Black Friday

/ Bruce Cameron

Its that time of year when we flock to the nearest retail outlet at an ungodly hour in the morning in an attempt to beat out the rest of the assembled hoard for, what we assume to be, the deal of the Christmas shopping season.

Being a practicing curmudgeon, my suggestion is to spend the day observing that little know holiday of “Buy Nothing Day“.

If you must spend, consider sending something to Heifer International. They may not have any door-buster sales, but then the waiting line is not as long and you get to sleep in.

SOS – Solo Out of School

/ Bruce Cameron / 1 Comment

Make voyages! – Attempt them! – there’s nothing else… (Tennessee Williams)

So, you are thinking of going solo right of school – great! Here’s some things to keep in mind:

  • If you can pass the bar exam, you are (or at least yourState Bar thinks you are) competent to practice law. Period, end of discussion. So never doubt that you are sufficiently prepared to go out there and commit random acts of lawyerism. That nagging doubt, that fear that sneaks up in the quite hours of the night does not feed on your lack of competence, it feeds on your lack of experience. The good news is that there’s a cure for that – time. Continue reading →

Minutiae Matters

/ Bruce Cameron

Millions of years of evolution have equipped horses with endurance, grace, a certain nobility of movement, and a brain whose surplus computing power is slightly less than that of a four function calculator. Horses are absolutely sure of two things: (1) they taste good, and (2) everything that is not another horse wants to eat them. For the horse owner, these two certainties lead to the conclusion that whatever processing power the horse brain contains, 90% is dedicated to running away from things, 9% is dedicated to eating and the various autonomic systems needed to keep a the horse alive, and (if one is feeling generous) 1% is available for optional tasks – like paying attention to said owner.

Don’t get me wrong, I care for and have great respect for my horses and I am continuously amazed by the bargain they have struck with mankind. Here’s a prey animal that is willing to allow a much smaller predator to encompass it with straps and harnesses, to climb on its back, and to carry said predator for great distances and long periods of time in return for clean hay and the daily bucket of oats. Continue reading →

Building A Practice: Stepping Up The Hardware

/ Bruce Cameron

Admittedly, the basic hardware for a law office is not very sexy, but utilitarian seldom is. It will get the job done until the money starts rolling in. Now, should you want something a bit more, here’s what I’d add:

  1. A large LCD monitor, and a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. While that laptop keyboard and screen are fine for on-the-go work, for long hours at a desk, an external monitor, and a fullsized keyboard and mouse will significantly reduce eye, neck and finger strain.
  2. A plain paper scanner (preferably one that will scan both sides of a page simultaneously). Anything that will reduce the amount of paper in your office is a time-saver. It is far easier to keep a digital client file organized than it is to track all the paper associated with the hard copy version.
  3. A removable USB hard drive system like the Iomega REV system. This is a backup to your backup. The idea is to have a set of periodic backups that you can store at a remote location and can cycle through on a periodic basis. This way you have a series of backups so that you are not dependent on any single storage device to preserve your data.
  4. A dual monitor desktop computer.  Add this last, it ties you down and eats up desk real estate and for most purposes does not add a great deal more functionality than that provided by your laptop.