Monday, October 29, 2007
Traditional Dress
I have made a change to our invitations. I have asked that for every event where we request business attire or black-tie, we also make an explicit note of “or traditional dress.” Such traditional dress might include, for example, a burka. Although some have suggested that anyone who prefers traditional dress will come so attired without being given permission to do so, I believe it is important to signal to them that they are welcome – and, more than that, to indicate to everyone that all are welcomed on equal terms. While I am quite assimilated as a native-born citizen, and I have never been accustomed to anything other than modern Western clothing, I have tried to remember how common it was for immigrants to be casually humiliated as well as to set a new ideal of inclusion.
Time Management
There are many skills lawyers need that we fail to mention much less develop in the formal educational process. Among the most crucial is time management. Especially for lawyers who bill by the hour, it is crucial to become as organized as possible. There are various techniques for doing so that are popular: touching each piece of paper once, taking care of email messages immediately as they come in, the entire “GTD” protocol, and so on. There also is the cliché no less worth repeating: technology by and large does not improve the basic structure of one’s life; a PDA may automate a person’s habits, but it will do only that. It is scarcely worth giving advice, because almost everyone with responsibility already knows what must be done to avoid procrastination and follow up reliably. Each of us must make choices, recognizing that they are choices: choosing priorities and turning down opportunities to ensure commitments that are made are fulfilled.
