Category: Law

It is a spiritual law that the desire to do necessarily implies the ability to do.”

You have all read of “Aladdin’s Lamp,” which accomplished such wonderful things. This, of course, is only a fairy story, but it illustrates the fact that man has within him the power, if he is able to use it, to gratify his every wish.

If you are unable to satisfy your deepest longings it is time you learned how to use your God-given powers. You will soon be conscious that you have latent powers within capable when once developed of revealing to you priceless knowledge and unlimited possibilities of success.

Man should have plenty of everything and not merely substance to live on as so many have. All natural desires can be realized. It would be wrong for the Infinite to create wants that could not be supplied. Man’s very soul is in his power to think, and it, therefore, is the essence of all created things. Every instinct of man leads to thought, and in every thought there is great possibility because true thought development, when allied to those mysterious powers which perhaps transcend it, has been the cause of all the world’s true progress.

In the silence we become conscious of “that something” which transcends thought and which uses thought as a medium for expression. Many have glimpses of “that something,” but few ever reach the state where the mind is steady enough to fathom these depths. Silent, concentrated thought is more potent than spoken words, for speech distracts from the focusing power of the mind by drawing more and more attention to the without.

Man must learn more and more to depend on himself; to seek more for the Infinite within. It is from this source alone that he ever gains the power to solve his practical difficulties. No one should give up when there is always the resources of Infinity. The cause of failure is that men search in the wrong direction for success, because they are not conscious of their real powers that when used are capable of guiding them.

The Infinite within is foreign to those persons who go through life without developing their spiritual powers. But the Infinite helps only he who helps himself. There is no such thing as a Special “Providence.” Man will not receive help from the Infinite except to the extent that he believes and hopes and prays for help from this great source.

Concentrate on What You Want and Get It.

The weakling is controlled by conditions. The strong man controls conditions. You can be either the conqueror or the conquered. By the law of concentration you can achieve your heart’s desire. This law is so powerful that that which at first seems impossible becomes attainable.

By this law what you at first see as a dream becomes a reality.

Remember that the first step in concentration is to form a Mental Image of what you wish to accomplish. Thisimage becomes a thought-seed that attracts thoughts of a similar nature. Around this thought, when it is once planted in the imagination or creative region of the mind, you group or build associated thoughts which continue to grow as long as your desire is keen enough to compel close concentration.

Form the habit of thinking of something you wish to accomplish for five minutes each day. Shut every other thought out of consciousness. Be confident that you will succeed; make up your mind that all obstacles that are in your way will be overcome and you can rise above any environment.

You do this by utilizing the natural laws of the thought world which are all powerful.

Today, I’m going to discuss three tactics that you can start using today to invoke the Law of Attraction in your life. These three things are easy to do and won’t cost you a dime.

Positive Attitude

This one is pretty simple. Proponents of the Law of Attraction maintain that living in a perpetually positive state of mind will attract positive influences (some like to call them “vibrations”) in the world that will fuel positive changes in their lives. Whether these changes come in the form of circumstances that put you in a better, more successful place or opportunities that will bring success later in life, maintaining a positive attitude is going to help bring them about.

I like to think of this as mental preparation. Keeping up a positive attitude mentally prepares you to better handle things in life, as well as helping to align you for success.

Think about it: if you only focus on the negative, you’re never in the appropriate mindset necessary to appreciate the things you DO have in life – and you can’t use those things to move forward. For example, say you’re driving a junky car. You hate this car. Every time you hop into it in the morning to drive to work, you glare at it. It’s not pretty, it causes you problems, maybe it smells funny – whatever. You hate this car. But it’s the only care you have, and you can’t quite afford to get the better car you wish you had. During your morning commute, as you drive along the highway, you always notice all the nicer vehicles on the road. You see the guy in the tricked-out SUV, and you wish that was yours. By the time you get to work, you’re already in a foul mood and it shows.

So you have a crappy car.

So what?

Utilizing a positive attitude – your mental preparation – is useful in this instance. Rather than concentrating on how much you hate your ugly car, remind yourself that even if it’s ugly, it still gets you to work. In fact, you’re LUCKY to have a car at all. You don’t have to stand out in the rain, waiting for the bus. You don’t have to walk to work in the freezing cold of winter or the blazing heat of summer. Even if the car is a mess, at least it’s got climate control inside.

By appreciating your junk-mobile, even just a little, you are creating a more positive environment in your life – and maybe that positive environment will allow you to be in just a little better mood when you get to work in the morning, which will, in turn, allow you to perform better, which will eventually lead you to the raise that will allow you to buy your tricked-out SUV.

Or maybe not, but at least you’re not hating life at 7:30 AM every morning because your car smells funny. And that’s a positive in and of itself.

Visualization

Proponents of the Secret/Law of Attraction are big on visualization. By visualizing yourself where you want to be in life, you will attract those “vibrations” necessary to get yourself to that place. Some Secret teachers even say to go one step further and utilize “holographic visualization,” which basically means that, along with mentally seeing yourself in a certain situation in life, you need to also emotionally put yourself there. You need to see these visions so clearly in your mind that it almost seems as if you are actually there.

Hopefully, if you are thinking about starting a law firm, you have considered what marketing techniques you plan on utilizing. From there, you should also have realized that marketing yourself online is imperative to the success of any business, especially if you are starting a small law firm. If you don’t know where to start on your internet marketing, here are three tools that are the cornerstone of any online campaign.

1) Establish a website.

The first weapon in your internet arsenal is the website. There really is not excuse not to have a website, especially with all the options out there in terms of cost, content, and simplicity. In other words, if you are an attorney starting a law firm, whether a Maryland criminal defense firm or a Virginia family law firm, you must have a website. It is the one place where people can always turn for information on you and your firm.

Your website should contain a lot of information, not just about you. It should also contain information about your practice areas and resources for your potential clients to review. However, your website should also be easy to navigate through, meaning visitors should be able to quickly find whatever they want very quickly.

Additionally, there should be a call to action. You need to answer the question of what you want people to do when they visit your site. Most likely, you want them to contact you in some fashion. On every page, there should be at least one call to action, and preferably several. You should also give people different ways to contact you – by telephone, by email, in person, through the website itself. Make it easy. That is theme here.

2) Utilize a blog.

You should also have a blog for your thoughts. Blogging is even easier than creating a website, especially because there are numerous free sites out there that let you sign up instantly and create one. All you need is an email address.

Customization is the key to your blog. You want to make it relevant to your practice areas (for example, if you practice Virginia traffic ticket defense, then you can you’re your blog all about the different kinds of traffic violations), but you also want to make it general enough that you can continually post without running out of ideas. You can also have more than one blog for different practice areas or different jurisdictions or for whatever else you want.

Blogs are trendy you say? Sphhh. Blogs are here to stay. Why? Because they provide an easy way to get information across the internet. Not only that, but you can link to your website from your blog, or to other blog entries. You can even optimize your blog for your main keywords or practice areas, so that eventually through posting you will move up the search engine rankings.

3) Create articles.

Lastly, you should publish as many articles as you can, and not in your local bar journal. A key to online marketing is getting published by article directories – places where you can submit quality articles that get published in the directory. Then other people can come in and copy your article to post to their site, as long as they give you credit for the article. It’s free advertising, and you need it for help with starting a law firm and your online strategy.

Of course, you need to have something to write about. That’s the easy part. Just think about your practice areas, or how to start a law firm, or anything else that you have come across in your legal career, and start writing about it. Eventually, you writing the articles will become almost second nature and you will be able to spit one out in only a few minutes. But for now, just start writing.

Look, you need to do a lot more than these three things to establish yourself online. In other words, just because you have a website, a blog, and a few articles, doesn’t mean you are going to get noticed and that your internet marketing is going to work. But if you are looking at how to start a law firm, and specifically how you are going to market, you have to start with these three things. Otherwise you have no chance.

W&M (William & Mary) Law School in Virginia, Cornell Law School, and Columbia Law School in New York are institutions that have been well known to provide top-notch education in jurisprudence for future law practitioners. Many legislators and law practitioners have prided themselves in having their education from these schools, especially Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who studied both in Cornell and Columbia. If you want to apply for these schools, here is a primer on the eligibility, application process, and the requirements that you need to pass.

Eligibility

W&M Law has three programs offered. For those who want to apply for the JD program, a bachelors degree from an accredited college or university is required. For those who want to get into joint degree programs, a minimum requirement of a bachelors degree is also required. Those who want to get into the Ll.M program or those who want to expand their knowledge of American jurisprudence can then do so even if they have obtained their legal training outside of the US so long as TOEFL score requirements are met.

Cornell Law requires applicants to at least have earned a bachelors degree from a four-year course. Although graduate school grades and standing will not feature in the rankings, these may be reviewed by the panel. Foreign students need to submit their school transcripts through the LSAC J.D. Credential Assembly Service (CAS).

Columbia Law is a little bit more discriminating as it requires applicants to have had a bachelors degree in law. A bachelors degree in any other field, despite being followed by a Masters in Law, will still not suffice for eligibility. Those who have earned their law degrees through correspondence or in foreign law schools are also not accepted into Columbia Law.

Application process

The application process for W&M Law is as follows:

1) Complete an application form via the LSDAS Electronic application or through the schools website. 2) Submit an application fee. 3) Send your academic transcripts and letters of recommendations. 4) Send your essays and a TOEFL score if applicable.

For Cornell Law:

1) Submit a completed application form through the website or through LSAC. 2) Pass two letters of recommendations, a personal statement essay, and an optional diversity essay. 3) Submit an application fee.

To get into Columbia Law:

1) Pass a completed application via the GLS Online Application. 2) Pay the application fee. 3) Submit your TOEFL, if applicable. 4) Pass personal statement essays, a resume, academic transcripts and diplomas, and letters of recommendation.

Writing the personal statement

All three schools require the applicant to submit a personal statement. Cornell suggests writing the personal statement on a topic about yourself, which can be discussed further during the interview. You can write about intellectual or personal interests and achievements, your goals and dreams or any project that you take pride in. A personal statements length is preferably up to two pages, double-spaced, and in a font and size that is easy on the eyes.

Sample law school personal statements can serve as guides for the format and content. Many sample law school personal statements online were done by authors who made it prestigious law schools.

During the process of home buying, you’ll likely hear the term escrow many times. This can be a little bit confusing to many people, especially first time buyers. It’s your right, as a buyer of Pleasanton homes for sale, to understand escrow and the laws that govern it.

What is an Escrow?

An escrow is defined as anything of value to a party, such as a deed, a document, or money, held by an unbiased third party to be used or delivered to another party after fulfilling a certain event, condition, or obligation. The term is also used to refer to the transaction itself.

Escrow Law

For the protection of the parties who entrust their assets to escrow agents in Pleasanton or anywhere in California, the Escrow Law was enacted. Escrow agents, Internet escrow agents, and joint control agents are subject to its provisions.

An escrow agent is someone who is engaged in the field of receiving escrows for the purpose of delivery or deposit, while an Internet escrow agent is someone who is also engaged in this business, but does it over the Internet.

On the other hand, a joint control agent is any individual who receives money or other assets for spending or payment of the cost of services, materials, labor, fees, permits, or any other things acquired in the building of real property improvements.

Under the Escrow Law, anyone involved in the escrow or joint control business is required to be a corporation that is arranged for that function and must be licensed by the Commissioner. Also, all Internet escrow agents are subject to the licensure requirements. However, there are some individuals who are exempted from such requirements:

1. An individual who does business under any state or federal law that is related to insurance companies, savings and loan or building and loan associations, trust companies, or banks.

2. Any individual who has a license to practice law in this state and has a valid business relation with a principal in a personal property transaction or real estate; also, someone who isn’t engaged in an escrow agent’s business.

3. An individual whose main business is making searches or preparing abstracts of title used as a basis for the distribution of a title insurance policy by a certain company that is subject to any state law related to insurance companies.

4. A real estate broker that has a license from the Real Estate Commissioner while working in a transaction wherein he/she is an agent and is required to have a real estate license.

Below are the requirements to be able to get a license under the Escrow Law:

1. Pay the application fee
2. Must be a member of the EAFC or the Escrow Agents’ Fidelity Corporation
3. File a fidelity bond
4. Submit audited financial records that show the minimum financial requirements
5. File a surety bond of no less than $25,000
6. Must undergo background checks done by the Department
7. Must reach the minimum required experience
8. Has to provide a signed affidavit as proof that he/she is familiar with the Escrow Law
9. Must file a branch office application

If you’re purchasing a property in Pleasanton real estate, it’s essential to understand the legal aspects of the home buying process, including the Escrow Law.