Millennial Lawyers Are Different, Except When They Are Just Like Everyone Else

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Mathew CordellBy Matt Cordell

Most demographic experts define the “millennial” generation as those born in or after 1981. The Young Lawyers Division of the NCBA comprises law students, lawyers 36 years old or younger, and lawyers of any age in their first three years of practice.

This means that the Young Lawyers Division is now almost entirely composed of millennials.

          How are millennials supposed to collaborate in the workplace with their older colleagues who presumably are so fundamentally different? At the 2016 NCBA Mentoring Conference earlier this year, the Young Lawyers Division and the Senior Lawyers Division came together to explore this question.

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Top 10 Things You Don’t Know About Adobe Acrobat

92decfde1d6e83f6737cd5c251d83103By Pegeen Turner

Even though anyone can create a PDF file now with Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat remains one of the most popular programs in the office today. While many attorneys and staff “think” they know about all the uses, think again. There are a number of time-saving tools that most people are not aware of. Before we dive into the details, let’s first take a look at what you already know about Adobe Acrobat.

You Know What You Know

  1. You don’t need Adobe Acrobat to create PDF files anymore. The last several versions of Microsoft Office have that ability built in when you choose Save As.
  2. The standard for emailing files outside of the office is a PDF file. With the emphasis on metadata and metadata removal, attorneys and staff should already be converting documents into a PDF format to send them out of the office.
  3. Limiting access to PDF files. Attorneys and staff should already be limiting access to PDF files by removing the ability to print, copy, and change PDF files for those receiving PDF files. By changing the file properties (FILE menu-Properties), attorney should already be limiting access and securing PDF files.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Now that we have established some things that you know about Adobe Acrobat (you knew all those, right?), let’s talk about some tips that you might not know.

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Nominate Deserving Attorneys For the Criminal Justice Section’s Gilchrist and Smith Awards

NCBA Criminal Justice Section Members:

The NCBA Criminal Justice Section is continuing the tradition of presentations of the Peter S. Gilchrist III and Wade M. Smith Awards for the ninth year.  The 2016-2017 Peter S. Gilchrist, III/Wade M. Smith Awards will be presented Jan. 26, 2017, at the annual Awards Banquet at the Embassy Suites in Cary.  The banquet will precede the NCBA Criminal Justice Section CLE/Annual Meeting, which will be held on Jan. 27, 2017, at the Bar Center in Cary.

The NCBA Criminal Justice Section Council invites you to submit nominations for both awards.  Anyone can submit nominations. Please forward this request for nominations to your local bar and encourage them to submit nominations for both awards.

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Top 10 Things You Don’t Know About Adobe Acrobat

92decfde1d6e83f6737cd5c251d83103By Pegeen Turner

Even though anyone can create a PDF file now with Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat remains one of the most popular programs in the office today. While many attorneys and staff “think” they know about all the uses, think again. There are a number of time-saving tools that most people are not aware. Before we dive into the details, let’s first take a look at what you already know about Adobe Acrobat.

You Know What You Know

  1. You don’t need Adobe Acrobat to create PDF files anymore. The last several versions of Microsoft Office have that ability built in when you choose Save As.
  2. The standard for emailing files outside of the office is a PDF file. With the emphasis on metadata and metadata removal, attorneys and staff should already be converting documents into a PDF format to send them out of the office.
  3. Limiting access to PDF files. Attorneys and staff should already be limiting access to PDF files by removing the ability to print, copy, and change PDF files for those receiving PDF files. By changing the file properties (FILE menu-Properties), attorney should already be limiting access and securing PDF files.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Now that we have established some things that you know about Adobe Acrobat (you knew all those, right?), let’s talk about some tips that you might not know.

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Who Needs Halloween? Sexual Harassment and Election Season

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rockoffsabrinapresnell-2By Sabrina Presnell Rockoff

I come to you this beautiful October day with three scary topics you should likely avoid at any dinner party.  However, as an employment lawyer and breast cancer survivor, I’m going to tackle all of them:  Politics, sexual harassment and cancer.  I’ll start with the last topic first.  October is breast cancer awareness month.  As a survivor of stage 1 breast cancer, I’m living proof that early detection saves lives.  So if you or your loved one has been putting off a mammogram or checking something that seems worrisome, STOP!  Make an appointment today.  It matters – a lot.

Now, on to the other two … This election is testing many of the fundamental ideas we all believe in as Americans:  democracy, patriotism, equal rights and freedom of speech.  Keeping our opinions to ourselves this election season has become increasingly difficult.  Without offering my own opinion on the candidates, one thing is very clear:  sexual harassment is front and center in this election in a way it has not been since the early 1990s.  And history shows us that when sexual harassment is at the forefront of political discussion, we all had best take note. The EEOC reported that charges filed alleging sexual harassment increased by over 60 percent the year following the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.  While I would argue, based on my own experience, that companies are now in a much better position to address sexual harassment concerns and claims than they were 10 or 20 years ago, based on the current conversations being had on any cable news show, not all companies, even large, seemingly savvy companies, are doing it well.  You can find the most recent data regarding EEOC charges related to sex harassment here:  https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/sexual_harassment_new.cfm

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Want To See the Future Of Law Practice? Attend a Tech Conference

92decfde1d6e83f6737cd5c251d83103By Pegeen Turner

I recently returned from the Clio Conference in Chicago. Clio is cloud-based practice management software for law firms. But, don’t stop reading this post just because your firm does not use Clio or the cloud. This post is pertinent to you as long as you continue to practice law in 2016.

The Clio Conference offers more than just information on a product. It is a conference on the future of law. Unlike any other legal technology conferences that I have attended, the Clio Conference exposes attendees to technology used in other law firms today (read – your competitors). From AI (artificial intelligence) to online intake processes, and practice specific technology, firms are moving their data online. Today. Clio brings together a wealth of resources under one roof to show you the direction of where your firm should be moving.

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The Birds and the Bees and the TLC: What I Wish I’d Known When I Was a YLD Member

scruggsmarkBy Mark Scruggs

Bees are fascinating little critters. Their lifespan is only six weeks. In the spring, they gather pollen to store in their hives. As spring blooms into the summer, bees begin gathering nectar to make honey. As the weather becomes cooler in the fall, they gather sap to caulk the cracks in their hives to prepare for winter. The bees of summer were different from the springtime bees who gathered pollen, and the autumn bees know nothing of summertime and have never experienced a winter. How do they know what to do?

We humans are the same way. While we have some insight into our lives looking backward, we have no real understanding of what lies ahead. We can remember childhood when we knew nothing about the birds and the bees. Many of us were grossed out when we first heard about the mechanics of sex from older kids. Surely our parents did not do that. Surely they are not doing it now! We also remember the social awkwardness of adolescence and the angst of our teenage years. Today, as young lawyers, we remember those developmental stages well. Today, struggling with the time and attention demands of balancing our personal and professional lives, starting families and striving to get ahead in our careers, retirement is the last thing on our minds. While we have contemporaries in the financial world urging us to buy insurance products and invest for the future, the eventualities seem remote.

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Take a Deep Breath: Five Tips For Dealing With Highly Emotional Clients

By Kelly E. Thompson

Effectively dealing with highly emotional clients can be one of the most difficult aspects of practicing family law. Emotional clients may find it difficult to make rational decisions about their case, causing them to become entrenched in untenable positions. Emotional clients may also be challenging to communicate with effectively, sometimes hearing what they want to hear as opposed to what you are truly saying. Even worse, highly emotional clients may lash out against us or our staff when their anger actually comes from the circumstances they find themselves in, not our representation of them in those circumstances. Because representing highly emotional clients is a nearly unavoidable hazard in our profession, we must all find a way to reach past those emotions to help our clients make sound decisions about their case and future. When dealing with highly emotional clients, keep the following in mind:

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NCBA Out & About: A Hike Along England’s South Downs Way

jon-sdw-1By Jonathan Maxwell

There are few better opportunities for relaxation and rejuvenation than a long walk.  English national trails take it to a new level.

In the bracing air along the Seven Sisters, the prominent chalk cliffs overseeing the English Channel, I encounter a fellow hiker who recommends a 13th-century inn in Alfriston as a perfect first night‘s stay. Laterin the gloaming along the Cuckmere River, a gentleman farmer pauses while working in his field to point out a distant steeple, advising that if I stick to the river path I will be in Alfriston ere long.

Of the English walks officially designated as “national trails,” one of the most historic and varied is but a 50-mile train ride south of London. Beginning in Eastbourne on the English Channel, the South Downs Way wends westward one hundred miles through a national park – along coastal cliffs, inland atop an escarpment, and through the woods, to Winchester. (See www.nationaltrail.co.uk/southdowns.) I cannot resist taking six days to walk it solo.

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And Now For Something Completely Different … About CLE Titles

By Catherine Peglow

Have you ever wondered how our CLE programs get their names?

“The Alimony Tour – Not Starring John Cleese” was the name of the 2015 Family Law Section Annual Meeting CLE in Asheville. Now, I’m a Monty Python fan, but a clever name like that can present some problems when you consider the life cycle of a typical North Carolina Bar Association Foundation CLE program. After the live program, we generally do video replays across the state, and those video replays count as live CLE credit. After the replays finish, the program is edited into sessions and uploaded to our On Demand catalog. When you view those sessions online from the convenience of your home or office, they count as online CLE credit.

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