The “Best Companies to Work for in New York” project is a statewide program managed by Best Companies Group. It is an exciting initiative dedicated to finding and recognizing New York’s best employers.
Last night, Lawline.com won #12 place as Best Company to Work for in New York State!! Everyone here is so incredibly proud of this achievement!
In yesterday’s morning presentation, Sal showed a short video of sleight-of-hand artist Apollo Robbins manipulating someone’s focus in order to steal several items from them.
Sal: This video demonstrates how humans are keen on focusing their energy on one particular event. We often find ourselves multitasking while answering phones, talking to others, or even walking down the street looking at our smartphones. By nature, we are very good at focusing our attention on one thing and excelling in a particular goal. I feel that by acknowledging the fact that we cannot put all of our energy into all of our actions while multitasking we can enhance our productivity. Instead of loading our plate and trying to tackle everything at once, we can slow down to complete goals and solve problems one by one.
Last Friday, Brandon began his presentation by discussing a personal story involving purchasing a book on Amazon and dealing with the United States Post Office. In the story, everyone was able to see how two different customer service agencies handled customer service. Even though the end result was the same, the main message was that sometimes the process and the journey are more important than the end result.
The second part of the presentation involved an interactive game. In society, individuals usually judge each other based off of prejudices and stereotypes. Those impressions usually have a long lasting effect on how everyone views one another. The activity was that everyone had 3 minutes to develop a group of 3 to 4 people with something in common, not involving a prejudice or a stereotype. One group included people who enjoy movies while another one was a group of three who believe Pterodactyls are ancestors of a either a bird or a reptile.
(FYI: The answer is a bird.)
Last Thursday, Jeff Fann, an intern for the Production Department, presented on his last day here. We’ll miss him around here. Thanks for your hard work Jeff F!
Jeff Fann: For my last day at Lawline, I decided to just go with something lighthearted and fun. Inspirational is always great but sometimes it’s helpful just to let loose and laugh. I 
decided to play a game wherein people would get pieces of paper with the name of an animal and, acting as that animal, would have to locate similar “animals” in the room.
As predicted, things got wacky pretty quickly and I was happy to see everyone was taking on their new roles enthusiastically. The highlight of the entire exercise came from Micah. Not knowing how many people would show up, I made more pieces of paper than there were participants. Micah (who I believe was a frog) turned out to be the only frog and spent the entire time hopping around looking for his fellow frogs to no avail. Oh, and of course there was Kyle pretending to be a pigeon with no partner as well. Thanks Lawline for the fun times!
Last Thursday evening, 300 was the place to be for Lawliners. At first, we had 8 teams face off. Afterwards it was free-for-all fun to get the top score.
It is too early to say if we’re going to start our own league but I do know we had so much fun bowling!
Mike F. showing us how it's done.
Stephanie having a ball!
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Mike B getting that X with a sling!
Frank concentrating for a strike.
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Ryan exuding optimism!
Lawline's 'Unofficial' Bowling Team
Last week, Stephanie presented a video that featured an interview with Carter Branch, a friend of hers from school. He started a movement called MotivHate.
It’s an anti-hate and anti-bullying movement that dwells on the idea of turning negative energy into positive and using it to your advantage.
With the negative results of bullying and hate crimes, it is great that people are unifying and standing up against it.
Last week, Chris taught us how to dance Bachata. Bachata is music that originated in Dominican Republic. Recently, the music has become extreme popular. This was not always the case beause early on, Bachata was regarded as being solely for the lower class in Dominican Republic. These attitudes have since changed. The best thing about Bachata is that it is easy learn. A simple 1, 2, 3 Step and you got it down.
The brave volunteers, Joe, Sigalle, Ryan and Stephanie bachata’d to the grove of this video:
Since 2008, Crain’s has been ranking the top 50 places to work in New York City. Companies that are fortunate enough to find themselves on this list are not on it because of their cut-throat superior attitude, but rather because of their dedication to their employees. To put together the Best Places to Work, Crain’s partnered up with Best Companies Group. This company is a research firm that conducts about 12,500 surveys of New York City employees yearly. To qualify for this coveted list, companies had to employ at least 25 workers in New York City. Each employee answered a lengthy confidential survey that covered employee benefits, possibilities for advancement, and company culture. Lawline.com came in at the 21st spot on the list in 2010.
*If you wish to read how Lawline.com was able to accomplish this task and learn what it is like to work at Lawline.com please visit Lawline.com
The New York Enterprise Report Small Business Awards celebrates the success of the 500,000 small businesses throughout New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut each year. The committee will select 5 small businesses for their superb achievements. Awards will be given to those companies that have displayed the ability to use their exceptional practices and programs to create competitive advantages, generate revenue profits, and long-term value. Lawline.com won the 2011 Human Resource & Leadership award.
* Please check out Lawline.com’s culture blog to learn how Lawline.com was able have such a successful 2011 year.
There was a lot of reflection on life during yesterday’s morning huddle.
Janet: The video below was a project based on the idea from fiftypeopleonequestion.com in which it embraces the different cultures, different views, different experiences and thoughts of fifty people in one place in one day in one city. The reason I chose this video is not to focus on things that we may or may not regret but to bring to the forefront the idea that if we were to take a little time out of our lives, be it daily, annually or in blocks of years, it is in my true opinion something truly necessary to each of us. Necessary not just on a professional basis but more importantly on a personal basis.
Taking the time to look back on your achievements and really think about your position in the present, through being true to yourself, you will hopefully lead a life with as little regrets as possible, if any. Lawline.com’s 5 core values are something that we embrace every single day in work but I also believe that they work deeper to a personal level.
Michael B : This morning, I chose to share this video with everyone because I believe it fits in perfectly with our core value, Driven To Find A Better Way.
Success is a mindset as much as it is a goal. Everyone “wants” to be successful but it is the people who put their mind to something so intensely that they forget about everything else including eating and sleeping. My favorite line of this story is the part where the speaker says “that if I fall asleep I might miss the chance to be successful”. To be successful we must seize the opportunities that we have at work, at home and everywhere else and give yourself the mindset that success is your only option. We should treat each day as the most important day of our lives and tell ourselves that I am going to make today better than yesterday.
This video is perfect for the sales team at Lawline.com because you have to think of every phone call as a chance to be successful. If it is your first call of the day or your 150th call of the day, each phone call is essential to the success of the sales team and the success of Lawline.com.
In 2010, Melissa and her classmate filmed interviews with the people involved with the Carver Center. This was her senior project and a great one at that.
Melissa: The Carver Center in South Norwalk CT offers free after school enrichment programs and extra curricular activities for free to any students from 5-12 grade. In an area where the drop out rate is extremely high, 100% of graduates from the Carver Center go on to some form of higher education. Pretty amazing!
We shuffle-step yesterday morning to the rhythm our two feet. This being because Joe showed us some fancy dance moves. With our newly mastered skill, a Lawline Tap Dance Ensemble could be in the works (maybe).
Joe: One of my greatest passions for a decade of my life was tap dance. I took lessons for over ten years and I taught it for over six. In the spirit of always actively learning, I taught Lawline a simple tap step over the course of five minutes. Great way to entertain at parties.
Please be advised that Joe is not pictured above but in this previous blog with Jazz Hands.
Shark or Temple..can't tell.
This past Friday morning, Sal & Alex went on an adventure! They were the main stars in Ken’s Improv game called “Fill In The Blank”.
The audience (Lawline.com employees) gave them three things:
1. Location (Cancun)
2 Relationship (Father & Son)
3.an object they are looking for (A Mayan temple)
By pointing to us during various times, they were given blank suggestions and went with it. Sal apparently was a very tall four-year old kid who carried a spear which he left at the dog park. His father, Alex, led his child through shark-invested waters and seemed to not be quite happy with his son’s mistakes.
The purpose achieved: Thinking outside the box, thinking on their feet and having fun.
On March 26, 2012, I posted pictures of our Lawline.com basketball game.
Check out this action-packed video of all the highlights!
Law school courses teach you the fundamentals of WHAT you need to practice law, but they do not teach you how to run your own practice. When starting your own firm you need to know HOW to be your own boss, keep the right mindset, and understand the real world challenges you will face. I decided to present a six week course on this topic at Solo Practice University because they are the leaders in this field.
Entrepreneurs are a special breed. To be a successful solo practitioner, you need to arm yourself with more than an office and an idea. This is a topic I am very passionate about and I am looking forward to sharing my experience as well as learning from others throughout the course. As I always say teaching is the best form of learning!