I actually saw it! It was shown on NBC television. I was young (not THAT young) and actually believed it for several years.
The BBC reported on April 1, 1957 that Swiss farmers were harvesting a huge spaghetti crop due to the near-elimination of the spaghetti weevil. Coverage showed peasants picking spaghetti from trees!
This was confirmed by USA Today on April 1, 1995.
I’ll be in Chicago and would like to get together with my clients and colleagues for breakfast on Friday, April 9th, from 7:30 to 9:15 a.m. If you’re near the downtown/Loop area, let me know.
Breakfast will be on me! And we can chit chat about the challenges your practice faces in today’s environment. Send me an e-mail r.s.v.p. (edpoll@lawbiz.com) and I’ll designate the location by return email. I look forward to seeing y’all.
Ed Flitton, 67, formerly the managing partner of Holland & Hart in Colorado and the Finance chair of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section, died suddenly while at the ABA’s LegalTech Show. I was there and just saw Ed on Friday, the day before he died. While I remember thinking he looked a bit more tired and a bit older than his usual self, there was no indication of illness. Wow! What a shocker!
This gives more meaning to two guiding principles that I do my best to live by, sometimes more successfully than others: i) Do what you enjoy doing; life is not split into work and personal lives. Life is one and enjoy what you do or go do something else. ii) Take care of yourself, no one else will. Eat well (healthy), exercise and get up every morning with a smile.
No one knows what tomorrow (heck, the balance of today) will bring. If you’re doing what you enjoy, then when the time comes, you’ll at least be in a good place. My condolences go out to the Flitton family.
Welcome to the third LawBiz® photo caption contest! In honor of Legal Assistant’s Day this Friday, March 26, I thought I’d host another contest. The first two contests were such successes, so this time use your creativity to show appreciation to your hard-working legal teams.
Of course, the ever-popular Bandit is once again the subject of the photo. I know Bandit will be celebrating Legal Assistant’s Day this Friday, will you? Be creative, be serious, be funny – post whatever you think the caption for this photo should be!
At the end of the contest period, we’ll choose a winner who will receive a FREE copy of my new book just released by West last week Growing Your Law Practice in Tough Times, as well as a FREE ½ hour consultation with me.
There are a few rules to this contest, so please take note:
A winner will be picked by Monday, March 29, 2010 and announced here on the blog. Good luck!
Yesterday, I had a colonoscopy procedure. All’s well that ends well. <g>
Yesterday, I spent the day with my daughter, Deena, who became certified as a Physical Therapy, Women’s Health Certified Specialist. She was among a charter group of only 61 physical therapists in the country, 6 in California, who qualified for this specialization. I’m a very proud father … 🙂
It was great to spend the day with her, see her interact with her peers and witness her receiving the specialization certificate on the stage. What a day!
In the teleseminar today sponsored by West LegalEdcenter and LawBiz Management, we heard from 3 recent graduates. Their comments were poignant. Law school deans and management should take heed, listen to these comments and then take action.
For the first time, prospective law school students are considering the economics … they are conducting a cost benefit analysis … considering their return on investment (ROI). And some are saying the ROI is not good enough.
What is your opinion? What are the considerations that would cause you to go to law school today?
And, if you’re a lawyer, what did your law school do or not do that prepared you for today’s real world in the legal profession?
The following is a comment from a very successful consultant, Alan Weiss, one who has had experience with both large corporations and individual executives and consultants: "Small businesses employ far more people than major corporations, and they create many more net, new jobs than do Fortune 1000 companies. They are the real engine of the economy. … They are poorly treated at the moment by the banks and the government."
Sole practitioners and small firms comprise between 65% and 80% of the profession, depending on whose statistics you believe. One would think that the Bar would be advocating for these members and focusing their educational efforts to help this group of lawyers improve the economics of their practices. Somehow, as suggested by Weiss above, this body of lawyers is "poorly treated … "
If a dispute over fees every arises in the future (as it did in the Pete Wilson, California Governor era), don’t be surprised if the Bar fails to garner support from this group.
California has new rules. If you’re part of an HMO, doctors will be required to treat patients within 10 business days of the patient’s phone call; and patients seeking urgent care that does not require prior authorization must be seen within 48 hours! Telephone calls to doctors’ offices will have to be returned within 30 minutes!
This is in response to a 2002 law that mandated more timely access to medical care.
Can you imagine the State mandating that lawyers respond timely? That people have timely access to legal care? We now have mandated legal care iin criminal matters where the defendant can’t afford a lawyer. And, California is experimenting with providing the same rights in selected civil matters.
In medical care, it seems that government intervention is required in order to provide timely and effective care. When will lawyers learn to do that which is right … providing effective legal care on a timely basis for their clients … without Bar or government intervention? And when will the Bar understand that its members are lawyers, not clients, and truly seek to help lawyers effectively deal with the economic challenges they face?
In a recent article, I suggested that bar associations offer a specialization certificate in law practice management: