Fourteen years ago, I wrote an article for a business newspaper that summed up a conversation for the dinner I had with my 4 -year -old daughter. She asked me to explain “What is a Re-Sezzz-Ee-Un?” At the end of our conversation, his biggest brilliant concern through his little green eyes was whether Santa Claus himself would know the effects of this “resez-one”.
Many has changed since this conversation. This particular recession finally ended, it was not later that to be replaced by what some economists called a second. The Cubs finally won a world series. We sent an unmanned spaceship to Pluto. An unprecedented world pandemic has ravaged, and Donald Trump has become our president, not once but twice.
My daughter has also seen a whole trip. She became a singer, musician, artist, model, cheerleader and even actress, playing the main Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” at the Apollo Theater. She is a self -taught competitive gymnast and is part of a team that has made the national final in Orlando, Florida. Perhaps the most important, my little girl with green eyes has grown up and graduated from the school, and she is now a first-year university student who tries to find her place in this crazy world.
Now we sit together, sometimes late in the evening, and we are talking. She has never had any interest in becoming a lawyer, but she has always shown an interest in why I do it. Recently, she asked me a question that I haven’t heard for a while. She asked for the difference between being a lawyer today and when I started many years ago.
“The difference is that I no longer consider myself a law enforcement,” I told him. “The customers have once hired me to try their cases. They don’t want this today. Now they hire me to help their business avoid testing. ” She looked up towards the ceiling, shrouded her eyebrows and nodded, as if she understood me perfectly.
“Does this apply to all lawyers or simply to you?” Of course, she would follow my answer with an even more difficult question. I had to think about it.
The truth is that the legal industry has changed with the rest of our world. Mobile phones first came. Then came the Internet. Then came mobile phones with the Internet and all the knowledge of the world instantly at hand. This came to expect an instantaneous satisfaction and a lack of acute patience. People want problems instantly resolved, with relatively little discussion. When business owners experience unforeseen and not accused problems, they want them to be resolved quickly. From Caterpillar to the corner restaurant, the last thing that companies want is to devote their resources to disputes. When companies hire a lawyer, their historic desire for Perry Mason now takes a rear seat in the need for Harvey Specter. Companies no longer want to keep the best lawyer for trials; They want the lawyer to be able to quickly solve the problem without the need for a time and an expense developed.
This reality has resulted in a generational swing in which lawyers, like those of other industries, are forced to adapt to being competitive. Don’t get me wrong: a trial lawyer still needs skills and experience to try a good case; Otherwise, the bluff will be challenged each time. Nevertheless, having excellent test skills is no longer the only skill (or even primary) that companies are looking for. The real talent resolves the situation by avoiding the trial.
I believe this is true, whatever the type of lawyer. Ask an experienced lawyer for bodily injuries how many cases where insurance companies are settled today compared to 10 years ago. Ask a criminal defense lawyer how many accused will be tried in relation to a plea case.
Ask any business owner what he thinks of the dispute. Do not only ask those who have been prosecuted and lost; Also ask those who pursued and won but who did not consider this as a victory due to the amount of the legal costs they paid. I tried hundreds of cases during my 30 -year career. I heard all the criticisms of our legal industry that exist, and many of them with which I agree. The worst part is perhaps the idea that the cost of victory can be just as devastating as the agony of defeat. On the other hand, I have never received criticism from a client after having managed to avoid a trial.
I still have a lot of time left to practice the law in this trip that I started 30 years ago. Fortunately, my children keep me “young at heart” and provide me with the tools to reinvent my career if necessary. One thing is certain: more change awaits us. Interest rates, government regulations and the ability of debtors to reimburse their loans were once problems that are easy to predict, analyze and solve, but more. Fortunately, I know that I can always count on the curious green eyes of my daughter to help me cross the trip.
Joseph Vanfleet is an experienced lawyer for trials, focusing his practice on small businesses and community banks in addition to the listed entities on the stock market Fortune 100 and large -scale lenders he has always represented. He has represented customers across the country and in many complex and multidistric cases, and he obtained victories in more than 100 trials, calls and alternative disputes.
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