Two experienced Litigators ("Lawyer Smith" and "Lawyer Jones"), practicing in the same city, but in different firms, both won hugh 9-figure verdicts in their respective cases within the same week.
Smith and Jones met, for lunch, a couple of weeks later to celebrate together.
Lawyer Smith, still smiling, said that his recent victory served to stimulate him all the more to take on, and win, bigger and better cases. In fact, he said, "I have accepted three new cases just in the past week."
Lawyer Jones, happy, but not smiling, said that he had given Notice to his firm that he was retiring from the practice. He said that his recently big win was just what he had been waiting for to create a "nest egg" for his retirement from practicing law. He said that he had waited a long time for that day to occur.
Most of us who love the practice of law can well understand Lawyer Smith's desire to continue on to "conquer bigger and more difficult mountains." One victory just wets our appetite to take on more challenges.
But, even those of us in that category can well appreciate Lawyer Jones' position - - to hang up his shingle. Why is that?
In an article entitled "Is Quitting for Winners?" written by Nora Quinn, Esq., that appeared in the Los Angeles Daily (Legal) Journal on November 13, 2008, she addresses the lament of lawyers like Lawyer Jones (who want to quit the practice after a big win). She states, "Have we managed to make the law so complex that even we can't understand it? Or is it that we do the same thing over and over again?" Ms. Quinn thinks it is both. She believes that the first few hundred times you unravel a complicated knot in a case, you are exhilarated; but then someone brings in another knot, and another one, etc.
Perhaps Lawyer Jones is just tried of unraveling the same "knot," again.
Ms. Quinn continues, "The mystery is why there are some people who can do this over and over again and still love every minute of it, as if it was all computer solitaire or chess. And, there are other people who are satisfied with the experience after 10, 20 or 30 years of doing it."
She also says, "There are few things more reassuring for the layperson who has a serious problem than the sound of his or her lawyer's voice on the phone. We (lawyers) should be flattered by this. But instead, we feel burdened. We feel burdened in a way that people who are outstanding in other fields (of endeavor) simply do not."
It would be interesting to know which position YOU - the reader of this Post - would take if you were to hit the "jackpot" some day with a hugh monetary victory. Would that stimulate you all the more to continue in the practice (like Lawyer Smith), or would you "hang it up" (like Lawyer Jones)?
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