Law And More

The Apprentice Route - Practicing Law, Without Law School (but you still have to pass the state bar)

A viable (aka cost-efficient, makes common sense) alternative model for preparing to practice law is the apprenticeship route.

Legally classified as "law readers," those choosing this path have to find an attorney to supervise their study, then pass the state bar. Law school is not required. It is permitted, reports Sean Patrick Farrell in The New York Times, in Virginia, Vermont, Washington and California.Here is that detailed article covering this option.

Obviously, there are two advantages of this approach. The cost of law school is bypassed. Also, there is no waste of time on abstractions. Essentially, every bit of effort involved is associated with practicing law. As everyone knows, Abraham Lincoln learned the law through being an apprentice.

The drawbacks, points out Farrell, are many. This kind of lawyer navigates the legal sector without a JD. Prospects could balk at not seeing that credential on the wall.  Prestigious positions could be closed to them.

Also, good luck trying to find an attorney who will agree to be the grand master of supervision.

In addition, law readers have a low pass rate on the bar exam. In 2013, only 28% passed versus 73% of those who graduated from A.B.A.-accredited law schools. 

Another negative is that VA will not allow paying apprentices. That means law readers in that state will either have to get a part-time job or get in debut. 

Education comes in many forms. Those with extreme drive might choose this one. The less driven might go the conventional path of law school. 

Displaced JDs - Panhandling Has Become Legitimate Career Path

Panhandling is like many other lines of legitimate work. Success in it demands understanding its dynamics and how to do fast course correction when there's trouble, e.g. the usual begging spot is declared off-limits by concerned citizens or official law enforcement. Here are some tips by eHow.

Given that lawyers are analytical, by nature and education, the odds are with them that they could make a go of this growing career path. Estimates of earnings vary greatly. It is likely beggers doing the best will be circumspect about what they bring home. 

Articles on revenues from regular begging indicate that for those who have a good handle on this way of making a living can generate enough income for a middle class lifestyle. Here is one piece on earnings from Yahoo. 

What I do know is that a neighbor who panhandles six days a week can pay his rent in a middle-class apartment complex here in Tucson, Arizona. Regularly he carries into his apartment sacks of food from the grocery store, not a soup kitchen. He never has hustled any residents for a few bucks to get by until ...

His prop is his dog. Every panhandler needs a prop. Ones for lawyers could include free consultations about over-education, law books placed strategically around the collection basket and/or a chart of student loan debts versus income from practicing law.

Should lawyers offer entertainment? That could represent added value. For example, they can enact snippets from classic courtroom scenes.  But they have to check out if zoing laws and other regulations allow performance art.

From anecdotal evidence, beggers who are clean and well dressed earn more per day. That could be because they are approachable. Those looking like Charles Manson scare us. We hurry by.

It could be a plus to be willing to lisen and engage in conversation. Too many people are lonely. They welcome and will reward the opportunity to connect in person with another human being.

How to dry run this approach to economic survival? Exit familiar locations. Research local ordinances about panhandling. Case out locations for competition. Experiment with a variety of approaches, ranging from attire to props to level of gregariousness. It has been claimed that a smart panhandler, like a in-touch waiter, can bring home $500 a night. Perhaps more. 

 

Leonard Belzer Jumps To Death - Is There a "Suicide Gene"

Seemingly despondent over the 2012 death of his wife Emily Squires and declining health, Leonard Belzer jumped to his death today from the roof of his Upper West Side apartment building. He was 73. Essentially that's young old age.

His father had committed suicide in 1968. Both he and his brother actor Richard Belzer have been open about their horrific childhood. Here is the coverage in the New York Post.

Lots of aging men lose stimulating spouses, run into bad health and are haunted by Dickensian childhoods. Yet, very few of them commit suicide.

Also, more and more lawyers are losing their good jobs. Many, of course, lose big trials. Yet relatively few of them commit suicide.

As we observe those who choose to take their own life and who decide to forge on, it seems obvious that there might be a "suicide gene."

That could trigger the active form of suicide such as a leap off a building, gun shot to the head, hanging, jumping in front of a train or drugs.

In addition, there's the passive kind. The person stops taking blood pressure medication, drives drunk, ignore signs of cancer, instigates altercations, participates in sex with shady folks and enjoys recreational drugs way too much and too often.

Is there any way to outsmart the suicide gene? Lawyers who assume they have that genetic legacy should leverage their best research on this. They could wind up living a long life and dying a natural death.

LA Law Firm - Help with Visa Applications for Entertainers, $12-$14 Hourly

This could be a fun gig for just about anyone interested in the entertainment biz.  Legal background not required.

Here are details and how to apply.

Even Tech Founders Get the Blues

When it comes to mental illness, lawyers have to be circumspect. After all, the state bar could hold that condition against them. And, what client wants to be represented by counsel who is impaired. Tech founders are also muzzled but for different reasons. 

In Tech Crunch, Catherine Shu, who has struggled with her own depressive episodes, interviews entrepreneurs about how they deal with the darkness. Here you can read it.

Since the age 11, I have bounced from the clinical lows to a mania which distorts reality. Traditional medicine was not helpful. The breakthrough came through the "technology" of mindfulness. I unbundled the techiques of meditation from religion and philosophy.

For 18 months, several days a week I learned to meditate at a Buddhist temple. I kept a secular mindset. That was the platform on which I gained the wisdom and strength to relocate from the pressure-cooker Northeast Corridor to the low-key Southwest.

Here in Tucson, Arizona, no one asks "what do you do?' Instead, they seem to care a little bit how I and my trusty animal companion Lee are.

I wish all with mental illness the motivation to keep experimenting with what will be the breakthrough for them.

DUI Law Practice, Seattle - Freelance Content Writer (not SEO)

The tone and content of the help-wanted seem like the law firm is searching for a good writer who thinks. It also wants you to indicate what is your rate per article on DUI subjects. This is not an SEO type assignment.

Here are the details and how to apply.

In-House Counsel: Have you pushed for company to hire Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)?

Although 23% of the General Counsel surveyed by the Consero Group had a cybersecurity incident in past 12 months, 49% believe their companies are not adequately prepared for data breaches. The sample was small: 57 in-house counsel. Here is the coverage of this by Sue Reisinger in Corporate Counsel.

I infer from this that their companies don't have a Chief information Security Officer (CISO). I researched and published a major article on the role of the CISO in Payment Week. Here you can read it.

Essentially what I concluded was that the CISO is more important to profitability than the Chief Information Officer (CIO). In its Annual Security Survey for 2014, PWC found:

" ... just in terms of revenue, average losses due to security breaches around the world are up 18 percent versus the previous year. Moreover the amount of each loss has been increasing rapidly. The $10+ million category of that has escalated 51 percent since 2011."

Because of the security breach at Target, the stock took a hit. The Institutional Shareholder Services pushed to toss out most of the Board of Directors. The Chief Executive Officer lost his job.

If the job of the General Counsel is to protect the assets of the company, hiring a CISO seems like it should be a priority.

Haunted Houses: Real Estate Law and Ethics

There are those who believe that houses hold onto the bad things which happen inside. Therefore, if there had been suicides or murders, the spirits of those troubled human beings would likely hang out in the houses.

Recently, the Pennyslvania Supreme Court ruled that the real estate agent does not have to disclose the possible presence of those earlier residents to the buyer.  With the exception of two states - Texas and California - all the other states agree on the legality of non-disclosure. Here is the coverage in Bloomberg Business Week by Patrick Clark. 

Of course, the ethics involved is another kettle of fish.

What might motivate the agent to warn the buyer is that the business is a referral one. Should the ghosts act up, the buyer could complain in the community and the agent is toast.

Another incentive could be not wanting the any bad karma or voodoo to seep from the house onto the agent. Anyone who has studied the paranormal know that there is no end to the mischief ghosts can stir up. They might be furious with agents for bringing in owners not sympatico to the spirit universe. 

Full Disclosure: In the late 1990s, I bought an old Victorian house in Norwalk, Connecticut which turned out to be haunted. I hired psychic Mary Ann Kremer of New Jersey to instruct me how to make peace with the spirits. When I put it up for sale, I didn't tell the agent about the presences whose anger was unpredictable. 

Dallas Law Firm - 2 Full-time Onsite Writers - $15 Hourly

The ad specifies that the compensation could go up and there could be bonuses. The firm believes in advertising.

Here are details and how to apply.

Displaced JDs: Suppose, just suppose, you didn't get "lost in your story"

Every era produces displaced workers. Back in Henry Ford's time it was blacksmiths. When I came of professional age, it was humanities college professors (As a doctoral student I got knocked out of that box). Currently, it is the lawyer. So? 

The current batch of lawyers who can't find jobs practicing law might have been able to reinvent themselves effectively had they not got "lost in their story." The ethos of over-sharing or TMI (Too Much Information) encourages and reinforces the compulsion to disclose every detail of one's so-called professional catastrophe. 

But, was it really a catastrophe? Sure, there may be student loans. But in one form or another, 35 percent of Americans, reports the Urban Institute, have overdue debts and are being pursued by debt collectors. Sure, there is disappointment that The Plan didn't pan out. But how many professionals are earning a living doing what they had planned during their education? Sure, there is overwhelming fear. But, join the club. The sleeping-aid industry is thriving.

Displaced JDs can embark on an experiment. Instead of telling their sad story, what about if law students who never got jobs practicing law and unemployed former associates and partners simply frame their professional positioning as "21st century pioneers." There is an exchange of regret, shame and angst for a sense of adventure. 

On April 8, 2014, I headed out from the setting of my own professional sad story ( Download Geezerguts) in New England to where no story was necessary. Devoid of careerism, the desert of the Southwest burns off residues of yesterday.

That changed everything, fast. The rescue dog has become a tail-wagger. My communications boutique caught fire. And I got it that no one, at least not here in Tucson, Arizona wants to hear my story.