They may speed you up, redirect you, or cut you short – It’s easy to forget that attorneys “inventory” is their time. We each get the same 1,440 minutes a day, but few of us track our days in 6-minute increments. .1 of an hour or six minutes is a standard billing unit for attorneys; and, many firms bill in .2 or .3 minimums. Meaning any time they touch your case, it is billed as .2 or .3 hours even if it only took 1 minute. That may seem unfair, but the reality is putting aside one matter, switching to another, and returning to productivity in the original case consumes substantially more tim ..read more

Working in Special Education and Special Needs advocacy, there’s so much sadness, disappointment, and anger it can be overwhelming. Of course, I recognize that parents with the most extreme situations are the ones most likely to be reaching out for legal help. But, even accounting for the decidedly non-random sampling of students, occasionally, there are such distinct patterns repeated with such regularity they are impossible to ignore. You see, the statistics can be spun the other way also. Only a fraction of parents ever seek legal advice about their child’s education, so for every parent wh ..read more

For several months among my unfinished projects has been a blog post about the lesser-known, but equally frustrating, components of ADHD. For those months, my own ADHD has thrown every delaying Jedi mind trick in its bag in my way. ADHD employed procrastination, mission creep, perfectionism, time blindness, distractions, prioritization, boredom, overwhelm, lack of sleep, anxiety, depression, shiny things, and squirrels. It let me have it with both barrels. So my post, tentatively titled “JUST THE TIP: The ADHD Iceberg,” my article sat in a permanent holding pattern with my many other half-fini ..read more

I never fail to impress myself. It’s strange and somewhat inexplicable how so much ego can coexist with so much self-doubt and insecurity. –Me As I’ve previously discussed in The Folly of Ego, my current and painful journey combines learning and growing in my knowledge and skill as an advocate while accepting the many mistakes I’ve made and the impact they have had on others. My most recent “learning experience” has come from a source that I was oblivious to for most of the 20+ years I’ve been on this autism journey. If you look for information on autism, you’ll find yourself flooded wi ..read more