Tag: lawyers

Categories
The Practice of Law

On the Outside Looking In

Woman staring into window.
Photo by Leonardo Cardozo Galves at Pexels.

Susan and Bob are unhappy spouses who own and operate a business. Sue enacts some resolutions to remove her husband as a director and officer of the corporation. Then she goes to the office before business hours, changes the locks, tells Bob that he is fired, and hires a security guard.

Bob shows up for work and is refused entry. He calls the police. The cops come and tell him that they are just there to keep the peace, which they will do by preserving the status quo.  Since Sue is on the inside, she gets to stay there. As Bob is on the outside, he has to stay there.  

read more about possession being 9/10 of the law “On the Outside Looking In”
Categories
Mental Health and Work/Life Balance

Slow Death by Normal Crazy

Marathon runners at the finish line.
Photo by Photo by RUN 4 FFWPU at Pexels.

There is currently a great deal of talk about mental health issues in the legal profession. It remains to be seen whether the profession will finally take mental health seriously, or whether the topic is simply the ‘flavour of the month’ and useful material for recruiting and marketing. 

read more about the real mental health issue in the legal profession “Slow Death by Normal Crazy”
Categories
Law Firm Management

Loose Lips and Sinking Ships

A foundering ship at sunset.
Photo by Alex Fawzy at Pexels.

Law firm partnerships like to project the image of a cohesive unit.  One strategy that they employ is to insist that although Partners may disagree with each other in a Partners’ meeting, once they leave the room, they all must support the group’s decision.

Another is to require that Partners act as though they like each other, especially when they don’t.

read more about law firm partnerships “Loose Lips and Sinking Ships”
Categories
Law Students and Young Lawyers

Reporting to the Lawyer From Hell

Komodo Dragon
Photo by Maureen T. McKay

So imagine that you are a newbie lawyer working for a firm.  When looking for your first job, nobody told you that the most important consideration was to work for a competent person of good character, so you chose your job based on other factors which seemed important at the time, like prestige or money. 

read more about reporting to the lawyer from hell “Reporting to the Lawyer From Hell”
Categories
Law Students and Young Lawyers

Some Stuff Matters. Some Not So Much.

Woman holding a small balance with two different items on it.
Photo by JJ Jordan at Pexels.

This is for the young folks looking for jobs in private practice early in their careers. Here is what matters and what does not matter so much. Ignore this at your own peril (and I am sure that a great many of you will both ignore it and eventually be in peril.)

read more about what matters and what doesn’t. “Some Stuff Matters. Some Not So Much.”
Categories
Law Students and Young Lawyers

Alone Again, Naturally

A person sitting in the stern of a small boat facing away from the camera with mountains ahead of them.
Photo by Alex Azabache at Pexels.

I speak to many lawyers who strike out on their own soon after being called to the Bar. They have various reasons for doing this. Some cannot obtain positions at established firms. Others get positions that come with no mentoring and abominable working conditions and decide that they would be better off on their own. And then there are those who are entrepreneurial by nature, distrusting of established law firms (often for good reason) and eager to build something for themselves.

READ MORE ABOUT NEWCOMERS GOING SOLO “Alone Again, Naturally”
Categories
Law Students and Young Lawyers

Advice From The Uninformed

U.S. recruiting poster saying "I want you for the U.S. Army."
Photo by Inguaribile Viaggiatore at Pexels.

Let’s say that you get arrested and are in deep doo-doo. Would you rather ask for advice from an experienced criminal lawyer or a recent graduate?  The answer sounds obvious, doesn’t it?

And yet, when I was practicing law, I would often see articling students and junior lawyers ask for help from other junior people rather than reaching out to more senior lawyers. Sometimes the more senior people were not approachable or were downright intimidating, but more often than not, the students or junior lawyers were just shy or insecure about approaching them.

read more about lying to recruiters “Advice From The Uninformed”
Categories
Mental Health and Work/Life Balance

Of Boomers and Beemers

Hood of a BMW.
Photo by megapixelstock at Pexels.

“It just doesn’t matter.” 

Bill Murray in Meatballs

I am a Boomer who never owned a Beemer. The best that I ever did was a Honda Accord and I had to make my way through a Chevy Citation, Dodge Aries, and a couple of Pontiacs to get that far.

I had a few partners who owned Beemers.  They all said that they bought them because they liked how they drove, but we all knew the truth.  What they really liked was how they looked in them.  Successful and well-off.

read more about why lawyers really drive beemers “Of Boomers and Beemers”
Categories
Law Firm Management

The Year Was 1995

Pregnant woman, man, and two children.
Photo by Luana Freitas at Pexels.

One of the many nice things about being retired is that I feel free to write about topics that I would not have had the guts to speak up about back in the day. So, here we go again!

The year was 1995. It was one of my first forays into law firm management. I helped develop our firm’s first ‘maternity leave’ top-up policy and presented it at a partners meeting. We were getting a bit of buy-in, but that ground to a halt when one of our partners said, “let me get this straight. The people who come to work every day are not earning nearly enough (author’s note- we were never earning ‘nearly enough’) and you want us to earn even less so that we can subsidize people who are not coming to work at all?  Seriously?  You are all f**king crazy!” 

read more about parental leaves in law firms “The Year Was 1995”
Categories
Legal Fees

In Defense of the Billable Hour

Woman holding a clock.
Photo by Victoria Rain at Pexels.

The other day I heard a story about a furniture store in Toronto that was known to cater to the wealthy. The owner purchased an unusual item in Vietnam for twenty dollars. He brought it back to his store and promoted it as a one-of-a-kind item from an exotic destination. He sold it to someone with more money than brains for $10,000. The person who told me the story swears that she has fifth-hand knowledge of the incident and that it is absolutely true. Having shopped in that store once, I do not doubt it.

Welcome to the concept of value billing. Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them.

read more about why fixed fees wiill not save the legal world “In Defense of the Billable Hour”