Friend, here's The Timesheet for May 2008

So, we've re-named our calendar The Billable Hour Company Legal Holidays & Events Calendar. Please help us make it the most complete listing of holidays celebrating lawyers, paralegals, court reporters, judges, clerks, law librarians, or anyone else in the field, as well as fun law-related events, by e-mailing us at info@TheBillableHour.com.

Does your firm or law school have any special activities planned for Law Day (May 1)? Let us know! And for those in Michigan, Colorado, Utah and Ohio, remember your paralegals on Michigan Legal Assistant Day (May 1), Colorado Paralegal Day (May 4), Utah Paralegal Day (May 15) and Ohio Paralegal Day (May 19). You can find greeting cards especially for paralegals at The Billable Hour Card Store.

Let’s be real: attorneys are often faced with statements, actions, arguments, behavior, etc. that is galling in the extreme. It’s a common practice in litigation among some to make an effort to find their opponents’ hot buttons; push the button and out pops an ugly, crazy person—not someone a jury would respect or believe. (Same goes for witnesses, too.) So how can you handle it when faced with provocation that would make the Buddha quiver with rage?

1. Keep your attention on the motivation behind the provocation. Is the person who’s enraging you doing it intentionally, or is it a by-product of words or behavior that he likely thinks perfectly appropriate? If it’s the former, don’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he succeeded. If it’s the latter, consider whether displaying annoyance would stop the behavior or simply let your opponent know that he’s found a soft spot.

2. Breathe. This is great advice for just about any situation, but it’s especially good for dealing with anger. You can react, which implies knee-jerk emotional feedback made without any reflection, or you can respond, which implies feedback that follows a pause and analysis/reflection to determine the best way to address the provocation. It’s far better to respond than to react. There’s no reason why you can’t fall silent for a few seconds (which may feel interminable to you and your opponent) while you work through your options.

3. Speak softly. Most of us tend to raise our voices when we speak in anger. Therefore, it’s disarming to do the opposite and to speak more quietly. The effect is to appear reasonable and controlled (especially helpful if your opponent is ranting and raving and appearing to be out of control) and to force your opponent to listen carefully to hear what you have to say. I am informed that in Japanese culture, when two parties are arguing, the one who raises her voice first loses. It’s a difficult tactic for many of us to master, but if you can speak softly in the face of provocation, you will stand a much better chance of controlling your anger.

4. Vent. Express your anger in some forum that poses no risk of exposing it. Writing can be helpful, but especially if you write an angry response to an email, be sure that you don’t accidentally send it!

5. Exercise. That’s physical venting. When feasible, it’s a great idea to get up and take a walk instead of marinating in a situation that makes you angry.

6. Selective release of anger. Sometimes, it’s absolutely appropriate to express your anger at the person whose behavior has caused it. But consider the consequences of such an expression. Will you disrupt a relationship? Do you stand to lose ground? Will your expressed anger cause the person to react in a way that will cause you even more trouble? And when you do choose to display anger, consider doing so through your words only but continuing to speak in a low, even tone of voice. That will reinforce the gravity of your words.

And, despite our best efforts at these tactics, all of us lose our tempers sometimes. Especially in time of frustration and stress, it’s easy to let it slip, despite best efforts. When that happens, don’t be afraid to apologize and admit to being human.

Julie Fleming Brown, J.D., A.C.C. provides attorney development coaching and consulting to law firm associates and partners, focusing on topics such as leadership, client, and professional development; career strategy; and work/life integration. A certified leadership coach (Georgetown University), Julie publishes the weekly email newsletter Leadership Matters for Lawyers and posts often on the Life at the Bar Blog. Learn more at www.LifeAtTheBar.com or by contacting Julie by telephone at 800.758.6214 or by email to jfb@lifeatthebar.com.

©Stu Rees. All rights reserved.

Did you Know that Stu also licenses his artwork for use in newsletters, presentations, print publications and on websites? He even offers special rates for student and teacher use.

You can also purchase original artwork and custom prints (framed or unframed) from Stu.

Timesheet readers get 15% off all licensing orders, original artwork and custom prints (use coupon code BILLHOUR). Click here for information on licensing or purchasing "Grading Curve" or one of the hundreds of other images Stu offers. For more information on original artwork and custom prints, click here.

With Mothers' Day coming up, where else can you find greeting cards just for lawyer and paralegal moms?

Not a T&E specialist or a paralegal? No problem: we have cards that are perfect for all mothers, grandmothers and (our favorite) mothers-in-law:

You can find all of our cards for various holidays throughout the year under "Holidays" on the left side of the card store's main page; because we know you're busy, we've broken the holidays down even further, making it easy for you to find special cards for: Christmas New Year's Thanksgiving Mother's Day Father's Day Valentine's Day

If you have a story about how you use TBH greeting cards, we'd love to hear from you: send your story to us at info@TheBillableHour.com. Tell us what card you use; who you send it to; what message appears inside the card; whether you take advantage of our optional free personalization features (do you upload your signature/logo? Do you upload a photo to be printed on the inside left panel?); whether you have your cards sent directly to the recipients or shipped to you; whether you have uploaded your contacts directly into your cardstore account to make sending cards even easier; and the reaction you've received from recipients.

©Dan Rosandich. All rights reserved.

Like this cartoon? Send it to friends, clients or colleagues on greeting cards. To order, visit The Billable Hour Card Store.

A classic!

To watch more of the funniest law-related videos from all over the web, join us at The Video Venue!

Murder
Manslaughter
Mayhem
Battery
Assault
Theft

These words generally derive from an earthy mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman. All of them have been around for at least five hundred years, some for a thousand years or more. And yet, they sound perfectly modern to our ears—indeed, they leap off the pages of the tabloids every morning.

They are all felonies, which comes from an Old French word (felonie) meaning wickedness. The word illustrates the influence of the medieval church on the law; crime was not merely disorderly, but a form of wickedness requiring punishment or atonement. Punishment was serious business—a convicted felon would have to forfeit all of his lands and goods to the Crown. On the bright side, the felon scarcely had a chance to miss his things since he also forfeited his life.

Felonies are sometimes referred to as capital crimes because they required capital punishment ("capital" coming from the Latin caput, or head). Executions themselves had a highly ritualized legal language. Well into the nineteenth century, American judges would sentence a convicted felon to be "hung by the neck until you are dead, dead, dead," which would seem to be rubbing it in a bit. According to legal folklore, the repetition of "dead" was required to justify two additional attempts to hang a man if the executioner failed on the first try.

Less serious crimes are known as misdemeanors from the Middle English mysdemeanour—literally, bad demeanor or bad conduct. A misdemeanor conviction might get you a fine or a stint in prison. The distinction between felonies and misdemeanors is now somewhat hazy, since felonies no longer necessarily entail beheading, or forfeiture, or any other unique form of punishment.

American states, though, still distinguish between felonies and misdemeanors. In the United States, the word "felony" typically indicates a crime that can get you more than a year of jail time, but each state is free to make its own definition. Maintaining a distinct category of serious crimes does occasionally come in handy. In the employment context, having a felony conviction on one’s record may disqualify one from holding certain jobs (beautician in West Virginia) but not others (State Senator in New York). Excerpted from the book The Party of the First Part: The Curious World of Legalese by Adam Freedman. ©2007 by Adam Freedman. Reprinted by arrangement with Henry Holt and Company, L.L.C.

click here to enlarge (large file; please be patient)

©Suzan Charlton. All rights reserved.