...Fucking Law Firms!!!!
And MY NAME was SECOND on the letterhead of a very large firm.
...My first career was as a CPA, and we had to fill out 'Daytimers' every day. It was a preprinted sheet, with the times of day, and we would fill it out by writing in the clients name, and the time we had spent on an assignment. The Bookkeeper would then use them to prepare the bills. The Partners would review them, and a few times I was called in to explain why I had billed 2 hours on an assignment that should have taken 30 minutes. I would explain that I had never seen the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principals) that applied, and had had to do some reading. He would 'write down' my daytimer, and usually say, "Good, at your level, make sure that what you do is correct, trying to fix something that is wrong is expensive, and it makes the Firm look incompetent." He then winked at me, and said, "If you know that you will be getting an assignment that involves accounting that you haven't seen before, spend some time in our Library, after hours, and weekends, and read, on your own time. We have to be fair to our clients." So, I did so, and even went to the County Law Library late at night, and educated myself.
That is when I decided to become a Lawyer, and spent 4 years going to night Law School, and was the VALEDICTORIAN!!!! I would drag myself to the County Law Library late at night...
...sign the Register at the Sheriffs Office...and use MY OWN KEY to get in. The Sheriffs liked, and trusted me, and loaned me a key to keep on my keychain. I had to turn it in when I changed Law Firms.
...When I joined my first Law Firm, we had to use daytimers. The first few days, I filled them out as I had when I was an Accountant. I got called to the JUNIOR PARTNERS OFFICE, and he told me to sit, and waved my daytimers at me, and demanded, "Do you have any idea what you are doing?" I bristled, and said, "My times reported are correct, I have a clock on my wall, and on my desk...and a wristwatch... and I note when I start an assignment, and when I finish."
...He sneered at me, and said, "Let's see...10 minutes here...20 minutes there...and, and, oh look...you billed A FULL HOUR to this client!" I was getting angry, but was also a little scared, if I got fired for tangling with a Partner, word would get around, and I would never find another job at a reputable firm. I would have had to join a 'back alley' Firm, and spend my days walking back and forth between the Office, the Courtroom, and the Jail...and working out Plea Bargains. (Although that could have been MORE INTERESTING than reading the new IRS Regulations every month...
) He took out clean daytimer sheets, and rewrote my time, handed them to me, and shouted, "THIS IS HOW YOU BILL YOUR TIME!!!" I looked them over, but nodded, and left his office and handed my 'New and CORRECT' daytimers to the bookkeeper. I walked back to my office, my head troubled, I had just billed FOUR DAYS for TWO DAYS WORK!!!!
...I stayed for a few months, I REALLY needed the job, my H had lost his job as a data entry clerk, he kept making a lot of mistakes, so he was back at trying to find work at Bars. I interviewed at three different Firms, and all three offered me jobs. Two were in Business Law/Tax Practice, they were interested in my skills, and, well, despite my r/p, I am a nice, outgoing and calm person. But, I was too run down to accept two of those jobs...I kept thinking that a Partner wouldn't like me, and my career would be over, regardless if the other Partners liked me. I mean, when I left that Firm, several Partners took me to lunch, and said that I was doing very well, but, if the one Partner didn't like me, I would never reach Partnership, so the other Partners decided that it was best to urge me to leave...(One actually said..."We will fire you if you try to stay on, it would be more merciful"...it sunk into me, and so I left...and became a Partner in another Firm)
...I was actually smirking to myself, when that Firm broke up a few months after I left. The JUNIOR PARTNER had broken it up, bragging, "We took the best, and left the rest." He had had to be hauled out of the Courtroom, because he was shouting, hollaring, and yelling so much.
...That Junior Partner had a screw loose, he wanted EVERYONE to suck up to him, even the Senior Partner. He had a 'lap dog' Associate that he favored, and pampered. That Associate couldn't 'Motion himself' out of a toilet stall, the GD JP (Junior Partner) would task me with helping the guy. I would do the work, he would put his name on it, and the JP would brag how much he had found this person, and mentored him to become a formidable Trial Attorney. The 'lap dog' encountered me years later, I filed an Answer to a complaint he had filed, and he called me, and said..."Let's talk settlement, my client likes your client, let's not make them spend a lot of money." I just said, "We made our one, and ONLY offer, and he is ready for a trial...which will be expensive, but he has a LOT of money...and I haven't had a Jury Trial this year, I need to stay in practice."
...The 'lap dog' accepted our offer the next morning.
...Again, there are JP's and 'lap dogs' all over the Law Community. Most are nice people, but are out of their depth. They will talk big, but fold when they get challenged. That JP LOST a lot of cases and Motions, despite how much he bragged. Late at night, I would be in my office, working on a Tax case, and I would hear the JP in the Senior Partners office. The JP would be shouting, and ALMOST SOBBING as he described how he wasn't getting his way in a trial. I was astounded...I mean...he was an adult, and if you want to be a Trial Attorney, well...get ready to be 'F----d'. The other side isn't going to play fair...a witness will go sideways...and the Judge WILL rule against you at times. I would get back to my office when my Trial wasn't going well, close my door, and drink a small glass of wine to relax, and think, and then open my door and get coffee as I planned for the next day. I never walked into the Senior Partners office and whined, if he asked me about my trial, I would tell him what was happening. A few times, I did ask for counsel in a difficult situation, but I wasn't whining...I just knew that I was in a Trial...and 'Things' would happen. We would sit, and discuss what to do, and I would go back to my office.
...
So, that is why, when I advised 4-H, I just listed my CPA on my applications...NO ONE wants an attorney speaking to the Youth.
