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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
Law school is a loaded question
Dear Mr. Rockefeller,
I want to go to law school,
what can you tell me about
being a lawyer?
Dear Reader, Wow! Now,
that’s a loaded question! It is
going to be very difficult to
boil my observations down
to a single column, but I will
give it a shot.
Lawyers often have a “love/
hate” relationship with their
profession. We have a dif
ficult time preventing our
career from infecting our
personal lives. It is wise to
ask questions before commit
ting to walking this path.
Many professions are
more physically taxing than
being a lawyer - except that
lawyers rarely get lunch
and dinner is often late. Of
course, not many profes
sions require the temporal
devotion of the law. This is
especially true of the newly
minted attorney, in building
a practice and/or working
your rear off making a senior
partner look good to the cli
ent. It is typically unusual to
work less than 60 hours per
week in first few years out of
law school. Even after many
years of practice, balancing
your work and your personal
time is a delicate dance.
There are many differ
ent facets to practicing law,
many personas you can take
on. Temperament and per
sonal style dictate the type
of law you practice. Still,
it’s hard to get away from
the traditional role of “coun
selor.” I choose this label
intentionally; attorneys are
confidants, often almost
Heel pain affects people of all ages
Heel pain can hap
pen to all ages. This
pain is caused from
the way your legs and feet
are built or by the way you
move and
also from
an injury
or a medi
cal prob
lem that
affects
your whole
body. Heel
pain can
also be
apart of
aging.
Your prob-
Dr. Jokhai
Columnist
The Fool Doctor
lem will appear sometimes
later after your feet have
supported you through years
of daily wear and tear. Heel
pain can also worsens as you
go. Heel pain can also make
standing or walking unbear-
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therapists, for their clients.
We are blamed when things
go wrong and constantly sec
ond-guessed by clients, who
want us to tell them what
to do and, when they don’t
hear what they want, vilify
us for being in cahoots with
the other side; if you want to
be a lawyer, you need to have
two things: the desire to help
JrA
Jim Rockefeller
Columnist
you work for a firm, or on
your own, you have to know
how to make connections,
network, and run a profit
able business. Even if you
work in the public sector
as a teacher or government
attorney, your career will
depend on your ability to
navigate internal political
minefields; just being a good
lawyer may not be enough to
succeed.
The last cautionary com
ment I can share concerns
the “trap” of law school. The
lure of law school is that
lawyers make lots of money.
Not true! Y
es, there are some law
yers who are beyond rich;
the reality is that the vast
majority of us just earn a
decent income, nothing like
the public myth. Law school
able.
Symptoms
At first you may have felt
a dull ache that didn’t last.
You also may feel intense
pain everyday. You also may
feel intense pain everyday.
Your pain for most people
worsens. You may also feel
a sharp jab that strikes
every time the heel touches
the ground. Heel pain may
be the worst when you get
out of bed in the morning
causing you to hobble for
a few steps or a few min
utes this will make stand
ing or walking unbearable.
If your heel pain is linked
with a general health prob
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Give Romance
teleflora’s 16 kisses bouquet
A dozen roses is the elassie gift
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VH74I
is expensive. When I finished
in 1989, I had over $50,000
in student loans, plus credit
card debt.
These days, it is not
uncommon for recent gradu
ates to have over SIOO,OOO
in student debt. If not man
aged properly, this type
of debt can strangle both
your personal and profes
sional futures, limiting your
options in terms of family
and career choice.
Yet, knowing all of these
things, with the right mind
set and planning, helping
people can be an ennobling
calling. Attorneys are guard
ians of our clients’ worst
instincts.
We either help them out of
trouble or keep them from
deepening their tragedies.
And, having a law degree is
one of the most flexible of all
graduate degrees, as the dis
cipline of learning to think
like a lawyer is a skill need
ed in all endeavors in life. If
you’re willing to invest three
years of your life and a lot
of money into law school,
go for it! I hope you have an
experience as rewarding as
mine has been. Good luck!
Warner Robins attorney
Jim Rockefeller is the for
mer Chief Assistant District
Attorney for Houston County,
and a former Assistant State
Attorney in Miami. Owner
of Rockefeller Law Center,
Jim has been in private
practice since 2000. E-mail
your comments or confi
dential legal questions to
ajr (a rockefeller law center,
com.
people and
a thick
skin!
Being
a lawyer
eventually
means
that you
have to
have some
business
sense.
Whether
lem, such as arthritis a con
dition affecting your bones
and joints, your podiatrist
will work with your physi
cian to improve your overall
comfort and well-being.
Treatments
Your podiatrist treat more
heel pain than other medi
cal profession after identify
ing the reason for your heel
pain, if your heel pain is
linked with a general health
problem, such as arthritis
a condition affecting your
bones and joints, your podia
trist will work with your
physician to improve your
over all comfort and well
being.
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435 33I
Dealing with ambiguity - part 1
I spent some time last
week working with a cli
ent who is considering
ways to improve his clar
ity in dealing with those
he influences. If his world
functioned as he’d prefer,
everything would be well
organized and predictable,
structured and unchang
ing.
The practical realities
of life, of course, are very
different from that. Our
society is changing faster
than ever before in his
tory. Successful leaders in
business had better keep
innovating, or hungry com
petitors will overtake them.
Fear of what the future
might bring is at least occa
sionally on the mind of
every worker.
“Dealing with ambiguity”
is a leadership skill. When
I invite leaders to assess
themselves in the many
attributes of leadership,
“dealing with ambiguity” is
one of the characteristics
they evaluate. Here is the
description of “dealing with
ambiguity” provided by the
assessment instrument I
use:
• can effectively cope
with change
• can shift gears comfort
ably
• can decide and act with
out having the total pic
ture
• isn’t upset when things
are up in the air
* doesn’t have to fin
ish things before moving
on
• can comfortably handle
risk and uncertainty
Many situations faced by
leaders are ambiguous.
The problems you face are
often quite fuzzy, and the
solutions are certainly not
evident! The higher you
go, the more ambiguous
the scenarios become. You
lack information, time,
and precedents. Everyone
you consult seems to be
working his or her per
sonal agenda.
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final decision, yet options
you might pursue seem
extremely limited. How can
you be sure that the most
creative (and potentially
Dennis Hooper
Leaders Building
Leaders
were, you have no clear cri
teria for choosing! What’s a
leader to do?
Marcus Buckingham, in
his new book The One Thing
You Need to Know about
Great Managing, Great
Leading, and Sustained
Individual Success, says
that great leaders “rally
people toward a better
future.” They “discover
what is universal and capi
talize on it.”
He goes on to suggest
that we humans have five
universal needs that lead
ers can tap:
• the need for secu
rity (to overcome our fear
of death)
• the need for com
munity (to overcome our
fear of outsiders)
• the need for respect
(to overcome our fear of
insignificance)
• the need for author
ity (to overcome our fear of
chaos)
• the need for clarity
(to overcome our fear of the
Assessing Your
Leadership Skills
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future)
The more you understand
the interplay of these fears
and needs in your people,
the more effective leader
you will be.
In the absence of being
able to discern the unique
needs of the people in your
organization, is there one of
these that seems to be more
prominent than the rest?
Fortunately, the answer is
“Yes!”
Buckingham suggests
that “if you can grapple
with our fear of the future
and somehow neutralize it,
even turn it into something
positive, you will have posi
tioned yourself to pull off
something truly significant
as a leader.” The need for
clarity is paramount. As
leader, you must be con
fident and optimistic in
transforming our fear of
the unknown into a com
monly held vision of “what
could be”!
Ah, now we’re getting
somewhere! In the absence
of certainty, leaders need to
provide clarity. But how?
(Please look for the answer
in my column next week!)
Dennis Hooper is a lead
ership development coach,
installing leadership devel
opment systems in orga
nizations. E-mail him
at dhooper2@juno.com.
or phone him at 478-988-
0237.
success
ful) pos
sibilities
have
not been
over
looked?
Even
if you
knew
what
all the
alter
natives
Subscribe today!
Call 987-1823
F. Dennis Hooper
Certified
Leadership Development Coach
Building leaders and
organizations of excellence
(478) 988-0237
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