Three Books for Every NC Lawyer’s Holiday List

There are many reasons to recommend The Defense Rests for your holiday reading, starting with the book’s title.

Who hasn’t felt like they have been on the defensive all year? Who couldn’t use a little rest?

That’s why The Defense Rests: Lessons Learned from Illness and Grief feels so timely, despite being written before the pandemic and covering events going back years. And though the subtitle tells you this is no light romp, it turns out to be something much richer. It’s a chronicle of compassion, a diary of growth, and a testament to staying true to yourself when “the unthinkable happens” – which, in the case of author Kathryn Cosper, was the prolonged illness and eventual death of her husband of 45 years.

Kathryn and her husband Harvey met at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1968 and were married in 1970. In the last years of the marriage, he waged a battle against a series of severe health issues. Kathryn was by his side as caregiver. She draws on this experience to “inspire you to find, within yourself, your own best way to be a kind patient, a supportive spouse, an informed advocate, a caring friend.”

Lawyers will appreciate that he named his fishing boat “Defense Rests,” and that despite being soft-spoken and modest by nature, Harvey loved being a trial lawyer and was a lion in the courtroom.

Kathryn has been a professional writer for years. It shows in her way with words:

“A precious one dies. In a moment our lives change forever. We are playing a part in a movie, but we don’t know the script. We wander in a deep sadness while the rest of the world is blithely moving on. Somehow we must find our way in a new normal life.”

The phrase “new normal” jumps out at the reader. How often have we heard those words? How much do we look forward to never hearing them again?

Ultimately, The Defense Rests reminds us that life is fragile, and that in a moment the unthinkable can happen, and everything changes.

Get The Defense Rests here.

Designing a Succession Plan for Your Law Practice

A Step-by-Step Guide for Preparing Your Firm for Maximum Value

By Tom Lenfestey and Camille Stell

Scheduled publication: December 2020

Tom Lenfestey and Camille Stell are the Dynamic Duo of law firm succession planning. Tom is founder of The Law Practice Exchange, the nation’s number one marketplace for buying and selling law firms. He is the go-to guy for law firm valuation and transfer services.

Camille is founder of Lawyers Mutual Consulting & Services, where, among other services, she helps design transition, exit and retirement strategies for lawyers and firms. She is the person to see to create an awesome Life After Law.

Now the Dynamic Duo have pooled their years of experience and collective wisdom in Designing a Succession Plan for Your Law Practice.

“This accessible and engaging book, written by two of the nation’s leading experts in law practice succession, guides lawyers step-by-step past the initial reluctance to contemplate the end of practice through the exciting process of envisioning their post-law future, and covers every last practical detail involved in valuing and selling a practice, preparing successors, looking after your clients, and charting a course forward. This book is an invaluable resource for accomplished lawyers approaching their final years in practice – and makes an ideal gift from those who care about them.” Jordan Furlong, Legal Market Analyst and Principal, Law21

Get details on order Designing a Succession Plan for Your Practice January 1, 2021

The Most Powerful Attorney in the World

Full disclosure: I wrote this book. So of course I love it.

I loved writing every one of these little stories over the course of a decade or so for this newsletter.

And one of the parts of this job I love most is getting reader feedback. It is always gratifying to know at least one person has read what you labored and sweated over. If they say something nice, it’s icing on the cake.

One reader wrote to say he liked my story A Trophy Dad, which was about my father. He said my father reminded him of his late father. It turned out (he didn’t know this when he wrote) that I worked with his father 25 years ago. And yes, they were two peas in a pod.

Before that email exchange, the two of us hadn’t met or communicated. After it, I felt a connection with him. I suspect he would say the same.

Such is the power of story.

Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

Get The Most Powerful Attorney in the World here.