It’s been too long since my last blog post.

I have a tremendous guilt complex, which makes this harder. But here’s the reality: I am juggling a lot of balls and I can’t keep all of them. I know I’m not alone, which is why I felt inspired to write about it during lawyer wellness month. When we have an infinite number of commitments we could take on, what do we choose to continue to do? Which balls are we okay with dropping? For me, I had to drop a blog post to regain some mental sanity. Forgive me.

A few highlights:

• Join me in re-evaluating our priorities so we can make time for what matters. It’s attorney wellness month and we are not all that well.
• The Supreme Court has been busy. There have been a number of decisions this month, ranging from recovering attorney’s fees, to easements, to DUI cases. If you have to pick and choose what to pay attention to, redistricting arguments promise to be interesting.
• Criminal practitioners: it’s a good month for OAG and a bad month for the criminal defense bar here. The SCV took away multiple defense wins (which we know don’t come often). The criminal defense bar has a hard job. I wanted to find a silver lining for defense colleagues in an opinion about the reasonable hypothesis of innocence…but it’s not very helpful to you. Hang in there, colleagues! Another SCV win will come someday.

On which balls to (intentionally) drop

We’re constantly juggling competing demands. We could always do more exercise, spend more time writing (because it is never perfect), prep more for oral argument, do more business development, etc. We’re pressured to do more of these positive things. And I am notoriously bad at saying no to things that I think are generally good. I tend to think that I will just make the time. I say yes to committee work, marketing activities, client requests, …the list goes on. But every “yes” I give is really a “no” to something else. For instance, did I really want to trade missing mahjong with friends for work on X, Y, or Z? I haven’t played pickleball with my favorite senior citizen friends in months (and don’t knock pickleball till you try it—it’s addicting! And good for you! Unless you are in the very high percentage of people who get injured.)

I’m starting to come around to the idea that I need to get more comfortable with a polite “no.”

Have you read the book “Traction” by Gino Wickman? One concept is that we should all have priorities, known as “rocks,” that we focus on each quarter. Start with your rocks. So what are my rocks going to be? 6-year-old baseball is one. I will also add dinner with my family and putting my kids to bed. Client work is an obvious priority. But maybe I will decline some of the worse clients instead of saying yes. Time with friends and family is key to my happiness as an extrovert in an introvert’s niche.

When I pencil in these critical things first, then it is much easier to see that there truly isn’t space on the calendar for some of these other obligations. They might be good, but not good for me when I have to sacrifice exercise or I have to work most nights and weekends to get them done. I venture to guess that many of you also have guilt complexes and feel obliged to say yes to things that aren’t a priority.

 If you want to join me in a “summer scheduling challenge,” please let me know. I’d be glad to set up a Zoom call and we can brainstorm. 

A footnote on calendaring

As an aside, lawyer wellness requires us all to be reasonable. If a colleague is going to be on vacation, please agree to a reasonable extension for their appeal. 

I had a wild month. We took my two little boys on a road trip to Tennessee to visit my grandparents and made precious memories even as we lost precious sleep. I personally had four oral arguments set for April, wrote multiple briefs, onboarded a new lawyer (hi, Ryan!), attended two different multi-day conferences, and other small legal projects. Oh, and managing a firm. That one is a doozy. 

The CAV recently cut one of my unopposed extension requests in half. Ouch. Word on the street is that this is a new standardized policy of certain set amounts of time being given: 30 days for a first request, 14 days for a second request, 7 for a third. I hope the Court reconsiders standardizing this (if accurate). Sometimes we have good reasons for needing to adjust briefing. Or maybe I just didn’t do a good enough job selling my reason for needing an extension (possible).

We appellate lawyers have no control over our calendars other than through extension requests. We don’t set the briefing schedule and we don’t pick oral argument dates. When the CAV issues a decision (which can come without oral argument or at virtually any time after argument), we then need to move swiftly to file a PFR (a 14-day deadline) or go to the SCV (30 days). We don’t know when oral arguments will be beyond 4-6 weeks of notice. If I were queen of the world, I would love to see a tentative oral argument date range much sooner. 

In the spirit of lawyer wellness, let’s help each other out. Give your favorite appellate lawyer a pat on the back next time you see them. Or buy them a cup of coffee. Maybe the appellate courts would be open to a wellness committee for appeals someday. That’s one idea I wouldn’t say no to 😉