legal sanity

It’s been a hectic but rewarding few weeks in the office. The matter I’ve been working on has given me ample opportunity to consider and do what I most enjoy in my legal practice. It’s great to have the chance to reflect on why we do what we do. So, I was glad to come across a few articles that team to provide some nice fodder for those reflective times.

The first of the trio is a commentary piece by Jenner & Block lawyer Gregory Gallopoulos. Asking Why Do We Work?, Gallopoulos responds that lawyers do indeed work for money, but we also work for “sanity.” And that sanity derives from compensation in “psychic gratification.” These gratifiers take different forms, but Gallopoulos identifies several of them. They are: ongoing opportunities for intellectual growth; autonomy of professional judgment; celebrating a “superlative work product;” and supporting public service efforts.

The next article, sub-titled An Essay on Money and Happiness, questions What Is Success, Anyway? About midway through, it states: “No matter how fancy the title or how big the paycheck, we soon learn that it isn't worth joining an organization full of jerks, morons or crooks.” The piece also recognizes that our career desires and definition of success change as we age. In midlife, we tend to place more importance on “intangibles like autonomy and personal expression” as well as “freedom and fulfillment.” Yet, in some professions – and the law is cited among them – honoring that call for fulfillment comes at a very real price since “the highest-paying opportunities are likely to gouge deepest into people's hopes of enjoying a balanced life.”

Rounding out the triad of reflections on this topic is a blog post called Who Really Matters? penned by Thom Singer of Some Assembly Required. In it, Singer shares a little self-test based on the wisdom of famed cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. The exercise brings home the very important point that the “people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.”