Many years ago I found myself away from the city and in some rural part of Iowa talking to a jury when one elderly woman told me there is nothing wrong with this generation that a good depression couldn’t cure. This is a wise old woman. We won that case and that's pretty amazing because that farm wife sat listening to a young lawyer with a heavy Rhode Island accent that dropped r's where they belonged and then added those r's back onto words where they should not have been. I started in this practice more than 30 years ago and to every rural Iowa jury I showed my love of the law practice, common sense and no fear of hard work or insurmountable odds. Back then we didn’t use computers, cell phones and iPods weren’t even being discussed. We used things like paper, pens, typewriters, Dictaphones and recorders. We wore out the leather on the bottom of our shoes investigating cases along with the leather on briefcases. God I’m feeling old. Maybe I shouldn’t be writing this?

For 30 years I’ve worked 6 or 7 days a week in the practice of law. We’ve done well and were smart with what we made so I also have some commercial real estate to attend to. Bottom line is I’m always busy with something to do towards the end of making a decent living. Most days there is too much to do and too many clients to talk to so we turn off the phones so we can get our work done. Yet I’m told there are no jobs for young lawyers, that they can’t find a J-O-B, there is no work for them. When I hear that I have to wonder if this current generation of lawyers has the drive that it takes to be successful as a lawyer.

This past year I’ve worked with two young lawyers that recently graduated from law school, passed the bar and went out on their own. They are heavily in debt and because they can't find a J-O-B they are starting their own firm. I have my doubt about whether either can make it long term in this profession. I’m not sure they can measure up to the demands of solo practice trial work. The law is after all a demanding J-O-B. My law school buddy in Chicago is a good example. He works like I do, we are both driven and hate being poor, losing or being unsuccessful. He drives all over Illinois and eastern Iowa to meet with clients, interview potential clients and market his practice to the unions. He works seven days a week and if he’s lucky only six. He has three active teens and several law partners, but it appears to me his work day has added to it administration of the law firm. The bottom line is even after 30 years we are both extremely busy and always hustling for clients and to get our cases prepared for trial or hearing.

Neither of these newbie lawyers seems willing to do what it takes to be successful. I don’t see either of them willing to take just any case to learn how to put a case together and then to try it. What I see is a continuation of a generation of delaying the serious work of life itself; trust me when I say the practice of law is no place to delay your introduction to the hard work it takes to be successful. My briefcase still travels home with me every night with work in it to do in front of the television or my home computer. As we all were told in law school, “The law is a jealous mistress.”

So what comes first the chicken or the egg? Are you not successful because you don’t have the cases and experience or are you not successful because you’re failing to engage? You can’t be the top gun when you don’t show up to play the game. The law hands out participation trophies to no one.

This group of new lawyers concerns me. Many aren’t finding jobs and going it alone. That should be a concern to many of us because as we know a lawyer needs five years of mentoring before they are ready to try the more significant cases. It concerns me enough that we are going to do something about it. We are finishing up some vacant space and when it’s done I’m going to hold monthly meetings for young lawyers to meet and ask questions, talk about what’s going on in their cases and to meet other lawyers who can support each other. I’ll invite lawyers and judges to speak along with other professions that can teach them about how to successfully run a business. What many lawyers, both young and old fail to understand is that success is all about the six inches in front of your face; you have to take success one inch at a time.

Success for young lawyers isn't packaged in the form of a J-O-B. To be successful in the practice law you have to hate to lose and be willing to put in long hours handling small cases in small claim's court, litigating subrogation, handling landlord-tenant disputes and small fender-benders. If you didn't want to do that work then perhaps a J-O-B is really what you deserve. To be successful there you need only ask, "Can I SuperSize that for you sir?"  

Young lawyers listen, you can’t supersize the practice of law into a bag of fries.

Onward we march. I'll see you tomorrow.