How Lawyers Work: Sam Glover, Editor in Chief of Lawyerist.com

In this week’s edition of How Lawyers Work, we talked to Sam Glover, founder and Editor in Chief of Lawyerist. He writes, speaks, and podcasts about legal innovation, the legal technology industry, access to justice, and more.

What apps or tools are essential to your daily workflow?

A pen and paper. I love pens and notebooks, and I’m always buying more and trying to figure out what to do with them. But I almost always have a Fisher Space Pen and a Levenger Shirt Pocket Briefcase full of index cards. Which is really just an excuse to write things down before I capture them in Evernote, with which I have an intense love-hate relationship. The problem is I can’t get the hang of organizing my thoughts one after another, so I need to be able to move the pages around. And you can’t do that in a notebook. So I’m always scanning pages to Evernote where I can move them and mark them up and get a good look at them.

And my iPhone, obviously. It’s the single most useful thing I own.

What does your workspace look like?

Nearly all my work involves a computer, so my workspace is basically just that, with room for a coffee mug and a pad of paper. I work on a single 24″ monitor attached to a Mac mini. I’ve had multiple-monitor setups in the past, but I’ve found that a single screen encourages me to focus. And I love my custom WASD Keyboards mechanical keyboard. I probably spend more time typing than anything else I do, so it was worth every penny.

I like a clean workspace, but mine has become a tangle of wires because of all the podcast equipment that lives on my desk.

How do you keep track of your calendars/deadlines?

I use Google Calendar for all of my calendars. I would love to keep a paper pocket calendar, but it’s just too impractical. My wife and I have a calendar meeting every Sunday night so we don’t leave the kids stranded at daycare or something.

For deadlines, I just use Apple Reminders, which gets the job done and let’s me share deadlines with my wife and kids. For work, I mostly use Trello to keep track of everything I have to do, but sometimes I will use the reminders in Google Inbox or Slack. My personal system is a sort of sloppy derivative of Getting Things Done, but it works well and keeps me focused, and I almost never miss an appointment or deadline.

What’s your coffee service setup? (Other beverages are fine, of course, but you should really be serving coffee!)

Our office arrangement includes excellent coffee service, so I just walk up to the bar and pour my own. At home, my wife talked me into a cheap drip coffee maker, but when I have time I usually make an espresso. I love the ritual of grinding, tamping, warming the cup, and pulling the shot. Actually, I love any kind of drink ritual. I have a bunch of Chinese tea cups and accessories. And most people know I love making classic cocktails. A proper drink, properly made, is a lovely thing.

What is one thing that you listen to/read/watch that everyone should? (This does not, by any means, need to be limited to law- or business-related material.)

Kung fu movies.

What’s your favorite local place to network or work solo? (Please provide a website link to that location if you have one.)

I just couldn’t be happier with our office space at Industrious.

What are three things you do without fail every day?

Coffee, exercise, and read. And usually a cocktail.

Who else would you like to see answer these questions?

Washington State Bar Association president Robin Lynn Haynes.

How Lawyers Work: Sam Glover, Editor in Chief of Lawyerist.com was originally published on Lawyerist.com.