10 Primary Secrets of Extraordinary Law Careers
Law career development, like personal development, never stops as long as we’re living. We’ve learned that law school teaches us to think like lawyers, a lesson that can’t (and shouldn’t) be undone. Once a lawyer, always a lawyer, even if we take an extended break from active law practice.
Yet, as we gain experience, the primary secrets we learned in the early years expand, become more nuanced, flexible, complex, and rewarding. Just as computer code is a series of ones and zeros but can be manipulated into infinite software applications; the two basic stitches of knitting (knit and purl) combine to create dazzling designs; the simple tenets of baseball (throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball) perfected have enthralled fans for decades; and twenty-six letters of the alphabet transmute through arrangement to grab our imaginations and take us anywhere we want to go.
Reduced to its simplest form, law practice consists of application of law to facts, doesn’t it? But there is so much more to an extraordinary law career.
This post will list what experience has shown us are the 10 Primary Secrets fundamental to law career success. In later posts, we’ll explore each one in depth.
10 Primary Secrets of Extraordinary Law Career Success:
10. Knowledge is power. When Francis Bacon stated “For knowledge itself is power” [Meditationes Sacrae 1597], he didn’t mean that knowing alone is enough. Never in the history of the world has so much information been so easily available to so many as it is today. Yet knowledge alone doesn’t accomplish anything. Knowledge is like the electricity in the power outlet. Until an informed user plugs in using the right equipment, nothing happens. By all legal means, gather knowledge. But knowledge is the first thing, not the only thing you need.
9. Experience is the best teacher. Experience comes from action. Participation in activity makes the lesson stick. The experience can be your own or you can learn from others, but the more you engage all five senses, the more you will absorb and retain.
8. Life is too long for self-sacrifice. When you find yourself resentful and exhausted, overweight, out of shape, unhealthy, financially weak, or unhappy, you are engaged in damaging self-sacrifice. Recognize this situation as early as possible and reverse it before too much damage is done.
7. Eating Elephants takes time. Big projects can become overwhelming unless you handle them in manageable chunks over an appropriate period of time. Practice patience as a means to an end, and do something on the project every day. Eventually, the elephant will be consumed.
6. Everyone is a client. Thriving law practices are built when your practice is combined with your life. Over time, your friends and colleagues advance in the world, just as you will. Clients come from everything you do, everywhere you go, and everyone you know.
5. Clients are kings, not gods. Law is a service business. We need clients to serve. Clients must be nurtured and well represented to grow your practice. But your first allegiance is to the law, not the client. Advancing your client’s interests at the expense of adherence to the law you serve is a sure road to hell, regardless of good intentions.
4. Eating apples requires attention. We shouldn’t eat an apple just to be finished with it, but to enjoy the experience. Nor should we practice law just to get to the end. Ours is a noble calling, work that not everyone is suited to perform. There are many joys to practicing law and our job, in part, is to appreciate them.
3. Don’t No everything. Your skills for risk assessment and avoidance can too easily lead you to “no” instead of “yes” when opportunities come your way. Find a way to say yes instead.
2. Exploit Yourself. Employ yourself to the greatest possible advantage. Every lawyer is unique and has collected a unique constellation of experiences over a lifetime. No one else can be you or do what you do in the way only you can do it.
1. Embrace It. We don’t make the facts, in law or in life. We must accept the facts we’re given and deal with them. “If only things had been done differently in the past,” is not an option. Assume that everything is happening right now for the best possible reason, even if you can’t see the reason at the moment. The more we push against circumstances, the harder they shove back. Embrace the situation and turn your great legal mind to the task of making the best possible outcome from the facts presented. This is the very essence of thinking like a lawyer. And it is perhaps the single greatest attribute of lawyers who enjoy exceptional careers.
