“They can’t take it from me, if they try, I lived though those early days.”

Early Days by Paul McCartney

 

I constantly marvel at the technology we have today. I am a tech and innovation evangelist. I believe the delivery of legal services can and will be improved and disrupted. I can’t wait.

 

But that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes reflect back to the way things were when I first began as a lawyer. Some things were worse. Some things were better. Some were just, well, different. And I wonder how much the technological tools we have and the innovation that’s out there have truly created the positive changes of which they are capable.

 

I started my career with the firm of Jackson Kelly in Charleston, West Virginia. JK was a large firm for that time (and still is). My view of the legal profession and the practice of law was formed by practicing there. And things then were decidedly different.

 

The Good Ole Days

 

In those days, JK was a magical place for a young associate. The associates were a close knit bunch, often eating lunch together in the associates lunch room for talk and collegiality. The senior associate, called the Bull Associate, was our official liaison with the partners. We had an issue, we went through him (yes, it was a him, of course).

 

The managing partner was a gravelly voiced Lou Grant look alike who constantly walked around the office with an unlit cigar in his mouth.

 

The partners were by and large a benevolent and collegial group. Some had nicknames like Big Daddy or WuWu. The managing partner was a gravelly voiced Lou Grant look alike who constantly walked around the office with an unlit cigar in his mouth. (Some claimed he chewed 5-6 a day). Some partners were fanatical billers, some were partiers and some were scholars. But for the most part, they were all interested in our welfare and looked out after us. If you made a mistake, they corrected you and most of the time gave you another chance.

 

They wanted to be sure we understood that we had a stake in the firm: once a month, us associates were invited to the weekly partner lunch which I am sure was devoid of much substantive information. But we felt like we belonged. And once a year, all partners, associates, former partners and associates gathered for a night of revelry at a local country club. The firm even rented out the local taxi cab fleet for transportation just in case anyone couldn’t or shouldn’t drive home.

 

And yes, all lawyers who had ever worked at the firm were invited and welcome guests, all (and there weren’t many) having left in good graces with little rancor. There were no laterals to speak of at least in the partner ranks and the most senior lawyers seemed to enjoy a nice standard of living, were revered but seemingly allowed to coast a bit for their years of service.

 

I also don’t recall a billable hour minimum for associates. We were allowed to work half days prior to the bar exam to study; at that time, the exam was 2 ½ days of all essay questions. When we passed, we were introduced to the West Virginia Supreme Court by R. G. Kelly—Mr. Kelly to us– the senior most partner.

 

But make no mistake, we all-lawyers, paralegal and admins–worked long and hard.  There was good attendance at the office on Saturdays -the only place to really get work done was there. But we worked hard together. And JK was a place where  hard work and initiative were recognized. Where a admin (a secretary at that time) with talent and grit could become a paralegal. Where we hired staff based on smarts, not credentials.

 

And boy did we have fun.

 

And boy did we have fun.  Friday mornings donuts were brought in and we gathered in a conference room for some socializing. Friday afternoons were spent at happy hours, with associates, partners, paralgegals and admins all congregating at the local watering hole to talk shop, tell war stories and generally shoot the shit. Sunday afternoons in the fall was for touch football, winters for basketball watching get togethers.  Summer was for baseball-the Charleston Charlies minor league team— and the famous summer pool party at Louie’s house with water volleyball (cheating on the score was, of course, expected). We had lots of other parties, but we were young and had the stamina for it. Yes, we worked hard but we talked to each other, we helped each other, and it was good.

 

Different Time, Different Atmosphere

 

Of course, if you had walked into JK in those days, you would experience a very different place. First the noise: typewriters buzzing constantly, phones ringing off the hook. Every morning, a stack of a mail was delivered to each of us. You would read it, dictate a response if necessary and then wait for something to happen after the response was sent and delivered, always a few days at the very least. Communications were by letter or phone, hence there were lots and lots of phone calls and lots of lots of paper messages about phone calls your admin answered for you when you were on another line-all dutifully written on small sheets of paper that were also stacked on your desk. There was no such thing as voicemail. Cigarette smoke pervaded the atmosphere.

There was no such thing as voicemail. Cigarette smoke pervaded the atmosphere.

 

No one had a computer or even the vaguest notion what one was or what you could use it for. But we knew each other, we knew our adversaries, we knew the judges. And the firm made sure we were always client centric-the senior partner I worked for even had a rule that none of us could write or talk by phone to a client unless we had first been introduced to them and spend some time with them in person. And believe it not, Charleston still operated under the assignment system for indigents who needed legal help and JK lawyers were not exempt. The partners honored that, however, and  encouraged and helped us through these assignments.

 

Our days were governed by paper. Paper files, paper discovery, paper communications. Paper everywhere. Our law library was critical to research because it housed books and perodicals. If you wanted information, you read paper books and newspapers. Every Sunday I would  run down to a local bookstore to get a Sunday Washington Post (the NY Times didn’t make it there for some reason). I also religiously read the local morning and afternoon newspaper. Information flow was all about paper and slow, cumbersome and sometimes not very reliable.

But on balance, in many ways, JK in those days was still in the golden age of practicing law

But on balance, in many ways, JK in those days was still in the golden age of practicing law as Ben Barton so eloquently described in his insightful book, Glass Half Full, The Decline and Rebirth of the Legal Profession. It was at JK I learned many of the skills I still carry with me today. It was there I learned the beauty of process and automation to get things done quickly. It was there I was encouraged and learned to look at problems in different ways to find better solutions.

 

Things Weren’t Always Perfect

 

But things were far from perfect. Being a white male in and of itself accorded you lots of privileges and more or less guaranteed your future. Women were no doubt implicitly and sometimes explicitly harassed, made fun of and ridiculed with little mention. There was no diversity to speak of. Some got by with doing and producing less than others based on who they or their families were. There was a palpable gap between lawyers and “non-lawyers”. We had very little choice where we could do work-if you needed to get things done the office was it. We were encouraged to bill as much as we could. And I have little doubt but that we could have all been more efficient.

 

The air in the office was polluted and sometimes our partying resulted in drunken and embarrassing mistakes that were swept under the rug. Lots of the work we had to do was by necessity drudgery. We worked on hunches, wild-ass guesses and assumptions more than anything else-we didn’t have the data or the analytics to do much else.

 

Given all this, we sometimes today pat ourselves on the back and sanctimoniously believe the practice of law—aided in part by technology and better processes—is so much better.

 

Given all this, we sometimes today pat ourselves on the back and sanctimoniously believe the practice of law—aided in part by technology and better processes—is so much better.

 

And Today?

 

But wait. Many firms still don’t have much diversity to speak of. There are more women in law but still way too few in leadership positions. Sexual harassment still lives in dirty and dark corners. Many of us still operate on hunches, wild ass guesses and assumptions instead of the data that’s available. Too many lawyers still perform too much work they are over qualified for and as a result burn out due to the drudgery of it all.

 

Too many firms are ruled not by a genuine interest in their associates and fellow partners but by profits per partner. We too often see laterals, mergers and pure greed forcing a short-term profit and revenue focus. Innovation is often spurned and ignored in a frantic race to reduce costs. Associates are all too often treated as chattel with little interest in their welfare and development as lawyers. Many are still encouraged to bill more and more and, implicitly, to be less efficient. And the access to justice problems are no better and in many ways much worse than ever.

 

Yes, we have better tools to better serve our clients, to reduce the a2j problem, to be better and more efficient lawyers, to be better people. But we often let the tools sit on the shelf gathering dust since we lack the interest and motivation to use them.

 

So while Its tempting to view the past better than it really was, forgetting the bad and remembering only the good, somewhere we as a profession seem to have lost our way. Yes, we have better tools to better serve our clients, to reduce the a2j problem, to be better and more efficient lawyers, to be better people. But we often let the tools sit on the shelf gathering dust since we lack the interest and motivation to use them.

 

Certainly, many firms have adopted technology and embraced innovation and have many of the positive attributes of JK in those early day; I like to think my firm certainly has. But far too many lawyers and firms have bought hook, line and sinker the mantra that the law is a business-albeit a business with no heart.

 

I was only at JK for two years before the call of home overcame me and I moved back. I don’t know what JK is like now and whether it still has the positives that it had when I was there. I do know that when I changed jobs and went elsewhere, it seemed the profession also started to change in many ways for the worse, changes that have accelerated over time.

 

So just because we have better tools and a more innovative and open mindset doesn’t mean things will automatically be better. Change only happens when these tools and mindsets are embraced and used. Us evangelizers and change agents have to realize our job isn’t done till that happens.

 

But look at the bright side: at least today our offices are quieter and the air there cleaner.

Photo Credit: Rob Lambert via Unsplash; Igor Rand via Unsplash; Antoine De cunta via Unsplash