Tips for Lawyers Podcast

Tips for Lawyers Podcast

By Chris Hargreaves: Lawyer (attorney)BusinessCareers
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Tips for Lawyers Podcast episodes

  • 8 Reasons to Improve your Legalese
    It’s essential for lawyers to develop their legalese properly.
    In this podcast I provide 8 pieces of wisdom to really get your legalese on the right path.
    Specifically in this podcast you will learn:
    Why clients need to appreciate how smart you are, and how using legalese can really help you in that respect
    Why your charge out rate is related to your need to use big words, and how as you increase in seniority you really should start using bigger words and more legalese, lest your clients abandon you are a simpleton;
    How to make judges love you by creative use of latin and other dead languages, and twists, turns and convolutions at every stage of advocacy;
    Improving your sentence structure and length by significantly increasing your use of the word “and” as well as modifiers and (subject to point 5 below) use of commas;
    How punctuation is ruining your career, making you seem stupid, and otherwise allowing people to understand what you are talking about (which is not a good thing);
    Why to ignore the myth of plain English drafting which is proliferated by people who don’t know what they are talking about – the reality being that proper use of legalese will catapult you into a better position in life;
    How to avoid using paragraphs, and why the “wall of text” needs a proper revival in all forms of legal drafting, legal writing and communication;
    Your obligation to your parents and how the cost of your education leaves you beholden to them to use big words and complex sentence structure.
    Hope you enjoy!
    If you’d like some less sarcastic tips on legal writing, check out my article Assignment to Advice.
    Check out the rest of the Legalese Series:
    Celebrating the Incomprehensible
    An Exercise in Legal Drafting and Legalese
    Striking the Right Tone
    It’s essential for lawyers to develop their legalese properly.
    In this podcast I provide 8 pieces of wisdom to really get your legalese on the right path.
    Specifically in this podcast you will learn:
    Why clients need to appreciate how smart you are, and how using legalese can really help you in that respect
    Why your charge out rate is related to your need to use big words, and how as you increase in seniority you really should start using bigger words and more legalese, lest your clients abandon you are a simpleton;
    How to make judges love you by creative use of latin and other dead languages, and twists, turns and convolutions at every stage of advocacy;
    Improving your sentence structure and length by significantly increasing your use of the word “and” as well as modifiers and (subject to point 5 below) use of commas;
    How punctuation is ruining your career, making you seem stupid, and otherwise allowing people to understand what you are talking about (which is not a good thing);
    Why to ignore the myth of plain English drafting which is proliferated by people who don’t know what they are talking about – the reality being that proper use of legalese will catapult you into a better position in life;
    How to avoid using paragraphs, and why the “wall of text” needs a proper revival in all forms of legal drafting, legal writing and communication;
    Your obligation to your parents and how the cost of your education leaves you beholden to them to use big words and complex sentence structure.
    Hope you enjoy!
    If you’d like some less sarcastic tips on legal writing, check out my article Assignment to Advice.
    Check out the rest of the Legalese Series:
    Celebrating the Incomprehensible
    An Exercise in Legal Drafting and Legalese
    Striking the Right Tone
    14 min
  • How to Work a Room (networking for new lawyers)
    Attending a function and trying to meet and network with new people for business doesn’t fill many new lawyers with joy.  In this episode of the podcast I talk about some tips for working a room, including:
    Getting over your fears
    What to do with your mobile phone
    Finding out about the others in attendance
    Getting rid of your colleagues; and
    Bringing dull conversations to an end.
    Hope you enjoy – Happy Lawyering!Attending a function and trying to meet and network with new people for business doesn’t fill many new lawyers with joy.  In this episode of the podcast I talk about some tips for working a room, including:
    Getting over your fears
    What to do with your mobile phone
    Finding out about the others in attendance
    Getting rid of your colleagues; and
    Bringing dull conversations to an end.
    Hope you enjoy – Happy Lawyering!
    24 min
  • What is Firm Culture, and What do you Do About it?
    In this podcast I tell you what you need to know about law firm culture.  
    Law Firms have been talking about their “great culture” now for a while, but I’m not totally convinced whether anyone actually knows what they mean when they are discussing it.
    Oh – they’ve got a “great culture” or “their culture sucks” – what the?
    So in this podcast I go into:
    What does Culture mean in the context of a law firm
    What Law Firm culture isn’t always consistent within the same firm
    Three examples of different firm cultures: the workaholic firm; the work hard, play hard, firm; the lifestyle firm.
    What it means when a firm tells you that you don’t “fit with the firm culture”.
    I hope this episode helps you out.  Happy Lawyering!In this podcast I tell you what you need to know about law firm culture.  
    Law Firms have been talking about their “great culture” now for a while, but I’m not totally convinced whether anyone actually knows what they mean when they are discussing it.
    Oh – they’ve got a “great culture” or “their culture sucks” – what the?
    So in this podcast I go into:
    What does Culture mean in the context of a law firm
    What Law Firm culture isn’t always consistent within the same firm
    Three examples of different firm cultures: the workaholic firm; the work hard, play hard, firm; the lifestyle firm.
    What it means when a firm tells you that you don’t “fit with the firm culture”.
    I hope this episode helps you out.  Happy Lawyering!
    25 min
  • A little procrastination goes a long way
    Show Notes
    Procrastination is to productivity as rust is to iron.  It erodes, eats away, and ultimately destroys your ability to be productive. So I made a podcast about it. In this episode you will learn:
    Why I didn’t tell you how to find the show notes earlier;
    Some of the main causes of procrastination
    Habits and strategies you can implement to avoid procrastinating in legal practice.
    Why you should stop whining about boring tasks.
    I hope you enjoy it.
    Show Notes
    Procrastination is to productivity as rust is to iron.  It erodes, eats away, and ultimately destroys your ability to be productive. So I made a podcast about it. In this episode you will learn:
    Why I didn’t tell you how to find the show notes earlier;
    Some of the main causes of procrastination
    Habits and strategies you can implement to avoid procrastinating in legal practice.
    Why you should stop whining about boring tasks.
    I hope you enjoy it.
    30 min
  • Forming New Habits
    Tips for Lawyers Podcast Episode 2 – Show Notes
    In episode 2 of the Tips for Lawyers podcast I talk about forming new habits.
    What does that mean?  Well we deal with:
    Why I’m talking about changing habits in a podcast that’s supposed to be about lawyers;
    How people are made up of a bundle of habits;
    Neuro-plasticity – how you brain can be re-wired to adjust to new desired habits (or removal of bad habits)
    Ways you can change your habits in day to day life.
    Happy Lawyering!
    Tips for Lawyers Podcast Episode 2 – Show Notes
    In episode 2 of the Tips for Lawyers podcast I talk about forming new habits.
    What does that mean?  Well we deal with:
    Why I’m talking about changing habits in a podcast that’s supposed to be about lawyers;
    How people are made up of a bundle of habits;
    Neuro-plasticity – how you brain can be re-wired to adjust to new desired habits (or removal of bad habits)
    Ways you can change your habits in day to day life.
    Happy Lawyering!
    14 min
  • The Podcast Begins!!!
    Tips for Lawyers Podcast Episode 1 – Show Notes
    Finally.
    FINALLY!!!!
    Yes, I’ve been talking about it for a while, but this is the first Tips for Lawyers podcast.  I hope you get something out of it – if you’re a long term reader, you might find you know a lot of the stuff in here, but please persevere and support this latest addition to the site.
    Here’s what we deal with in this podcast episode:
    What Tips for Lawyers podcast is about, and what you can expect going forward;
    Why I’m not going to talk about black letter law very much on the podcast;
    A little bit (and I mean a little) about my background – the brief story of Chris Hargreaves; and
    How you can help us all out by contributing to the podcast process.
    One minor correction – I mention in the podcast I graduated a little under a decade ago.  Well, in my old age I got a little befuddled there – I graduated over 10 years ago I’m afraid.
    I hope you enjoy this latest addition to the site.  If you want me to keep it up, please:
    Share it with people you know;
    Subscribe to it in iTunes;
    Leave a 5 star rating in iTunes for me.
    Happy Lawyering!
     
    Tips for Lawyers Podcast Episode 1 – Show Notes
    Finally.
    FINALLY!!!!
    Yes, I’ve been talking about it for a while, but this is the first Tips for Lawyers podcast.  I hope you get something out of it – if you’re a long term reader, you might find you know a lot of the stuff in here, but please persevere and support this latest addition to the site.
    Here’s what we deal with in this podcast episode:
    What Tips for Lawyers podcast is about, and what you can expect going forward;
    Why I’m not going to talk about black letter law very much on the podcast;
    A little bit (and I mean a little) about my background – the brief story of Chris Hargreaves; and
    How you can help us all out by contributing to the podcast process.
    One minor correction – I mention in the podcast I graduated a little under a decade ago.  Well, in my old age I got a little befuddled there – I graduated over 10 years ago I’m afraid.
    I hope you enjoy this latest addition to the site.  If you want me to keep it up, please:
    Share it with people you know;
    Subscribe to it in iTunes;
    Leave a 5 star rating in iTunes for me.
    Happy Lawyering!
     
    19 min

About Tips for Lawyers Podcast

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The Tips for Lawyers show is here to provide lawyers with the tools they need to thrive in legal practice.