The flexibility of a home office, combined with my continuing quest to get into better shape and the time limitations of a busy professional and personal life, have led me to put together this treadmill desk.

 
This will not be my full-time desk—I will also be using my regular office upstairs.

Interestingly, while I can’t work while listening to music, I have had no trouble at all accomplishing all of my usual work-related tasks (performing legal research, drafting briefs, talking on the telephone, etc.) while using the treadmill desk at a relatively brisk pace of up to 2 miles an hour. In fact, I’m typing this post at my treadmill desk!

For more information on treadmill desks, see this blog about treadmill desks.

I had been particularly looking forward to an afternoon panel entitled “Technology as a Tool: Changing What it Means to be a Woman in the Law.” I had hoped the speakers would address some ways in which technology has helped expand women’s choices within the legal profession.

Unfortunately, two of the three speakers didn’t really provide any information that was useful (or even of interest to me) about this topic. The first speaker was a very angry feminist who showed a number of powerpoint slides of web images she considers to be offensive, and slipped in a comment at the end of her 10 minutes about how you can use the internet to voice your opinions. The third speaker was less angry, but very theory-heavy.

The remaining speaker was Cathy Kirkman, a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California who writes the Silicon Valley Media Law Blog. She explained how she has used technology over the past 12 years or so to establish herself as an expert in her field.

One observation that struck home with me was her comment that, in the mid-1990s, it was hard for her, as a mother of a one-year old, to get away for a day and network on the golf course. She could, however, find time to publish a newsletter in her area of expertise, and worked on it while her son napped. She laid out the progression of her platform from faxed newsletter to listserv, to articles in the traditional media, to her own blog and a writing gig at LawCrossing.com.

The most valuable part of Kirkman’s presentation was her assertion that technology enables you to move your own intellectual capital from place to place and also empowers women to be businesswomen. I have certainly found that to be the case in my own practice.

One of the most important ways technology has benefitted my practice is that it has allowed me to develop relationships with both male and female colleagues around the country, who I never would have met but for the internet. The conference provided me with the opportunity to see three amazing colleagues who I first met online: Carolyn Elefant of MyShingle and Law.com’s Legal Blog Watch and Susan Cartier Liebel of Build a Solo Practice, LLC (both of whom I’ve gotten together with before), as well as Brandy Karl of bk!.

Kathy Brandt, a trial lawyer and fellow mycophile, was also the conference, and told me that she just made partner at her firm. Way to go Kathy!

Maybe it would be more fun to take the test as someone else – how would your least favorite colleague answer the questions?

Thanks to How to Change the World. 

Thanks to Mary Sexton at Heafey Headnotes.

While on the one hand e-mail encourages people to write, on the other hand it discourages people to write thoughtfully.

Mary Mitchell, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Etiquette as quoted in “‘Yours Truly,’ the E-Variations,” New York Times, Nov. 26, 2006.

1) Every Wednesday in February and March is BEHIND CLOSED DOORS WEDNESDAY. I will be unavailable and inaccessible on Wednesdays during the tax season. My phone and fax will be unplugged on Wednesdays and I will not be checking my email.

2) I never answer the telephone without first screening the call via my answering machine – so don’t hang up because I may be listening (except on Wednesdays)!

3) Do not attempt to contact me at any other phone number other than….This is my only telephone number!

***

7) When sending me an email be very specific in the “Subject” line. If you need a copy of your W-2 – write “Need Copy of W-2″. If you have received additional info – write “Additional Info”.

If you have a question on a completed return – write “Question on Finished Return”.

I do not have the time during the season to read and respond to “Are We There Yet” emails.

I will not open or read emails for returns I have not yet started until I am working on the returns – unless your “Subject” indicates a timely response is needed. Do not just write “URGENT” – note why it is urgent!

Pretty amusing, but I guess some professionals feel that way about client contact – even though most would not post those rules on their website.

A comment to Golden’s post is even more interesting. The commenter says:  “This guy just sent a very powerful message about how much he values his own services and that he’s competent enough, and in demand enough not to care about losing your business.  That kind of aura of success, and competence can attract people to your firm even more that ‘service with a smile.’”

I am just glad that I do not feel the need to impose any such rules on my clients.  I am fortunate enough to like all my clients and I am always flattered when they ask me to do work for them.  My clients do call me early and late (it is not quite 7:00 a.m. and I have already talked to two clients this morning), but I don’t feel victimized or undervalued by the odd calls.   My work often has very short deadlines, so a late night or early morning call about a project actually makes my life easier.

So apart from any issues of good client services, I think that any professional who feels the need to treat her clients like children either has the wrong clients or is in the wrong business.  Life is too short for that.