icon

Articles

World Justice Project Reveals ‘Rule of Law Index’

Anyone anxious to start chewing on the results of the initial findings of a new Rule of Law Index being developed by the World Justice Project will have to wait a little longer. A much-anticipated report on the Rule of Law Index was delivered to attendees of the World Justice...

Read More 4 minutes read

UK Ministry of Justice study on Restorative Justice and Reoffending

An independent evaluation of seven Cambridge-led experiments in restorative justice show that the experience of victim offender mediation reduces reconviction and recidivism by 27%. The evaluation was undertaken by Professor Joanna Shapland (Director of the University of Sheffield´s Centre for Criminological Research), Lawrence Sherman (Wolfson Professor of Criminology at Cambridge)...

Read More 3 minutes read
icon

Trending Tweets

Coaches, Judges Have Much in Common

As a trial judge since 1979, it has been my privilege to preside over many cases involving adults and youth who made serious mistakes, were charged with criminal offenses and needed to improve their lives. At key points, judges must listen carefully to a variety of people about the choices...

Read More 7 minutes read

Judging Judges and Dispute Resolution Processes

I. Introduction "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in [this casino]!" says Captain Louis Renault, just before the croupier hands him his winnings in the classic movie Casablanca. [FN1] Would disputants [FN2] be similarly shocked to discover that judges make psychological errors that Professor Chris Guthrie...

Read More 35 minutes read

Under Pressure? Don’t Get Rattled.

I noticed another lesson in the Olympics last night. I watched the 400m relays and saw the U.S. men’s and women’s teams disqualified for dropping the baton. The men quit running after the drop, but the women’s team anchor Lauryn Williams picked up the baton and ran the rest of...

Read More 5 minutes read

Attaining Leadership in a Bar Association

Working on a bar association committee or project is a good way to get leadership experience quickly. The reason is simple: because of the number and variety of bar associations (the ABA, state, city/county, area-of-practice, group affiliations, etc.) and the number and variety of sections and committees within each, leadership...

Read More 6 minutes read

Are You Playing to Win?

Last night, I was watching the men’s gymnastics Olympic competition. I was struck with the approaches, at least as described by the knowledgeable commentators. (I admit to some impatience with the Olympic commentators, who magnify every misstep and cluck over the athletes’ failings, but that’s another story.) Some gymnasts played all out, trying their most difficult moves and performing brilliantly — or not. Others seemed to play it safe, preferring to execute flawlessly what they knew they could do well rather than to stretch for a more difficult series of...

Read More 5 minutes read

What’s In a Name?

During my third year of law school, I was a member of the Lamar Inn of Court at Emory Law School. For those unfamiliar with the American Inns of Court, it’s an organization based on the English Inns of Court and designed to bring together law students (known in the...

Read More 4 minutes read

Set ‘Em So You Can Reach ‘Em

When “Carl,” a 4th year associate in a large firm, contacted me about lawyer coaching, he was dreading an upcoming evaluation. The office rumor was that associates were being asked to explain what they’d done to meet the goals they’d set in the previous year’s review, and Carl was nervous....

Read More 4 minutes read

Financial Freedom

An anonymous email I received shortly after I began coaching haunts me. This person (I don’t know whether male or female, but I’ll assume male here) wanted desperately to leave the practice. He was responding to something I’d written, and he explained that he’d practiced law for nearly 20 years...

Read More 4 minutes read

Freedom of Expression

While describing an assessment I often use to a lawyer-client, I mentioned that it provides feedback about one’s natural tendencies and those tendences as adapted to work, explaining that almost everyone wears a “mask” of some sort at work. “You got that right,” my client chuckled wryly. We went on...

Read More 5 minutes read