[This article was not written by Murray Gottheil. It was written by a law firm associate somewhere in a Commonwealth country who would like to become a partner in a law firm, and so has decided that it would not be a good idea to publish it under his own name.]
My good friend Felicity had a problem. Her relatives were making comments about how she takes care of her elderly father, who I will call Allan. She gave me the example of an aunt who asked, “Why is Allan still driving?” and expressed her opinion that Allan is too old and ill to be driving. She said it in a way that implied it was Felicity’s fault.
I am just back from a two-month cruise, which started with a few days in Santiago, Chile.
You may not know this, but in Chile, when you use a foreign credit card, you have to select an option on the machine to indicate that you are a foreigner. It has something to do with taxes. If I had known that, and/or my Spanish was any good, I would have chosen the correct option, my card would not have registered that I had tried my pin too many times, and I would not have been locked out. But I did not know that, my Spanish is not very good, and so, just like that, on Day 1 of my vacation, I was no longer able to use my TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card, for its intended purpose, being travelling.
I am not one of those people who rail against the Banks. But I do wonder whether they have a department in charge of making things difficult for their customers.
Today I will tell you about CIBC. Next time, it will be TD’s turn.
There have now been several reports in Canadian media about travellers being asked at the border what they think of the U.S. President and being denied entry when they did not express their unqualified approval of Mr. Trump. (Apparently, American citizens returning from abroad have also been asked this question, which is even more shocking.)
When I articled, if lawyers or law students worked past 6 pm, they were welcome to dine at the firm’s expense, as long as they returned to the office to work after dinner.
That sounded like a great deal to a lowly paid student, and I was impressed with how considerate the firm was. Being a slow learner, it took me a while to realize that the firm was trying to encourage lawyers to work late into the evening. It took me even longer to figure out that the lawyers would often work until just after 6 pm, go to dinner until 7:30 pm, and return to the office just long enough to be seen by some partners, and then leave.
I have been railing against the establishment in the legal profession for going on four years already. You would think that by now I would have annoyed at least a few well-established lawyers with deep pockets.
It seems to me that by this time someone would have offered to pay me at least six figures to abandon my principles, put down my metaphorical pen, and shut up.
Here are some of the questions potential clients asked me back when I was practicing law and the answers that I wanted to give them, but never did:
Q. How much will it cost to draft a shareholder’s agreement?
A. If you are shopping for professional services based on price, I really do not want you for a client. I suggest that you find a lawyer who will draft the agreement for you for $750.00 and pray that you never have a dispute with your partner.
A man murders his father and his mother and is prosecuted for both crimes. He is hauled up in front of the judge and pleads guilty. When it comes to sentencing, he begs for mercy because he is an orphan. That is the classic explanation of what constitutes chutzpah.
If you are looking for other examples of chutzpah, you may be able to find them in the legal profession.
I hated partners meetings. Not because I did not like most of my partners. In fact, I quite enjoyed spending time with the majority of them. But there were always one or two…
After many years of contemplating why I disliked partners meetings so much, I developed a theory. Here it is.