Featured Posts - NCBarBlog

Keynote Speaker Stan Phelps On Empathy, Wellness and Millennials

This year’s NCBA Annual Meeting theme is wellness and how legal professionals can achieve it. In preparation for the event, we talked with speakers scheduled to present at Annual Meeting for a series of quick-read Q&As. Click here for Q&As with Annual Meeting speakers Laura Mahr, Jeena Cho and April Harris-Britt. Admission to all speaker presentations, including those for CLE credit, is included in registration.

NCBA Annual Meeting 2019
Stan Phelps on Embracing Wellness
Friday, June 21
Find more details about Annual Meeting and registration here.

By Amber Nimocks

Stan Phelps’ Goldfish book series focuses on strategies to help businesses to drive differentiation, increase loyalty, and promote positive word of mouth. Phelps, who lives in Cary, is a TEDx Speaker, Forbes Contributor, and IBM Futurist and his career has included marketing leadership roles with Adidas, International Management Group, PGA of America and Synergy.

In his opening keynote, Phelps will make the case for investing in health and wellness programs for work and life and share the unique challenges that Millennials/Gen Z face with the issue. Phelps holds a JD/MBA from Villanova University.

Q: At the center of your books is the idea that brands can set themselves apart by doing the little extra things. How does that idea relate to wellness?

A: Employee engagement is vital to the growth of an organization. Companies with an engaged team grow three times faster than the competition. Wellness is a key building block of engagement and smart organizations will have numerous programs to promote a healthy working environment. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to wellness. It’s about doing the little things to connect with employees.

May 22, 2019/by NCBARBLOG

Laura Mahr On Creating Mini-Moments Of Wellbeing

Featured Posts

This year’s NCBA Annual Meeting theme is wellness and how legal professionals can achieve it. In preparation for the event, we talked with speakers scheduled to present at Annual Meeting for a series of quick-read Q&As. Read our Q&A with Jeena Cho and watch NCBarBlog for upcoming Q&As with April Harris-Britt, Stan Phelps and Greg Romeo. Admission to all speaker presentations, including those for CLE credit, is included in registration.

NCBA Annual Meeting 2019
Laura Mahr on Tapping into the Intelligence of the Body to Optimize Your Life
Saturday, June 22
CLE Credit: 1.0 hour
Find more details about Annual Meeting and registration here.

By Amber Nimocks

Laura Mahr is the founder of Conscious Legal Minds LLC, providing mindfulness-based coaching, training, and consulting for attorneys and law offices nationwide. Mahr’s work to build resilience to stress and burnout is informed by 11 years of practice as a civil sexual assault attorney, two decades of experience as a professional trainer, and 25 years as a student and teacher of mindfulness and yoga, and a love of neuroscience.

Q: Describe the three neuroscience-based tools your presentation will offer participants?

A: I will teach three tools that participants can use during their day to create what I call a “mini-moment of wellbeing.” The three “mini-moments of wellbeing” tools participants will learn are designed to help them do their work from an optimal state of physical calm and cognitive clarity. One tool will involve connecting with their nervous system to feel more calm, another will focus on tapping into their bodies to build their resilience, and a third will help them re-wire their brains to optimize their cognitive clarity.

May 15, 2019/by NCBARBLOG

May 15, 2019

Chuck Kitchen, former chair of the NCBA Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities Section and NCBA member Karlene Turrentine have formed a new law firm, Kitchen & Turrentine, PLLC. Located in Raleigh, the firm will serve clients throughout the state. The new firm will concentrate on local government, business, and employment matters, and general civil litigation. More information can be found on their website at ktlawnc.com.

Corena Norris-McCluney has returned to Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton as special counsel, concentrating in labor and employment litigation. She previously served as senior vice president, general counsel, for Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corp. She holds an undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University and a Juris Doctorate from Wake Forest University.

May 14, 2019/by NCBARBLOG

Going Paperless: How Long Should I Keep Client Files?

Featured Posts, Small Firm & Technology Section

By Jared Pierce

I would be lying if I said that going paperless was easy. Making the journey to a mostly digital office has been troubling in so many ways that one article would not be enough to cover the multitude of ways that my staff and I have been inconvenienced. However, of the many issues and concerns we have experienced along the way, none compare to the knee-shaking anxiety of creating a paperless practice while trying to steer clear of violating the North Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct.

Going paperless sounds fun and exciting, but the most significant misconception, in my opinion, is evaluating how much paper you have gathered over the years. Every file, intake form, retainer, background check, medical record and medical bill adds up to a verifiable mountain of paper. However, when we began discussing the need to go paperless we didn’t just sit down and create a rough outline; we spent time planning for success.

May 13, 2019/by SmallFirmandTech

A Profile In Mindfulness: Lakisha Chichester

Featured Posts

As we prepare to celebrate and explore wellness at NCBA Annual Meeting in June, we’d like to introduce some NCBA members who are excelling at living healthy lives in the categories of our meeting theme: Work, Mind, Body and Life. Lakisha Chichester impressed us with her mindfulness. She made an impression on her fellow paralegals, too. Chichester received the Paralegal Division’s 2019 Distinguished Paralegal Award earlier this month.

By Amber Nimocks

Loneliness was not what Lakisha Chichester expected to feel after she donated a kidney to her sister last year.

When she learned that she could give her sister the organ she needed, Chichester didn’t think twice about the operation. The transplant was a success, and her sister recently celebrated a year with her new kidney. But after the surgery, Chichester felt a sense of isolation that challenged her emotionally.

Find this and more in the May edition of North Carolina Lawyer magazine online and in your mailbox.

“When you’re preparing to do it, it’s constant doctor visits, constant evaluations, constantly people asking you about it and how you’re feeling,” Chichester says. “Then after you give the kidney, it’s like ‘OK, we’ll see you later. Call us if anything goes wrong.’ ”

She says her meditation practice enabled her to find the mental strength she needed to sustain herself through those post-op days.

May 8, 2019/by NCBARBLOG

Let’s Make a Deal: Negotiation Science Workshop

Featured Posts

By Amber Nimocks

Some people are born negotiators. And then there’s the rest of us.

Those of us who have trouble bargaining on our own behalf — or on behalf of clients — usually fear negotiating because we lack experience in it — and we’re afraid of losing, says Jeff Langenderfer, who teaches marketing and law at Meredith College School of Business. His upcoming NCBA CLE course, Negotiation Science Workshop, aims to arm legal professionals with the tools and knowledge to help them bridge these gaps.

Negotiation Science Workshop
Live, North Carolina Bar Center, Cary
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Find more information and register here.

He talked through a few of the topics he will focus on in a quick Q&A.

May 2, 2019/by NCBARBLOG

Tech Tip: Text Status Updates to Clients Using Your Email

April 30, 2019/by Paralegals

May Is Member Appreciation Month … Again!

Featured Posts

By Josh McIntyre

Big things are happening at the NCBA in May. As a member, there’s a good chance you’re attending a CLE, heading out of town for a section or division annual meeting or socializing at a networking event, but there’s one new tradition that occurs over the next five weeks that brings innovative benefits to you: Member Appreciation Month.

Following the popularity of the event last year, the NCBA is again coordinating complimentary services in locations across the state and online just to thank you for being part of the club. This year we are offering classes on creating a website and individual social media profile reviews, along with the usual fun giveaways. Space is limited in some categories, so be sure to register with the information below:

April 26, 2019/by Josh McIntyre

Me and My Mini-MBA

Featured Posts

By Erik Mazzone

The day started off innocuously enough.

I was in a meeting with my boss and I passed him a spreadsheet I had been working on. He has an MBA and has, shall we say, well-developed thoughts and feelings about spreadsheets. I majored in English and have well-developed thoughts and feelings on who is the vilest character in “Game of Thrones.” (Ramsay Bolton over Joffrey by a nose.)

After reviewing the spreadsheet for a couple of minutes, Jason looked up and said, “Hey … I have an idea. Why don’t you attend the Mini-MBA program in December?” His reaction wasn’t a total surprise. My spreadsheet skills could best be described as “Needs Improvement.” Microsoft Excel isn’t my love language.

NCBA Spring Executive Education Courses
Elements of Business Management, May 30-31
Elements of Construction Management, June 4-5
Find details and register here.

The Mini-MBA held in December 2018 was the NCBA’s first executive education program. I was excited about this foray. My time as the director of the Center for Practice Management convinced me that there are lots of things that lawyers want and need to learn that do not qualify for CLE credit. Executive education courses — intensive, short-format courses taught by professional faculty and not offered for CLE credit — seemed an ideal way to fill that need.

April 24, 2019/by NCBA Blogger

Wellness Expert Jeena Cho On Lawyers, Self-Care and the Billable Hour

Featured Posts

This year’s NCBA Annual Meeting theme is wellness and how legal professionals can achieve it. In preparation for the event, we talked with speakers scheduled to present at Annual Meeting for a series of quick-read Q&As. Watch NCBarBlog for upcoming Q&As with Annual Meeting speakers Stan Phelps, Laura Mahr and Greg Romeo. Admission to all speaker presentations, including those for CLE credit, is included in registration.

NCBA Annual Meeting 2019
Jeena Cho on Better Lawyering Through Mindfulness
Friday, June 21
1.0 hr of CLE credit
Find more details about Annual Meeting and registration here.

By Amber Nimocks

As a partner in a San Francisco bankruptcy firm, Jeena Cho understands that the pressures lawyers face are unlike those faced by others in high-stress occupations. That’s one reason she is such a valuable resource for legal professionals.

A co-author of “The Anxious Lawyer” and a frequent contributor to Above the Law, Cho earned her law degree from the University of Buffalo. She began her exploration of mindfulness in Buffalo as well, attending the Himalayan Institute for meditation training. Cho teaches mindfulness and meditation to lawyers and counsels firms on stress management and work-life balance.

Q: What unique challenges do lawyers face when it comes to self-care?

A: A few common challenges I’ve observed: First is that lawyers think self-care is antithetical to lawyering. There’s a myth that lawyers should work all the time and sacrifice their well-being for their clients and career. I’ll often have lawyers push back and say, “If I take an hour to go to the gym, that’s an hour I won’t be able to bill.” That’s a short-sighted view, of course, because heaving a healthy body is a foundation to being a good lawyer.

April 16, 2019/by NCBARBLOG