Time, Toil, and Talent

Here is where the courts have it right, or at least the federal courts.  They must award fees based upon the time, toil and talent an attorney brings to the case.  The first is the time you reasonably put into the case.  The later helps determine your hourly rate by which the court multiples the hours.  The middle, toil, is really the modifier for both on either side of the equation.  The court does so because it is the most fair and equitable means of awarding consistent fees and, at the same time, allow some objectivity.

From your perspective, as the attorney, this is what you want to sell.  You want to sell your time, toil and talent to your potential clients.  You want to do so because this is selling you.  It is also the thing that most separates you and makes you more appealing in comparison to your colleagues.

If you do not sale you time, toil and talent, then the alternative is to sell what?  Your practice area?  The work you perform?  Well, maybe that is what drives a potential client to seek legal representation, but it is not what makes then select an attorney.  And, if it is what exclusively drives them to decide on an attorney, believe me when I say you do not want them as a client.  (The exception, of course, concerns pro bono work).

The sad truth of the matter is that if you represent clients in divorces, and you sell divorces, then you are selling a commodity much like Corn Flakes.  You are not selling yourself or the benefit you bring, no matter how abstract, to the matter.  You are simply selling Corn Flakes, or divorces, or real estate closings, or bankruptcies, or whatever area in which you practice.

In this Wal-Mart age you do not want to sell non-unique commodities. Sure, you can say my divorces are better because, blah, blah, blah, but that is teetering on selling your time, toil and talent.  So, go the extra mile and just sell what you bring to the table.

If you are just selling a commodity, then what is stopping the consumer from just going down the street to buy the Corn Flakes or divorces or whatever from someone who will provide it cheaper?

The answer, of course, is nothing.  And, if buying a commodity is the potential client's objective, that is what they are going to do.

Widgets in and widgets out might mean steady work, but there is no attorney that sometimes in his or her career has not found they have more than enough work, but are not making more than enough money. Commodity selling is part of the problem that most of us learn the hard way needs to be avoided.

The bottom line is be somebody!  Do not be your product or your practice area.

Comments

[Mark Bennett]

Excellent post, Chuck.

From my perspexctive, if it's commodifiable it's not lawyering.