Tag: attorneys

Categories
The Practice of Law

The Games That Lawyers Play

Arial view of a county fair.

When negotiating an agreement, clients are often happy to hear that the other side’s lawyer is going to do the drafting.  They assume that their lawyer will spend less time reviewing an agreement than he or she would have spent drafting the agreement in the first place, and that allowing the other side’s lawyer to draft the agreement will be cheaper for them.  Lawyers who are overwhelmed with work, or who are inexperienced, or who are lazy, or who are just not that bright, will readily agree with this approach.

read more about why good lawyers want to do the drafting “The Games That Lawyers Play”
Categories
The Practice of Law

The Sharp Employ The Sharp

A pig lying in the mud.

“The sharp employ the sharp; verily, a man may be known by his attorney.”

Douglas William Jerrold

Criminal lawyers are often required to represent those among us who are morally and ethically challenged.  Their role as guardians of the rights of all of us is crucial to our democracy and their choice of clients does not usually reflect negatively on their character.

read more about protecting your reputation “The Sharp Employ The Sharp”
Categories
The Practice of Law

Is Your Lawyer Any Good?

Sign says: Hunters Please Use Caution When Hunting Pedestrians Using Walk Trails, suggesting poor drafting skills

It is a poorly kept secret in the legal profession that some lawyers are much better than other lawyers.   Marketing would have you believe that the lawyers at large firms are better than lawyers at smaller firms, which is sometimes true and sometimes not true, and belies the fact that incompetence can hide in a crowd.  Pity the poor clients who have to try to figure out how to choose the best lawyer to represent them based on who has the biggest marketing budget and the best marketing consultant.

read more about finding a good lawyer “Is Your Lawyer Any Good?”
Categories
Law Students and Young Lawyers

Lessons from my Loony Early Days of Practice

Two Loons swimming on a lake.

When I started practicing business law immediately after being called to the Bar, I had just been rejected for hire-back with the firm where I had done my articles.  I was told that the reason that I was not hired back was that I had not shown sufficient self-confidence.  Compounding my insecurity was the fact that I was younger than most first year lawyers, having entered law school after just one year of university.  Worse still, I had no prior business experience.

read more about surviving the early days of practice “Lessons from my Loony Early Days of Practice”
Categories
The Mentality and Attitudes of Lawyers

What, Me Worry?

View from a cable car looking down a mountain suggesting fear.

In my first four years of practicing law, I learned how to be a lawyer through the “sink or swim” approach.  I did this by working 12 hours a day and 6 ½ days a week, without supervision, mentoring or training.  I was also worrying 24 days a day, 7 days a week, and waking up screaming at night. I do not recommend this approach to learning the practice of law.

read more about stress in the legal profession “What, Me Worry?”
Categories
Legal Ethics

Ethics Matter, But Don’t Be Naive About It

The author standing on a train track suggesting the danger of walking the ethical line.

In my first year of practice, a client asked me to advise him concerning his plan to build a sign for his restaurant.  The sign was to sit at sidewalk level and would be 6 feet high and 20 feet long with flashing neon lights.  It did not take long for me to determine that the sign would contravene the city’s by-laws and to tell him not to do it.

The client was furious with me.  He angrily explained to me that it was not my job to give him business advice.  In his mind, my role as the lawyer was simply to tell him what the law said and what the penalties were for breaking the law.  It was his job to make the determination whether it was a good business decision to break the law.  

That was my introduction to business ethics and how the practice of law fits in.

read more about determining where the ethical line is “Ethics Matter, But Don’t Be Naive About It”
Categories
Law Firm Management

How I Was ‘WIP’D Into a K Car

An old car on a city street with plants and flowers growing from the trunk and the passenger cmpartment.

Warning:  The article below contains 30 seconds of material about accounting.  Please power through and do not tune out.

read more about how bad accounting resulted in me owning an embarrassing car “How I Was ‘WIP’D Into a K Car”
Categories
The Practice of Law

What’s Law Got To Do With It?

Court House in Ecuador

There is an old saying that a jury consists of twelve people who are selected to determine who has the better lawyer. Whatever the truth of that saying, there is no doubt that the people who prevail in legal disputes are not necessarily the people who are legally “right”.

read more about what really matters in a legal dispute “What’s Law Got To Do With It?”