Chuck Newton

Dangerous Law Practice Myths, Lies and Stupidity

I was recently introduced to a wonderful little book entitled Dangerous Law Practice Myths, Lies and Stupidity, which recently hit number one on Amazon in its category.  It is not a long read, and yet it capsulizes in a number of different ways the great misconceptions that especially young and new lawyers have about the practice of law.  Misconceptions that often times prove harmful both in a practice sense and in a financial sense.

A number of authors and attorneys contributed to the book, but it was primarily spearheaded by Judd Kessler of Abacus Law Complete Law Office Software.

If you want to learn more about the book, you can visit it's special website at LawMyths.Com.

I am sure the authors do not want me to give away all of the myths discussed in their book, but I want to give you a few I find important.

The Paper Myth.  Paper based offices are not better.  In fact, they can be a disaster in many way.  Often it is just a mess.  It is error prone.  You need to read why.

The Yellow Pad Myth.  I have got to admit, I no longer have a yellow pad in my office.  It has become a relic the last few years.  The point of the book is that although pen and paper is convenient upfront, you have trouble in this day and age retrieving it.

The Low Fee Myth.  This seems to me to be the biggest myth from new law graduates who contact me.  I think they are so concerned about obtaining business when they start out and, as a result, they actually argue with me about this point.  The writers of this book illustrate that big checks fix big problems, and that is true.  You will never make a living charging less money for more work than a more experienced lawyer has to put in the case.  It is a recipe for disaster if you ask me.  I know because when I started out I lived that disaster.

So, I would recommend you pick up this book and at least scan through it and take the advice of the authors to heart.  It is the myths and misconceptions of what you believe is important in the practice of law that will kill your ability to practice comfortably and profitably.

"The First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All The Lawyers"

We are all too familiar with this line form Shakespeare's King Henry VI, are we not?  But, what is interesting is that Shakespeare did not mean this line as a cut or dig against lawyers, but a dig against commercial life and government.  The point in the play is that the surest way to chaos and tyranny is to remove the guardians of independent thinking -- the lawyers.  Today people use this quote out of context as in doing so would restore some kind of sanity to commercial life, but to Shakespeare it was an attempt to underscore the important role that lawyers, like you and I, play in society.  It was not meant in the sense of a contemplated revolution, that some would like to see.

Yet, despite the gripes and the whining about lawyers in general, in this day and age we do not have to look far as to the excesses in commercial life by the elimination of lawyers.  You severely restrict shareholder litigation and the ability to pursue bad things, and you get Enron, Worldcom and the like.  Today we have the financial world falling apart because of greed and lies and deceptions because we have so greatly reduced the role of law and lawyers in this arena for everyone except the giant commercial outfits themselves.

But, the mantra like a constant drumbeat continues with some, blaming lawyers for all of the ills of this  world.  It is really pitiful.

The newest entry into this area is Life Without Lawyers by Philip K. Howard.  Someone else that cannot seem to read Shakespeare in proper context.

Mr. Howard is also author of the best seller The Death of Common Sense:  How Law is Suffocating America.  You can read them if you wish.

From the book jacket on Life Without Lawyers: "Americans are losing the freedom to make sense of daily choices -- teachers can't maintain order in the classroom, managers are trained to avoid candor, schools ban the game of tag, and companies plaster inane warnings on everything: 'Remove Baby Before Folding Stroller.' ... Today we are flooded with rules and legal threats that prevent us from taking responsibility and using our common sense."

Of course there are those that try to scare us with high exaggeration.  We like to believe are school systems have failed, but we all like our teachers.  The truth of the matter is that teachers by and large maintain order in their classrooms and this is an insidious remark.  The law by and large attempts to punish managers for lack of candor.  Kids today rarely want to play tag as that is so last century.

Take the laws, whether you agree with them or not, concerning drunk driving and the civil penalties that follow them.  These laws are enforced by lawyers.  As with most laws, these do not discourage people from taking responsibility or using their common sense.  Most of these storm warnings that the law encourages act as just the opposite.  They bolster people to think and employ common sense.

There are lots of conflicts in this world, and the law and lawyers are an effective exercise in how to resolve these many issues in a peaceful and capitalistic way.

There are those in business that want to be the independent arbiters of what is right and wrong.  It falls in along the lines of "who died and made you king".  The problem with this is that these people want to make that decision based upon what makes them the most money.  The health, happiness or morality of of others be damned.  This book appeals to these people.

Sometimes I think we forget that some husbands beat their wives, some companies put some terribly bad thought out equipment on our play grounds, that businesses want to deceive and unduly profit, some doctors make horrific mistakes, some shareholders are taken to the cleaners by management, and not all of us are the best drivers.  Who stands up for these people?  They are victims.  Not Mr. Howard.

If lawyers are guilty of anything it is that they sometimes do over think disclosures to the extent a company warns parents to take babies out of a stroller before folding it up.  That is unnecessary.  But, such disclosures do not impinge on common sense.  People with a good dose of common sense already know such things, affirm their thinking and move on in light of such warnings.  Otherwise it is nothing more than fodder for late night comedians.

What I think evades common sense are books such as these.  Does suggesting that we need a world without lawyers even suggest good sense?  I do not think so.