So you’re racking up the billables, sitting on the boards and opening the door to opportunity at work, as well as getting married and having babies and doing all those other things that make you happy. How do you keep from burning out? We have some ideas.

Many of us talk ourselves out of doing something we really want to do – often out of fear of failure – and then spend years regretting the decision. Prudence is important, but there are ways to evaluate the risks and to decide whether to open the door when opportunity knocks.

Whether you call them hacks or tips, we can all use ideas to make our lives easier. In February the CBA is sponsoring HackJustice, which will bring people from various disciplines together “to code and create technology applications that will improve access to justice.”

Tattoos and piercings in places other than the traditional earlobe are gradually becoming normalized in society – if not entirely accepted in its more conservative corners. But that doesn’t mean you can’t express yourself now that you’re out of law school. It’s partly a matter of finding the right law firm.

We’re always told that if you’re not progressing up the career ladder, you’re stalled, or stagnating. But sometimes a little jump to the left – or a step to the right – can be just the change you need to make the most of your career.

Ask and ye shall receive, they say, but what they don’t say is that ye might not get everything you asked for. As in life, so in questioning clients, who might hold back information – because they’re embarrassed, or they don’t think it’s relevant, or they don’t think you’d be interested.

Even if you’re not a conflict-avoider, some conversations are more difficult than others to initiate, especially if they involve exposing your vulnerability. Liane Krakauer, a career coach in Toronto who’ll be presenting a Solutions Series webinar on a range of tough conversations in December, offers some tips for making them easier.

Continuing legal education – if you only put in the hours because your law society makes you do it, you’re missing out on a world of opportunity not just for learning, but also networking, marketing, and career development, writes Carolynne Burkholder-James.

One generation will always treasure something the next generation doesn’t understand, but there does seem to be a particular gap between millennials and baby boomers. The first thing millennials need to know about boomers, says James Careless, is that they came from a different world.

The hardscrabble school years are behind you. Now you have a degree that many see as a ticket to the good life – and there is widespread expectation out there that you’ll take no time cashing it in. But as Carolynne Burkholder-James warns, just because society expects you to live the life of a high-paid TV lawyer doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for you to do so.