September 11
Like rock and roll, legal work is full of power and passion. It is about people and their stories, even when we represent businesses, as Justice Louis Brandeis powerfully reminded us. We help peple find justice, dignity, truth, riches or maybe just a little relief.
Do you agree that your work is full of power and passion?
The above quoteand the accompanying question is one of the thought provoking topics from the teaching DVD, Lawyers Rock, based on the scholarship of Rusell Pearce and discussed further in this post at Legal Ethics Forum. And it seemed fitting to post on September 11, a day that reminded us of terrible perils of, but also the transformative possibility of power and passion.
Absolutely. It’s tough to be successful if you don’t have passion for what you do. There will always be someone else who is smarter, better looking (we all know it makes a difference) better connected or just more naturally gifted at whatever we each do.
But when you have a passion for what you do, it drives you through the obstacles that will inevitably appear along the way. Passion is also communicable with no need for words, to prospective clients and potential referral sources, and even to opposing counsel and judges – I’ve achieved more than one favorable outcome for a client because the other people in the room could just tell that I was never going to give-up! Passion has also motivated me to learn things that have given me the edge – like the latest industry reports so I understand my legal client’s business as well as they do and can forumlate holistic plans and pick-up on subtle details in discovery, of which opposing counsel is unaware.
Sometimes the passion is for the client, other times it’s for the work, and still other lawyers I’ve seen become very successful with only a passion for the business. Either way, in my experiencce it’s the passion a lawyer brings to his/her work that often, is the best predictor whether and how successful that lawyer will be as a practitioner, Rainmaker, and/or business-owner. Passion drives us to acquire skills to make-up for not being as smart, good-looking or connected as the next guy/gal.
a GREAT book on the subject for anyone who wants to get a better understanding of the mechanics of how passion works and some easy exercises that I’ve found very helpful to identify the elements of my own passions, is Cynthia Kersey’s UnStoppable. From the website it may seem as if the book is mostly for women. It is not. Also, for anyone who hasn’t been to it yet, Arnie Herz has a great blog that deals with this subject quite often over at LegalSanity.
Respectfully,
RJON ROBINS
Absolutely. It’s tough to be successful if you don’t have passion for what you do. There will always be someone else who is smarter, better looking (we all know it makes a difference) better connected or just more naturally gifted at whatever we each do.
But when you have a passion for what you do, it drives you through the obstacles that will inevitably appear along the way. Passion is also communicable with no need for words, to prospective clients and potential referral sources, and even to opposing counsel and judges – I’ve achieved more than one favorable outcome for a client because the other people in the room could just tell that I was never going to give-up! Passion has also motivated me to learn things that have given me the edge – like the latest industry reports so I understand my legal client’s business as well as they do and can forumlate holistic plans and pick-up on subtle details in discovery, of which opposing counsel is unaware.
Sometimes the passion is for the client, other times it’s for the work, and still other lawyers I’ve seen become very successful with only a passion for the business. Either way, in my experiencce it’s the passion a lawyer brings to his/her work that often, is the best predictor whether and how successful that lawyer will be as a practitioner, Rainmaker, and/or business-owner. Passion drives us to acquire skills to make-up for not being as smart, good-looking or connected as the next guy/gal.
a GREAT book on the subject for anyone who wants to get a better understanding of the mechanics of how passion works and some easy exercises that I’ve found very helpful to identify the elements of my own passions, is Cynthia Kersey’s UnStoppable. From the website it may seem as if the book is mostly for women. It is not. Also, for anyone who hasn’t been to it yet, Arnie Herz has a great blog that deals with this subject quite often over at LegalSanity.
Respectfully,
RJON ROBINS
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