Civility and Sanity: A CLE To Help Lawyers Maintain Both

By Lucy Inman

In an age abounding with public and private incivility, division, and discrimination, how can lawyers and judges promote professional behavior? And when individual struggles with stress and depression make news every day, how can we recognize and respond to warning signs in ourselves and others? “A Most Stressful Profession: Promoting Civility and Sanity in Your Practice,” a daylong CLE happening Dec. 7, will address those situations we usually don’t talk about.

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Find Help In the ABA’s Well-being Toolkit for Lawyers and Legal Employers

Julie D. Beavers

Sarah Nagae

By Julie D. Beavers and Sarah Nagae

As chairs of the North Carolina Bar Associaton’s Professional Wellness Committee, we want to share an important resource created by the ABA earlier this year – the Well-being Toolkit for Lawyers and Legal Employers.  In 2017, the ABA’s National Task Force on Lawyer Well-being shared a report noting that many lawyers across the United States juggle mental health and substance use disorders all the while managing demanding caseloads.

While the report spotlights troubling realities in the profession, I suspect few of us are surprised by the findings.  With that in mind, whether you are a solo practitioner ready to set healthy parameters in your office or a large employer needing to refine the workplace culture, be sure to check out the Well-Being Toolkit for Lawyers and Legal Employers as well as the toolkit’s “Nutshell” tip sheet.  Both resources offer helpful tools and guidance essential to assisting lawyers thrive in the workplace which promotes optimum client service and better working relationships with colleagues.  Invest some time exploring these resources in order to protect yourself as well as the well-being of your personnel.  You’ll be glad you did.

Julie D. Beavers, [email protected]
Sarah Nagae, [email protected]

 

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Members In Focus: World Traveler, Lawyer, Writer, Volunteer Kara Gansmann Can’t Be Stopped

Getting involved with the (North Carolina) Bar Association was one of the best things to do … I started out volunteering for 4ALL, one year at Williams Mullen and one year my firm hosted. … It has been so rewarding, and I run into colleagues who are also giving back. It is a really good feeling; people are really excited.

Kara Gansmann, NCBA Member

 

By Russell Rawlings

Kara Gansmann finished college in Wilmington and left her home state of North Carolina in 1998. She returned to practice elder law and estate planning in Wilmington in 2014. In between, she saw the world – as a flight attendant, student and young lawyer – living in Washington, D.C., Chicago, North Dakota and Texas.

“If I move again, it will be to a grave.”

Gansmann has a way with words, as her law partners at Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog well know. She has been a reliable ghost-writer and brief writer for them in the past – “I don’t need the glory of a byline” – and more recently has emerged as a popular contributor in her own right to the WilmingtonBiz Insights blog, where she writes bi-monthly columns on elder law issues.

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