This morning someone remarked that much of my writing about the legal profession is a tad negative. She said, “you practiced law for a long time; you were good at what you did; you made enough money to retire and travel the world. Surely you must have liked something about being a lawyer, didn’t you?”
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.
Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.” – H. G. Wells
I can mount a persuasive argument that I had a successful career practicing law.
Although it is unlikely that in a hundred years anyone will be writing about my contributions to the Law, some of my clients likely have fond memories about how I provided sound advice, got them out of a jam, or helped them achieve their goals.
When asked about my complaints about the legal profession, I am forced to admit that back before I escaped the profession and became happy, I did in fact have some good days. Three of them. (Okay, I am kidding about that last bit. There were more good days than that.)
My father told me about a dad who told his son to jump from a roof top, and that he would catch him. The son jumped. The dad stepped aside and let him fall. When the injured boy demanded an explanation, the dad replied, “I have just taught you a valuable lesson. Never trust anyone, not even your own father.”
As you may imagine, I had trust issues growing up, which is a bad thing. As it turns out, having a few trust issues may be helpful in the business world.
Legal clients tend not to know the law, so they cannot judge their lawyer on how well they know their stuff. Instead, they judge them on things that they do understand. Chief among those will be how they communicate.
In the picture that accompanies this post you will see a rather nice-looking boat which is named “On Business.”
I have written about the Golden Rule before, but it is so crucial to the functioning of our legal system that it is worth looking at again.
One of my best clients was a partnership between two men who I will call Ken and Gordon.
Ken was the sales guy. Gordon was the strategic thinker and administrator. The company had offices in several Canadian cities and a few U.S. states. There were a good number of companies and trusts on the corporate chart.
Ken and Gordon owned the main company, which had made money for many years and was valuable. It was financed by bank loans secured by personal guarantees of the owners.
In the 14th century, the philosopher Jean Buridan told a story about a donkey who, equidistant between two piles of hay, starved to death because he could not decide which one to eat.
Abraham Lincoln said, “Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.”
In the many years since, some lawyers have heeded Lincoln’s sage advice, and many have not.