Impact of dementia on lawyers, judges the focus of free @AZStateBar @azcle 2/15 program

Every 66 seconds, someone in the United States develops Alzheimer’s disease.

That stunning fact—and its impact on our personal and professional lives—drove the creation of a special State Bar of Arizona program on dementia and its impact on lawyers and judges.

The free live webinar will be screened one week from today, on Wednesday, Feb. 15, from 10 am to 11:15 am.

More information and free registration are here.

The program is being produced by the State Bar and the Arizona Supreme Court, in cooperation with InReach.

As organizers say, the number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, is rapidly growing in part due to the aging baby-boomer population and increased life expectancy. Currently, an estimated 5.4 million Americans are living with the disease.

The Bar’s hope for the program is to:

• share information about the signs of dementia
• provide links to help navigate the available resources
• highlight the responsibilities and opportunities for lawyers and judges.

The program is not intended to offer CLE credit as it has not been developed with MCLE rules in mind. Instead, it is available as a service for members of the bench and the bar.

(The Bar will offer a follow-up three-hour CLE program in April that addresses Arizona-specific duties and opportunities.)

 

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Caller ID Spoofing new scam aimed at lawyers, clients, says @AZStateBar

Today I share news from the State Bar of Arizona about a new spoofing scam that is afoot.

If that sentence sounds funky to you, it’s because it’s simply a new and different way to “exploit the attorney/client relationship and defraud consumers of their money.”

You can read all the information here.

And if your outlook was not fraught enough, turn to this helpful piece on additional cybersecurity tech tips to avoid getting “the willies.” The risks include ransomware, pfishing, and even the threat your own employees may represent.

Finally, here is my previous coverage of a panel discussion last summer that managed to cause quite a few willies. Live and learn.

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Succession planning for Arizona lawyers now required by @azcourts rule

“Effective January 1, 2016, Arizona lawyers must have a succession plan. Yes, that’s must.”

And so opens a helpful blog post written by Arizona ethics expert Patricia Sallen. Yes, you should read the rest, here. And then set up your own succession plan. And don’t forget to follow her blog for valuable tips and updates.

Meanwhile, bookmark and read another article by Pat on recent law-practice rule changes, which we published in the January issue of Arizona Attorney Magazine.

Succession planning for lawyers requires careful thought, and it’s all in the hand-off.

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Jobs at the @AZStateBar posted and available for applicants

If a position at the State Bar sounds good to you or someone in your circle, things may be looking up.

Today, I’m pleased to report that there are some open positions at the State Bar—jobs—and that you and your circle may be interested.

When you get to the web page with the listings, here, you’ll see that they range from jobs for an attorney to those for various other staff positions.

Please read, share, and apply at will.

As you’d guess, each position comes with its own requirements, skills, and experience levels. Among them, I suppose, there’s always a general, free-floating requirement that you get along with others (even for the lawyer position—ha!). HR might disagree with me, but that may be the most important skill of all. But … how best to assess that?

Well, before you consider applying, I urge you to contemplate the following hypothetical, wholly unrelated to my own experience at the State Bar of Arizona. (This is my own entirely un-self-interested way of helping out the HR professionals—you’re welcome!)

Mere drops left in a hot carafe: Whom does this help, I ask you? Whom?

For this hypo, refer to the exemplar photo at right.

You walk into the break room for a cup of coffee. The carafe appears to hold a few teaspoons more than a single cup. Do you:

A. Pour the pot down the drain and start a fresh pot, because the remaining coffee is probably awful.

B. Fill your own cup, and then start a fresh pot.

C. Fill your own cup, replace the carafe onto the hot burner with mere drops left, and walk away.

Answer key:

A. You are a stand-up individual, one who should be considered for employment.

B. Though your taste in coffee is suspect, you would be welcome to be hired in a probationary capacity.

C. I can’t even. Please gather up your application and resume and return to the parking lot. We’re done.

Again, this is a mere hypothetical, not one that an applicant would necessarily be subjected to. Just food for thought.

Happy job hunting!

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Native American lawyer survey the subject of Arizona Attorney @azbarcle video

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure to meet with Mary Smith, lawyer and Immediate Past President of the National Native American Bar Association.

The specific reason we met was to tape a CLE Snippet, “a unique opportunity to hear directly from the author of an article in the upcoming Arizona Attorney Magazine.”

The topic of our conversation: a recent groundbreaking survey of Native American lawyers, available here.

Last April, I attended the annual Indian Law Conference of the Federal Bar Association, held in Scottsdale. There were some terrific panels, but I was particularly interested in a report about the first-ever survey of Native attorneys.

Panelists for April 9, 2015, “Strength in Numbers: Native Attorneys from Pre-Law to Practice,” L to R: Helen B. Padilla, Director, American Indian Law Center, Inc.; Mary L. Smith, Special Counsel and Estate Trust Officer, Office of the Special Deputy Receiver, and then-President, National Native American Bar Association; Dr. Arin Reeves, CEO, President, Nextions; Makalika Naholowaa, Attorney, Microsoft Corporation; and Francine M. Jaramillo, Staff Attorney, American Indian Law Center, Inc. (Photo by Federal Bar Association)

Mary presented on the survey along with a great panel. The early reports about the survey were that it explored subjects that previously have been shared openly too little. The ultimate survey results more than bore that out. At the conference and afterward, I spoke with Mary about sharing a summary of the results in Arizona Attorney. She kindly agreed, and her article is in the September magazine.

When we met, Mary was kind enough to indulge our tradition of a photo:

Attorney Mary Smith and Arizona Attorney Editor Tim Eigo, August 25, 2015.

In my videotaped dialogue with Mary Smith, I mentioned how impressed I was with the survey. Not only was the survey smart and the responses candid; the report also folded in numerous personal stories and compelling sidebars. I recommend the survey to anyone interested in improving the legal profession or in launching and reporting on survey results.

The videotape will be available here after September 1. I hope a few of you get to watch it, as well as the article on the topic in the September Arizona Attorney Magazine.

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Magazine faces challenge of facial hair head-on

Before I move onto touting our September issue of Arizona Attorney Magazine (which is pretty fantastic, if we do say so ourselves), I have to tip my hat to the July/August issue—specifically, our cover story on the wisdom of your witness having facial hair.

As the authors examine, beards and mustaches can be polarizing. And as you’d guess, there are good ways to do beards, and ways not to.

This past week, I strolled into my office’s lunchroom, where there is a small stack of magazines available for reading (even beyond AzAt; I know – I’m as surprised as you are!). That’s when I spotted a Men’s Fitness from this spring.

And what did I see? Facial hair everywhere. (Click to gigantify the bearded celebs.)

Clearly, a touch or more of scruffiness serves their readership. But even the hirsute magazine gave over a small area to muse in a piece titled “Old Growth: A Beard Can Age You Eight Years.”

Facial hair can age you: Hollywood’s been warned.

“Ouch,” as the old folks say. Well, love facial hair or hate it, read up on this hairy subject in Arizona Attorney here. After all, our authors have combed through a thicket of research to get you answers.

By the way: We’ve had a good amount of fun this month featuring bearded famous folks on the magazine Facebook page. An example is below. Follow us for all the legal fun.

Yes, Arizona Attorney can get cheeky on its Facebook page.

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Calling for your ideas to plan your 2016 magazine

As we head toward the end of August, I confront my annual challenge of writing an editorial calendar, this time for the magazine’s 2016.

Let’s get together, shall we?

As always, I benefit greatly from the insights of readers, who offer me ideas for content. Those ideas typically arise from:

• New things happening in law practice
• New niche practices that are growing
• Crazy-important topics that legal publications have failed to cover in sufficient detail (or at all)

I’ve heard all such ideas, and following that, we really do strive to address those issues in the coming year.

So consider this an open invitation for your ideas, of all kinds. They are welcome anytime, but contacting me in the next few weeks would help ensure those ideas get into our formal editorial calendar. (Curious? You can see our 2015 calendar here.)

Write to me at arizona.attorney@azbar.org.

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The role of ‘grit’ in women lawyer success addressed at 8/20 @AZStateBar program

Update 8/17/15, 9:45 am: State Bar colleagues inform me that they have reached capacity for this event and are no longer accepting reservations. But I would like to hear feedback after the event from this who attend. Write to me at arizona.attorney@azbar.org. And I look forward to seeing you there.

This Thursday, there’s an event occurring that I’m happy to share (and attend). It’s titled “Finding Your True Grit: A Discussion on the Secrets of Success for Women Lawyers.”

Here is how the organizers describe it:

“How does your mindset impact your success in the workplace? Studies have shown that highly successful women lawyers have ‘grit’—the perseverance and passion for long term goals—and that an individual can learn to develop more grit. In this interactive session you will learn from distinguished and accomplished women lawyers what grit is and how to implement a grit approach in your career.”

This is a free event, but registration is requested by Wednesday, August 19.

Here is the detail about the discussion and dialogue among experts and audience members:

When: Thursday, August 20; program 1:00 – 4:00 pm; reception 4:00 – 5:00 pm

Where: National Bank of Arizona, 6001 N. 24th Street, Building 2, Phoenix 85016

Register here.

Faculty:

• Julie Arvo MacKenzie, Arizona Health Facilities Authority
• Shawdy Banihashemi, Jaburg Wilk
• Sonia Martinez, Law Office of Sonia Martinez
• Lisa Maxie-Mullins, Office of the Attorney General
• Hon. Patricia Orozco, Arizona Court of Appeals Div. One
• Rosemarie Pena-Lynch, Office of the Legal Advocate
• Alexia Peterson, DeConcini McDonald Yetwin & Lacy PC
• Roberta Tepper, State Bar of Arizona
• Moderator: Elena Nethers, State Bar of Arizona

This program is presented by the State Bar of Arizona Committee on Minorities and Women in the Law and Young Lawyers Division and the Arizona Women Lawyers Association. This program is based on the Grit Project, created by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession.

It is sponsored by the Arizona Women Lawyers Association and the Native American Bar Association of Arizona; and co-sponsored by the Arizona Women Lawyers Association, the State Bar’s Committee on Minorities and Women in the Law and Young Lawyers Division and National Bank of Arizona.

Questions: Elena Nethers, Diversity and Outreach Advisor, State Bar of Arizona, (602) 340-7393.

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Why yes, #NationalHotDogDay does make me think of lawyers

Harvey Shinblock can’t be the first lawyer who wanted to open a hot-dog stand.

So today, Thursday, is National Hot Dog Day. Don’t believe me? Well, would the Des Moines Register lie to you?

Not legal enough a topic for your bloggish reading? Stick around. I’ll get to the legal in a moment.

In the meantime, here are a few places in the Phoenix area you might enjoy a hot dog.

Musing on the wonderment of wieners, I was curious about this, so I checked: In the five-plus years I’ve written my daily blog, I’m chagrined to note that the words “hot dog” appear more than a dozen times.

That seems high for a legal blog. Agreed? Well, maybe it’s a cry for help.

In any casing (see what I did there?), I thought I would share my first-ever documented blogular use of the phrase. It occurred in the prologue to a legal novel I wrote (detail about that endeavor is here.)

The book is titled The Supremes, and it involves a new law firm composed of former state supreme court justices. They thought clients would come knocking—which they did—but the law firm partners underestimated how much they disliked each other—and disliked hard work.

The hot dog reference came early, when the new firm’s administrator thinks about Harvey Shinblock, a colorful lawyer who is now disbarred (for numerous offenses, including a Circle K assault with a pocketknife). Harvey owns a hot-dog stand, and he carries quite a grudge against the legal profession. Here’s a portion:

Bernie Galvez liked hot dogs, and Harvey Shinblock sold the best in the city.

Galvez smiled as he recalled how Shinblock had managed to get 30 days in the county lockup for his “misunderstanding” at the convenience store—the best lawyering Shinblock had ever done, representing himself before old Judge Barnes. And after that 30 days, Shinblock woke up driven by a dream of opening his own hot-dog stand.

Human nature being the self-destructive little imp that it is, Shinblock drove his metaphoric stake in the ground on the sidewalk right outside the criminal courts complex. There, he gazed balefully as lawyers and judges streamed by him daily. If looks could kill—or wound with a pocketknife—those members of the bench and bar would have been a bloody mess on the Phoenix streets.

But maybe they got their comeuppance. For in the last three years since Shinblock opened “Court Wieners,” he had received the praise of every publication in town, from the “Best in Phoenix” to the “Best in the Southwest” to the “Best Nooner in a Casing.” Shinblock knew what he was doing as he steamed his hand-crafted dogs.

Nonetheless, no lawyer or judge was ever known to be brave enough to step up and purchase a meal. The history, the bad blood, and the fear of poisoning kept a significant portion of the suited sidewalk denizens from venturing forward and trying Shinblock’s bliss in a bun. They salivated and gnashed their teeth, but the gray and blue army marched past the stainless steel stand, thinking hungrily that they may have been a tad hard on good old Shinblock. Still, march by they did.

The complete prologue is here. Want to keep reading? Here’s Chapter 1.

And … do get out and eat a hot dog.

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Lawyer job news: Applications accepted for @AZStateBar Intake Counsel

State Bar of Arizona building

Career news from the State Bar of Arizona:

The Bar has an opening for Intake Bar Counsel. The Intake Bar Counsel conducts initial assessments of new bar charges to determine whether a full screening investigation is warranted. Duties may include performing the following functions: extensive telephone contact with complainants and respondents; evaluation of charges, both written and telephonic, to determine ethical issues; conducting follow-up investigations as warranted; monitoring diversion cases; drafting letters and diversion agreements. On occasion, duties may also include handling formal litigation of discipline charges.

A J.D. required, as well as: being an active member in good standing of the State Bar of Arizona; and minimum five years’ successful practical legal experience (solo or small-firm practice preferred).

The complete job description and application form can be found here.

The State Bar is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes and encourages applications from diverse candidates.

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