Children ’ s Corner tificial insemination is not the child ’ s legal parent , holding that even though the woman was listed as a parent on the child ’ s birth certificate , she does not have parental rights because she did not formally adopt or biologically father the child . See http :// www . azcentral . com / story / news / local / arizona / 2017 / 06 / 24 / arizona-courtgay-partner-doesnt-have-parental-rights-in-divorce / 422432001 / ( last accessed August 31 , 2017 ).
7
15A V . S . A . §§ 3-304 , 4-107 .
8
15A V . S . A . § 3-305 ( 1 ).
9
15A V . S . A . §§ 3-305 ( 2 ), 2-405 ( d ),( g ), 2-402 ( a ) ( 3 ), 3-503 ( a )( 1 ).
10
15A V . S . A . §§ 3-305 ( 2 ), 4-104 .
11
15A V . S . A . § 3-305 ( 4 ),( 8 ).
12
15A V . S . A . §§ 3-305 ( 6 ), 2-201 ( c ). Note : a petitioner may request a waiver of this requirement . In some counties , judges have accepted letters of reference in lieu of the home study .
13
15A V . S . A . §§ 3-305 ( 7 ), 2-105 . Note : this requirement may be waived for “ good cause shown ” and a summary of the information may be accepted instead .
14
15A V . S . A . § 1-113 .
15
See , e . g ., V . L . v . E . L ., 86 U . S . L . W . 3491 ( 2016 ) ( per curiam )( requiring Alabama courts to give full faith and credit to second parent adoption granted to lesbian couple in Georgia ); Finstuen v . Crutcher , 496 F . 3d 1139 , 1151 ( 10th Cir . 2007 ) ( invalidating state constitutional amendment that bars recognition of final adoption orders from other states by same-sex couples because it violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause ); Russel v . Bridgens , 647 N . W . 3d 56 , 58-60 ( Neb . 2002 ) ( noting that courts must give full faith and credit to a Pennsylvania same-sex co-parent adoption unless the challenging party can prove the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction ).
16
15A V . S . A . § 1-104 .
17
See Titchenal v . Dexter , 166 Vt . 373 , 693 A . 2d 682 ( 1997 ) ( denying a child ’ s second parent the ability to assume parental rights or seek parent-child contact because she had not officially adopted her non-biological child ).
18
In a recent case , a petitioner was told by the judge that the Court was disinclined to grant her second parent adoption because the couple was not married . After reviewing case law , the judge granted the adoption ; however , concerns regarding the discretionary nature of these adoptions remain .
WANTED : LEGAL FICTION
Fancy yourself a fiction writer ? The next Grisham ? The Vermont Bar Journal is not just for scholarly legal dissertations ! Call it a fiction contest or an active solicitation for your works of fiction , either way , if we love it , we may print it ! Submit your brief works of legal fiction ( 6,000 words or less ) to jeb @ vtbar . org . Our next deadline is March 1 , 2018 .
BOOK REVIEW
Beyond Smart : Lawyering with
Emotional Intelligence Ronda Muir Chicago : American Bar Association ( 2017 ), 478 pp . Reviewed by Joseph Ronan , Esq .
Can Emotional Intelligence Save Lawyering ?
By Joseph Ronan , Esq .
The practice of law in the United States seems to be under siege these days , with massive problems ranging from unhappy clients , overproduction of lawyers burdened with significant debt , unhappiness , depression and substance abuse among practitioners , even to threats of replacement by artificial intelligence ( AI ). A recent comprehensive discussion of the United States legal profession highlights the structural issues facing us , notably the bifurcation of the profession into two camps : highly compensated “ Biglaw ” partners ( whose income increased nearly eight-fold during the period 1967-2007 ) and small firm / solo practitioners ( whose income , in general , flatlined during that same period ). 1
A recent National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being issued a report recommending a variety of remedial actions to improve well-being among lawyers , citing reports on lawyers and law students which disclose , among other things , alarming levels of alcohol abuse , depression , stress , suicide , social alienation , work addiction , sleep deprivation , job dissatisfaction , a “ diversity crisis ,” complaints of work-life conflict , incivility , a narrowing of values so that profit predominates , and negative public perception . 2 Lest we think from the income growth cited above that all is rosy in ” Biglaw ,” the report seems to indicate that “ Biglaw ” associates are even less happy than their non- “ Biglaw ” peers . Also , it is interesting to note that reports indicate that alcohol seems to be the substance of choice
among impaired lawyers , with the rate of alcoholism in the legal profession estimated in the 15 % -24 % range . Further , forty to seventy percent of malpractice claims are associated with substance problems and / or depression . 3
Into this discouraging fray comes Ronda Muir ’ s recent insightful efforts on emotional intelligence ( EI ), set forth in her book Beyond Smart : Lawyering with Emotional Intelligence . Muir is an accomplished lawyer , with experience with a “ White Shoe ” New York City firm as well as serving as co-general counsel of a company based in Paris . Muir has become a legal consultant and runs her own firm ( Law People Management LLC ). She has focused extensively on the EI area , and presents impressive qualifications as to her background in EI theory and practice . Her book is copiously footnoted and written in an engaging manner emphasizing her key takeaways . Muir was also kind enough to do a telephone interview as well as comment directly on a draft of this review ; the interview is attached to this article .
For those who , as I did , view EI as a potentially vacuous concept giving rise to selfhelp seminars and books that overpromise and underdeliver , perhaps a bit of background is in order . The EI concept surfaced in the 1990s , developed initially by two college professors ( one of whom ripened into the President of Yale University ), but popularized by Daniel Goleman , who , at the time , was a science reporter for the New York Times . Goleman ’ s book on the topic , Emotional Intelligence : Why It Can Matter More Than IQ , is now in its 10 th edition 4 and made Goleman , who has now branched out into studying how meditation affects the mind , into a quasi-celebrity . Goleman is now co-director of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations 5 . The fundamental premise of EI advocates is that the EI ability set can be more important than traditional cognitive abilities ( typically viewed through the prism of IQ , which itself has its challenges ) in predicting and determining success . The concept has been bandied about in a variety of overblown ways , including a statement attributed to Chinese Premier Xi Jinping to the effect that EQ ( the EI movement ’ s quantification of EI ability ) is more important than IQ “ to be a good communist leader .” 6
According to Muir ( following Goleman ), EI consists of four seemingly distinct “ critical components :” ( 1 ) emotional perception ; ( 2 ) emotional empathy ; ( 3 ) emotional understanding ; and ( 4 ) emotional regulation ( see Muir , 3 ). But , of course , these concepts are problematically vague and are
34 THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • WINTER 2017 www . vtbar . org