Input for my next American Lawyer column: work life balance in a dismal economy

A Lawyer's Work is Never Done
Originally uploaded by chrisafer

If greed was good in the '80's, the overriding mood of early '09 seems to be quavering panic, at least in the legal profession. Above the Law's posts are dominated by layoffs (209 entries and counting), slashed salaries, withheld bonuses, bounced checks, and the incredible shrinking perk. Gordon Gecko's obnoxious wardrobe choices — and one can only assume accompanying attitudes — are making a comeback. Law students are scared to death to blog, and billable hours are eating work life balance for breakfast, lunch, and dinner — at their desk, of course.

It seems to me that going fetal in a down economy is "a bad choice" (as I would say to my son), and that innovating and distinguishing one's business methods and philosophies — fishing in a storm — are key to both short- and long-term survival.

Abandoning work life balance and career flexibility considerations in hard times strikes me as unwise and shortsighted. What do you think, and what do you see happening now and in the future?

[Update:] Further discussion spaces in Facebook at Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession and Women Lawyers — Back on Track.

Work life balance - check ✓

We all want that perfect patchwork of personal and professional activity, but how do we get it, and more importantly, how do we know it's happened?

Broken Heart by David Goehring (CarbonNYC)

As of this morning I'm there. How? Finishing preschool Valentines and attending kids' Valentine tea have equal footing on my schedule with conference calls, research, writing, and presentation prep. (The laundry bridge remains to be crossed when we come to it.)

[Update:] My office just received a very special delivery.

My fear of junk mail (and what I did about it)

As Dvorak might say, I get no junk mail.

Rural mailbox by Matt McGee (Matt McGee)

Our real world spam filters for our real world mailboxes are woefully inadequate. It's no great surprise then that it's taken a year and the determination to harangue those who've persisted in mailing, stealth flyer depositing, and driveway dumping of un-asked for publications, but the flood became a trickle and then...just about completely gone. Junk mail eradication. Worth every repetitive phone call. Should you care to join me in the land of the highly selective, often lonely mailbox (doorknob and driveway to boot), instructions are here. Come on over to the mailbox-zero side.

Where did you love going as a kid? Where do you like taking yours now? #kidplace

Building damns
Originally uploaded by tomeppy

I think all parents re-live their childhoods a bit in the process of raising their kids. One way I do it time and again is by tracking down and revisiting places I remember loving as a youngster. Since I'm sure I'm not the only one who enjoys reminiscing in this way, I'm starting a Twitter hashtag: #kidplace. Add #kidplace to your tweets about where you went back then, or where you like taking your little ones now, and perhaps we'll wind up with a nice, tagged set of suggestions for activities around the English-speaking world.

The Short List: what Web services will they have to pry from your cold, carpally decimated hands?

Funny Bug
Originally uploaded by Mackenzie McArdle

I'm giving a talk later this month to the IADC (Int'l Ass'n of Defense Counsel; a.k.a. a passel of lawyers), at which I'm to be folks' "guide to the Live Web, demonstrating how online tools connect communities of interest in the legal world and beyond." (Yeah, guilty, I believe I penned that mouthful.) I'm planning to cover prevailing communication tools, from zero- to low-latency models (twitter/friendfeed/laconica, video+real-time chat), to mid-latency (blogging, social networking/news/bookmarks), to high latency (static Web pages that may or may not incorporate or embrace more immediate methods), as well as some of the related legal and sociocultural (that one's for you of course, Ernie) considerations.

I know what's on my short list — friendfeed, twitter, laconica, the myriad of blogging alternatives, ustream/stickam-type tools, del.icio.us-type tools, flickr-type tools, Gmail-type tools, Google Docs-type tools, wikis, business management tools, and, dwindlingly, Google Reader-type tools — but I'd love to know what's on yours. I know I'm missing things people swear by but I just don't use. Please help me understand the universe of indispensable.