You start at the firm.
And you gripe: “I can’t believe it! I left a brief on the partner’s desk. The partner circled a couple of typo’s in red and returned the thing to me! The partner said, ‘This isn’t up to our quality of work.’ What a jerk! They’re just typo’s; I would have fixed them before the brief went out the door. I can’t believe I have to work with these people.”
You stay at the firm.
And you gripe: “I worked all weekend. I left the brief on the partner’s desk bright and early Monday morning. The partner didn’t even look at the thing before getting on a plane and leaving for three days. Why did I have to ruin my weekend if the partner wasn’t going to review the draft until Thursday? I can’t believe I have to work with these people.”
You stay at the firm.
And you gripe: “The junior lawyers at this firm are terrible! I got handed a draft brief that was barely literate. Now I’m here at midnight rewriting the damn thing so that we can send it to the client tomorrow. Why can’t we hire anyone who’s worth a damn? I can’t believe I have to work with these people.”
You stay at the firm.
And you gripe: “I can’t believe I’m working all night. I just needed to add one more associate to the case and we would have been staffed intelligently. But the client said no, so I’m forced to do all the grunt work myself. Ridiculous! I can’t believe I have to work with these people.”
You stay at the firm.
And you gripe: “I’d been pursuing BigCo for three years. I finally landed BigCo as a client! I expected everyone to congratulate me. Instead, Jarndyce came out of the woodwork, said that he’d had a cup of coffee with BigCo’s CEO last year, and stole the origination credit! This is ridiculous. Even when you do exactly what you’re supposed to, you don’t get credit. I can’t believe I have to work with these people.”
Which suggests a few things.
First, lawyers are exceptionally good at griping. Lawyers are fierce and independent and cynical, and that means they always find fault with life.
Second, your gripes will evolve over time. Just when you think that you’re an associate and things couldn’t get any worse, you become a junior partner, and things get worse. Just when you think life couldn’t be worse than your fate as a junior partner, you become a senior partner, and things get worse. The stresses are different, but they never vanish. Don’t think that you’re special because you have something to complain about. Everyone has things to complain about; the complaints just change with the years.
Third, this is the rule: Law firms aren’t perfect. They never have been; they never will be.
This is the corollary: No place is perfect. Deal with it.
Finally: Ultimately, you’ve lived a professional life that has been intellectually challenging. There’s been a lot of variety. There have been moments of triumph and moments of despair. You’ve met a cast of characters that has been fascinating. You’ve been able to buy everything that you needed and damn near everything that you wanted. You put your kids through college, and you paid the mortgage.
If you’re playing the game correctly, work fuels your life, but it isn’t your life.
Tolerate your employment, or change it. But don’t come here looking for sympathy. Gripe only if it makes you feel better.
Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Inside Straight: Advice About Lawyering, In-House And Out, That Only The Internet Could Provide(affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.