Downside of Multi-Vocational Lawyering: Priority Paralysis

Usually, my law office work priorities set themselves. Deadlines are deadlines, client expectations are what they are, and there's always the steady pressure to generate monthly revenue, should the first two factors fail to provide adequate inspiration. So I generally get enough legal work accomplished to maintain the necessary pace.

Likewise, my duties as an adjunct business prof come with built-in mechanisms to keep me on task. Classes meet as scheduled and I have little choice but to be present and prepared. Syllabi, exams, and grade submissions are all required on a time-sensitive cycle. Most semesters, prioritizing the academic work happily takes care of itself.

And as a writer and speaker, I'm driven by a God-infused urgency, the compelling sense that life here is short and there's only so much time to reach people with the Gospel and its rich applications to life. And, of course, humanly imposed calendar deadlines are an ever-present part of this realm as well. Churches where I'm preaching and media hosts don't wait around until I'm good and ready to appear, and editors rightly expect that I'll eventually produce copy. All of which, again, dictate a fairly easy-to-follow list of priorities. 

Balancing the three vocations, though sometimes a bit challenging, mostly keeps me energized and enthused. There seems to be a natural ebb and flow, with priorities intensifying in one area while fading in another. Of course, some of this balance may be the fruit of reasonably good planning and a bit of self-discipline, but even more is the fruit of serving a very merciful God. In any event, I almost always have a pretty clear sense of what's on top of my agenda for any given day.

But then there are the occasional days, like today, when the priorities of my three main vocations enter into a dangerous and dysfunctional equilibrium. Days when the responsibilities and demands of each area seem to beckon with equal urgency (or lack thereof). Legal files clutter my law firm desk, the beginning of a new semester looms, columns and chapters remain formless and unwritten.

What to do? Maybe writing this blawg post will help clarify my priorities? Other suggestions are welcome!

How do you prioritize your responsibilities (legal work and beyond)?

A Dress Code for Christian Lawyers: Timeless Fashion Tips

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. - Colossians 3:12 (NIV)

What are you wearing to the law office in 2010?

Here's some timeless fashion advice for Christian lawyers striving to make the ultimate best dressed list, what to put on, what to take off:

Put on: Compassion
Take off: Self-centered "me first" stuff

Put on: Kindness
Take off: Meanness, pettiness, bitchiness, attitude

Put on: Humility
Take off: Pride, fantasies of always being right, bloated self-esteem

Put on: Gentleness
Take off: Arrogance, bossiness, manipulativeness, head-games, control-freak tactics, physical domination, violence

Put on: Patience
Take off: Anger, grudges, bitterness

And the one must-have accessory, the one essential thing to tie your whole look together?

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. - Colossians 3:14 (NIV)

Put on: Love

Which ripped, stained, worn, out-of-style clothes will you pitch from your legal wardrobe in 2010?

Christian Lawyer: Do you know what race you're running?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. - Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)

Call it a mission, a vision, a purpose, a road map, whatever. The name doesn't matter, but having it does. Without a plan for your career as a Christian lawyer, you risk finding yourself lost or spinning in circles of meaninglessness.

The stakes are high. The temptations are strong. So now's the time to invest in some serious prayer and conversation to work out a simple set of parameters to guide you through your Christian legal career in freedom and victory.

A few years ago, I prayerfully developed this vision for myself:

To be a lawyer busily engaged in a unique, highly visible, evangelistic ministry of speaking, teaching, and writing which encourages, equips, and challenges people to incorporate Biblical Christian values and perspectives into their life decisions.

Simple as it sounds, I can't adequately express what a profound and powerful impact this statement has had on my entire life and career. It serves as a filter, to help me weed out all those demands (both the good and the bad) that detract from my core mission, and as a reality check, to force me into positive action.

What helps (or hinders) your vision for life as a Christian lawyer?

What are your Christian clients thinking? Top ten viewed posts of 2009 at my blawg for non-lawyers

I drilled deep into my Google Analytics data for 2009 to determine the top ten most viewed posts of the year over at my "Is There a Lawyer in the Church?" blawg for non-lawyers. Here's what my readers read most:

1. Bankruptcy for Christians Facing Financial Meltdown?

2. Google Gives Glimpse of Legal Struggles Christians Face

3. Good News on the Law: Can President Obama Change the Supreme Court?

4. The Litigation Trap and the Christian Conciliation Alternative: Christianity 9 to 5

5. Good News on the Law: You Can Be a Christian at Work

6. The Madoff Scandal and Three Essential Questions on Wealth

7. Christian Lawyer: Not an Oxymoron

8. Mortgage morality meltdown: Law prof says go ahead, stiff the bank!

9. The Medicaid-Planning Shell Game (full chapter from Believer’s Guide to Legal Issues)

10. Will She or Won’t She? The Prenuptial Blues

What issues do your Christian clients care about?

The 7 Things Lawyers are Afraid to Say

Call it cultural conditioning, call it arrogance, call it survival, but there are seven things lawyers are afraid to say. What happens if you break these taboos? We're going to find out, but first read the list:

1) I don't know.

2) I was wrong.

3) I'm terrified.

4) I've never done this before.

5) I don't have enough work.

6) Other stuff is more important to me than my legal career.

7) I'm not the smartest person in the room.

Now, go back and read the list again, only this time, say each phrase aloud, in your normal speaking voice. No "saying it in your head" or whispering under your breath. Say the words, like you mean them.

After you've done this, please comment. Not before. If you don't do this, you're not allowed to comment.

What was it like?

Top Legal Blogs: Christian Edition

"No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a washtub or shoves it under the bed. No, you set it up on a lamp stand so those who enter the room can see their way. We're not keeping secrets; we're telling them. We're not hiding things; we're bringing everything out into the open. So be careful that you don't become misers of what you hear. Generosity begets generosity. Stinginess impoverishes." - Luke 8:16-18 (The Message)

Avvo's closely watched Top Legal Blogs daily updates a growing master list of 418 blawgs based on moving 30-day averages of their Alexa traffic rankings.

On today's Avvo list, only five of the 22 blawgs of interest for Christian lawyers to which I link under my "Of Counsel" heading on the right sidebar of this blawg are included: Religion Clause - #96; Is There a Lawyer in the Church? - #349 (mine, for non-lawyers); Shark and Shepherd - #352; The Center Blog - #364; and Ninomania - #401. This blawg, The Believer's Guide to Legal Issues, also appears, at #382.

Fellow Christian blawgers, don't hide your light! Avvo provides an email address, customercare@avvo.com, for you to inquire about adding your own blawg to the Top Legal Blogs list. Both times I've contacted Avvo to add one of my blawgs, the process was as simple as sending the email and the listing was added within 24 hours.

Are there other blawg ranking sites you find useful? 

Other blawgs specially relevant to Christian lawyers I should consider linking here? 

Political Correctness in the Balance: Law Student Group Gains Supreme Court Review of Alleged Anti-Christian Discrimination by UC Hastings

Christian legal fellowship groups provide a vital spiritual lifeline for law students trying to survive the rigors of law school with faith intact. Most of the more than 150 such student groups at U.S. law schools (see my lower sidebar list of links) are sponsored by the Christian Legal Society (CLS). But the ability of these groups to continue functioning at public universities has been in doubt since the University of California Hastings College of the Law's recent refusal to recognize its CLS chapter. The law school objects to the group's requirement that officers and voting members subscribe to Christian beliefs.

In Christian Legal Society v. Martinez the district judge ruled in favor of the law school. CLS appealed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit refused to reverse. CLS then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, in a press release issued by its Center for Law & Religious Freedom, CLS announced that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.

From the Center's press release: “Public universities shouldn’t single out Christian student groups for discrimination. All student groups have the right to associate with people of like-mind and interest,” said Senior Counsel Kim Colby with the CLS Center for Law & Religious Freedom. “We trust the Supreme Court will not allow Hastings to continue to deprive CLS of this right by forcing the group to abandon its identity as a Christian student organization.”

CLS has posted links to the full set of litigation documents and related materials.

Have you encountered anti-Christian bias as a lawyer or law student?

It's Sunday: You Get the Day Off!

Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don't do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day. - Exodus 20:8-11 (The Message)

I receive the Sabbath as a gift from God, a blessing I've learned to accept with deep gratitude.

For me, this means no legal work on Sundays.

Is this always easy? No. Are there Sundays when the gravity of my upcoming week looms urgently? Yes. Have I ever regretted deferring even the most pressing tasks until Monday morning? No.

I don't see the Sabbath as a legalistic thing. I'm not saying you should be wracked with guilt if you check your office email or ponder a case plan on a Sunday afternoon. I've done that a few times myself. In general though, I've learned not to go there, because it spoils the gift.

Honoring the Sabbath opens the day for worship, learning, serving, family, and just plain pausing to appreciate all God has done. God knows we need this. He tells us we need this. And he gives this to us.

I credit Sabbath-keeping in large part for a 22-year legal career in which I'm still relatively enthusiastic about the practice of law and looking forward to decades more. And I credit Sabbath-keeping in large part for my close relationships with God, my family, and my church family.

How do you embrace the gift of the Sabbath?

The law profs have a verdict, but what say you, practicing lawyer? Essential reads for Christian law students

Over at Redeeming Law there's a new Essential Law Student Reading List, assembled via informal poll of Christian law professors. It's a great list, I'm sure, but quite honestly way over my head. Law professors must always display their immense intellectual fire power, and their list is explosive, if you like long difficult reads.

As for me, of the more than 50 impressive titles listed, I've read only six (only five if you don't count the Bible).

Two decades into law practice, I'm to the point where I can barely focus long enough to read an overly wordy blog post. The chances of me reading too many more of the law professor-endorsed essential books are pretty slim. But I still love to read and learn. Even in chunks bigger than 140 characters. And I know many law students still like to read too.

So I'm wondering, what would my fellow practicing Christian lawyers consider essential reads for law students? What are the "must read" books and blogs to help law students successfully integrate their Christian faith with the practice of law?

From the law prof list, there are two I strongly endorse: Allegretti's classic The Lawyer's Calling and Schutt's more recent Redeeming Law. Both are encouraging and reasonably accessible.

What reads do you recommend?

I'm having fun practicing law because...

A few key steps I've taken over the years to make practicing law not only tolerable, but reasonably fun:

1. Embrace RISK (like choosing to leave secure but constraining partnership)

2. Exercise DISCRETION (like saying "no" to bad cases and bad clients, where bad is however you define bad)

3. Maintain INTEGRITY (like being the same person in the law office as everywhere else, including home and church)

4. Be INTENTIONAL (like making time for activities and pursuits more important to you than lawyering, no matter what)

5. Humble yourself in PRAYER (like when the challenges you face seem too overwhelming, or you start thinking you can do it all on your own) 

What helps keep law practice fun for you?

With CLE topics like this, it's no wonder lawyers are depressed

Why do so many attorneys struggle with mental health issues like depression?

The possible causes are many: pressure, deadlines, competition, burnout, etc. Or maybe it's just CLE?

I opened a promotional mailer today from the good folks at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (and they really are good folks - I've been privileged to serve on their faculty a couple of times) and was greeted with these uplifting CLE course options:

The Dead Man's Rule 

Death and Taxes

Hot Topics in Oil and Gas Law

Seriously, I don't care who you are or how happy you were, if you spent three days attending this trio of seminars, you'd be reaching for the anti-depressants!

What less-than-exhilarating CLE topics are being offered in your jurisdiction?

God Banished from the Courtroom? Not Here

With so many in the legal profession working diligently to unfasten the law from its Judeo-Christian moorings, it's encouraging to realize just how tough their job is. Reminders of our deep religious heritage remain integral parts of the everyday legal landscape. Consider this intriguing provision of current Pennsylvania law, said to be derived from our 1772 colonial statutes:

42 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes § 5901. Judicial oath.

(a) General rule.--Every witness, before giving any testimony shall take an oath in the usual or common form, by laying the hand upon an open copy of the Holy Bible, or by lifting up the right hand and pronouncing or assenting to the following words: "I, A. B., do swear by Almighty God, the searcher of all hearts, that I will   *, and that as I shall answer to God at the last great day." Which oath so taken by persons who conscientiously refuse to take an oath in the common form shall be deemed and taken in law to have the same effect as an oath taken in common form.

(b) Right to affirm.--The affirmation may be administered in any judicial proceeding instead of the oath, and shall have the same effect and consequences, and any witness who desires to affirm shall be permitted to do so.

[*statute leaves a blank for insertion of appropriate action, typically "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth"]

Almighty God, the searcher of all hearts! As I shall answer to God at the last great day! Shocking language in this era of militant political correctness. While some want to make God a fugitive from justice, in reality he's still very much a legal insider.

What evidence of the strong biblical foundation of our American legal system do you encounter in your practice?

Lifeline for Law Students: Master List of 155 Christian Fellowship & Christian Legal Society Law School Chapters

As a Christian believer, how do you survive the relentless law school pressure cooker? How do you rise above the cuttthroat competition and anti-Christian bias so prevalent at most secular law schools? Is it even possible for a Christian to successfully emerge from three years of law school with faith intact?

Last month, I wrote a post, Future Lawyers: Christian Law School Options, listing eleven law schools which at least purport to honor and uphold a Judeo-Christian worldview in their approach to legal education. But with hundreds of secular law schools enrolling thousands of law students across the U.S., attendance at an institution teaching law from a God-honoring perspective isn't a realistic option for every Christ-following law student.

Fortunately, through the good and diligent ministry of the Christian Legal Society (CLS) and others, more than 150 American law schools have either a law student CLS chapter or some other organized law student Christian fellowship on campus. These faithful bands of fellow-believers provide a lifeline of support, prayer, and encouragement for Christian law students tossed and tumbled in the storms of law school life.

On the lower right sidebar of my blawg, I've posted my updated master list of links to the 155 campus chapters of Christian law student groups I've identified in my research. (Please feel free to offer corrections, updates and additions!)

Law school can be a dark and dangerous place for believers. The light and love of God arising from a Christian legal fellowship can help you overcome the darkness and danger!

Are You a Generic Lawyer?

I was in a motel while visiting Pittsburgh and, as I often do, decided to look through the local Yellow Pages for disturbing or quirky lawyer ads. One that caught my eye wasn't disturbing, but was certainly quirky. It was attorney Norma Chase's "Generic Lawyer" ad (left). In fact, as it turns out, Ms. Chase has an entire (albeit very simple) Generic Lawyer website. And I'm sure she is an excellent lawyer, and creative too. This is not about her.

My question is for Christian believers practicing law. Are you presenting yourself to the public and your peers as a generic lawyer? Are you intentionally making your practice indistinguishable from those of the multitudes of generically secular lawyers? Are you keeping your faith hidden? Or are you boldly offering the full counsel of God, the unique perspective an informed Christian faith brings to the legal realm?

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. - Matthew 13-16 (NIV)