MidLaw and Divers Items
Todd Gurley and Kelvin Bryant. We played for the same team, albeit at different times.
Cam Reddish, Mo Bamba, Daniel Ochefu. We played for the same team, albeit at different times.
Steph Curry. We played for the same team, albeit at different times and in different sports.
You see where I’m going with this. I was on a roll until I got to SE Asia.
Word has come of the death of North Carolina lawyer John B. McMillan.
John embodied the finest attributes and traditions of North Carolina lawyers. Among those was service to the profession and to the justice system. He combined humility and forcefulness with unique grace – proving indeed that humility and force can be combined gracefully.
Ten years ago, John wrote a very fine article, The Long Road to Founding the North Carolina State Bar. While the subject matter of that article is not directly relevant at this moment, it is a valuable, engaging piece and John’s voice is in it. I commented on the article some time back, and have thought of it since I learned that he has died.
A very, very fine lawyer and man.
I’m not addicted to coffee. I never drank it until the Army. You have to drink it there, or at least you used to.
And coffee is a big thing if you are a lawyer.
Then, they started saying that coffee is bad for you. Blood pressure.
But now they say drinking coffee is good for you. Makes you live longer. I am serious.
Well, fine. Drink it.
So now they are saying it’s an endangered species. Climate change. I am serious.
No question about climate change here.
If we’ve got to fix climate change to get coffee pinned down, then get busy.
The uncertainty is killing me.
The Washington Post brands Tarboro’s Todd Gurley “the ideal modern NFL running back.” Says he “may be the most dynamic offensive weapon in football.”
The Raleigh News and Observer credits Tarboro high school as a “football dynasty” as it rolls up another state championship and a second, consecutive undefeated season.
Both papers affirm Tarboro coach Jeff Craddock and a unique culture in Tarboro.
Nothing said about what’s in the water. MidLaw has been saying. Everybody there drinks it. Do they put it in the beer at Tarboro Brewing Company?
Axios Future is reporting that creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability and time management are the skills most in demand in the workplace. Axios cites the LinkedIn Learning Blog which in turn is based on LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report.
LinkedIn in goes on to identify the 25 most needed hard skills, as well.
It’s right remarkable how both sets of skills line up with the Guilford Edge at Guilford College. And see how that lines up with this recent post and the one after that.
First graders this year will graduate in 2030.
By 2030 up to 800 million workers around the world will have lost their jobs to automation.
In a presentation at Westtown School recently, New York Times journalist and Westtown graduate Kevin Roose said, “Things are going to keep changing rapidly… People who are able to adjust to [new industries] rather than clinging to the old way of doing things are going to have a big advantage.”
Eric Hoffer famously said,
In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exits.
In 2030, today’s first graders will need competencies such as creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, adaptability, and empathy.
Next fall, Guilford College will bring forth “The Guilford Edge.” It is designed precisely to develop the learners. Learners first, learned later.
Guilford College has very strong arts and very strong athletics. Right now, both are being re-imagined and newly resourced there.
Dana Giola, the Poet Laureate of California and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, once commented
I don’t like sports, but you’ve got to admire the energy, creativity, and innovation that goes into sports. And it’s very similar to arts. It’s a way of focusing human energy to create these symbolic encounters which have enormous emotional resonance to audiences
Guilford’s got’em both.
Giola’s comment affirms Guilford’s thinking. The student experience at Guilford crosses traditional boundaries. It finds connections, focuses energy, teaches the importance of symbolic encounters. It’s creative.
These are elements of a life lived well. Both sports and arts teach those things HANDS ON at Guilford College.
I’m amazed continually at how often people who spent their college years at athletics and arts and literature (and other such endeavors) turn out to have the chops to get things done.
Athletes make great executives; French majors make the BEST lawyers.
The Cleveland Clinic says eggs are good for you. It says you’d do well to eat them every day. Salt, it says, is not all that bad. A low-fat diet makes little difference.
All those eggs not eaten. All that cabbage not salted. So much skim milk. The mind reels. The spirit plummets. The metabolism boggles.
Who is to blame? Doctors? The Government? The Sugar Lobby?
Where is the reward for a timidly lived life? An eggless existence?
What price low fat?
In the spirit of the season, garnish your hummus with a sprig of holly. The dark green leaf, the bright red berry: they rest so well on a rich bed of beige. (Recipe for the beige: The MidLaw Hummus Way.)
But do not eat that holly. Remember: Holly is toxic and can cause death to small animals and little children.
Merry Christmas to all! And a Happy New Year!
Kai-fu Lee, leading artificial intelligence exponent, makes the following observation about lawyers and artificial intelligence. He’s in line with MidLaw’s dogged confidence in the prospects of lawyers who focus on core (indeed, 19th Century) lawyer skills and MidLaw’s confidence in the mid-sized law firms that provide the best setting left for cultivating those skills.
Top lawyers will have nothing to worry about when it comes to job displacement. Reasoning across domains, winning the trust of clients, applying years of experience in the courtroom, and having the ability to persuade a jury are all examples of the cognitive complexities, strategies, and modes of human interaction that are beyond the capabilities of AI. However, a lot of paralegal and preparatory work like document review, analysis, creating contracts, handling small cases, packing cases, and coming up with recommendations can be done much better and more efficiently with AI. The costs of law make it worthwhile for AI companies to go after AI paralegals and AI junior lawyers, but not top lawyers.
10 Jobs That Are Safe in an AI World
MidLaw has been saying so:
