Top 5 Your Voice columns of 2020
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From what law students can learn from the musical Hamilton to tips on marketing your practice during the pandemic, the ABA Journal’s Your Voice section hosted a number of fascinating columns in 2020.
In 2018, the ABA Journal launched Your Voice to host and facilitate conversations among lawyers about their profession. We encouraged people in the legal industry to submit columns about their personal experiences, advice and reflections on issues.
These were the most-read Your Voice columns in 2020:
1. 9 tips on how to dress for the courtroom
By Brenda Swauger
January 16, 2020
“We’ve all heard the cliches: You only get one chance to make a first impression, dress for success, and you are what you wear. While these maxims are familiar, they are also true. You are judged in less than seven seconds, so dressing appropriately can help you win or lose your case.”
2. ‘Talk less, smile more’: The Hamilton-Burr conundrum law students face today
By Alexander R. Medina
September 3, 2020
“In the popular Lin-Manuel Miranda musical Hamilton, the title character makes his way through the narrative while facing the injustices of British tyrannical rule, the complexities of forming a government and the benefits and consequences that come from running his mouth at less-than-appropriate times.”
3. Top 10 rules to be a successful lawyer
By James Gray Robinson
June 20, 2019
“A third-generation trial attorney, I have spent a majority of my life either working as a lawyer or hearing about it at the dinner table growing up. I was a trial attorney in North Carolina for nearly 27 years and retired in 2004 to go into consulting. I moved to Oregon in 2016 and decided to take the Oregon state bar exam because I had an in-house counsel job offer that required a law license.”
4. 12 tips to market your law practice during the COVID-19 pandemic
By Larry Bodine
April 14, 2020
“Lawyers have a unique opportunity during the COVID-19 outbreak to capture new files and business. In-person events are out these days; however, web traffic is up 27% since the pandemic hit home, according to the New York Times. Now is the time to use a personal touch and double down on digital marketing.”
5. For minority law students, learning the law can be intellectually violent
By Shaun Ossei-Owusu
October 15, 2020
“Apologies to minority law students feel necessary. The ugly side of the American law continues to rear its head. A few weeks ago, you witnessed a legal system—one that eagerly uses petty misdemeanor offenses to control and ruin lives—abscond responsibility for killing a sleeping, innocent Black woman.”
• Interested in submitting your own Your Voice column in 2021? Check out the submissions guidelines.
Your Voice submissions
The ABA Journal wants to host and facilitate conversations among lawyers about their profession. We are now accepting thoughtful, non-promotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors.
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