The NCBA Professional Vitality Committee creates sourced articles centered on reducing inherent stress and enhancing vitality in the lives of legal professionals and offers those resources as a benefit for members of the North Carolina Bar Association.
By Celia Pistolis
I was shocked to learn that I am a “senior lawyer.” Although I am not quite certain who has the audacity to make this determination, I think it means that I can now give advice to my younger colleagues.
But before you finish your predictable eye roll, let me say that this article is not about giving you advice. I am sure you hear enough advice from all sorts of people: your spouse, your significant other, your best friends, your colleagues, your mentor, your siblings, your parents, your hairstylist/barber, your mechanic, and even strangers.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00NCBA Bloggerhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngNCBA Blogger2021-08-05 09:23:482021-08-05 09:23:48Where Am I and Where Am I Going?
The NCBA Professional Vitality Committee creates sourced articles centered on reducing inherent stress and enhancing vitality in the lives of legal professionals and offers those resources as a benefit for members of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Life is a journey. We all learn from our experiences. And if we’re paying attention, we become better people and lawyers not only from our successes but also from our failures. When I first started practicing, I made an effort to soak up as much knowledge and insight as I could from older, more experienced lawyers. Now that I’m one of them, I’ve taken on mentoring roles to help young lawyers just beginning to practice. If I’m honest, more time has passed than I would like to admit, but I still remember what it was like to be young, inexperienced, and fighting for my place at the table.
What appears below is a note to my younger self, with a bit of knowledge and experience I gained since I started practicing law more than 25 years ago. The idea was to help young lawyers – and maybe some not so young – learn from the experience of others, and perhaps come to terms a bit with the stress and pressure of being a new lawyer finding your way in an adversarial profession, whether in a transactional or a litigation practice.
A complete list of guidance would be endless, and there are likely as many good pieces of advice as there are practicing lawyers in the state. What appears below is in part unique to my experience, but also broad enough that others might benefit.
The NCBA Professional Vitality Committee creates sourced articles centered on reducing inherent stress and enhancing vitality in the lives of legal professionals and offers those resources as a benefit for members of the North Carolina Bar Association.
In the morning, immediately upon waking, my mind screaming at me: “Get up. Get out of bed. You can do it. You can do this. Get up.” Not exactly high motivation. But I would indeed get up and sit in front of my computer, alone, in my apartment, drinking my first cup of coffee. I still had a small number of paying clients and an appellate brief due date looming. Even though writing it felt like pushing a rock up Mount Everest, I wrote.
The NCBA Professional Vitality Committee creates sourced articles centered on reducing inherent stress and enhancing vitality in the lives of legal professionals and offers those resources as a benefit for members of the North Carolina Bar Association.
We lawyers are terrific listeners. But . . . do we listen to our bodies?
Many of us go into our respective offices – whether it’s in a spiffy office building, or, now, since last year’s initial COVID-19 “shutdown” – at the kitchen table, in a niche adjacent to a stairway, or the basement. Most of us log in to a computer and move forward with tasks of the day. How do you feel in your current workplace?
In 2021, a freelancing marketplace reported that about one-fourth of the American workforce will be remote. Two of five American respondents to a survey about working remotely since COVID-19 reported new or increased pain in back, shoulder and wrists.[ii] A digital health company found almost half of their surveyed workers had back and joint pain; almost three-quarters said the pain was new or worse.[iii]
The NCBA Professional Vitality Committee creates sourced articles centered on reducing inherent stress and enhancing vitality in the lives of legal professionals and offers those resources as a benefit for members of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Life is a journey. We all learn from our experiences. And if we’re paying attention, we become better people and lawyers not only from our successes but also from our failures. When I first started practicing, I made an effort to soak up as much knowledge and insight as I could from older, more experienced lawyers. Now that I’m one of them, I’ve taken on mentoring roles to help young lawyers just beginning to practice. If I’m honest, more time has passed than I would like to admit, but I still remember what it was like to be young, inexperienced, and fighting for my place at the table.
What appears below is a note to my younger self, with a bit of knowledge and experience I gained since I started practicing law more than 25 years ago. The idea was to help young lawyers – and maybe some not so young – learn from the experience of others, and perhaps come to terms a bit with the stress and pressure of being a new lawyer finding your way in an adversarial profession, whether in a transactional or a litigation practice.
A complete list of guidance would be endless, and there are likely as many good pieces of advice as there are practicing lawyers in the state. What appears below is in part unique to my experience, but also broad enough that others might benefit.
Impact breeds more impact. For six years now, the Legal Legends of Color Awards have highlighted the lives and careers of some of the most impactful attorneys of color in our state. Their contributions, lives, careers, and stories have impacted not only the clients and communities they have served or still serve, but also the attorneys who have followed in their footsteps. Many of those attorneys have now become legends themselves. The impact of a Legend is endless, and this year, with record registration numbers totaling two hundred and fifty-one, we were honored to elevate through video and virtual presentations the stories of a new class of legends. At the 123rd North Carolina Bar Association Annual Meeting and the sixth annual Legal Legends of Color Awards Celebration, we welcomed the following honorees into a distinguished and growing list of Legal Legends of Color:
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00NCBA MIPhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngNCBA MIP2021-07-14 16:03:222021-07-14 16:42:162021 Legal Legends of Color Award Honorees
The NCBA Professional Vitality Committee creates sourced articles centered on reducing inherent stress and enhancing vitality in the lives of legal professionals and offers those resources as a benefit for members of the North Carolina Bar Association.
I started a trial on Feb. 17, 2020, four weeks before the coronavirus covered the Earth and began to shut down our lives. Before that, there was a week of pre-trial motions. For five weeks – and really even before that – I had long days, followed by late nights and early mornings. I was living week to week, and more often, day to day.
I try not to bring work stress home, but there was no hiding it. My wife Angie could see how worn down I was when I got home from court, knowing I still had several hours of work to get ready for the next day. Every night she would ask, “What can I do to help?” There was nothing she could do, but the thought was helpful in itself.
Now that the situation at the pump seems to have recovered and returned to normal, it is time to figure out what actually happened in the Colonial pipeline attack and what lessons, if any, we can learn from yet another high profile cyberattack involving ransomware.
First, a few introductory words and some background on ransomware: ransomware is a common form of cyberattack in our time, and it involves attackers deploying code onto the victim’s network that results in encrypting files and folders throughout the network. According to the FBI, the best way to contain the attack is to block the code from moving across the network. For recovery from the attack, companies often rely on sound backup practices that allow them to restore encrypted files and folders without losing too much data. Of course, victims of ransomware attacks can also pay ransom, but that practice is still discouraged by the FBI and in some cases actually forbidden since the groups behind the attack are deemed sanctioned foreign entities.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00Securityhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngSecurity2021-07-02 11:36:142021-07-02 11:39:01Network Segmentation – Perhaps the Only Piece of Good News From the Colonial Pipeline Hack
I’ve been to six North Carolina Bar Association Annual Meetings, and we’ve had some amazing activities that attracted a lot of members. There have been historic riverboat tours along the Cape Fear, tubing expeditions down the French Broad, Land Rover cruises at Biltmore and private showcases of the Hendrick Motorsports Museum. But in the end, there is one activity that always brings the most excitement along with a flood of participants every time – the door prizes!
This year, we will continue with the tradition of celebrating our members during the month of May! We have scheduled free events and workshops during the entire month to thank you for being a member. The events will include Wellness Wednesdays, Winning Wednesdays, and Free Fridays.
On Wellness Wednesdays, you will have the chance to learn from a yoga expert all the way from Montenegro who specializes in stress management, mindfulness, and habit change. This will not be your typical yoga class. Anita Steele will teach you how to work on the five layers of your well-being. With her guidance, you will learn techniques that will help you to refresh, recharge and tap into an ideal state of mental well-being.
On Winning Wednesdays, you will be eligible to win a gift basket filled with your favorite North Carolina products. To enter, retweet or share an NCBA social media post that week. One member will be selected and announced on Wednesday, May 12, and an additional winner will be selected on Wednesday, May 26. Be sure to follow us on Twitter,Facebook,LinkedIn, and Instagram to share your posts.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00NCBARBLOGhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngNCBARBLOG2021-04-23 10:15:182021-04-28 11:54:41May is NCBA Member Appreciation Month!
By Celia Pistolis
By 
By 
By 
By 
By