Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life

Rating:
Summary: This book can change your life!
Review: As a career counselor who often works with disillusioned and unhappy attorneys, I really appreciated Steve Keeva's book for its understanding of the inherent difficulties in practicing law and its wise and compassionate solution.

For unhappy lawyers who still want to practice law, but also want to enjoy it more, Keeva's book is an important reminder that, while we may not be able to transform a whole profession, each and every one of us has the power to transform ourselves. It takes just as much courage for lawyers to stand up for themselves as it does to stand up for their clients.

I thank Steve Keeva for writing this book and can only hope that his readers heed his message and heal themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Keeva On Cutting Edge Of 21st Century Lawyering
Review: Keeva's Transforming Practices is the book that heralds the new model for 21st Century lawyering. A must read for anyone interested in staying relevant and on the cutting edge of law in this fast changing world. Just as the Internet burst into our awareness just a few years ago and has become indispensible, the holistic law approach Keeva writes about will be demanded by millions of people. Those lawyers capable of offering such services will be at the forefront of the emerging legal revolution. For those who do not yet know how to offer such services, Transforming Practices shows you how. Whether on Main Street, USA or here at my firm on Wall Street, clients want and expect the type of lawyering Keeva writes about.

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening and necessary
Review: Nearly every practicing lawyer owns and carries a briefcase. If each lawyer's briefcase contained a worn, dog-eared, repeatedly read copy of Steve Keeva's remarkable book, Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life, the practice of law would be a much more joyful place. My copy is extensively underlined, highlighted and adorned with yellow Post-Its to mark the multiple epiphanies I found in each chapter. Out of the hundreds of books and articles I have read on lawyering over my thirty-two years of practice, none have given me as many "ah-hah's" as I received from Transforming Practices.

The genius of Keeva's book is his recognition and description of the crises in the legal profession as a spiritual crisis requiring inner work as the solution. This spiritual crisis comes in part from a lack of congruence between lawyers' daily work and their core values and yearnings. In other words, what we do every day on the outside is dissonant from how we feel on the inside. It has long been thought that the solution is for the lawyer to simply compartmentalize his or her life, e.g., do and say things at work that would not be appropriate in other settings, such as with family, friends, or in the community. However, it is now clear that the compartmentalization approach simply does not work and produces even greater distress.

In order to bring more harmony and joy into lawyers' lives and work, Keeva outlines a number of practices designed to minimize the gap between lawyer's professional selves and their humanity. His descriptions of The Balanced Practice, The Contemplative Practice, The Mindful Practice, The Time-out Practice, The Healing Practice, The Listening Practice, and The Service Practice ignites unlimited new hope and possibilities for lawyers who felt doomed to a meaningless work life. Since maximizing the fulfillment from one's law practice requires both inner and outer work, Keeva provides practical tips at the end of each chapter so lawyers can begin to implement these theories in their work immediately.

Keeva's book should be required reading for anyone even remotely interested in the legal profession. It has served me well in several ways. As a trial lawyer for over 30 years, I continue to search for ways to bring the most meaning, joy and compassion into my work. This book has proved to be a continuing source of inspiration and renewal in my quest. Since I devote part of my professional time to coaching other lawyers on transformation and quality of life issues, I have found this book to be an excellent teaching and coaching vehicle for my attorney clients. I am extremely grateful to Keeva for this invaluable book. It is my hope that it will someday be every lawyer's companion and professional bible.

Rating:
Summary: COMPANION AND PROFESSIONAL BIBLE FOR EVERY LAWYER!
Review: Nearly every practicing lawyer owns and carries a briefcase. If each lawyer's briefcase contained a worn, dog-eared, repeatedly read copy of Steve Keeva's remarkable book, Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life, the practice of law would be a much more joyful place. My copy is extensively underlined, highlighted and adorned with yellow Post-Its to mark the multiple epiphanies I found in each chapter. Out of the hundreds of books and articles I have read on lawyering over my thirty-two years of practice, none have given me as many "ah-hah's" as I received from Transforming Practices.

The genius of Keeva's book is his recognition and description of the crises in the legal profession as a spiritual crisis requiring inner work as the solution. This spiritual crisis comes in part from a lack of congruence between lawyers' daily work and their core values and yearnings. In other words, what we do every day on the outside is dissonant from how we feel on the inside. It has long been thought that the solution is for the lawyer to simply compartmentalize his or her life, e.g., do and say things at work that would not be appropriate in other settings, such as with family, friends, or in the community. However, it is now clear that the compartmentalization approach simply does not work and produces even greater distress.

In order to bring more harmony and joy into lawyers' lives and work, Keeva outlines a number of practices designed to minimize the gap between lawyer's professional selves and their humanity. His descriptions of The Balanced Practice, The Contemplative Practice, The Mindful Practice, The Time-out Practice, The Healing Practice, The Listening Practice, and The Service Practice ignites unlimited new hope and possibilities for lawyers who felt doomed to a meaningless work life. Since maximizing the fulfillment from one's law practice requires both inner and outer work, Keeva provides practical tips at the end of each chapter so lawyers can begin to implement these theories in their work immediately.

Keeva's book should be required reading for anyone even remotely interested in the legal profession. It has served me well in several ways. As a trial lawyer for over 30 years, I continue to search for ways to bring the most meaning, joy and compassion into my work. This book has proved to be a continuing source of inspiration and renewal in my quest. Since I devote part of my professional time to coaching other lawyers on transformation and quality of life issues, I have found this book to be an excellent teaching and coaching vehicle for my attorney clients. I am extremely grateful to Keeva for this invaluable book. It is my hope that it will someday be every lawyer's companion and professional bible.

Rating:
Summary: dead of night thoughts
Review: Obviously, one doesn't have to be a lawyer to wake up in the dead of night wondering what it's all about. But if you are a lawyer (particularly one with a traditional practice) and this hasn't yet happened, hope it happens soon. Maybe then you'll be able to work your way through some of the muck that seems to separate us from one another--as professionals and as people.

And when you get that painful, middle of the night wake up call, if you happen to have a copy of "Transforming Practices" on your bed stand, you'll be all the happier for it. While frankly, I never really understood the pull "The Bramble Bush" seemed to have on some in our field, in "Transforming Practices", Steven Keeva provides lawyers wading through the stuff of our lives an important guide to self discovery/re-discovery.

In a land with far too few flashlights and compasses to help navigate our way, this book is a blessing. I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughts from Down the Road...
Review: OK, it has been a while now since this book came out, and sinde i read it cover to cover. (in the interests of fulkl disclosure, i am in the book. But if you begin this book, you to will be compelled to keep reading! Honest!)

Anyone who is a lawyer-- or married to one-- needs to read this book. Steve was very brave to pitch this article to the ABA Jpournal. (It was then to be entitled Law and Spirituality, before it became a book and took on a life of its own!) He has a finely tuned ear for the symphony that is the legal profession. He is not a lawyer, but as a journalist for the leading legal journal in this country, he has been attuned to the profession for a long time. He hits all the righ notes-- he has perfect pitch. The healing has begun!
Thank you Steve!!!

Rating:
Summary: A flawed but very valuable work.
Review: Steven Keeva (who is not a lawyer but has spent many years observing and writing about them) here provides an assortment of advice, tips, and real-life examples to help you become a better lawyer and a better person. While I found much of the book to be old news, every 10 pages or so Keeva says something eye-opening, memorable, and truly instructive. The chapters on listening and service were, for me, the real pay-off, and I know I will be going back to them frequently. By contrast, his portrayal of litigators, trials, and especially corporate practice struck me as simplistic and a bit stereotyped. In addition, those who are unreceptive to the touchy-feely approach to problem-solving should be warned that this book is nothing if not touchy-feely. That said -- and notwithstanding my other qualifications -- this book is an *important* contribution to the literature of professionalism and lawyers' "mental hygiene" (as Prof. Stone of Harvard has called it). Since this book is also a quick read, every lawyer and law student who even suspects it may be helpful should give it a try and then keep it close at hand.

Rating:
Summary: What law school forgot to tell us!
Review: Transforming Practices is a wonderfully discerning publication, addressing so many issues unique to practicing lawyers.

This book takes us back to, when we first started to aspire to become a lawyer, and go to law school. It also addresses what happens to many of those same aspirations, once we begin your daily legal practice.

Transforming Practices, written by a lawyer, for lawyers, has assisted me in redirecting myself to a more fulfilling legal career.

Transforming Practices, is without a doubt, a bench mark publication, addressing issues too often ignored in our law schools across America. A 'must read' book; it is without hesitation that I give this book my highest recommendation to all lawyers, or future lawyers.

Rating:
Summary: Staying in the practice, and enjoying it!
Review: Transforming Practices truly is a gift to lawyers, like me, who have been practicing for many years and want to continue practicing law in a satisfying and meaningful way. This book has been one of my best investments, and I keep it on my desk at work. Reading, or in my case rereading, Steven Keeva's inspirational words provides a much needed boost in spirit, and a new way of looking at the legal life, even on a difficult day! My colleagues who have read this book wholeheartedly agree!