My days are spent with lawyers.  We are fortunate to have a growing and healthy practice and the lawyers I work with everyday are (for the most part and on most days) a true joy.  From the zealous and energetic “newbie” attorney to the wise and experienced (not old) counselor, I am happy to have been in this place for the last 7 years.  The facts of the cases are never boring.  The clients’ problems are always challenging.  But it is the people I work with every day that make all the difference.

But my legal practice did not start out that way.  Like many who are experiencing the tumult of today’s legal market, my entrance into the profession in the middle 1990s was far from financially robust and vocationally satisfying.  Mine was a small firm life and I bounced around between three different firms.  At one brief moment I was the lone associate for six partners.  Later I was alone with one partner who also was a fast food franchisee.  Bouncing between litigator and burger mogul, the law for me was indeed a wicked and elusive mistress.  Most days it felt like she humored and cajoled me as she would an annoying little brother.

Then, I was let go and for almost six months of great uncertainty for me, my wife and my two little boys, I searched for a new job.  I had a temporary job helping people sign mortgage refinancing documents (make sure you are a notary, it’s a good certificate to have when the bar card won’t work).  I wrote a few wills and estate planning documents for friends that knew we needed to eat.  I had countless interviews and had countless rejection letters that I three-hole punched and filed away in my “unemployment” binder.

Finally, I had an offer and a job.  With two years of lawyer and burger-ing as my experience, I was still so green.  But I was also eager to be back at work.  This job opened up a new area, a new client base and allowed me to learn and practice something that I knew I could love.  Unfortunately, the office atmosphere was abysmal and my new boss had a silent and years-long partnership with the Lord of the Legal Underworld.  Misery ensued (I’ll save those special memories for other Musings).

But misery truly does love company and in those two years of working for the spawn of Satan (Oh how I wished it simply could have been “the man”), I fell in love with my practice area and got to work with some great lawyers and more importantly, some great people.

In those years of floundering and catching fiery fallout, I learned a few things.  The legal skills and legal knowledge I gleaned are important and my bread and butter these days.  But what you really need to learn about the law and your love of the profession has nothing to do with writing skills or oral advocacy, but the quality of relationships you have with others.  I have said many times before that the most mundane and repetitive legal work is palatable when you work with people you like.   So, in these challenging and uncertain times for many lawyers, here are a few key pieces of advice as you search for that place to land.  From BIG firms to a government assignment, from small firm life to an in-house gig, I hope some of this helps you as it has helped me.

1.   Be Patient -  Law school took you three, long years.  Finding a place, a people and a practice that you love may take just as long, if not longer.

2.   Be Flexible - The law is always stretching us but dealing with people stretches us more.  The most miserable lawyers I know are not willing to adapt and change.  They are opposed to new methods, new faces and new ideas.  They not only are reluctant to compromise cases but they are recalcitrant about their lives, their relationships and in how they treat people.  You also never know when you might have to be a mobile notary for three months just to feed your family.

3.   Be Reliable – I’m a preacher’s kid and my Dad always used to talk about his favorite parishioners as the ones who were FAT – faithful, available and teachable.  That’s what being reliable is all about.  Don’t try to know the most, write the best or argue the hardest right out of the gate.  Over the long haul in this vocation, it’s your reliability that will be invaluable to the firm.   You’re smart and you can learn the law.  You have skills and they will get better with practice.  But being reliable when called upon has nothing to do with brains and everything to do with character.  As an employer of 10 lawyers and almost 50 support staff, I’ll take the FAT employee over the brilliant legal mind every day of the week.

4.   Be a Friend (not just a referral source) – It’s trite and rather elementary, but building relationships with other lawyers always pays off over time.  Burned bridges, hurt feelings and unfriendly adversarial situations only hurt you, the other lawyer and on occasion, they can hurt our clients.  Our attorney hubris and want to win hurts our relationships and make us less effective in the office, in a case and in life.   And be a friend to the other professionals and staff you work with – your paralegal, your assistant, the expert witness, the process server.  For when you find yourself lost and alone on that career path leading you nowhere, these friendships and connections are invaluable.  My friends have names and all were so helpful along the way – Maura.   John.  Theresa.  Bobbie.  Steve.  Mike.  Nils.  Adam.  Bill.  Jim.   My wife.  Be a friend and get some friends and your legal career will be fuller and richer for it.

Your legal Shangri-La may seem out of reach, but it needn’t be that fantastical and far away.  Just hang in there, let these challenges and the bumps along the road stretch you.  Don’t do it alone and be more concerned with your attitude than your aptitude.  Now, get back to work.

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