You know how when you feel like your back is up against the wall, you sometimes make decisions you’re not 100 percent happy with? The emotional pressure of a financial situation causes you to take on a client that you know will be a nightmare. Anxiety about an appointment turns into a $20 parking fee you could have avoided by leaving on time. You get the idea. Emotional decision making happens when you operate without a plan. In business and in life. Wandering aimlessly, with only a faint idea of where you want to be in two, three, five or even 10 years, doesn’t allow your mind to fix on a goal. And without a goal, you can't make a plan.

“How do you cope with stress?” That was this month’s question from my Attorney at Work editors. At first, I laughed at the question, but the gentlest response I can give is, “Not gracefully.” I’ve been open about my issues with depression and anxiety, and these are things that impact me every day. My officemate frequently hears me making non-word noises at my computer screen like “blaa aa aah,” and taking deep breaths that help quiet the constant mental chatter.

Let me start by saying that I’m not an intellectual property lawyer. But I am a lawyer and part owner of a marketing agency. And, while I no longer practice law, I can still spot an issue when I see it. There’s a big one lurking for law firms that don't take the simple steps necessary to adequately protect their brand-related intellectual property.

You can read all the books and listen to all the podcasts about legal marketing ... apply expert advice to your social media and blogging routine ... study up on how to build your personal network, entertain prospects and ask for the business — yet you still may not get that client.

Stress is a natural part of any good lawyer’s life. Recently, however, it's been a bit much, no? Little wonder that soothing GIF that helps sync your breathing has gone viral again. And it actually works, for a while. But, between baseball, the U.S. elections, end-of-year deadlines and the impending holiday onslaught, you may need more robust advice than "Stay Calm and Carry On." For this week's five, we turned to workplace strategy expert and researcher Leigh Stringer, author of the new book, "The Healthy Workplace: How to Improve the Well-Being of Your Employees—and Boost Your Company’s Bottom Line."

Microsoft Word is a complex application, so much so that most of us use only a fraction of its capabilities. But you don't have to spend all your waking hours becoming a bona fide Word ninja to extract a lot more productivity out of it. Here are three high-leverage features you should get to know better.

Comma placement can cause a big effect in legal documents. (See "What Broadway's Hamilton Teaches About Legal Interpretation.") In particular, whether or not to place a comma before the word “and” frequently leads to errors.

In the practice of law, dates and deadlines are the currency in which lawyers traffic. As filing dates and appearance dates pile up, the likelihood of missing one increases exponentially — with dramatic results. At best, you’ll lose your case. At worst, you’ll spend years settling a costly malpractice claim. You need a solution that lets you calculate and keep track of deadlines worry-free, but you can't afford to spend hours carefully crafting a calendar either. Thankfully, automation, once the domain of manufacturing and telephone switchboards, has made its way to legal calendaring via Clio’s Court Rules feature.

Lately, thinking creatively about the practice of law has been a theme running through my professional life. While we are a relatively stodgy profession, many avenues for legal innovation exist. From applying new technology to a traditional brick-and-mortar practice to taking law to the street in a converted truck, I have heard dozens of stories about inventive ways to practice law. Interestingly, the lawyers who are thinking creatively about their practices also seem to be using strategies that act as safeguards against ethics violations.

Many refer to the 2008 economic meltdown as the "Great Reset." For law firm business development, it’s healthy to embrace that as a literal expression. The law business was reset from a seller’s market, characterized by demand exceeding supply, to a buyer’s market, where the reverse is true.