The Young Texas Lawyer

After numerous friends shared their internet dating horror stories with him, Dallas attorney Randy Block saw an opportunity.

“Somehow these impersonal computer programs have taken over, using microchips for matching,” Block said. “And I kept hearing from professionals that they did not want their photos and profiles on the internet for all the world to see.  So I decided to start something that would be personalized and private.”

In August of 2009, Block founded We Matchmake in Dallas after months of research and focus group meetings.  Block, a former litigator at Winstead, currently owns a legal recruiting firm.

“I figured that matching lawyers to law firms utilizes the same principles as We Matchmake: Honesty, Thoroughness, Professionalism, Confidentiality and Networking – all in the name of making great matches,” said Block.

We Matchmake sets itself apart by providing background checks, privately showing photos of potential dates to clients, and being very affordable.

Block hired Tina Griffin as the Director of Matchmaking. Ms. Griffin joined We Matchmake after 11 years as a Recruiting Coordinator with Jenkens & Gilchrist and Hunton & Williams. She is 37 years old and married with 4 kids.

“We have quickly gained a group of clients that is amazing,” says Griffin. “These are successful, attractive people of all ages that are busy and just need a little help.”

We Matchmake attracted hundreds to its Launch Party at the Stoneleigh Hotel in September.  Their office is located at 2911 Turtle Creek in Dallas, Texas next to The Mansion on Turtle Creek.

For more information, contact Randy Block at randyblock@wematchmake.com and 214-497-5004.

http://www.wematchmake.com/

Facebook Page

We have discussed social networking in many forms here at YTL, and Above the Law has a fantastic article about social networking horror stories. Below are some excerpts and we recommend you read the full article. You generally should not say anything on these sites that you wouldn’t scream in public, but you should also protect yourself by limiting the friends you accept and making sure your privacy controls are rock solid. Also, make sure your friends know what profession you are in and that they are discrete in the pictures they upload of you and statements they make on your wall. All of this is easier said than done but, if you are going to use these types of sites then you don’t really have a choice. Also, never forget Rule #1: don’t be dumb.

• Don’t go on your blog and call your judge an “Evil, Unfair Witch.” Florida attorney Sean Conway wrote about a post about Judge Cheryl Aleman over at JAABBlog, and the First Amendment did not come to his rescue. He was reprimanded by the Florida bar and fined.

• Don’t blog about the details of your cases and clients, and refer to the robed one as “Judge Clueless.” Illinois assistant public defender Kristine A. Peshek used her blog, “The Bardd [sic] Before the Bar – Irreverant [sic] Adventures in Life, Law, and Indigent Defense,” as an outlet for 19 years of pent up resentment (excerpts here). It brought more release than she intended. When it was discovered, she was fired.

• If you’re on a jury, don’t blog about it. It can get you suspended from practicing and fired AND fined $14,000, like Frank Wilson of California.

• Don’t ask the judge to suspend your trial for a funeral, if you’re actually planning on partying all week. Especially if the judge is your Facebook friend and gets your partying status updates.Texas Judge Susan Criss will tattle on you to the American Bar Association, though she will leave your name out of it.

Above the Law, has a great piece on the antiquated issue of what time one arrives at the office and Morrison & Foerster New York managing partner Charles Kerr’s memo on the subject. Mr. Kerr sent out a fairly condescending memo complaining about what time associates were getting into the office (full memo here). His memo seems to neglect that attorneys are, for the most part, responsible professionals, even the younger ones. The advent of these remarkable devices known as Blackberry cell phones, renders the necessity of “face-time” a bit outdated. Moreover, associates would be at work earlier if there is work to do, which falls back on the shoulders of the partners.

If a firm’s partners concentrated more on keeping late arriving associates busy then perhaps they would be forced to come to work earlier. My guess is that issues like this don’t arise during an economic boom, because there is plenty of work to go around. When you are tracking your employees work in six minute intervals, is it really necessary for them to get in at a certain time to browse the internet since there is nothing else to do.

Granted, there is a need to know the people you work with and being in the office, but why is the biggest issue during an economic downturn for the managing partner of a huge New York law firm the time its associates get to work. Perhaps it’s because he has no real work to do.

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The growing trend among private and public enterprise has been to reduce the number of controversies created by their employees’ behavior on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Not only are they embarrassing to those involved, but they’re simply bad for business.

In Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Professional Guidance Committee has issued a recent opinion regarding an attorney’s proposed investigation of a witness’s Facebook page. The lawyer tried to use a third party to send a friend request to the witness with the hopes that the witness would accept it and the lawyer could use the third party to gather information about the witness for impeachment. The Philadelphia Bar essentially shot down the idea and labeled it deceptive. Taking the behavior outside the context of the internet should help get the answer to any ethics questions regarding social networking sites. If you trick a witness into befriending a third party in real life then you’ve definitely crossed the line and therefore to do so on Facebook is essentially the same.

Just last week, The Wall Street Journal released a list of rules for “professional conduct” amongst its staff members. The list included a host of policies regarding the use of online activities on social networking sites. Also last week, the Fort Lauderdale City Attorney issued a memorandum warning the mayor and other elected officials to stay off of Facebook and avoid having any type of website if possible. In his memo he wrote:

It is a simple fact that the state of the law is lagging woefully behind the state of the art in communications technology. This presents unique challenges in following the intent and the letter of these laws regulating public meetings and communications of local government.

It’s only a matter of time before law firms begin the same practice, if they haven’t already done so. As we’ve stated before, keep a close watch on your behavior on such sites. Make sure you aren’t the one for which a new rule will be written. If you wouldn’t do it in person, don’t do it on the web.

A partner in Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton’s London office sent an e-mail to the firm’s London-based attorneys informing them that ”out-of-office” replies are unacceptable and they should always be available to answer e-mails or at least arrange for a colleague to answer messages when they are truly unreachable. He went on to write that the only time an “out-of-office” reply might be acceptable is when a lawyer is on a long flight.

One would think that most clients are aware of the practical uses of an “out-of-office” reply, but as usual, law firms are on the outside looking in when it comes to using technology efficiently.

Facebook should be used for personal networking and LinkedIn should be used for professional networking. Do not add your co-workers as Facebook friends. If they get upset then tell them that you keep Facebook strictly for your personal life. It is too easy for you to be ruined via Facebook because of the nature of the site. LinkedIn is much more appropriate for professional networking and the site is specifically designed for that. You might think this is ridiculous, but take a look at what is being commonly referred to as “Facebook Ghosts.” YTL readers have given us all the excuses for adding anyone and everyone as a Facebook friend: what if I know them and can’t remember; I don’t want to hurt their feelings; the more the merrier; and he or she is hot. It simply isn’t worth it. You wouldn’t let just anyone come in your house and snoop around. Why let everyone and anyone view your personal information online? How long before the bar associations start using Facebook to scout out lawyers that drink too often or happen to be caught engaging in unethical behavior? Be smart, protect your privacy.

If you read the headlines today you’ll see the unemployment rate soared to 7.2% and everyone is talking about it getting to double digits. If you peruse Above the Law then the majority of posts are about layoffs, salary freezes, and bonus cuts. Amid all of this bad news it’s pretty hard to stay positive, but if you don’t, all you’re doing is hurting yourself.

Whether you’re trying to find a job, avoid losing your job, or find balance in your life then being negative will do nothing except hurt you. Being down will show up in your interviews and who wants to hire someone that seems to be in a bad mood or lacks confidence. When it comes time for layoffs do you think you’re employer wants to keep the guy with the smile around or the one going through the office perpetuating doom and gloom rumors. It isn’t always easy to block out all the negative vibes going out right now, but here are 15 tips from Donald Latumahina to help you:

1. Never respond when you are not calm. If you are not sure that you are calm, don’t respond. Take time to calm yourself down first.
2. Take a deep breath as a first step to calm yourself down.
3. Speak in gentle tone to reduce the tension of the situation.
4. Realize that you can find opportunities in negative situations. Albert Einstein said: “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.”
5. Look at the content of what people say to you for something positive that you can act upon to improve yourself. Don’t just reject the whole messages.
6. For the rest of the messages which is negative, simply ignore it.
7. Maintain positive view of the people. Maybe you don’t like their messages or behavior, but that doesn’t mean that you can hate them personally.
8. Realize that having negative feelings will just hurt you, not them. So there is no reason for you to have any negative feeling.
9. If you make mistakes, be open to admit it.
10. If you make mistakes, remember this quote by George Bernard Shaw: “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
11. If you can, listen to motivational audio program to feed positive thoughts into your mind.
12. Talk to a positive friend who can encourage you.
13. Remember your favorite quotes to give you inspiration and motivation. This is one reason why you should have quote of the day.
14. Look at the negative situations as your training sessions for real life. The higher you climb in life, the worse the negative situations would be, so you’d better be prepared for them.
15. Realize that you can’t please everyone. In fact, nobody can. Sometimes you need to just let some people go. Realizing this will relieve you from a lot of unnecessary burden so that you can focus on the people that you can positively interact with.

Another way of helping get yourself in the right state of mind is using daily affirmations. Many of you will think they’re useless, but just try it out and you’d be suprised to see that it really works. When you wake up say aloud, “today is going to be a good day” and repeat it a couple times throughout the day and you’ll be shocked at how much better your day will be. Good luck, because it’s not easy.

If the story of Goldilocks has taught us anything, it’s that finding the porridge that is JUST right takes some work. Getting the happy medium in the amount of work you have is no different. These days, having too little work means you might be on your way to a pink slip and having too much work can be simply overwhelming. There are complaints from both sides of the fence. Those with too little work feel like they aren’t learning anything and those with too much work think they are being taken advantage of. Very rarely do you hear from those in “the happy medium.” They are happy and don’t feel the need to voice complaints.

There are some steps you can take to find that happy medium. Don’t complain about too much work, it’s actually a compliment meaning that partners trust you. Instead of turning down a new project outright, let the person know EVERYTHING else on your plate and imply that their work may not get priority but you would still be happy to do it. This lets them know you’re busy and are being considerate to those that gave you work first. If they still give you the work then let those around you know the situation and that it may delay some of their work. Make sure you make them feel like your hands are tied. The key is your method of communication. You don’t really control your work load but if those around you are made aware of it in a polite and effective manner then they will make adjustments to make sure the work you are doing for them is done on time and correctly. There are those naysayers out there that will say it simply doesn’t work like that but its all in the way you deliver your message. Complaining doesn’t work. Everything you do or say has to benefit the ones handing out the work. Drop hints!

If you don’t have any work then don’t turn into a pest. Let people know you are available. Don’t ask for work and don’t complain about not having work. Listen for the hints that those overwhelmed people are dropping and offer to lend a hand. Ask people if they need help with anything instead of simply asking for work. Telling someone you need work just gives them another job, finding you work. Letting them know you are available to take some things off their plate is more enticing. The most frequent problem with this method is that everyone you offer to help gives you work at the same time. When this happens then refer to the above paragraph.

Following these simple tips should help you achieve the happy medium, but make sure you don’t tell anyone! If you enjoy being overwhelmed then congratulations because you must love your job. If you like being paid to do nothing then become a contributing author or spend your time clicking on some of our ads!