As I approach my 20 th anniversary as a litigator I cannot help but wonder whether this is a destiny I should have chosen or whether I would have been mentally and physically better off going into a less demanding area of the law.
Reflecting on these years I am sure I am no different than most litigators in having gone through a love/hate relationship with this exciting yet draining game of litigation. Having started my career in a firm that did not have segregated service lines throw me straight into a mode of practice that involved doing both litigation and advisory mandates at the same time.
By circumstance and nature of clients’ businesses we lent more towards litigation. I recall that for my first year at work, other than short public holiday breaks, I was not entitled to get any leave days because I was told that I would only be legally entitled for that following 12 months of service. The firm also had a one day weekend policy which meant that we only got Friday off and worked for 6 days a week.
I remember not being able to enjoy anything on Fridays because I knew that I had to be at the office the next morning. I equally envied all my friends who had a two day weekend. With that said I still managed to feel the joy of learning with every new case and built unbreakable bonds with some clients. I remember that I had 58 ongoing litigations by the time I left.
So was I happy at the time ?
Looking back at those 5 years I would certainly say that I was far from happy. I struggled to have any social or family life. Along with the terabytes of knowledge I downloaded into my brain came the extra kilograms of body weight.
Whilst that may sound miserable to any bystander I must say that I didn’t feel completely miserable at the time. I was grateful for being able to be working in the first place as I saw many people around me scrambling to set foot into a stable career. I also enjoyed the sense of knowing that significant people relied on me and trusted my judgment.
Looking back I am able to say that what kept me going were the sense of duty combined with having no other choice !
Following those years I moved into another phase in my life and career in which I was able to find better balance and tune to the extent permissible. Those years were however the foundation of everything and I know for sure that I would be no where close to where I am today if I did not stomach those years !
Conversations and encounters I have with younger lawyers today keep me wondering whether they are up to the task of being true litigators. I keep asking myself whether today’s associates would have just walked out of the door after a couple of months of experiencing what I went through as a young associate.
I am not a fan of stereotypes but there is one about Generation Z that I cannot avoid ! Can the Gen Z lawyer population be seasoned litigators ?
I don’t have a clear answer to this question but I will still share my thoughts on what it might be. Based on many interactions and experiences I had with Gen Z lawyers I can see that the advantages this generation have include:
- Great sense of independence;
- Remarkable levels of self confidence;
- “Can do” attitude towards life in general.
All these traits contribute to making great litigators however a common denominator that canalso be found with Gen Zs is the lack of mental power or the lack of the will to have it. I haveseen many amazing associates fall into the trap of feeling less motivated or constantly beingdrawn into the cycle of doubting themselves and what they want to do in life. Perhaps thiscomes because of having more options or with society being more lenient with the conceptof quitting something you don’t like. I noticed also that the remarkable level of selfconfidence also exerts a buy product of an extra sense of entitlement.
I am not going to follow the cliché of concluding that Gen Z must endure the same sufferingwe had to stomach in order to become great litigators. That is just not going to work !Without delving into a generational analysis my take on Gen Zs is that they can still be greatlitigators but they require a few reality checks as well as a different working model. Realitychecks mean that they must be talked into accepting that being a lawyer does not involveany get rich quick schemes like the ones that happen to their friends doing crypto ! It alsodoes not involve working on a creative and exciting start up idea that could change theworld. It neither involves working towards an exit strategy where your business is going to bebought for billions of dollars !
If you get over these realities you then come to a realization that being a lawyer is a life longprofession that can have many facets but you are never working towards an exit from yourinvestment because the asset is you !
Post acceptance of reality comes the element of building mental power. Through the rightmentorship approach young lawyers can build this element over time. However this cannotbe achieved through traditional methods of legal training because it has become too boringand slow in terms of making money. To keep Gen Zs going strong you must use acombination of:
- Giving them a structure to life as whole not only life at the office;
- Setting them up with an entrepreneurial approach to the legal practice.
The first element starts with ensuring that young lawyers are making the right life style choices that lead to the requisite mental and physical concrete mix.
The second element can only be delivered if you understand that the traditional model of lawfirms will not work with Gen Zs. Think less of the law firm being the income generatingmachine that then drizzles down salaries and more of the lawyers each being their own minimoney making machines. The right model for the decades to come will be for law firms to beplatforms used by individual practitioners to pool execution and admin support. This is amodel akin to that applied by barristers’ chambers in England.
This model allows Gen Z practitioners to start making more money more quickly. It alsoallows them to have a balanced and flexible lifestyle which has become a must in today’sworld. I am a strong advocate of this approach and I know how to turn this into a successfulmodel.
With all that said, one thing that that will never change no matter how the legal practice evolves is that every litigator must have a sense of duty.
The sense of duty boils down to being able to look into your client’s eyes and say:
I tried my best !