CLE Online Seminar - 1998

E. X. Martin, III
Attorney at Law
8828 Greenville Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75243
214-343-7400 - Voice ï 214-343-7455 - Fax

exmartin@computek.net

INTRODUCTION

I am fifty years old, married, and have one son. His name is Xerxes Martin, IV. Xerxes is twelve years old and is the star pitcher on his youth baseball team. We have a batting cage in our backyard and a Master Pitching Machine. Xerxes' love of baseball has been contagious. My wife and I are now avid baseball fans and I am the manager of a 3A baseball team for 13 and 14 year old boys. Our team is called the Aces.

I have learned a great deal about baseball and about people by watching my son's games and working with the players and coaches. His pitching coach, Mike Bacsik, gave me a book entitled The Mental Game of Baseball. At first, I thought this book would be dull and too sophisticated for me. I was wrong on both counts. It is more than a baseball book. Its focus and application relates to baseball but it also has suggestions that can be applied to the practice of law.

I have been speaking to attorneys throughout the United States about using computer technology to increase their professional competence, to improve their productivity, and to help their clients with their legal problems. Chapter Eight of The Mental Game of Baseball contains these suggestions regarding learning that I think attorneys will find to be stimulating and inspiring especially with respect to using new technology in their law practices.

INTENTIONAL LEARNING: What To Want

• We want to look for better ways of doing "our thing" and have an open mind.
• We want to experiment with these new approaches. We never want to be satisfied with our knowledge or our skill.
• We want to recognize that new ways are not immediately comfortable.
• We want to give these new approaches a fair test of time - and effort.
• We want to think and talk about the solution, not the problem.
• We want to use our minds and control our emotions.
• We want to keep what works and discard what doesn't.
• We want to be persistent.
• We want to remember that mistakes are first steps to learning and should not be labeled as "failures."
• We want to remember that many people avoid learning new ways of doing things because, in addition to not wanting to feel uncomfortable, they "don't want to look bad."
• We want to remember that good learners "risk" doing things badly, in order to find out how to do things well.
• We want to remember that had we waited until we could have walked perfectly before we made our attempts, we never would have attempted.
• We want to recognize there is always a need to learn.

I hope these thoughts and ideas are beneficial to those reading this paper or hearing my presentation. Learning to use this new technology will help the trial attorney stay ahead of the power curve and give him or her a competitive advantage.

For purposes of this on-line internet seminar, my presentation is devided into the following components: