Whirlwind of Change...

So, two months ago, I was simply a low-level associate traveling the roads of Virginia and looking for a way out of my job...

And now, somehow, in two months, we lost a paralegal (the other one's last day is tomorrow), my supervising attorney left for a job in Ohio, we've hired two new paralegals and I'm managing them and looking for a newer attorney who apparently I will manage as well.

It's just really bizarre to think that things can change that quickly in just a short period of time--I actually conducted a semi-interview with an attorney that interviewed with our office today. I didn't think I'd EVER do that, at least not this soon.

But certain circumstances really convinced me, even before this happened, that my time here in this job and this area is not quite done yet (my wife being pregnant, my neighbor's situation, other situations). I say "yet" because my wife and I may be nomads in some sense for the rest of our lives, only God knows (we've moved nine times in less than seven years of marriage)--but I know that His hand is in this, and He has been faithful throughout.

God's timing is always perfect, though we're not always able to trust Him leading up to the fulfillment of His faithfulness.

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I would also ask for continued prayers for my neighbor, whose wife left several weeks ago and is going down a path that grieves the Lord. Pray for repentance, reconciliation and restoration (for both of them). Pray that truth would break through and awaken her heart. My heart breaks for them both, because I know that but for the grace of God and the restraining power of the Holy Spirit such evil lurks and could manifest itself in my own heart.

33,285

It's not the population of my hometown (I just looked and it only had about 7500 people), but the number of MILES that I drove JUST FOR THE JOB in 2007. When I added it up at work today, I couldn't believe it myself.

Whoa.

7 months on the job

My wife asked me yesterday if I liked being an attorney, and I had to think about it for a minute, since while I thoroughly appreciate the opportunity to work (searching 10 months for a job and finally finding one makes you VERY grateful), it's hard to know if like it since I'm not doing necessarily what I thought I would be doing as an attorney. Aside from a few instances, I haven't really argued any issues in court, just appeared and asked for judgment, since close to 90% of my defendants don't show. But you have to pay your dues, I guess.

I'm still learning about the ins and outs of collection practice--I've got a pretty good handle on the law, but it's the minute details of practice that flow out from the law which get me (usually the things which can land me in an uncovered malpractice claim if I'm not careful).

We'll see what happens in the coming months--I've been told things will get "better" (as far as my earnings), but who knows.

What I Realized Yesterday

I was at a Virginia Bar Association MANDATORY Professionalism course yesterday, and I heard fellow new attorneys talking about their jobs, and I overheard one guy talking about all these cool things that I wanted to do in the business and corporate arena and then he ended the sentence with a "but."

What followed the "but"? "But this past week I've gotten home somewhere after 1:30." And no folks, he wasn't talking about 1:30PM, as in the afternoon, but in the morning. He worked, as many other of the newer attorneys in our group, for the BIG law firm--you know, the ones that hire young associates by the truckloads from Harvard, Yale, the University of Virginia, etc. He has a wife and kid, and he's commuting 45 minutes each way.

Now, I would love to do some of the stuff that he's doing--but what's the cost? Associates in firms like that have the responsibility to bill close to 2000 hours a year (which is daunting), so days like that can be quite typical. Oh, the new firm trend is to speak of "balancing" life with family and community service so as to make a "whole" person as an attorney. But it seems to me that the secret in how to do that is left up to the individual attorney, and if you lose sleep in the process, that's fine, so long as it doesn't hurt the partner's bottom line. Life is in fact full of crossroads, junctures where we make a decision to choose one thing over another--work over family, material things over things that last, and idols over Christ.

One of the speakers on a video we watched reiterated what I so often hear from attorneys (as well as businessmen in general) but I do not often see practiced--"no one ever says I wish I spent more time in my office when they're on their deathbed." This coming from a U.S. District Court judge that had to work his tail off to get to his position--but at what cost? Position and stature does you nothing if you cannot be the husband and father that God has called you to be--it simply is worldly attention that evaporates before the throne of God.

Young lawyers such as myself would do good to really hear the quotation above, rather than simply fight tooth and nail to get in such positions as the judge and simply mimic him in thirty years, essentially saying, "do as I say, not as I do." These type of life choices start today, and each person has to decide their priorities and not let their work decide it for him--otherwise, it will all be vanity and striving in the wind, as the Preacher explains in Ecclesiastes.