Keeping your love of law alive.

By Caroline Nevin

Spring is truly sprung, and we’re entering a quieter period in the legal calendar. It’s a good time to look at where we might refresh what we’re doing, and revisit ideas about how we’d like things to look a little different in our lives by the time things get back up to speed in the fall.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking to lawyers about the challenges they face in daily practice, and some of the discrepancies they see between their ideals of life in law (“making a difference”) and the more mundane realities of their current practices. There are a limited number of legal positions in social justice or other helping agencies, and even fewer that pay well. The trick for most lawyers, then, is to make changes within their current environment.

First, I want to recommend some excellent resources that you have on hand should you be seriously unhappy where you are. The Lawyers Assistance Program (LAP) offers several workshops about examining alternate career options. PPC Canada (formerly Interlock) has great counselling available. Finally, the CBABC‘s legal recruitment supplier, The Counsel Network, will talk with you about options at any time.

Second, the straw that often breaks the lawyer-camel’s back is not the sheer volume of work, but the lack of power to set one’s own priorities within that pile of work. Remember the Psych 101 research on monkeys given random shocks? They developed ulcers (and probably psychoses) from never knowing from one moment to the next when something bad was going to happen to them. For single and small firm practitioners, this is a personal time and client management issue. For larger firms and departments, while you’ve hired the best and the brightest to work with you, have you considered whether there is a more collaborative and engaged way of setting workload priorities (including the opportunity for some work of special interest to the lawyer)?

Third, is it truly unreasonable to set clearer client expectations regarding access and turnaround? I know there’s a perceived power imbalance, and people tend to put this on the “too hard” pile. But there are ways to mitigate even the most inevitable intrusions, and to at least consider the possibility of reframing the client’s expectations in terms of extra value you can bring to the task with a different timeline. Here is the key question: What is the behaviour you seek from clients to make your law firm/department an attractive place to work, and how will you put this into action? This is a management issue, but it’s also an individual lawyer issue.

Fourth, we come to the critical matter of collegial interaction. This is not a social “nice-to-have;” life in the law is significantly more satisfying when you aren’t feeling isolated. The Law Society has identified mentorship and interaction with others as critical to the development of excellent lawyers (especially with respect to courtroom advocacy skills). Anyone who has been a mentor will tell you that the return is often much greater than the investment – the pleasure of sharing one’s experiences, and learning from another’s perspective on the law, is often a rejuvenating “jolt” that invigorates both parties. So is time spent in CBABC Section meetings; often cited as one of the most enjoyable aspects of life in the CBA, and providing opportunities to learn and talk with other lawyers about areas of law you all care about. Make a “fresh start” this year and commit to getting out of your own office to talk with others about legal and life matters – it is a very important contributor to keeping you intrigued about, satisfied with (and competent in!) the law.

This article was published in the June 2011 issue of BarTalk. © 2011 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.