece of information, we are trapped into answering it. Luckily, few employers will divulge an ex-employee’s compensation, so you can be fairly broad in answering that question – after all, compensation includes not only salary, but may include overtime, bonuses, stock options, perks or benefits, etc., so you can, to some degree, choose a number that you think will work compared to what the new job might pay and still give an honest answer.

Since the topic of compensation is such a secret, you may not know what the right number might be in answer the question, “How much were you making on your last job?” So maybe it is just as well to stick with the truth. Maybe the man on the el was not so wrong to tell the world his pay rate, there is nowhere to go but up if you are making minimum wage.

I am a little envious of him, actually, because I am so indoctrinated into this money “vow of silence” that telling anyone what I earn would be as impossible for me as telling someone what I weigh. I would love to feel free enough to disclose both numbers to anyone who asked.

Tiffany Farber is a solo practitioner who has been practicing law since 2008. As someone who has been through transition in her career, she understands the challenges lawyers in this situation face.

I often think about the future of the legal profession, and I wonder if law schools realize that it all starts with them.  Are schools taking into account what students really need to be successful, or are they just sticking to the status quo?

My first year of law school taught me to be on my toes all the time.  With the Socratic method alive and well, I never knew when I would be in the hot seat.  I have always questioned this method.  I understand that when one appears in front of a judge, she doesn’t have classmates behind her to pick up the slack, but I do think there are other ways to prepare students for the practice of law.  Not every student thrives on the Socratic method.  Some do, yes, but others prefer group discussion.  The classes I enjoyed in law school were not the ones that required me, and me alone, to speak for two days straight, they were the ones that required a classroom full of budding legal minds to share the stage.  Shouldn’t professors find a way to reach students who thrive on the Socratic Method and also students who don’t?  I don’t have the solution, but I’m guessing there are educators who have some good ideas.

What about hands-on experience? I think the most important experience I had in law school was participating in a legal clinic.  This was the first bite at the legal apple that I really had.  Internships and clinics are important.  Frankly, I think clinics or internships should be strongly encouraged during the third year of law school.  What better way is there to learn the law than to practice it?  Instead of sitting through a bunch of “bar classes” that one will likely forget and have to re-learn during bar prep, why not jump in and be a lawyer?  Why not put to use the things one has learned as a 1L and 2L?

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my law school, but I think law schools as a whole could do a better job of preparing students for the legal world.  While “just jumping in” has its benefits, most of us would prefer to be experienced.   Are we focusing too much on bar prep in law school and not enough on the actual practice of law? Does it even matter what we learn in law school?  Some schools are more “theory” centric and some are more like professional schools.  But at the end of the day, all of the law schools are letting budding lawyers loose into the legal profession.  Maybe it’s time to rethink the way law school works.

So often we fear change.  When I talk to my father, his experiences in law school aren’t too far off from mine — and he went to law school 30 years before I did.  Schools have embraced new technologies.  I’m curious to see what other practices will be embraced as time goes on.

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

This past week I was involved in a lengthy discussion about a resume item. A colleague asked me to look at his resume to see if I could improve on a paragraph about his language abilities and experience. But the discussion that evolved was regarding a paragraph about his interests that he had included at the bottom of the resume.

He had written a two-line paragraph about what he likes to do in his spare time. When I looked at the resume my eyes landed on that list immediately and I drew back. I found the list questionable, not because it consisted of anything exotic or inappropriate, but because it is a rare sight on resumes today.

I recall that we used to include a section about our personal interests in our resumes years ago. We put a lot of thought and effort into listing the sports we played, the hobbies we enjoyed and the special talents we possessed. There was lots of discussion and hand wringing about what to mention in these interests lists – for example, whether to mention memberships in associations, or political volunteer work or religious activities. The fear, of course, being that the reader might not like our choices and our chances of getting the job might be jeopardized.

I don’t remember when we stopped putting all that on resumes, but at some point it came to be seen as gauche. Why would an interviewer care whether we liked to read, or whether we played travel hockey? Why risk annoying a prospective employer with some activity they found objectionable just because we thought it added personality to our resume?

Well, according to my young friend with the interests listing on his resume, that part of the resume is the ice breaker in his interviews and he feels that it is a valuable part of his curriculum vitae. He says it opens the way to discussing things he enjoys and is good at and thus puts him in a good light right away. He did not agree that the paragraph should go, it is staying, no matter what the rest of us said. So be it.

Even though resumes have become very structured and formulaic, this young man felt this anomaly in his was a valuable part of the resume and he is keeping it in. Which led me to thinking about how resumes vary in different cultures.

For example, when I was a management consultant, one of my assignments was helping 30 or 40 professional employees prepare for their job search after being downsized from a multi-national company’s operations in Mexico. Their resumes were very different from ours, with photographs and healthy, long paragraphs about, you know where I am going with this … their interests. Since this is a normal way to present a resume in South America, which is where most of these people were applying, we kept much of that in.

Which brings me to another point. If you are applying for jobs in a foreign country, be sure you do research on what the expectations are for each country regarding job search etiquette, including what should be included in your cv, as they generally call resumes. The Western or American way may not necessarily be your best bet in some places.

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

Over the years I have known about and worked with SCORE counselors on a couple of occasions. SCORE, a nonprofit association affiliated with the Small Business Administration, is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create and succeed in new businesses.

The idea of SCORE as a resource for a legal business did not occur to me until I saw a colleague who is well into the process of launching her law practice taking advantage of many of the services and information they offer, to her great benefit.

With the assistance of her SCORE counselor she wrote her business plan and calculated the start-up capital she would need. Most importantly, she had help focusing in on her target market so that she did not waste time and funds on sectors that do not fit her business model.

Next, the counselor helped her to identify the format, style and images for her website, and had she chosen to avail herself of that service, would also have helped her build the website. Each block of text, for example, was carefully developed, then subjected to detailed discussion and editing to convey just the right message.

I also have had an amazing experience with this group, working with a counselor that I admire and respect, who knows a lot about my business and has become a specialist in helping lawyers with their practices. She provided great marketing ideas, technical advice for my website and put me in touch with a Hispanic counselor who had a barrelful of information about the market for foreign language lawyers. He gave me names of people and organizations that could help me and offered to make introductory calls to clear the way for me.

The SCORE counselors can also be your coaches, setting goals and tasks and making sure you have the resources to accomplish them, following up to make sure you do. This really helps when you hit a bump in the road or get tired, or if you start running out of steam.

The volunteer counselors are accomplished business people who have already attained success in many fields and have far-ranging experience. They help not only from their own knowledge base, but are also often able to put you in touch with their connections, people and organizations with which they have developed relationships over time. How is that for extended networking?

Don’t hesitate to get to know SCORE and its people to find out how they can help you with your transition plans. Go to www.scorechicago.org to see all the resources SCORE offers. From their website, you can learn about the free counseling they offer at their more than 25 locations in the Chicago area and find useful links to other business sites. If a blog is part of your business plan, lots of good information is available at Web 2.0 for a Small Business.  Take advantage of this great resource.

Tiffany Farber is a solo practitioner who has been practicing law since 2008. As someone who has been through transition in her career, she understands the challenges lawyers in this situation face.

When I lived in Indiana, I was a mediator.  Let me tell you, I loved it.  I participated in mediations for couples who were divorcing.  Divorce is obviously highly emotional, but I believe that mediation is a good exercise in contentious situations.   Usually, the parties I worked with disagreed about property and parenting time with their children.  My job was, essentially, to keep quiet and move the discussion along when the going got tough, and it did get tough.

It was so fascinating to hear people expressing their feelings.  When you think about it, some clients don’t get much of an opportunity to speak in court because their lawyer acts as a mouthpiece.  Mediation gives parties the chance to be heard.  The concept of mediation is very appealing to many lawyers, especially the ones who would rather not be around litigation.  As someone who enjoys teamwork and helping people to express their feelings, I really loved being a mediator.  I use the skills I learned as a mediator when I’m talking with clients, opposing counsel and judges.

The concept behind mediation is to help clients get to a place where they can agree.  It’s not about winning or losing, rather, it’s about meeting in a place where both parties can live with the agreements that they make.  Don’t get me wrong, some parties won’t even agree to be in the same room with one another.  But, more often than not, the parties come to some sort of arrangement.  I witnessed some amazing things happen.  At the end of the day, I think most parties just wanted to move on with their lives and mediation gave them the opportunity to do that.

Forms of alternative dispute resolution exist for a reason.  Many people prefer them to litigation, including attorneys.  If mediation is something you are interested in, there are many resources out there.  One book I recommend is called “Getting to Yes” by Roger Fisher and William Ury.  I also recommend contacting the Center for Conflict Resolution and learning about how you can volunteer.  Check them out at http://www.ccrchicago.org/.  One of my colleagues volunteers with CCR and loves it.

The most successful attorneys have a wide range of skills and experiences.  Just because an attorney is a stellar trial attorney does not mean he or she is incapable of suggesting mediation to clients.  Many attorneys and retired judges become mediators.  If it’s something you are interested in, read up about the requirements and see what you can do to get some experience.  You can make a positive impact on people’s lives.