Categories
Law Students and Young Lawyers

Ignorance is not Bliss

One of the most intelligent lawyers who I ever met tells a story about the early days of her marriage as she adapted to the daily routines of domestic life while balancing the pressures of law school. One of the chores which she attended to every week was defrosting her freezer and throwing out the meat that was past its best before date. Yes, from the freezer. Every week. Then, one day, she was chatting with her mother on the phone and lamented the time and money wasted doing this every week. Her mother’s response was one of incredulous laughter. As my friend tells the story, she simply did not know what she did not know.

Categories
The Practice of Law

Sue the Bastards

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.

Categories
Legal Tech

Doing Less, Thinking More

My stepson once explained to me that his career goal was to be paid a great deal of money to sit at a big desk in a private office and think about things. I tried to explain to him that on the path to his dream job he would have to pass obstacles such as shoveling the driveway, taking out the garbage or mowing the lawn. We did not understand each other.

Categories
Legal Ethics

Murray’s Musings About Character

Once upon a time, there was a lawyer whose practice was reliant on one huge client. His junior associate made a mistake on the client’s file. The client demanded that the lawyer fire the associate. The lawyer refused to cast aside a young associate for having made one mistake. The client fired the lawyer. The lawyer lost his practice. The associate lost his job anyway.

Categories
Mental Health and Work/Life Balance

Goodbye Earl – A Legal Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, in a common law jurisdiction not that far away, there was a partner in a law firm who did what all good law firm partners do. He billed a lot. He brought in many clients. He trained the junior lawyers. He supervised the clerks. All in all, he was somewhat of a star. I will call him Earl.

Categories
Mental Health and Work/Life Balance

Going Over to The Light Side of the Force

Since I retired, I have entertained myself by writing about the legal profession, mentoring a few lawyers, and teaching some classes about business law. None of these are particularly remunerative activities.

Now and then someone suggests to me that I should write a novel, or at least compile my articles into a book. And sell it. And try to make some real money. My standard answer is that it sounds like work, and that I have no interest in working.

It is not that earning a few dollars would not come in useful. I long ago learned from my mother that ‘rich or poor, it is good to have money.’ And I am not rich. But nor am I poor. I think that I can get by without working, and I have every intention of finding out if I am right.

Categories
Substantive Legal Content

The End of Days

“Review this agreement and provide me with your comments” is usually the first introduction that young business lawyers are given to the topic of reviewing contracts and the sum total of the training that they receive about how to do it. So off we go and comment on the scourge of typographical errors, the horror of undefined terms, the frightening absence of the word “reasonable,” and of course, unforgivably sloppy cross-references.

Actually, there are a multitude of more important things to think about when you are reviewing contracts. One of them is how long the agreement is going to last, and that actually depends on three things. These are: (i) term; (ii) termination rights; and (iii) renewal rights.

Categories
People I Met Practicing Law

All Flash, No Cash

There was once a law firm with a small corporate department consisting of a law clerk and one senior corporate lawyer who I will call Carl.   The partners of the firm had tired of Carl’s antics so they hired a bright young corporate lawyer who I will call Martin. The idea was that if Martin was any good, they would tell Carl to shape up or ship out.

Categories
Legal Tech

The Button

In my second year of practice, word processing was just becoming a thing.

My firm had fourteen lawyers but no word processor. Fred was the senior partner. I told him that we really needed one of those new-fangled machines.

Categories
Substantive Legal Content

Introducing The Dumbies

Lawyers are avid fans of awards, so much so that they sometimes even pay to get them, which is a topic for another day.

I was thinking (because I have time to do that now that I am retired) that perhaps we should create a new award program which we could call the “Dumbies.”  We can award a prize for the dumbest clauses that lawyers regularly insert into commercial agreements.