To whom much is given, much is required.
Several years ago, my firm held a departure party for me as I transitioned from the full-time practice of law to full-time blogger and legal tech commenter. One of my peers, who I had practiced with for most of my career, walked up to me and said, “I sure wish I could do what you are doing.” I had known this guy most of my career and knew he had the resources to do something else and had expressed the desire to do so several times. So I said, Dave, there’s nothing stopping you from doing the same thing. He replied, I just can’t. Being a lawyer is not what I do, its who I am.
This same issue arose recently in a discussion on the Ari Kaplan daily lunch. (Ari has held the lunch every day since Covid hit and has introduced hundreds of people to one another and stimulated many, many robust conversations). Several of us wondered why is it that lawyers—particularly older lawyers–have such a problem deciding to do something other than practicing law full-time.
Like my friend, it’s not that most of these lawyers can’t do something else. It’s that they won’t. In fact, it is such a problem that there are consultants who help enable hard conversations with older lawyers when their continued practice becomes a real burden to the firm, as I have written before.
We Are Special
As 2024 winds down, I was thinking about this phenomenon and what it means for the profession and the clients lawyers serve. From the day we set foot in law school, we are told we are unique. We are special. We have to go three extra years to school for one thing. We have to pass a special exam after we