The Practice Corner: I Need a Vacation, But It’s Far Too Much Work

by Daniel DeWoskin
Trial Attorney
www.atlantatrial.com

As attorneys, we have one of the most difficult jobs to simply duck out for a spontaneous three-day weekend getaway. Notice that we aren’t even allowed to call it a vacation. Such time away from one’s legal practice is referred to as a “leave of absence,” which immediately has a negative connotation; a feeling of abandoning the courts, the clients, the job.

Uniform Superior Court Rule 16.1 ensures that we will promptly put together the multitude of letters and notices to clerks, opposing counsel, and judges to appropriately inform everyone of our leave of absence in plenty of time for them to object. Fortunately, most of us do not find ourselves in the position of having to deal with unreasonable objections. It is still quite an ordeal just to know that you will not find yourself paying airlines’ exorbitant flight change fees or forfeiting some vacation deposit because you did not realize how a case that has been ongoing for the past five years suddenly has to get tried during the week you intended to test out a new system at the tables in Vegas.

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Litigator’s Playbook:
Making Use of the Internet

by Jeri Kagel, M.Ed., J.D.
Trial Synergy, LLC
www.trialsynergy.com

The word “network” is defined as an “interconnected system” – a “lace” or “grid.” It used to be that when people talked about “networking” they meant a gathering of people – to get jobs, to offer referrals or to share ideas about certain topics or areas of interest common to a certain group of people.

Today, “networking” is primarily seen as an activity that occurs on the Internet. While there continue to remain ways to meet and greet in our actual lives, more and more is happening online.

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From the President:
Reflections on New Year’s Resolutions

by Jennifer Little

Come January 1st each year most of us are looking at what we can improve, what we can change. What in our lives can be better? Are we disappointed with anything, anyone, any particular facet of what is so important to us? Are we happy?

The Babylonians started the tradition of new year’s resolutions some 4,000 years ago. They were made to the gods to gain favor. Interestingly, researchers have found that back then a popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment! The Babylonians also felt that to break these resolutions was bad luck, so you had to be careful determining what they were. The Romans refined the practice and started them in the month of January, named after the two-faced Roman god Janus, who could look forward and backward.

Now, as then, we make new year’s resolutions to change, adapt, or amend certain behaviors or things that we have in our life. Whether it is to eat better and work out, to achieve more professionally or to slow down and concentrate on family, we each approach this date with a desire to “follow through” on these goals in the upcoming year. But how many years do we recycle our resolutions? I don’t know about you, but I seem to have the same resolutions year after year. Is that because we never can truly change who we are? Are we supposed to?

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Save the Date! Bench and Bar Dinner Is March 16


Scene from the 2010 Bench and Bar Dinner

Dear DBA Member,

Please save the date of Thursday, March 16, for our annual Bench and Bar Reception and Dinner honoring the DeKalb County Judiciary. The event location is the Emory Conference Center Hotel at 1615 Clifton Rd. Atlanta, Georgia 30329. More details about the evening’s program will be published here as they become available.

This event, which is jointly hosted by the DeKalb Bar Association and the DeKalb Lawyers Association, is made possible through the generous contributions of lawyers such as you.

We invite you, your firm, your business or your organization to participate in the annual Bench and Bar Reception and Dinner by selecting one of our sponsorship categories:

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