Jackass, Snob, Lunkhead, Goon, Blockhead, Dult, Jerk, Schmuck, Bonehead, Fool, Dope, Imbecile, Dunce, Idiot, Wiseguy, Twit, Nitwit, Twerp, Numskull, Nincompoop...

Whatever you call them, you know who and what I am talking about.  The overbearing boss.  The confrontational bastard with which you have to work.  The one person that makes it unbelievably unbearable for you to go to work in the morning or have a wonderful day.

These are the people that make you feel demoralized.  They give you a sense you have developed into an ass-kisser, chump, flunky, brownoser, bootlicker, a lickspittle, groveler, a lackey, a toady...

I bet you ten to one that it is a lawyer or partner or firm manager of the former caliber that causes a great many of us to contemplate leaving the traditional firm, moving home and starting over in the first place.

I hear the stories every day.

And, what a good decision moving home or into a solo practice you made or can make.

Life is just too short to go about your career putting up with these nasty individuals.

I bet we can all name some opposing counsel and judge that is like this as well.  Just think what their staff, partners or associates think of them and that with which they must tolerate.

When I first starting practicing law there was a state court judge who took it upon himself to make my life miserable.  Every Monday morning going to Court, it could be counted on that I would be called into his chambers and cussed out.  I don't mean just being yelled at either.  I think it was just his way of initiating new young lawyers.  He was a bully.  At the end of every yell fest I would hear him tell me to "Now, get f@#% and hit the door" while he pointed to the door to his private office.  The old coot finally left the bench, joined a company as in-house counsel, and I had an opportunity to sue him.  I won.  He lost.  I felt very good.

There was a federal judge, who was not as bad as the state court judge discussed above, who was just extraordinarily hard to get along with during trials and hearings.  I loved it when at a social gathering his own wife told my law partner at the time that the judge was just the nicest man in the World off the bench.  However, she could not stand to go into the courtroom because when was on the bench he tended to turn into a "real prick".  (You see, your family knows).

Besides, there is an old joke about judges.  It concerns a group of East Texas boys who went to South Texas each year to go bird hunting.  They always rented their dogs when they got to South Texas.  This one good 'ol boy in the group always reserved and rented a dog called "Old Lawyer".  He loved that dog.  One year the group went down and the good 'ol boy asked for Old Lawyer.  The kennel operator said, "You don't want that dog.  He's useless."  The good 'ol boy said "That can't be.  He is the best hunting dog I have every worked with.  He's patient.  He fetches.  He does what he is commanded to do.  He does not damage the prey."  The kennel operator said, "Yeah, he use to be that way, but then a group of lawyers came down and started calling the dog 'Judge'.  He has not been the same since.  Now he just sits around barking at the other dogs all day."

So yes, I know that some judges and opposing counsel are this way, but the difference is you do not have to work for them.  You do not have to put up with them every single day of your life.  You do not have to get up every single morning with a knot in your stomach worrying about work.  You do not have to lose sleep every night wondering what work is going to be like the next morning.

There was a TV commercial.  I do not remember the product it use to promote.  But it involved a young man looking into the camera and saying, "My boss was a jerk.  It turned out that his boss was a jerk."  So, the guy left and went into business for himself.  At which point I would most often mouth, "And, now I am my own jerk".

Let me say this, I like being my own jerk.  How about you?