Law, Society & Culture

• One of the main things about the law that people don't understand is that it's a business.
• Some attorneys are also unaware that their legal practices are businesses.
• Learn why, in order to succeed, you must approach your legal career like a business.

What I'm about to say may seem counterintuitive to many people who view the legal profession as a profession. Practicing law is a career. Despite the term "profession," it is still possible to be fired, to not advance, or to end up in a job that is a dead end. Your skills or specialty can quickly become irrelevant in the marketplace. You can also find yourself in a geographic location where there is no work (i.e., "business"). READ MORE >

• Many young attorneys can suffer from a conceited belief of themselves.
• They in fact become narcissists.
• While confidence and a demand for respect are much-needed attributes in law, self-congratulatory behavior is not welcomed.
• Such behavior, in fact, can destroy a young attorney’s career.

The word narcissism comes from the character made famous by the Greek poet Ovid, Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection. In the story, Echo falls in love with Narcissus and gets rejected. The story makes clear that Narcissus is only able to love himself and not others. Conversely, Echo completely loses herself in her love for Narcissus and has no sense of self at all. At the end of the story, Narcissus tells Echo, "I would die before I give you power over me." Echo responds, "I give you power over me." Both Narcissus and Echo die because their love is unattainable. Many of us cannot find a balance between ourselves and others. READ MORE >

In the early 1800s, during the Industrial Revolution in England, laws and customs that had been designed to protect workers were first ignored and then abandoned. In 1808, for example, a bill passed that decreased the minimum wage, and the Combination Acts outlawed trade unions. High food prices and decreasing wages during this time also served to require more of each person's wages and make life very difficult for workers. READ MORE >

Attorneys work extremely hard in large law firms to achieve partner status. Even when they do become partners, there remain different lines of authority between partners which make some feel important and others quite insecure. When an associate is dealing with a partner, he or she is dealing with someone who is in a position to feel insecure because there are almost certainly going to be more important partners above him or her. The best thing you can do in the law firm environment is cater to a partner's need to feel important. Conversely, one of the worst things you can do in a law firm environment is do things to make a partner feel insecure. When you make a partner feel insecure, the response of the partner is generally to stop giving you work or lobby for you to be fired or replaced. READ MORE >

''Can you be trusted?''

Beyond any other single question—regardless of how motivated you are, where you went to law school, or your work history—if you slip up on an issue of credibility, you might as well forget about a successful career in the law. Certainly, there are many people who get ahead by playing fast and loose with the rules. I have seen more examples of this over the course of my career than I can count. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, no matter how far untrustworthy people get, they almost always come crashing down. When these crashes occur, they are not normally bumps in the road. Legal careers end. READ MORE >

In every organization, there are people who are positive forces that lead, inspire, and build and others who are negative forces that criticize, depress, and tear down. This dichotomy can be carried further to cover virtually any social group. This distinction is so clear that a cognizable argument could be made that most people can be grouped into one category or another. Which are you? In life, as in work, you will be faced with a decision of which group to join, and your decision will have a meaningful effect on your long-term success. Whether or not your workplace is composed mainly of builders or destroyers will also have a meaningful effect on your organization's overall success. READ MORE >

• Even as some law firms state they do not bill unfairly, other firms may fall short of that ethic.
• From law firm to law firm that ethic may vary.
• How a law firm bills its clients depends upon the law firm’s culture.

The notion that a partner or associate must produce 2,000 or 2,400 hours of billable work yearly virtually assures that some clients will be overbilled. READ MORE >

We regularly read and hear that 'jobs for life' are disappearing, to be replaced by a pattern of consecutive jobs and unpredictable career dislocations. READ MORE >