Serving both my Clients and Family Obligations as an Independant Practicioner

      Looking back, I can see how I used to blame my wife when I had to accommodate her during normal working hours. There were other partners at my firm who took tremendous liberties with the defacto obligation to be practicing law from 7:30am in the morning till 6:00pm at night. But, that really only applied to two people, the founder of the firm who spent most of his time on vacation or traveling the world, or his son, who was one of my partners. I don’t blame either of them for the double standard. Everyone knew the rules didn’t really apply to them. But for the rest of us,  the lines were clear. Even the partners who had been there for decades were expected to limit their vacations and be visible during normal working hours at the office.

      So when I had to drive kids to school, pick them up from some event or otherwise deviate from my office hours, it created anxiety. I didn’t want to be perceived as above the law. My reputation was that I was in the trenches with the workers, the associates, the paralegals and the staff working hard on behalf of clients to get the job done. In retrospect, I realize that a lot of it was form over substance. The test was less about whether about the job was really getting done and more about whether or not you were visible and dressed in an appropriate suit and tie and looking busy.

      I have to say that I am somewhat astounded by the flexibility of my new life for one simple reason. The quality of the work I am doing now as an independent practitioner, where everyone in my office has significant flexibility in terms of when they work, is not even in the same ballpark with what I thought was good work previously. Now, the focus is on substance over form. So being away from the office, tending to family matters and multi-tasking my way through the way doesn’t bring guilt. And when I speak to my wife who is away burying her father with her family, my tone is supportive and appropriately humorous. I don’t pass on any of my own guilt about not sitting in my chair in my office for the sake of appearances.