Good Monday morning to you. Was your weekend restful? Fun? Productive? Quiet? I hope so.
Whether or not you relaxed this weekend, the next week has arrived. They tend to do that. So if you aren’t quite ready for it, well perhaps one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day. Here’s the quote:
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
— Henry Ford
This is particularly relevant to me this week as I spent several days last week in New Orleans for the 2019 CAI National Law Seminar:
Walking from presentation to presentation, hearing about cases being decided and policies being implemented across the country, it was very clear to me: even if I had learned everything in the world there was to know about the law at the time during law school (and that’s probably not what happened), I would still always need to be learning just to keep up with the changes and developments that occur every day. It was a good message and a very positive way to start off the new year, with a young law firm, and with lots to look forward to: the idea that growing, that learning, will continue to keep me and my ideas fresh for a long time to come.
The keynote speaker was an individual with whom I was not terribly familiar before the conference: former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. And having been there for his speech, I can now say that there could not have been a more on-the-nose choice. An engaging and entertaining speaker, Mr. Landrieu used his background as a lawyer and mediator to talk about resolving disputes collectively and collaboratively, something I try to preach to clients. He talked about rebuilding New Orleans, saying: “If you had the chance to rebuild things after they were all torn down, would you recreate it exactly how it was, or would you take the opportunity to build it better? The answer is obvious.” It was a terrific delivery from someone who has obviously dealt with many a crisis on behalf of his constituents.
The big takeaway for me, however, was his message to groups who were complaining about the way things were when he took office. And it is one that I will be carrying with me back to clients that I represent. He had people complaining about the status of things. There was blame and fingerpointing; everyone wanted to tell him who had caused all the problems and how dumb they were. There were constant battles on everything, and no progress was being made. If you have ever been a community association board member, or even just gone to a meeting, this may sound familiar. And Mayor Landrieu came in. He looked at the situation; he looked around and saw all the clamor, all the complaining, and the general uproar. It was a mess, and it was going nowhere. And he said:
“I don’t know whose fault it is. But it’s our job to clean it up.”
This is the message I am bringing to clients this year. Things may be messy. There may be issues. And people may have done things wrong. I don’t know whose fault it is. But it’s our job to clean it up.
That may sound a little funny to you – after all, isn’t a lawyer’s job to hand out and assign fault? We have entire bodies of case law and statutory law dedicated to that very task.
Sure, is my response. There is a time for that. But when the situation is at its worst, and when things are all heading in the wrong direction, and the uproar is drowning out any possible thought of progress, my clients don’t need that kind of an attorney. They just need someone to help them turn the boat around and get it going in the right direction again. That is the kind of lawyer I want to be.
Have a great week everybody.