felix the catTwo weeks into the merger and I am starting to get my bearings. I’ve got my first assignment, overseeing the marketing and business development for one of the practice groups. We’ll add on some other opportunities and responsibilities as we go along. I am at a great advantage being the new marketer on the team.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

It’s Thursday. Just Thursday. My email wasn’t blowing up at 6:00 a.m. with pipes bursting at the HOA. The kids got off to school on time. The computers at work are still working.

And while there are still balls in the air with the merger,

Well, the time is here. It is now. Today is it … well, actually tomorrow. But the switch is being flicked sometime between when I hit send on this post later today, and midnight (CT). As a whole, the mood in the firm and amongst those I’ve spoken with is great. It’s exciting. New things

As a “culinary Jew” (my family shows up for the food), I was out of the office yesterday so I could join my extended family for lunch. They came from synagogue. We came from the Westside. This side of my family are my mom’s paternal relatives. These are my second cousins. Growing up we got

imageThe Sports Dude and I are sitting on a plane right now headed to Chicago. I have had the privilege for the past six months of attending and participating in The SmithBucklin Leadership Institute, which is culminating this weekend, and we get to bring our +1. If it wasn’t for the merger, and all the work that took place behind the scenes prior to the merger being announced, I would have written on my experience in the Institute more. In short, I don’t think I could have provided the assistance to my partners without the lessons and skills I have learned. I have specifically employed new techniques, avoided some pitfalls, and smoothed over some ruffled feathers, all because of my new leadership skills. As I finish up my final homework assignments, and prepare my final presentations, I am struck most by how prior to the Institute I did a lot of these things, and I knew a lot of these things, but it was instinctive, or by intuition. I had never been taught, or learned it. I picked it up along the way through good examples and incredible mentors, specifically Frank Moon and Steve Barrett; incredible friends and colleagues, like Catherine Alman MacDonagh; and, to be completely candid, some really shitty situations and interactions with some really crappy human beings. What I am walking away with most from my experience these past six months is a heightened awareness of who I am as a leader, and what that means and looks like within the legal industry, my professional association, my job, with my team, my HOA, Girl Scouts, my family, and the list can go on and on. If I could sum it all up: I have become more intentional, and less dependent on my intuition and instincts. So what’s on tap for today?
Continue Reading M(erger) – Minus 13 Days: Intuitive v. Intentional

I am in complete acceptance that my waking life is one long continuum right now from the moment my alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. until the moment I crawl into bed at night.

Work. Kids. LMA. Family. Leadership Institute. HOA. Spiritual life. Girl Scouts. All of these things make up my waking hours, yet

keep-calm-only-15-days-leftIt’s Tuesday. Tuesdays for me mean one of two things: I get to enjoy my favorite weekday lunchtime yoga class and then go home after work and enjoy my evening, or Girl Scouts. Let’s just say, no peace or rest for this wicked marketer on this Tuesday. So here we are. There are 15 days