Law Blog

We’re just past Thanksgiving 2024.  It has been another busy, fast, and crazy year. In thinking about writing about being thankful or gratitude, I can’t say it better than I have before, so here is my annual blog for the week of Thanksgiving. And of course, every day of the year is a good day to show gratitude to others and to be thankful. This is a good time...

Maintaining optimism isn’t just about wearing rose-colored glasses. It’s about you recognizing opportunities where others see obstacles. This mindset allows you to think strategically, thereby inspiring your team and identifying innovative solutions a pessimistic leader might miss. Optimism allows you to view a setback through a lens that informs better decisio...

True greatness is based on our ability to unleash the potential of those around us. To do this you have to shift your focus from personal accomplishments to enabling others’ success. If you do so, your actions will have an effect that transcends what you can achieve alone. This is the opposite of the notion that leadership centers on your individual authority alo...

Mediation is a voluntary process where parties jointly select a neutral third-party facilitator to help reach settlement agreements for all or some of the issues in their divorce proceeding. The mediator is a private party who is engaged and will typically be compensated based on the time they spend at his or her hourly billing rate. Three-party mediations consis...

I generally do not rerun prior posts but with the current state of things, the general negativity that seems to be hanging in the air, and coarseness in dealing with others, this post from 2018 came to mind. It applied then. It applies now. It applies always. Life seems to be made up of many rules, written and unwritten. Most are a matter of common sense, like jus...

Every day is a good day to think about and set goals. These can be short or long-term goals. Many people write New Year’s Resolutions and view that as the time to set goals or challenges. A lot of those same people are the ones who let those resolutions fall by the wayside before February 1. The fact is there is no date or time frame that matters for goal setting...

Fulton J. Sheen said, “Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius.” While harsh, this observation rings particularly true in competitive workplace environments, where success often breeds resentment among colleagues. From subtle undermining to overt hostility, jealousy can poison team dynamics and hinder the progress of your business. Jealousy is a comp...

Your business has a culture whether it is conscious or not. My firm has a defined culture we call the JW Way.  It is a mission statement consisting of twenty-seven fundamentals that the owners and employees strive to live by while operating and working in the firm. Since making these fundamentals a conscious part of our firm,  we found that it improved what we al...

This past weekend I was reading something and saw the phrase “be the change you want to see.” I’ve heard it before and have written about the benefits of change.  It struck me as I believe change and trying new things is the road to success in business, as well as in life and happiness. When days are like being on a treadmill, life is monotonous. Maybe it r...

On September 26, 2024, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against extending California's strict noncompete ban to agreements executed outside of California and governed by another state’s law. This decision highlights the limitations of California’s noncompete statute—Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 16600-16607—which broadly prohibits noncompete agree...