quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
This is what I came up with. This is meant to be more... I don't know. Ways to improve work, etc - stuff not taught in law school.

(formatting redone by ffips)


Vehicles:
Often, especially, in large cities, it is common to valet park. In almost all cities, break ins are a problem. This is why you will notice many lawyers with those horrible wheeled suitcases they use for briefcases, with them at all times. (There may be times when the information is so sensitive, I can see the need to keep it with you, at all times, if you have to have it out of your office.)

Remotes tend to be gimmicked, even on better cars. VWs and MBs have well done trunks, but you will have to check to see if the trunk can be set to manually lock, and not open with the trunk release button.

If not, Pacsafe makes cable reinforced bags, and travel luggage, which can be locked in the trunk. Most trucks, SUVs, etc have a variety of aftermarket locking boxes, and tool boxes. Frankly, I always prefer to have a manually locking, independent box. (My Tesla has terrible security, and I have to carry everything in.)

Keep your car tidy, and clean. Some folks will have a poor opinion of a professional in a messy car.


Writing Instruments:
Matching the writing instrument/paper to the task, makes life easier. This is a somewhat important aspect of your life. Writing with the wrist/fingers, having to squeeze the pen, or push it down into the paper, are all very tiring.

Highlighters, I’ve never been a big fan of them, but I suggest either using highlighter inks, in a Preppy Fountain Pen/Refillable marker, or a dry highlighter. (I have a nice set from Levenger, but I’ve always found flags more useful - perhaps with an underline.)

Pencils, it is possible to write with correct form, with the proper mechanical pencil, as well a fountain pen. I use Pentel Graph Gear 1000s, in .9MM, with Pentel 2B lead. There are situations, and times, when a pencil is more appropriate. They make an excellent back stop for note taking, even if viewed a bit unprofessionally by lawyers.

They fit in well, in my world, because the chemistry/tech/engineering people I usually dealt with, often used pencils. I think the art world would also embrace them. Paper needs to be selected for pencils, just as it should be selected for fountain pens. (Really nice fountain pen paper, especially the Japanese ones, will let the lead smear.) My Portage Note pads, work well for both. I also carry a pocket Rite-N-Rain notebook, in a passport cover by gfeller.us, on a daily basis. Pencils also work well in Mead 5 star notebooks.

Fisher Space Pens, these are usually, what I carry. I prefer raw brass, or a pure copper, to eliminate microbes.

Fountain pens, have far less drag, and can be held at a lower angle, which helps me.

Learn to write with your shoulders, not your wrist. My handwriting is best with formal italic nibs, over 1.5mm - I also like putting lots of ink on paper, because the colors/shading, etc make me happy. I use a broad nib pen as my “document/check” pen, which can reverse write, well. I use it on the broad side, for signatures, and reversed to annotate a document, or fill out a check.

I have either a Lamy Safari 1.9MM, or a Pilot Parallel 1.5MM, inked in my seasonal, washable ink, for letter writing, and note taking, on my desk. (If you can write with it, a Lamy 2000 is one of the best note taking pens - very large ink capacity, light, slip-resistant, and very smooth nib. As a downside, the clip does not hold mine onto my shirt very well, and they will dry out, if not used on a daily basis. I have one with an italic nib, which I struggle to use - the nib is hooded, and its hard to see the orientation to the paper. I may try one with a fine nib.)

I also keep a few Platinum Preppy and Platinum 3776 Pens, on hand. (They can both reverse write.) The preppy pens are about $5, and can be ordered from Goulet pens already set up with o rings, and silicon grease, so you can fill the body with ink. (You will also need a syringe from them/some squirt bulbs from somewhere/perhaps a nib flossing piece of mylar. Not sure if they still are available set-up.)

Permanent, fraud-resistant inks can damage pens, especially if they ever dry out in them. Both types of Platinum pens have special seals which seem to prevent that - and the preppy has no metal in it, aside from the nib.

The 3776 is a much more professional looking pen - you can order them on eBay or Amazon, from Japan, for about $95/bit more for prettier ones. I have a few. I will load one with document ink, for a meeting where I expect to be using such an ink. I have another, loaded with a waterproof, black ink, (Platinum Carbon Ink), for use in my portable notepad. (Portage Reporters Notebook.) The waterproof ink can be useful, while wandering around, and the Carbon Ink scans better than any other I have found.

Ink, for taking notes (Goulet Pens, and others, sell samples.) in my portable notebook. I use a waterproof ink, as I’m prone to spilling coffee on it. My notebook paper is fairly resistant to moisture, for being normal paper. I prefer to use ink, available, in cartridges, since I can keep spare cartridges in a small tin, in my bag. I use Platinum Carbon black, usually, as it scans very well. The tin is actually one sold to carry condoms, but it does a good job holding cartridges.

At my desk, I rotate through, seasonal colors, but prefer to use washable inks

Washable inks are easy to change out, easy on pens, and tend to write smoother.

Some Washable Inks are:

* Diamine
* Lamy
* Mont Blanc
* Noodler’s
* Apache Sunset. (Their inks are not that reliable, but its a great color for high summer, and works well.)
* Pilot Iroshizuki
* I use Fuyu Gaki, and Yama Budo, but all of their inks are good.
* Sailor Jentle
* I like Yama Dori

I use the same ink in meetings. In my pocket notebook, I either use a pencil, or a Fisher Space Pen cartridge. There are a variety of Fisher cartridge colors, and they can fit most ball point pens. (I usually carry burgundy. Again, I would not use black.)

For annotating documents/signing them, the ink must be fraud resistant, and permanent. I use De Atramentis Document Dark Green, at the moment. Its a bit dull.

The same company makes a line of CMYKWB Document inks, which meet all fraud resistant standards. Jane Blundell seems to have made some interesting blended ink colors from them Paginate all documents, using the “x of y” style. Have each page initialed, by the client.

For letters to clients, the ink must be fraud resistant, and permanent.

Paper:
To communicate with clients, use a better paper, which works with fountain pens, in a printer. I use HP Premium32. If you can find one, a typewriter is not a bad idea.

Some lawyers are now only communicating by letter with their clients, and sending larger files on optical media, burned on an air-gapped computer. Optical media is excellent for long-term storage of documents for clients. Easily kept locked up, in a safe. Employees cannot, casually, peruse them, and they can easily be destroyed by microwaving, then shredding.

Lawyers can, at times, see very dark, and ugly parts of lives, and intensely personal ones. Learning how to keep those secrets, properly, and carrying the weight of them, can be hard, at times.

Use a decent paper, for handwriting notes. I use Tomoe River 62 GSM, with a board, underneath, so that I can see lines to use with a pencil.
My Rite in the Rain notebooks, the Mead Five Star Composition Notebook, and Portage notepads always work well. Any toothier paper will work well.

To carry around in general, Portage Reporter Notepads in a Portage Reporter Cover, it works well with fountain pens, and pencils. It holds a decent size fountain pen, in the slot - my 3776 works well in it. I clip the lower right corner as I use the notebook, if I’m not in a position to type it up, and tear out/shred/burn the sheets as I use them. This lets me open to the first , blank, page, quite readily.

To carry outdoors/adverse environments, I have larger Rite-N-Rain notebooks for traveling notebooks, and they make printer paper, which can go in a small binder, and for full-size binders. I prefer the level pattern in these.

To take notes at your desk, I use a legal pad, on a clip board, and then scan them, or type them up, and shred them. Ampad Gold Fibres, are usually what I use. Franklin Christoph make nicer ones, but they are expensive, given how much you will go through them.

To take into a meeting, always take a new, blank notebook/legal pad. Sometimes, you can find legal pads which don’t have perforations. These can be useful, as its not that hard to cut them apart. I usually use a composition notebook, in a Gfeller leather cover. I use Mead 5 star Composition notebooks. They are reasonable, and have good performance with both pencils and fountain pens. Other brands do not seem to work as well.

To take them apart, (for scanning/shredding) rip off the cover, cut the stitching out of the middle, then use a paper cutter to cut the signature into pages.

To carry in a pocket, Rite in the Rain Pocket Notebook. My preferred page pattern is Universal, for the pocket notebooks

For documents:

* Fraud resistant
* Watermarked
* Paginate all documents in the “x of y” style, and have the client initial all pages of a contract.
* Work Journal
* Daily Tasks completed/to do I usually type this up
* Phone Record -- I write the date, time, name/ID#, and phone number, and take notes during the call. Often, I type it up, right after the call. This is vital, any time you talk to a government agency. If there is an issue, the local Congressman can help, but they require a timeline of calls/emails/etc of your dealings with the agency. Type up, and shred vs. keeping a paper copy.

Typed up, and shredded, is easily searched, and accessed remotely, if saved in the cloud, but has some privacy risks - and you’ll have to watch how the notes are uploaded. (Try to ensure there is end-to-end encryption.) Its a fair amount of work, and there is more of a risk.

Keeping a paper volume, especially if there is a typed up, searchable table of contents, can be useful, but anyone who gets access, can read it - so you have to keep them locked up, and all contents can be lost in the event of a fire, etc.

How I lay out my 5 star notebook:
The loops are small, but Franklin-Christoph makes a narrow pen which fits, so does my Lamy Logo, and Pentel Graph Gear Pencils also fit well.

* I write the subject on top, date on the top right corner, then skip lines, and only write on the front of the page. At times, I stamp the volume number on the left side margin, running up and down.
* The front page has my name and contact information.
* If it is a notebook I plan to keep intact, I save the next two pages for a table of contents.
* If I am scanning it, and do not feel much of it is worth typing up, I will type up a table of contents, and put it as the start of the scanned notebook. By saving it as a searchable pdf, I think I should be able to have the table of contents pull up if I search my computer.
*As I use the notebook, I use scissors to clip the bottom right corner, so I can readily open it to my current page.
*It is also fairly easy to glue a piece of ribbon to the spine, and use that, but I find the clipped pages, simpler.
*I usually just go “Year-three digit volume for the year”
*When I paginate, I use a Bates numbering machine, and stamp the right side of the top line, of the front page, and the right side, of the back of the page, if I went back and annotated. By skipping lines, and writing only on one page, it makes annotation easier.
Sometimes, the number machines smear, when you close the notebook, and by stamping in those places, the smears will not affect anything.

Computer
Use a ergonomic keyboard, and mouse, as much as possible.

Voice transcription is great, but start looking for one, which you like, which is HIPAA compliant. Obviously, HIPAA doesn’t apply to law, but its a good place to start, when trying to protect client confidentiality.

I would try to use voice transcription, as much as possible. Carpal Tunnel is a problem in the profession.

Phones:
If I lived in an area, where I could, I would carry a 2 way pager. They are a constant threat to client confidentiality, and just generally evil.

If you end up with more sensitive clients, be prepared to leave your phone at home/have to keep it with the battery out, in a Faraday bag, and only buying phones with removable batteries.

I carry a flip phone, and an iPad mini. The flip phone is quite tough, has good sound (I bought a more expensive one), and, pretty much, if anyone records sound, or location on it, they should have a warrant/should be inadmissible without one. They also tend to really interfere with productivity.

I have my “cell” number, moved to service. If people call, they have to press one to be connected, or they can text, and it is forwarded. I may be switching services, to phones.com, as they are meant to be HIPAA compliant, but I haven’t tried them yet.

I suggest putting your long-term cell number/one you will publicly disseminate on such a service. Its also rather cost effective to add a second number to such a service, which you can use as a work number/put a schedule on, etc.

You have to start thinking about balancing networking vs. access vs. productivity.[/list]

Speech
Start practicing how to speak loudly, and clearly. Learn to consciously, control the emotions your voice conveys. Start thinking about how to add emotional inflection to affect the weight of your words.

Financial
Go into as little debt as possible. A good state law school, is almost always, a better choice than the expensive private ones. Do not get sucked into needing all the “fancy” stuff, now that you’re a lawyer. What you need, is to clear debt as quickly as possible. Have no fear of requiring an evergreen retainer. Do not be shy requiring clients to pay for your work.

Dress
Dress professionally. Become comfortable walking in heels. (It helps being “sexy but professional,” which is underhanded, but I’ve seen women use it to control a meeting.) This doesn’t mean cleavage. Showing off legs is considered professional, as long as the skirt is the proper length, cleavage is considered inappropriate.

Drinking
When I went into law school, I was told 40% of the profession would end up in rehab. In general, even if you do not have an addictive personality, the level of consumption can cause health issues.

You can try the “half-glass” thing at social functions, but that tends to be a bit tricky.
Try to be known as a wine/beer/hard cider person. Cocktails, and whiskies can be dangerous.

quote:

I learned to type on an IBM Selectric and would love to have one, a brand new one, with assurance that ribbons and service would be no issue.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

I learned to type on an IBM Selectric and would love to have one, a brand new one, with assurance that ribbons and service would be no issue.

^^^^^^^^^^^
I have one. Not new but plenty of supplies. I learned to type on a Royal manual typewriter. My mom was quite the typist, I was not. I was lucky to get a D. My typing improved when I was forced to do computer work.

quote:

So ribbons and service are no issue? Where do you get the supplies? Has yours needing any repairs or servicing?