The American Bar Association is making sure attorneys have plenty of material on hand for meeting their daily quota of reading with two new books: “Twitter in One Hour for Lawyers” and “Civic Fusion.”
More lawyers than ever are using Twitter to network with colleagues, attract clients, market their law firms and read the news, says the ABA. But to the uninitiated, Twitter’s short messages, or tweets, can seem like they were written in a foreign language. “Twitter in One Hour for Lawyers,” published by the ABA Law Practice Management Section, aims to demystify the popular social media platform and teach readers to tweet like an expert. Lawyers will learn to:
Create a Twitter account and set up a profile; read tweets and understand Twitter jargon; write tweets and send them at the appropriate time; gain an audience; interact with other Twitters users; integrate Twitter into a firm’s marketing plan; cross-post tweets with other social-media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn; and understand the relevant ethics, privacy and security concerns.
“Twitter in One Hour for Lawyers” was written by Jared Correia, law practice management adviser at the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program.
“Civic Fusion: Mediating Polarized Public Disputes,” is a new book by mediator Susan Podziba and published by the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution.
Drawing on the author’s 25 years of experience in public policy mediation, the book describes a phenomenon whereby people with passionately different political positions bond to address common public goals without sacrificing core values.
Podziba examines the ways in which passion and disagreements can fuel successful mediation outcomes, and teaches by example through an in-depth evaluation of three of her past projects: Secret talks among pro-life and pro-choice leaders in the wake of fatal attacks at two women’s health clinics in Massachusetts; regulatory negotiations among stakeholders and the government that resulted in industry and union-supported worker safety standards for construction cranes; and a charter consensus process that helped a failed city reclaim its democracy.
Using these examples, “Civic Fusion” guides readers through a discussion about what mediators aspire to do, what they actually do, and what needs to be done to bring disparate groups of people together to reach agreements on complicated public policy questions.
Podziba has been a public policy mediator for 25 years. Her clients have included the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor and Transportation, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Institute for Peace. Podziba is listed on the U.N. Mediation Roster and has taught graduate seminars in mediation and negotiation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
Source: American Bar Association