My friends Jim and Sheila love dogs. They used to share their residence with a rescue dog named Henry. Dragons live forever, but not so little dogs. So when Henry got sick and his demise was imminent, Jim built a coffin for Henry so that it would be ready when needed to carry Henry to his final resting place in the woods.
While Jim was building his coffin, Henry would see him working on it. After it was finished, Henry could see the coffin, just sitting there and waiting for him.
Poor Henry had to deal with the stress of contemplating his own demise every time that he walked pass Jim’s workshop.
Those of you who have been reading my musings for a while know that I always find a way to tie my stories back to the legal profession. I was thinking that this time the metaphor was so obvious that I could just leave it to the reader to make the necessary connection. But, just in case, like me, you made it into the legal profession because you were the hot kid from the slow class and have been sailing through on looks instead of brains ever since, I will explain.
There is often at least one Associates in a law firm who has a pretty good idea that their days are numbered and that they will eventually be granted a divorce from the family that their firm pretends to be. Like Henry, they have to see their metaphorical coffin being constructed at work every day. It might be in the form of complaints that their hours are down, by observing that the good files are going to others, the fact that their supervisor is no longer bothering to take the time to mentor them, or that they are being given only repetitive tasks to do. Whatever the reason, lawyers can often smell that things are going bad.
I spoke to one young lawyer recently who I will call Rose. Rose could see all of the signs that things were not working out at her firm, but human nature being what it is, she did not want to accept them. She was afraid to deal directly with management about her fears, because, just in case she was wrong, she did not want to put any ideas in their mind. And she was working phenomenally long hours, so she found it difficult to get organized to look for another job. So like Henry, she just kept trucking along, being nervous about her predicament, until she was fired.
When things are going south, young lawyers might be well advised to tackle problems head on or to get out early and on their own terms.
This article was originally published by Law360 Canada, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.