Widgets and Functions
I spent some time today adding a bunch of functionality to the site. Gotta love WordPress!
You’ll notice a newsletter sign-up, a poll, my Tweet stream from Twitter, the ability to email posts to your friends or bookmark them easily, the ability to add my post to your Twitter or Facebook page, and there’s some other stuff that will be coming soon.
So, sign up for the email newsletter, vote in the poll, etc.
Enjoy.
Another “Why Now?”: Carnegie Foundation Report
Summary of the Findings and Recommendations from Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (2007)
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Click on the image or the title to download the PDF.
This report discusses some of the important changes that need to happen in the legal profession. Here are a couple sample paragraphs.
“The profession of law is fundamental to the f lourishing of American democracy. Today, however, critics of the legal profession, both from within and without, have pointed to a great profession suffering from varying degrees of confusion and demoralization. A reawakening of professional élan must include revitalizing legal preparation. It is hard to imagine that taking place without the enthusiastic participation of the nation’s law schools. Law school provides the single experience that virtually all legal professionals share. It is the place and time where expert knowledge and judgment are communicated from advanced practitioner to beginner. It is where the profession puts its defining values and exemplars on display, and future practitioners can begin both to assume and critically examine their future identities.”
And, listed as one of the “Two Major Limitations of Legal Education”
“Law schools fail to complement the focus on skill in legal analyses with effective support for developing ethical and social skills. Students need opportunities to learn about, reflect on and practice the responsibilities of legal professionals. Despite progress in making legal ethics a part of the curriculum, law schools rarely pay consistent attention to the social and cultural contexts of legal institutions and the varied forms of legal practice. To engage the moral imagination of students as they move toward professional practice, seminaries and medical, business and engineering schools employ well-elaborated case studies of professional work. Law schools, which pioneered the use of case teaching, only occasionally do so.”
It’s time to start giving law students and practicing lawyers the soft-skills they need to be effective in the 21st century.
Matt Jenkins on Fuel the Spark
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Hey Kevin -
I just read your book. I love it! You have put into words many of the thoughts I’ve had over the past couple years. Nicely said.
In fact, it gives me some ideas. I know this is written to focus and inspire that of the Law Student, however, I think this could be applied to other groups of people as well and could be leveraged into a larger market.
Matt Jenkins
President, Elusive Entertainment
Best Practices in Legal Education Blog
Check out the Best Practices Blog.
Why now?
“It is well-known that lawyers suffer higher rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental illness, suicide, divorce, alcoholism and drug abuse, and poor physical health than the general population or other occupations… It is less well-known that these problems begin in law school.”
- Best Practices for Legal Education, p. 30
Can you imagine changing this? I can!
J Kim Wright on Fuel the Spark
“The prescription law students need.”
J. Kim Wright J.D.
Publisher and Managing Editor
Idara E. Bassey on Fuel the Spark
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“Such a quiet, yet profound missive. I recall as a 1L declaring to myself that I would not let the fact that I did not understand the Rule against Perpetuities change who I was. However, I did not have a framework to operate from this consciousness in the inevitable hustle and bustle of law school (much less the support of anyone else who shared this view). This book provides such a framework. I am encouraged that future legal practitioners will be able to avail themselves of this gentle aid to wake them up and live consciously at such a crit ical juncture in their personal and professional lives.”
Idara E. Bassey, J.D., LL.M.
Attorney/Spiritual Coach
Author, Reflections of a Mystical Sistah: On Traveling the Road to Self-Definition
Joe Tomain on Fuel the Spark
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“Kevin Houchin has written a wonderful little guide book for law students. Too often, books about how to survive law school are replete with rules and suggestions about study, time management, and the like. Fuel the Spark is different. Kevin’s book offers a different way of thinking about law school and your place in it as it offers thoughts about how you will develop as a person. Fuel the Spark is an insightful and enjoyable book, with stories and ideas which will stay with you throughout the three years of legal education.”
Joseph P. Tomain
Dean Emeritus and Wilber & Helen Ziegler Professor of Law
University of Cincinnati College of Law
5GV for Success in Law School and Beyond
Fuel The Spark:
5 Guiding Values for Success in Law School and Beyond
Sample Chapter
This is the cover and some additional information from the new book. It’ll be published in the next few weeks.
To PRE-ORDER, email me. The price will be $14.95 retail. I’ll discount for bulk orders.
Receive and Surrender Every Day
From Chapter 1 of 5 Guiding Values for Success in Law School and Beyond.
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While sitting quietly, mentally say “receive” as you breathe in, and “surrender” as you breathe out. Then start adding your couplets, for example “Receive Wisdom” as you breathe in, and “Surrender Pride” as you breathe out.
Remember these couplets are simply tools to guide your contemplation or what many call meditation. Meditation is nothing more than getting control of your mind. It’s prayer. It’s visualization. It’s manifesting what you want to experience in your life. You can “meditate” while riding your bike or walking to class. You can “meditate” in a cubical at the library. You can “meditate” while some unprepared student is being hammered on a case you know inside out. Just sit quietly and observe the chatter in your brain. Then breathe.
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I’ve found that the more important the decision, the quieter I need to be.
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About Kevin
Kevin E. Houchin is an attorney, artist, teacher, author, and principal of
Houchin & Associates, P.C. , a copyright, trademark, arts & entertainment,
business development, and branding firm located in Fort Collins, Colorado.
To schedule Kevin for keynote speeches, workshops, or seminars, call 970-493-1070
or email
kevin.houchin@houchinlaw.com.
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