How long
have you been on LinkedIn? A few years? More? Have you added or changed anything
since that time? Your headshot? Your profile? The type of content you post?
If it’s
been more than a few years and not much has changed, now is the time to do just
that! Even if you start with a single, small step.
Choose
something easy…
How about updating
your headshot, so that it is current and engaging?
Simpler? You can
change your title, so it’s not just accurate… it’s interesting.
Too much? Simply install
the LinkedIn app on your smart phone and check your feed once a week. You can
read what your connections post and jump into a conversation when you see something
that matters to you.
Yes, it
will take more than this first step to become a LinkedIn warrior. But once you
start seeing the results of your efforts, you may find that you are surprised
at just how motivated you are to keep going!
—
For more related reading, see these
past articles on Slaw:
CPLED is now hosting a Student Resume Directory on its website to assist students who are seeking articles. Students can create profiles here, indicating the type of position they are looking for, the location where they would like to work (Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan), and upload a copy of their resume. Employers can browse the student profiles and reach out to suitable candidates for opportunities in their organization using the Contact Form with each student’s profile. The Directory is free and available to law students seeking summer or articling positions.
[This tip originally appeared on the Law Society of Saskatchewan Library’s Legal Sourcery Blog.]
The holidays are just around the corner. Everyone looks
forward to the cards, lunches, gifts, parties and general good cheer this time
of the year. Maybe in some small way, it makes up for the cold!
So, here’s a thought to take all that goodwill up a notch.
Why not use your holiday events as a platform to celebrate success? Whether
it’s with your partners, your staff or your clients.
Here are some ideas to get you thinking about this:
Have you made new connections this year? Can you
get specific about that eg how many connections, how were the connections made
or how did these connections add value to your practice…
Have any of your Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs) improved this year? Profit, revenue or volume?
Have you changed something about your services?
Do you have any feedback or data about how well this change was received by
your clients or staff?
Have you adopted a new process or technology
that resulted in greater efficiency?
Have you made any new hires recently? Did they
benefit from your onboarding process? Or did you not even need to hire because
your retention is so solid? Celebrate that.
Don’t make the mistake of underestimating how motivating
discussions about a job well done can be. They can create opportunity to
acknowledge others for their work and dedication.
And if having a positive experience using concrete data about your firm’s performance leads to an appetite for greater insight about how well the practice is running… even better!
Smartphones
provide lawyers with constant availability and the convenience of responding to
queries and communications from any location at any time. But our devices can
also be a source of distraction and addiction that discourage productivity and
negatively impact our mental health.
A recent survey by Deloitte found that the average person
checks their smartphone 52 times a day, while another study found the average person spends more than 3 hours on
their phone daily. My own phone tells me that I receive an average of 78
notifications each day, causing a daily average of 73 “pickups”—each one
interrupting workflow and concentration.
Making an
active effort to reinforce self-control and limit our smartphone use can go a
long way to ensuring we control our devices and our devices don’t control us.
Dr. Gabrielle Golding, a lecturer with the University of Adelaide Law School,
recommends lawyers pursue “digital detox” by scheduling predictable time away
from smartphones and computers each week, slowly acclimatizing oneself to
feeling “disconnected”, refraining from using any digital devices in bed, and
taking up a non-technological hobby.
It’s also a good idea to familiarize yourself with applications such as iPhone’s Screen Time and Android’s Digital Wellbeing functions, which allow users to set limits on when and how they use their smartphone. Blocks of phone-free time can be set in advance, or limits can be placed on certain applications. These applications also provide daily summaries of just how much time a user spends on individual applications—the results of which may surprise you.
Shawn Erker (@ShawnErker) is Legal Writer & Content Manager at LAWPRO.
Administrator’s note: thanks to Erin Cowling for this week’s tip.
We all know that taking a real vacation makes us less stressed, more focused, and in return, better lawyers, better employees, and better bosses. Even though I love my job, I still need a break from it. I need to unplug and unwind. I need to think about something other than the law. When I do, I return to my practice with more energy and commitment.
When I
worked for someone else, I always took all my allotted vacation. I felt I
was working hard and I rightly deserved the time off. Now that I have
my own practice and business and can, in theory, take as much vacation
time that I want, I take even less. I need to change that.
So, here is what I have learned, and what may help to ensure that you and I take our important vacations:
Book the vacation time into your calendar in advance. Block off your 2020 vacation days now. Not nailing down the time off makes it easier to push back that much needed break.
Take at least two weeks off. For me, one week is not enough to get the “law” out of my system and to unwind.
Plan financially, especially for those of us who are sole practitioners or have our own businesses. If we don’t work, we don’t get paid. Factor your vacation time into your financial plan for the year. (In other words, don’t let money be an excuse to not take time off).
Have someone cover your practice so you aren’t working on your vacation.
Fiercely protect your time. Practice saying “No”. Say “No” to that meeting they want to schedule on your day off. Say “No” to that “quick” conference call while you are on vacation. And then provide an alternative date for when you are back in the office, relaxed and ready to work!
The bottom line: We need to give ourselves permission to take a break and forget about law for a while. We will be better lawyers if we do. Don’t make the same mistake I did.
Today’s practice tip is to get more mileage from your writing with CanLII Connects.
If you write commentary on caselaw for a personal or firm blog, client publications, or any other publication, you can upload it to CanLII Connects, where it can be discovered by anyone who searches for that particular case, both on CanLII Connects AND on CanLII.org.
CanLII cases that have corresponding CanLII Connects commentary will display this info just under the case name:
Not only is CanLII Connects commentary discoverable via individual cases, the full-text is integrated in search results within CanLII, too. Per the recent announcement on the CanLII Blog:
“When you conduct a search on CanLII, you are now able to get results of content from CanLII Connects. For example, doing a document search for “promise doctrine” will provide results that link to CanLII Connects entries. Clicking on the title of the entry will direct you to the full document on CanLII Connects.”
Setting up a profile and adding your legal commentary to CanLII Connects is a simple way to increase your online footprint and the reach of your work.
September always seems to be a time when Canadians get more serious about work. Well, we have a short summer and we need to make the most of it, right?
One simple
tip that can take some of sting out of leaving vacations behind and getting
back to the daily grind is to get into the habit of setting small practice
development goals. Large or small, every goal adds value. Starting small allows
you the opportunity to see results quickly, sparking the motivation to continue.
Starting small also helps to manage procrastination, by reducing larger
projects into bite size chunks.
Give some
thought to some of the bigger practice development challenges you’ve been facing
over recent years. Make a list of some possible actions you can take to
establish progress and pick something from the list.
To get your
imagination going, here is a running list of examples:
Attend
a live event with a professional association.
Change
your headshot.
Add
a section to your LinkedIn profile.
Reach
out to your network with some news.
Update
your biography.
Make
contact with colleagues you haven’t heard from in a while.
Speak
with a consultant to learn more about getting started with a special project.
Test
a new marketing idea.
Plan
an event…
So, what’s
your first small goal going to be?
—
For more reading related to practice development, see these
past articles on SlawTips and Slaw:
What does
it mean when a statute or regulation says that there must be “x days between” two actions? What about
“at least x days between” two
actions? In keeping with the relative, wibbly-wobbly nature of time itself, the
answer sometimes depends on where you are.
Federally,
ss. 26-30 of the Interpretation Actset out rules for computing time in Federal
legislation, such as how a time limit that expires on a holiday is
automatically extended to the following day (s. 26); or how one month after
March 30th is April 30th, while one month after March 31st is… also April 30th
(s. 28).
When
timelines are described in Provincial statutes or regulations, it is the
equivalent Provincial interpretation legislation that governs. In Ontario, for
example, these rules are set out in the Legislation Act, while British
Columbia and Alberta include these provisions in their
respective Interpretation Acts.
Confusingly,
these rules are not always equivalent across jurisdictions. For example, the
meaning of “at least x days” between
two events is not the same in every province. Generally, when a legislative
instrument refers to “x days” between
two events, it is calculated by excluding the first day and including the
last day. So, counting from a Monday, “four days between” means the period ends
on the Friday (excluding the Monday but including the Friday). But in many
jurisdictions, a reference that specifies “at least x days”, or “x clear
days” between two events means that both the first and last days are
excluded. So, counting from the same Monday, “at least four days between” means
the period ends on the Saturday, not the Friday. This is the case
Federally, as well as in British Columbia and Alberta, as examples (see ss. 27,
25.2, and 22(3) of their respective Interpretation
Acts).
Ontario,
however, doesn’t follow this distinction. Section 89(3) of the Ontario Legislation Act explicitly states that a
reference to a period of time between two events includes the last day,
“even if the reference is to ‘at least’ or ‘not less than’ a number of days”. So,
counting from the Monday, “at least four days between” means the period ends on
the Saturday for Federal legislation, but on the Friday for Ontario
provincial legislation.
When
computing a timeline prescribed by statute or regulation, and diarizing your
own corresponding deadlines, it’s a good idea to make reference to the applicable
interpretation legislation, and keep in mind that time, when it comes to
legislative provisions, is very much relative.
Shawn Erker (@ShawnErker) is Legal Writer & Content Manager at LAWPRO.
It’s been a few years since AccessCLE was cited here on SlawTips, and a recent mention of it on the CALL-L listserv made me think it would be worth pointing to again, especially since there’s been a recent development that makes it even more accessible.
So what is the AccessCLE database? It’s a repository of LSO continuing professional development papers from 2004 onwards. While there was originally an embargo on papers newer than 18 months, the LSO recently lifted that restriction and now all papers are free.
“Continuing professional development (CPD) program materials are an invaluable source of current legal information. Papers typically cover the practical implications of recent case law and legislative developments, and often include useful precedents, procedure and checklists. “
The papers can be searched full-text or browsed by topic, then downloaded as PDF.
