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Muir Quoted in IBA Article

By Ronda Muir on June 10, 2019

Muir and Beyond Smart: Lawyering with Emotional Intelligence were both cited in the IBA article entitled “Why Lawyers Need to be Taught more Emotional Intelligence.” Author Polly Botsford reaches out to several authorities on emotional intelligence around the globe and reports that lawyers are becoming more aware of the need for emotional intelligence in the practice of law and also for improving their own.…

Law People

Kirkland & Ellis On Board for Mental Health

By Ronda Muir on June 7, 2019

Only a month after Morgan Lewis announced hiring its “Well-Being Director,” Kirkland & Ellis unveiled a firm-wide Wellbeing Program for its 2,500 attorneys and staff to help address mental health and substance misuse issues that the profession was flagged in the 2016 ABA and Hazelden study as being at high risk for. Among 13,000 licensed lawyers in the study from across the country, 28% suffered from depression, 23% dealt with chronic stress, 21% struggled with alcohol…

Law People

The Skills Crisis in Law

By Ronda Muir on May 31, 2019

Associates no longer get much of the on-the-job-training that firms once provided, usually at the client’s expense, to fill in the gaps between the theory they learned in law school and the realities of practice. And now there are more obvious gaps in the ability of young associates (and much older ones, as well) to competently represent clients in the digital age. While legal providers languish in this area (at the same time they are…

Law People

Botox and Emotional Intelligence

By Ronda Muir on May 9, 2019

You might be wondering what the two have to do with each other–botox and emotional intelligence. The heading could have also linked emotional intelligence with psychotropic drugs and even with the use of social media and other technology. All are candidates for blame in the reduction over the last few decades in our society’s level of emotional intelligence (EI), and particularly of empathy. Why? The rise of social media and other technology as a preferred mode…

Law People

The Wages of Stress

By Ronda Muir on May 3, 2019

This tragedy is starting to get sadly repetitive. Yet another major player in BigLaw has died. The chair of Baker McKenzie, who had taken a leave of absence because of “exhaustion,” passed away “unexpectedly” last month at age 56 with no cause indicated. Paul Rawlinson had been appointed global chair of the firm in 2016 and was based in London, overseeing 6,000-plus attorneys in about 80 countries. Rawlinson pushed Baker McKenzie to embrace new technologies, such as…

Law People

Enter the Well-Being Director

By Ronda Muir on April 3, 2019

In a move that hopefully signals the beginning of a much-needed and potentially powerful trend benefiting lawyers everywhere, Morgan Lewis has hired its first Director of Employee Well-Being to implement its program called ML Well.…

Law People

A Feeling for Ethics

By Ronda Muir on March 25, 2019

Gordon Caplan, the co-chair at the AmLaw 100 law firm Wilkie Farr who was caught up in the FBI’s recent college admission scandal, was recorded saying, while discussing plans to fraudulently get his daughter into college: “I’m not worried about the moral issue here.” Then he made an interesting comment: “To be honest, it feels a little weird.”…

Law People

Muir to Speak at University of California at Irvine School of Law Symposium on Wellness

By Ronda Muir on March 5, 2019

The Mental Health in Law Society’s 2019 Symposium at the University of California at Irvine School of Law to be held on March 22 and 23 will be examining different methods for wellness development in legal education and in the legal profession. Muir will be on the Saturday morning panel with Anne Brafford, the author of Positive Professionals, and Patrick Krill, the author of the 2016 ABA Hazelden report on the extraordinary signs of distress…

Law People

Addressing Firms’ Greatest Challenge

By Ronda Muir on March 3, 2019

A recent survey by Robert Half Legal found that 83% of law firm respondents noted increasing demand over the last year for legal services. That is a welcome new trend after years of lower demand and lost legal jobs. But that promising development comes with a new challenge for legal employers–hiring the best legal professionals to provide those services.…

Law People

South Carolina Inns of Court

By Ronda Muir on February 21, 2019

Muir spoke to a packed crowd of members of the Columbia SC Inns of Court–litigators, judges and law students–on Tuesday, February 19th in Columbia, South Carolina on Emotional Intelligence and the Law. Topics touched on were lawyers’ attitudes and scores regarding emotions–with a short quiz for the audience, the impact that emotions have on our perceptions, judgments and performance, and how to increase our emotional intelligence.…

Ronda Muir

Ronda Muir Blogs

Blog Authors

Muir Quoted in IBA Article

Kirkland & Ellis On Board for Mental Health

The Skills Crisis in Law

Botox and Emotional Intelligence

The Wages of Stress

Enter the Well-Being Director

A Feeling for Ethics

Muir to Speak at University of California at Irvine School of Law Symposium on Wellness

Addressing Firms’ Greatest Challenge

South Carolina Inns of Court

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