A high level of pay doesn't necessarily mean a high level of satisfaction. Written in a fun and inspirational way, this book will help lawyers find a way to happiness in their career and life. Starting with self examination, readers will be able to analyze their personal values and then create their own personal fulfillment plan. Create a step-by-step plan for life and career that will get you back on track with your personal definition of happiness with this important book.
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"The Creative Lawyer is a smart, practical, and often inspirational guide for any lawyer seeking to build both a better business and a richer life." -- Daniel Pink, Author, A Whole New Mind, September 5, 2007
"A must-read. It combines practicality with ingenuity to lead lawyers to live more fulfilled, productive and successful lives. Packed with advice, the book is an invaluable guide for lawyers to take the concrete steps and develop the skills they need to live enriched lives and thrive as lawyers." -- Debbie Epstein Henry, Founder, Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, September 1, 2007
"There is no book on the shelves to compare with The Creative Lawyer. Funny, well-researched, and provocative, it's an invaluable guide to understanding yourself better -- not just as a lawyer, but as a person. It's full of useful exercises, relevant case histories, and powerful insights, delivered in unlawyer-like concise and entertaining prose. It's required reading for anyone who has taken the bar exam -- or, for that matter, anyone who is considering taking the LSAT. " -- Gretchen Rubin, Blogger, The Happiness Project, former editor-in-chief, Yale Law Journal, September 15, 2007
"Whether you are living the law or leaving it, you need wise counsel to make your career meaningful. One part Socrates, one part Deepak Chopra, and one part cheerleader, Michael Melcher is the ideal advisor for lawyers contemplating their options. The Creative Lawyer should be mandatory reading for anyone who has ever set foot in law school." -- Noah Feldman, Professor, Harvard Law School, September 7, 2007
"A must-read. It combines practicality with ingenuity to lead lawyers to live more fulfilled, productive and successful lives. Packed with advice, the book is an invaluable guide for lawyers to take the concrete steps and develop the skills they need to live enriched lives and thrive as lawyers." -- Debbie Epstein Henry, Founder, Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, September 1, 2007
"There is no book on the shelves to compare with The Creative Lawyer. Funny, well-researched, and provocative, it's an invaluable guide to understanding yourself better -- not just as a lawyer, but as a person. It's full of useful exercises, relevant case histories, and powerful insights, delivered in unlawyer-like concise and entertaining prose. It's required reading for anyone who has taken the bar exam -- or, for that matter, anyone who is considering taking the LSAT. " -- Gretchen Rubin, Blogger, The Happiness Project, former editor-in-chief, Yale Law Journal, September 15, 2007
"Whether you are living the law or leaving it, you need wise counsel to make your career meaningful. One part Socrates, one part Deepak Chopra, and one part cheerleader, Michael Melcher is the ideal advisor for lawyers contemplating their options. The Creative Lawyer should be mandatory reading for anyone who has ever set foot in law school." -- Noah Feldman, Professor, Harvard Law School, September 7, 2007
About the Author
Michael Melcher is an attorney who is one of the country's leading career coaches. With a blend of humor, sensitivity and professional acumen, he has helped hundreds of individuals transform their careers into personal platforms that are professionally fulfilling and personally meaningful. A gifted speaker and workshop leader, he has addressed audiences on career development themes across the United States as well as in Europe and Asia.
Michael is a graduate of Harvard College, Stanford Law School, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He worked for several years as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, was previously a Foreign Service Officer in Calcutta and Taipei, ran an internet start-up in Silicon Valley, and is currently a partner at Next Step Partners, the leadership development and executive coaching firm.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Michael Melcher's The Creative Lawyer is the seminal work on finding authentic professional satisfaction. While targeting lawyers, the book's message is equally applicable to all professionals trying to create and live authentic lives.
Using the right combination of a left brain/right brain approach, Michael encourages us to take responsibility for our careers--to become "stewards" of them, in a way that is "systematically creative." I love that! Lawyers typically have the "systematic" part down, but need support, guidance and inspiration--along with very practical advice--to nurture and develop the "creative" part, that part of us that can "bring into being," "give rise to" and/or "produce through effort." The Creative Lawyer is not about finding your "inner artist" (although I suppose it could be) but rather about creating a life that works for you through exploration, planning and effort. And that is key.
Too many career advice books leave one with a sense that all one need do to create an ideal life is dream, affirm, and let the universe do its job. Michael knows better. He knows to live an authentic life requires effort. With wit, authenticity, and a sense knowing, Michael leads/guides us to it.
He starts where we all must--with an exploration of values. Michael knows that by clearly articulating our values, we infuse our ultimate plan of action with a greater power and likelihood of success. In effect, our organization, effort, and skill become energized by our core values. Michael goes on to help us develop a vision, learn to know and manage ourselves, develop our networks, and our habits of experimentation. He also gently implores us to challenge and interrogate our attachment to some taboo subjects--money, status, stability, and recognition, and leaves us with a powerful message: "Creating a life that works does not unfold logically"--a message that may prove to be a major "ah hah" for lawyers accustomed to using logic and analysis to solve problems.
As a professional coach and organizational consultant, I rely on Michael's book and its many exercises (including the "master plan template") to inform my practice and coach my clients. It is a superb resource. And as a former law professor and lawyer, I would like to see Michael's book used as the foundation for a new law school course focused on life management skills. Law schools are uniquely poised to support and develop creative lawyers who could then enter the profession with a grounding and basis to achieve an authentic professional life. The use of The Creative Lawyer as part of the law school curriculum could go a long way in preparing lawyers for a more fulfilled life in the law.
I highly recommend this book to lawyers, law students, law school professor and administrators, as well as career coaches and human performance developers.
Using the right combination of a left brain/right brain approach, Michael encourages us to take responsibility for our careers--to become "stewards" of them, in a way that is "systematically creative." I love that! Lawyers typically have the "systematic" part down, but need support, guidance and inspiration--along with very practical advice--to nurture and develop the "creative" part, that part of us that can "bring into being," "give rise to" and/or "produce through effort." The Creative Lawyer is not about finding your "inner artist" (although I suppose it could be) but rather about creating a life that works for you through exploration, planning and effort. And that is key.
Too many career advice books leave one with a sense that all one need do to create an ideal life is dream, affirm, and let the universe do its job. Michael knows better. He knows to live an authentic life requires effort. With wit, authenticity, and a sense knowing, Michael leads/guides us to it.
He starts where we all must--with an exploration of values. Michael knows that by clearly articulating our values, we infuse our ultimate plan of action with a greater power and likelihood of success. In effect, our organization, effort, and skill become energized by our core values. Michael goes on to help us develop a vision, learn to know and manage ourselves, develop our networks, and our habits of experimentation. He also gently implores us to challenge and interrogate our attachment to some taboo subjects--money, status, stability, and recognition, and leaves us with a powerful message: "Creating a life that works does not unfold logically"--a message that may prove to be a major "ah hah" for lawyers accustomed to using logic and analysis to solve problems.
As a professional coach and organizational consultant, I rely on Michael's book and its many exercises (including the "master plan template") to inform my practice and coach my clients. It is a superb resource. And as a former law professor and lawyer, I would like to see Michael's book used as the foundation for a new law school course focused on life management skills. Law schools are uniquely poised to support and develop creative lawyers who could then enter the profession with a grounding and basis to achieve an authentic professional life. The use of The Creative Lawyer as part of the law school curriculum could go a long way in preparing lawyers for a more fulfilled life in the law.
I highly recommend this book to lawyers, law students, law school professor and administrators, as well as career coaches and human performance developers.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There is a moment in every lawyer's life when you realize that you've made it--but you have no idea what "it" is. Luckily, that's the moment Michael Melcher's book sweeps in and (with rapier wit and profoundly clever insights) shows you which way is up. A law degree allegedly opens doors, but the right doors do not always appear in a typical law career. Melcher sheds light on the different--and creative--paths to true career satisfaction. Too many lawyers feel that they must abandon the law because they only know of one way to be a lawyer. Melcher shatters that myth and in the process, delivers tangible, effective advice from which every unsatisfied lawyer can benefit. This book is a perfect gift for yourself, a law student, or unhappy lawyer. Everyone should read it.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is written for lawyers, but really is useful for anyone who wants to find greater satisfaction in his/her work and life. It is a good read, articulate, entertaining, and insightful, but most importantly - it actually works. It gives you perspectives, tools and exercises that will absolutely make a difference in how you think about what you want and where you are going - if you do them. Like any book of this kind - reading it is interesting, and will probably provide some insights, but to really get the full benefit, you need to actually do the exercises. So get yourself a career creation buddy, or a coach, or just get off the couch and do them - and get on with the life you want.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific Book on Figuring Out Your Future
As a 10 year lawyer I've been wondering what to do next for some time. Melcher's book has terrifically helpful exercises to help stuck lawyers get to the heart of what they want... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Always a Critic
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simple Yet Sophisticated: Ideal Advice for the
As a legal coach and law firm and law department consultant, I often meet lawyers who find they have arrived at a career that is not to their liking--whether professionally,... Read more
Published 18 months ago by R. Muir
5.0 out of 5 stars
Energizing, Practical, and Easy to Read
This slim volume is both inspiring and practical. Melcher's clear writing, strong voice, and wit make it easy and even pleasurable to read. Read more
Published on January 27, 2011 by Reece And Hanna Hart
4.0 out of 5 stars
Applying Self-Analysis to Legal Analysis
I began reading this book right at the beginning of studying for the bar exam, so I needed some self-reflection to target my strengths at the start of my legal career while... Read more
Published on August 31, 2010 by Z. M.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid Resource For Lawyers With Career Issues
Melcher's The Creative Lawyer was a hugely helpful resource for me in my ongoing process of adding dimension and meaning to my career paths. Read more
Published on May 26, 2010 by Francesco Barbera
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read for any professional
Michael Melcher is insightful and funny. Open your mind to a different way of being a professional.
Published on May 2, 2010 by Ana Murray
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not just for lawyers!
Although I am not a lawyer, I found this book to be very insightful. I am in my 40's, moving on from my first career, and contemplating what to do next. Read more
Published on April 15, 2010 by Lisa
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Content/Lousy Title
Michael Melcher's book, The Creative Lawyer, is both an inspirational guide and a toolkit on how to find job satisfaction. Read more
Published on April 11, 2010 by Patricia D. Anastos
5.0 out of 5 stars
Practical and inspiring book to think yourself out of the legal box
Great book for lawyers who are at
the early stages of thinking themselves out of their legal box and for
people - like me - who are revisiting this process to define the... Read more
the early stages of thinking themselves out of their legal box and for
people - like me - who are revisiting this process to define the... Read more
Published on March 29, 2010 by Susanne Hoogwater
5.0 out of 5 stars
Creative and Prescient
As a lawyer who went back to business school to find a new path, I can attest to the fact that this book will help you in finding your own path. Read more
Published on March 25, 2010 by T. Yohannan
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