Shared Wisdom: Experienced Lawyers Pass on Their Knowledge at MentorLink Mixers
At a packed MentorLink Mixer in the WSBA Conference Center on May 15, Roger Moss, a Seattle attorney and mediator, spent the afternoon sitting with a rotating batch of other lawyers — some younger, some older, some in law for a while, some still fresh to it — who were looking for advice on what to do next in their careers. The topic of the day was Alternative Careers for Legal Professionals, which drew so much interest that the mixer reached capacity about two weeks before the event.
If you took Moss’s advice from that day and distilled it to its most basic components, it would be “I go to things.” Read more 
Demystifying Addiction in the Legal Profession
The American Bar Association (ABA) calls it a crisis of the legal profession. A professor of psychiatry told The New York Times it’s “a conspiracy of silence.” Yet for many attorneys, alcohol and substance abuse are sometimes just part of the job.
Fueled by stress, long hours, and an environment where drinking at work is often ignored – if not somewhat permissible – recent studies have confirmed a long-known reality: Attorneys are more prone to abuse drugs and alcohol than the population at large. About one in five active attorneys qualify as “problem drinkers,” and potentially as many as one-third of attorneys fall into that category. That’s at least three times the national rate of adults who have alcohol use disorder. Read more
Tips for Deposing Adverse Experts
So you’re going to depose an adverse expert witness. No problem.
Whatever type of case you’re litigating, you can weaken the impact of this expert with thorough preparation and an effective strategy. You might even be able to neutralize the expert entirely. Read more
A Creative New Way for Mentors to Earn MCLE Credits
Nearly two years ago, the Washington State Bar Association launched a creative new way for lawyers to earn free MCLE credits through one-on-one mentorships. It’s a program that deserves your attention.
Although the Self-Directed Structured Mentoring Program may not have the catchiest name, the system behind that mouthful of syllables is elegantly designed to encourage lawyers to formally pair up to share professional knowledge and experience. Let’s call it “SDS” for short. Read more
