Working at a law firm which serves a
large number of middle-to-low-income families is, at once, both tremendously
fulfilling and profoundly frustrating.
On the one hand, you get to help people who simply couldn’t get legal
help otherwise. On the other hand, you
work with people who have little to no real
understanding of the law, and sometimes it’s harder work to simply explain what you’re doing than to actually do it. Add to this the fact that the overwhelming
majority of these individuals have had some
exposure to the law – but most of it through romanticized or caricatured
versions for television, colloquial anecdotes from family and friends, or,
heaven help me, the Internet. Top it all
off with the uncomfortable circumstance of being in a customer service
situation with someone who has been irrevocably infused with that most of
American of maxims: “The customer is always
right.” (NOTE – this is absolutely false). Lawyers are nothing if not careless with
their criticisms, and just because they haven’t said anything pointed to you doesn’t
mean they don’t want to. So, in
deference to my sisters and brothers in arms, fighting the good fight with a
well-bitten tongue, here are 3 things
your lawyer really wants to say to
you (but won’t):
1. Leave
it to Me. No matter what you think
you know about the law, please shut up and listen
to your lawyer. Coming in to hire me
and then telling me how you think it should be done is like going to your
doctor and giving him the diagnosis you got from WebMD – or even worse, from
one of your friends who had (what they think
is) a similar disease. Just like
doctors, lawyers have been to a lot of
school – and since then, they’ve been practicing
and learning even more law. Lawyers have a great number of reasons to be right when they give you advice, not including just bare professionalism (e.g.
malpractice insurance premiums, avoiding ethical complaints and personal pride)
and treating their advice as suspect ignores all of the existing procedures in place for licensing attorneys in lieu of
your own marginally reliable “gut instinct.”
The only thing you should be using what legal knowledge you do have for is listening carefully. The law you see on television and in movies is just as useful as the medicine you see with it. No one is looking to Grey's Anatomy for a diagnosis - so stop looking to Law & Order for pointers to give us. It’s
not that you don’t know what you’re talking about… nope; no, wait, that’s exactly what it is.
2.
You Are NOT Paying Too Much. After having now worked at both ends of the
pricing spectrum for legal services, I can confidently tell you this: no matter
what you charge for legal
representation, people will think it’s too much. Because we all want to believe that if we, or our kids, study to become lawyers, that it will make us fantastically wealthy – after
all, this is why we accept the insane cost and inflation of law school
tuition. But once we go to hire a lawyer, we’re suddenly looking
for discounts – as though “Lawyer” was just another aisle in our favorite “big
box” retailer rather than a centuries-old institution, as old as the law,
itself. Lawyers, like doctors, give
themselves to a life of service. Just because they (the ones on TV and/or the
real ones) make it look easy doesn’t mean
you could do it if you just had a little time to study up and practice. I once thought this about field goal kicking
– and despite being a pretty solid athlete, holy
crap was I wrong about that. Don’t
take our word for it, go try it out on your own – that way when you finally do come in for help, we know it won’t be
to ask us just to hold the ball for you to kick.
3.
No We Don’t Want To Help For Free. You know what they say, once you’ve got a
lawyer in the family, the whole family’s got a lawyer. Unless they don’t have a family, every lawyer you know gets hit up by their family
members (no matter how far removed) for free
legal advice. Now, don’t get me
wrong, when my dad or my sister (both of whom are responsible for me getting this far, in the first place) needs
help, I’m happy to answer the bell – but it’s never just those folks. Pretty
soon, anyone connected enough to make it into your Facebook or LinkedIn roster
feels confident enough to sly some advice out of you in the guise of a casual
chat. Worst of all, no one seems to
realize that “lawyer” is no more accurate a job title than “doctor” – because
like the medical profession, we specialize,
and just because the Bar Exam covers all of
the law doesn’t mean we do. So, when we say that we don’t know, it’s not
because we don’t want to help you,
it’s because we can’t. And when we refer you to someone else, we’re
not just handing you off to avoid the work – we’re sending you to someone more
qualified that we are to do it (if we can do it at all). And finally, because we will always take a few moments to see if we can quickly help – when
you to get to that point where you’re wondering if you should really be paying for the help you’re getting – yes, you should. Do us both
a favor and offer.
* * *
Becoming a lawyer was a
grand and important moment in my life. I
had never held a position of public trust like it before, and I will likely hold
no greater office in the future. Sure,
being a uniformed service member always afforded me a great measure of respect from others (for which I am
humbled and grateful), but we weren’t trusted
with anything more than the collective safety of the nation – which was important but distant.
We were never the only person standing
between you and your enemy - you were as far off to us as the enemy was to you. Lawyers, on
the other hand, are trusted – with
secrets, with problems, with unimaginable
injustices and impossible situations to help with. We are only strangers to those
who aren’t yet clients – and the line between them is as thin as simply asking for
our help. Lawyer jokes are as ignorantly
anachronistic as corporal punishment for children, opposition to gay marriage
and criminalizing marijuana use – and should be similarly eliminated from
our public consciousness. But nevertheless,
even if the tired old commentaries don’t stop, we’ll still stand quietly by and
wait – for that moment when you realize you need
us, and the only judgment we’ll offer is the one you’re looking for from
the court.
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