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May 11, 2009
Simple Priorities: Clients First, Lawyers Second.
We work hard, play hard, enjoy life to its fullest. We just don't do so at the expense of the people who put their trust in us. The Slackoisie can't comprehend this as being possible; pleasure is on their terms or can't possibly exist.
--SHG, May 11, 2009
Work-Life. Life-Work. Work as Optional. Lawyer Training as Watered-Down. Work as a Privilege. Work as Important. Clients as The Touchstone? Or is it: Law Firms and their Employees as the Main Event? Stylize Mediocrity? Well, why not? Just make mailing-it-in part of the new U.S. lawyer culture in the middle of a recession. Lawyers might really like it.
That's the New Program, isn't it?
Well, WAC? is very confused. Before we (1) lose our bearings, (2) get a life, or (3) blow a jurisdictional deadline today because it was inconvenient for us to meet it, we will certainly reread Scott Greenfield's radical pro-client (weird, eh?) opus at Simple Justice in "The Slackoisie Fight Back".
Last week in Chicago, Greenfield attended the heavily GC-attended SuperConference by InsideCounsel magazine--spearheaded by Summit Media's hard-working and artful Sheila Brennan. There, at the staid Chicago Fairmont, Greenfield apparently just lost it, and blew, as it were, a tube. He was, and still is, messing up the "Work-Life Balance Movement" for a lot of people. And in particular he is putting the hurt on those who, ironically, are most passionate about Work when they argue for the right not to do it. Can Greenfield be stopped? At least muzzled? Some people. Get the net.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at May 11, 2009 12:00 AM
Comments
I don't get this tension between doing your job and enjoying your life. Geez!, if you don't enjoy practicing law, find another line of work. Life's too short to spend 2,000 hours a year doing something you don't enjoy.
When people thank me for doing my job, I often reply, "I live to serve." The usual response is a chuckle. But I really mean it--serving others is a lawyer's job. Any lawyer who doesn't understand that needs to find another line of work. Anyone who thinks he or she is too good to serve others needs to read John 13:1-15.
Posted by: Ray Ward at May 11, 2009 09:31 PM
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