Yet another public service. Lawyers are busy people and often do not have the time to get to personal stuff, so I thought that I would help by providing a first rough draft of New Year’s Resolutions for you. Of course, feel free to use this as a precedent and edit for your personal circumstances.
| Draft Resolutions | Likely Outcomes |
| This year I will learn to say no to clients. | “No. Of course it is not a problem to get that to you today.” |
| This year I will keep weekends free for my family. | “We are all one big happy family at the firm. Let’s have that Zoom meeting on Saturday morning.” |
| This year I will get all of my dockets in on time. | “It’s Friday. Time to get Monday’s dockets in.” |
| This year I will get my bills out on time. | “It’s March. Time to get my January bills out.” |
| This year I will treat my associates and support staff with respect. | “With the greatest of respect, you all have to work harder.” |
| This year I will take care of my health. | “After this deal is closed, I am definitely, absolutely for sure, maybe going to go to the gym.” |
| This year I am going to get retainers from all new clients. | “You seem honest, big, and important, and I am so fortunate that you want to give me this file, so I will waive the retainer this time.” |
| This year I am going to insist that my retainers be replenished before I do more work. | “Our deposit was $5,000.00. We have now done $15,000.00 of work. Would you be kind enough to start paying us $2,000 per month while we keep working and falling behind?” |
| This year I am going to write articles to promote business. | “I asked my associate to do a first draft of the article, but I then loaded her up with so much billable work that she could not get to it. When she finally did the draft, I was too busy to look at it.” |
| This year I am going to give seminars to promote business. | “It was really unrealistic to expect me to prepare for the seminar AND prepare a list of people to invite. All five people who showed up really seemed to like it.” |
| This year I am going to do my continuing professional development early in the year and get it over with. | “Does anyone know about a good CPD program between Christmas and the end of the year?” |
| This year I am going to stop working for people who annoy me. | “I am slow this week and having something to do is better than having nothing to do.” |
| This year I am going to stop wasting my time reading nonsense on LinkedIn. | “I wonder what Murray has written lately.” |
You may want to save these to use again next year.