From Big Biller to Part-Time Attorney: Becoming a Part-Time Attorney

Contributor Article

What do you do when you wake up one day and realize that your priorities have been distorted for more than 20 years? Or, perhaps more appropriately put, that your focus has been on the wrong horizon?


My parents had instilled in me a work ethic that had driven me since I was in junior high school—work to succeed and then work to secure that success.

My belief that the man is the head of the house and the breadwinner led me to rewarding and successful careers as an engineer, oil industry entrepreneur, trial lawyer, in-house counsel, and real estate developer. I had a wife and two children, but their role was subordinate to my drive to be successful and store up for tomorrow.

How often as a child had I heard the story about the ant and the grasshopper? I thought when I was set to retire at the age of 65 or 70 I would enjoy the fruits of my labor.

THE CRISIS

In 2008 my wife and I were in our late thirties, our daughters 14 and 9. We had been in the United States for only two years, having moved to Arizona from Canada when I joined a development company as a shareholder and executive vice president. My position required lots of travel, weekend work, breakfasts, dinners, etc. My wife had just gone through the process of getting her Canadian nursing license transferred to Arizona and was reactivating her career.

In the spring of 2008 my world was rocked by three cataclysmic events. First, my mentor in the development company—a dynamic man in his late forties, the type who can get anything done, a driver, a survivor— suffered a “nervous breakdown.” That's my grandmother’s expression; today we would call it a stress-related condition. However named, it rendered my associate unable to function in the business world for more than eighteen months.

Second, my wife went for a routine biopsy. I was horrified when her doctor called me from the operating room to tell me she had cancer and to get my immediate approval for radical surgery. After 16 years, I feared I was to lose my partner in life, the person who was to share the fruits of my labor when I had achieved success and was ready for retirement.

Third, the real estate market in Arizona weakened significantly and was teetering on the brink of collapse, soon to take its tremendous plummet.

THE AWAKENING

The surgery was successful, the market deteriorated, my partner was unable to return to our business endeavors, and I began a concerted program to get my priorities in order.

The first decision was whether to spend 80 to 100 hours a week continuing our business and stop-gapping for my partner or to support my wife through what turned out to be two years of medical treatment and general uncertainty. The choice was an easy one—wind down the company, plan another career and go forward, but in the interim provide the love, support, and attention my wife and children would need as we dealt with my wife's treatment and recovery.

To provide that support meant a drastic change in my lifestyle. No more up at 5:45 A.M., on the road at 6:15, health club, office by 8:00, lunch meeting, work late to avoid the "rush crush," home at 7:00 or 8:00 with a full briefcase, dinner, and into the den to "finish that file." Like many successful people, I was a workaholic. As a lawyer, to be successful had meant 1,800 to 2,000 billable hours per year. That amount of honest billings meant 2,600 to 2,800 hours per year of work for me as an experienced lawyer—even more when I was learning the ropes. During my first four years of practice I never took a vacation. Even as an experienced hand I went eight hours a day, six days a week, not including dinner meetings, lunch meetings, travel time, etc. This work habit had continued into my real estate endeavors. Now I was going cold turkey.

Try to fill in the time from 5:45 to 7:00 A.M. at home while your family sleeps. You can read only so many newspapers, drink only so much coffee. Then be home at 4:30 P.M. and watch your children at the TV, hear their squabbles, help organize supper, clean dishes. How trivial, how meaningless it initially appeared as compared to my previous existence.

Over the ensuing months, as I “dried out” from my work syndrome, I made an amazing discovery. My two “babies” were rapidly becoming young women with uniquely different personalities. They were growing up before my eyes, soon to leave our home and start homes of their own. I felt a little like Rip Van Winkle. Where had the years gone since I had rocked them to sleep? What a difference between my snapshot fatherhood of years past and this concentrated mega-dose of teenage womanhood. Forced to deal with these young women as the active parent necessitated a significant reassessment and realignment of my relationship with them.

During these years I also discovered that my wife was a mature, strong woman whose capacity to endure pain and to deal with the uncertainties brought about by her physical condition far exceeded my own. She was a pillar of strength. She was fulfilling my role. That's what the man is supposed to do and be. What was happening? Over the months I came to develop a much deeper and different love for her than I had ever imagined. She became a true partner, a person with qualities I could do well to strive to emulate. Along with her strength came its source—unshakable faith in God, a faith in which we were to grow together as time progressed.

THE SEARCH FOR A SOLUTION

By late 2008 our company wind-down was moving well, and the joy of being with my family dictated that I refocus my endeavors. Not wanting to re-enter real estate development in Phoenix's continually deteriorating market, I elected to draw on my legal background and ease back into the practice.

The first step I took was to enroll in the local American Arbitration Association commercial/construction arbitration panel. I began doing arbitrations on a regular basis because I was available for lengthy sittings on reasonably short notice. But that wasn't satisfying enough; I wanted to get back into the trial arena. I love review of documents, discovery, depositions, negotiations, pleadings, and research—all the elements of trial work. If I was to practice, I needed an Arizona license. I decided to sit for the state bar exam and was fortunate to pass.

Now I could market my talents as a part time lawyer—working for friends who had come on tough times and acting of counsel with a large construction litigation firm. I was determined, however, not to be caught up again in the billable-hours cycle. Surely I would have little trouble landing an association—12 years of significant business and construction experience, eight years as a successful commercial and construction litigator, three years as in-house counsel, a professional engineer. Why, the firms would line up to hire me!

The personal economics were easy. There would be low overhead costs for me and for a firm. I would charge my part-time employer $65 an hour for 30 hours per week, 48 weeks per year, to give me a salary of $85,000 to $90,000 per year. That was all I needed to live well. My employer could bill the client at $130 to $140 per hour with a nice profit for the firm. I could use the firm's typing pool for my work. There was no need for an expensive legal secretary for me as would be the case with a new associate, and no training costs. What a deal! With my business background I could handle the firm's commercial litigation clients. There would be no fear of my taking clients since I didn't want to do anything other than help with complex commercial and construction litigation and had no desire to head off and start my own firm.

I selected a leading construction litigation firm and set off with my resume in hand to introduce myself. The senior partner was pleased to see me. He was most accommodating and very enthusiastic that I could actually read engineering drawings, a task apparently of which only he was capable in his firm. A potential association was clearly in the offing. It was only a matter of striking a deal.

Then I mentioned I wanted to work part time. It was as if the office air-conditioning had been turned on full blast. Why would a person with my background want to do other than work full tilt—2,000 billable hours per year or more, $300,000 plus in billings, a six figure salary! No amount of explaining my personal reasons, the benefits available to him from my experience, and my flexible schedule could rekindle the interest or bring him to understand my objectives and desires. The undertone was unspoken but clear—how could he explain to the firm's associates that a seasoned trial lawyer could come in at part time hours and be satisfied with just that? It would stifle the output of the rest of the firm and was unacceptable.

Unexpressed, but clearly evident to me, was the view that if I were a woman, with family obligations, looking for a second income, he and the firm could understand my situation and I would be acceptable and accepted. He could not understand why my lifestyle, my family, and my values were more important to me than making money and living at the office. We parted amicably, but we parted.

Undaunted, I visited a second major firm. I received the same cordial reception, the same initially enthusiastic response, and the same uncomprehending reaction to my desire to work part-time. Again we parted amicably.

THE SOLUTION

In retrospect I can see that my approach was doomed from the outset. I had been there and recognized the barrier. When I practiced actively, our firm did not hire anyone who would not give 125 percent. The fact that among our partners and associates we had several divorces and one suicide never struck a chord in our collective hearts. We were workaholics, and we wanted to be surrounded by them. To face a nine-to-fiver with a well-rounded life would have exposed the flaw in the lifestyle we embraced.

My grandmother used to say, “What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander." My experience is that this does not apply in the case of part-time association with traditional law firms because management may perceive that what is acceptable for the female lawyer is definitely not acceptable for the male lawyer. I hope our colleagues at the bar will awaken someday to realize there is a multitude of talented lawyers (some of whom are men) whose goal may not include partnership or a six-figure income but rather to provide quality service at an appropriate pace, enabling them to focus on other things that are important in life—their spirituality, their family, and the betterment of this world. These goals are not exclusive of developing a rewarding career.

As for me, I still wanted to practice and needed both the fulfillment it brings and the income to support my family. Not being one to give up easily, but not being totally insensitive to the realities of the situation, I switched focus. Why not offer services to the person who needs it—the solo practitioner or small firm? Fortunately I had a solo practitioner friend who needed assistance on a construction case. He brought me on board for that matter. I then reciprocated when a contractor who used to work for me in the development business ran into a bankruptcy problem. Our relationship was cemented, and it formed the foundation for my practice.

Other lawyers have followed. Concurrently I developed a clientele of small businesses but handle only their litigation or corporate finance problems, along with personal injury or employment matters. The rest I send to my solo practitioner friends who are better suited than I to address estate planning, probate, divorce, and bankruptcy. My plate is never empty.

Conclusion

With the computer, the telephone, and automated research, the role of the part-time lawyer, either male or female, should come into its own as a major staffing consideration for law firms. I envision the day when a law firm will have one office for every three or four lawyers, with the balance of space consisting of small conference rooms for meeting clients and a library of form books or computer disks. Most lawyers will work out of their homes or work stations if they are doing litigation. Loose federations of solo practitioners like me can provide a broad range of services at reduced cost and effectively compete with the large firms.

Corporate consumers of legal services are closely assessing and controlling the use and cost of outside legal services. In many instances they are looking to the part-timer like me to come on board to assist them in particularly complex or time-consuming matters. For many corporations it is far cheaper and more effective to keep matters in house, by bolstering the legal staff on a task needed basis, than to engage an outside firm at $125 to $250 per hour, with the probability of rampant over billing.

The last few years have proven to me that a lawyer can enjoy the profession and earn a good living without having to sacrifice family and health to do so.