Hi,

Welcome to With Less - a weekly newsletter dedicated to helping legal creatively do more with less.

And the answer is door hinge. That's right, door hinge rhymes with orange. 

In last week’s newsletter, I teased revealing a project I have been working on to make working from home more productive and more socially engaging for lawyers. And I did!

I am thrilled to announce the launch of Counsel Collective, an online coworking community for lawyers to work independently, but not alone. 🎉

Counsel Collective is the solution to the loneliness and everyday tedium of working from home. If you’re looking to say goodbye to the loneliness and isolation that comes from working from home and are ready to boost productivity, achieve your goals, and surround yourself with a supportive community of amazing people, then Counsel Collective is for you.

I don’t want this to seem too spammy, so I’ll put a pin in talking about Counsel Collective. But, if you would like to know more about this, you can:

• have a look at the website; 
• watch this interview, where I get into what Counsel Collective is, what membership offers, and how it all came to be; or
• email me (marty@legaladjacency.com) with any questions.

Have a great rest of the week,

Marty Finestone

Here are the articles, tips, think pieces, and other reads I want to share with you this week:

Events, Webinars, and Experiences

• Dec. 8: Legal Disruption: Key Trends to Watch in 2022 - Axiom. Details and registration here.
• Dec. 14: Aligning Your Intellectual Property Strategy with the Business: What In-House Counsel Need to Know to Optimize Their IP Budget For 2022 - In-house Connect. Details and registration here.
• Dec. 15: The Legal Ethics Year in Review: News You Can Use for Corporate Counsel - Adams & Reese LLP. Details and registration here. 

Substantive News & Insights 

• So hot right now. Here's what's hot in Australian class action litigation trends.
• A recent California Court of Appeals decision found nominal damages could be awarded for an employee’s breach of an NDA, even if no actual harm were done to the employer. (via Sheppard Mullin)
• Here's a brief overview of popular open-source license agreements. (via Laverly Lawyers)
• Vendor Contracts 101: winding up the relationship. (via Fredrikson & Byron)
• A recent UK High Court case emphasized the importance of making sure that any onerous terms in your standard T's and C's are clearly brought to the attention of the other party if you want to rely on the term - especially when incorporated by reference. (via IP Tech Blog)

In-house

• A global retail and commercial real estate giant transferred part of its legal team to a Big Law firm, which will exclusively manage legal services for its Canadian shopping centers. (via Canadian Lawyer Magazine) 
• Seven strategies for succeeding in-house. (via ACC Docket)
• GCs are more pessimistic about risk-preparedness now than in 2020. (via Law.com)
• New US state-level privacy Laws: what business teams need to know? (via InfoLawGroup)
• Sterling Miller's Ten Things in-house counsel need to know about ransomware. (via Sterling Miller's Ten Things Blog)

Legal Ops & Legal Tech

• Bucerius Law School has launched a summer legal tech & ops program. Details are here.
• Survey says that legal ops departments are maturing but struggle to execute plans. (via Law.com)
• Three ways to structure legal ops for maximum efficiency. (via Contract Works)
• "Four lessons I learned from building a legal workspace." (via Juro)

Lawyers & Lawyering

• The Best Lawyers - the directory, not the people - have a new private equity owner. (via Pearson Communications)
• Is there a better way to admit lawyers? The future of the bar exam needs a hard look. (via Bench & Bar of Minnesota) 

• Treat other counsel how you wish to be treated: the rules versus the Golden Rule. (via Aird & Berlis) 

• The Law Society of Ontario has deferred a vote on eliminating mandatory minimum wage for articling students. (via Law Times)

Work

• How to politely share your scheduling link. (via Calendly)
• How to write an engaging, client-focused professional bio that people want to read. (via Stefanie Marrone)
• Big Tech is pushing smart home devices as the latest work-from-home tools. (via Seattle Times)
• In unrelated news, there's a big boom in for devices that help employees evade corporate productivity trackers. (via Slate)

Life

• How to make decisions when feeling anxious. (via Ness Labs)
• LinkedIn fakes are a thing. (via @hatless1der blog)
• Of course, you should have totally unrealistic expectations. And this is why. (via Fast Company)
• 25 productivity hacks from highly productive people. (via Bustle)

Balance

• Eco-friendly pet food is trending! Sales are up 57% in the UK. Considering that our furry friends consume 20% of the world’s meat and fish, this is a good thing. (via The Guardian)
• You're not the only one who thinks it's getting harder to understand and hear movie dialogue. (via Slash Film)
• This is a fascinating profile of Richard Devine, a music producer who creates "sonic signatures" for the products that surrounds us. (via Inside Hook)
• Um, didn't Mr. Burns do this? Amazon Is Helping Researchers Study How to Dim the Sun. (via Gizmodo)
• The same technology that auto-completes your emails and powers Google Translate is also helping researchers map (and maybe one day, read) our brains. (via the New Yorker $)

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Until next week good readers.