Some forty years ago, I knew a young lawyer in her third year of practice. My acquaintance had just given birth to her first child. She took what was then considered to be a lengthy maternity leave of 6 months (3 months being standard) before returning to work at a mid-sized downtown Toronto law firm, where she was the only female associate in her department and one of only three female lawyers in the firm. Having taken such a long maternity leave, the firm looked at her as a slacker.
Quite a few years ago, I really ticked off a lawyer at one of the major firms.
It was the early 1990’s, someone had called a recession, and everyone had shown up. This big firm lawyer was acting for a bank trying to put the squeeze on a delinquent debtor. My client was the delinquent debtor. The bank had screwed up. They had given him 30 days notice to repay his operating line and bounced cheques that were within the credit limit the very same day that the notice was given. That is a no-no.
I have two stories to tell. One of them is 40 years old. The other is 4 weeks old. They are remarkably similar and do not reflect well on law firm cultures. Unless, of course, you think that these two stories are atypical. I will leave that to you to decide.
“Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
I used to think too much. About my files. About my billable hours. About marketing. About how to run the firm better. And mostly, about how much in common I had with Cassandra.
I once represented a doctor who wanted to stop being a doctor. He absolutely hated it. He was a nervous type, and he just could not cope with the responsibility of practicing medicine. The stress was killing him. I helped him disentangle from another doctor with whom he had set up a clinic. As far as I know, he never practiced medicine again. I also know another fellow who became a doctor, hated it, and became a paramedic working on ambulances.
One of the best compliments that I ever received when I was practicing law was that I had the ability to ‘see around corners,’ meaning that I was often able to predict where problems were going to arise out of a proposed course of action. That comes with general knowledge, thoughtfulness, experience, and a healthy (or unhealthy?) dose of paranoia.
Speaking of paranoia, some years ago I underwent one of those psychological assessments, where you answer a whole bunch of questions, and the computer tells you whether or not you are crazy (something that your loved ones can do without the testing.)
I used to be the type of lawyer who woke up early and headed into the office. On my commute, my head would be full of ideas about my files, firm management, and marketing. I would call and leave messages for my staff and associates or call clients and referral sources to say hello and stay ‘top of mind.’ My commute was part of my workday, and I tried to make it as productive as possible. When the calls were about files, I would be sure to remember to docket the time when I got back to the office. I would do the same on the way home and put my dockets in remotely when I arrived.
In my early years of practice, I received a phone call from a friend who practiced union side labour law. He had a question about Civil Law and having recently graduated from McGill with a Civil Law degree in addition to my Common Law Degree, I was able to answer his question. He appreciated my help. Or so he said.
Eleanor practiced family law. She was pretty smart, and she knew all of the technical stuff cold. What Eleanor was not that good at was the part about dealing with clients. Especially vulnerable clients. Such as people going through a separation or a divorce.
Patricia was a good lawyer. She knew her law. She worked hard. She produced billings. She brought in clients.
We all have character flaws. Even me. However, Patricia had more than most of us. She was uber competitive. She liked to win. She hated to lose. Patricia and others saw these attributes as positives. If she had been able to keep them under control, they might indeed have been assets. She was not, so they were not.