First off, let’s just say that you really shouldn’t even be reading this today, for goodness sake! While we’re always thrilled to see you, over here in Attorney at Work land we’re getting ready for Thanksgiving! You know … packing up the family to make our way over the river and through the woods, running out to […]

Today we're setting a place at our virtual holiday table for Otto Sorts, our resident curmudgeon, catching up with his most popular—and controversial—posts. Take a seat and look at what Otto's been writing about this past year.

If you’re a new lawyer you deserve a boost up. And today at Attorney at Work, we intend to give it to you in a concise, downloadable guide: "25 Tips for the New Lawyer." It’s bursting with handy information about working with others, dealing with your supervisor, getting things done and lots more. And it’s not just tips—there are 50-plus links to helpful articles full of practical advice from the Attorney at Work archives.

Mac loving lawyers gathered at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, last week for MILOfest 2011, "a conference for attorneys interested in Macs, iPhones, iPads and anything else bearing an Apple logo." Since more and more lawyers opt for Macs (and iPads) these days, for this week's Friday Five we asked Gwynne Monahan to share highlights from the fest.

Our interview with the partner was scheduled for 2 p.m. She arrived at 2:45 p.m., apparently not knowing what she was doing in the room or why we were there (even though we had met and shared an agenda only a week ago). As we started to sit, she mentioned she had only 15 minutes to give us. […]

Lawyers are good at many things, most of them associated with legal knowledge and analysis. We’re less good at many other things, most of them having to do with business and management. One of the things we’re least good at, I believe, is identifying and interviewing talent. The existence, let alone the widespread use, of the US News & World Report law school rankings in the recruitment process tells me that ours is not a profession burdened with a sophisticated approach to talent evaluation. You know who is good at evaluating talent? Our clients.

Eddie Izzard, the famous British comedian who dresses in drag, said that success in life is premised 60 percent upon how you look, 30 percent on how you sound, and only 10 percent on what you actually say. Therefore, if you look good and sound good, people will believe in you. This may shock you, but […]

Do you have that nagging feeling you’re just not enjoying your work as much as you used to? Are Sunday evenings beginning to weigh on you because you know you’re going back to work Monday morning? You might be ready for a change. Change can come in all shapes and sizes—from expanding your practice interests to changing where you work to completely changing careers. Take time out to consider what will be the best change for you.

Here it comes. That most wonderful, awful time of year. The pressure is on to serve the perfect turkey. Someone down the hall just mentioned she’s finished her Christmas shopping. And then there’s the office party. Well, starting this week, we're taking a vow to keep things cheerfully mellow this year. Are you with us?

I have had the pleasure of being part of Ignite Phoenix for the past two years. I spoke at Ignite Phoenix 5 and have volunteered at almost every Ignite event since. Each event features 18 speakers, and each speaker gets five minutes and 20 PowerPoint slides to share one of their passions. We’ve had people talk about everything from paragliding to how to spend 24 hours in a Walmart. But all the speakers share one thing in common: They know how to use PowerPoint effectively.