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The Life and Career of Tom Mighell: Senior Counsel at Cowles & Thompson and Author of inter alia, a Weblog

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published November 27, 2006

Mighell realized that he wanted to dive into a career in law back when he was a member of the debate team in high school. His passion for fighting for the well-being of others began developing then and there, and it has not left him since. "Some would say that I like arguing a lot. I prefer to think of it as advocacy—advocating a position and working to solve health problems," he said.

Working in an insurance defense law firm, Mighell and his associates primarily deal with personal injury defense issues for various companies. Because of his interest in looking after the health needs of others, Mighell specializes in daycare liability. He usually covers cases for places where kids spend a lot of time, such as camps, gymnastics studios, and karate studios. Mighell also visits daycare centers to train employees on how to avoid lawsuits and protect themselves and the children they take care of. The majority of his work over the life of his practice has been centered on defense in the area of personal injury. In addition to his love for law and helping others, Mighell also lends a strong hand to his company in the area of technical support.

Currently, Mighell is beginning to use his extensive knowledge of law to help others in his field and in related fields, aiming to promote technology as a tool to make the system simpler and more efficient. For instance, as a result of improvements in communication technology, email and cell phones have made communications between lawyers, their clients, and other law affiliates literally instantaneous. On the downside, lawyers are now usually caught up in messes of emails and messages that must be answered within 24 hours, which can prevent them from getting other work done. "I think that it is a real double-edged sword because, on the one hand, it is tremendously powerful and it allows you to keep in contact with your clients, but on the other hand, it allows you to keep in contact with your clients during times when you maybe do not need to be working, or you need to be concentrating on other areas of life," Mighell said. However, technologically educating other lawyers can help ease some of the mechanical madness that accumulates as a result of more efficient means of communication.

In addition to covering his usual cases and keeping his firm's website updated, Mighell has begun to transition himself into more of a technical authority role, working with lawyers and teaching them how to make their jobs easier, so they can focus on what really matters: studying cases and connecting with clients. Since he began this venture, Mighell has shifted his workload to "20% lawyer," which has allowed him to dedicate himself almost completely to the improvement of technology in his law firm. Lawyers are usually too busy to educate themselves about the latest software, programs, and Internet research techniques. Oftentimes, lawyers end up searching Google in attempts to find information to fulfill their needs, eventually running themselves in wasteful circles. Mighell hopes to show lawyers that there is relatively simple, yet comprehensive and important, information available to help them; they just need to know how to find it. In addition to assisting lawyers who wish to develop more technological expertise, Mighell publishes the "Internet Legal Research Weekly Newsletter," which reports on need-to-know technological methods and resources for saving lawyers time and increasing their productivity. The passion that Mighell has always had for helping people has evolved into a desire to help lawyers improve their games so they can better serve clients.

Along with his weekly newsletter, for the past four years, Mighell has been posting a weblog called inter alia, Latin for "among other things," in which he shares information regarding legal technology and computer security measures. Publishing at least one item every day, Mighell coordinates with other lawyers who write blogs, introducing many new ways in which lawyers can use their blogs to contribute to the legal field and educating fellow lawyers and general Internet users alike. The more today's lawyers read blogs like Mighell's, the more they further their legal educations. Blogging is also useful in terms of educating current clients and marketing practices to prospective clients. It can eliminate the tasks of creating and sending out newsletters to clients, potential clients, and other lawyers.

Having been in the field of law for almost 20 years now, Mighell has a wealth of advice and information to share with young law students. He knows that there must be a concrete balance of work and recreation. Before law students graduate, they must learn how to prioritize and decide how much they want their social lives to be affected by their jobs. Mighell advises, "Learn to understand that it is not all about the work, unless you want it to be all about the work." It is important to do something that makes one happy; finding a balance between work and the rest of one's life is the key to staying mentally healthy. Law students need to research the types of law jobs they are interested in and the constraints those jobs may place on them. It is very challenging to get out of some jobs once you have committed yourself. Mighell warned, "Once you get into a job, it is often more difficult to get out of it. Usually, the handcuffs can be quite tight once you get into a situation."


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