You don't have to remind me
I think most of us forget our age most of the time - we still have a self-image of ourselves when we were younger. So it's a rude awakening when we get reminded that we aren't in our 20's anymore.
Recently I received a large package from the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer's Association. I had no idea what it might be - i have never even seen an envelope like that. I opened it up, and was surprised to find a very nice certificate stating my 25 years of membership. The thought had never crossed my mind that I had been a member that long (actually it's a little more than 25, but who's counting). My first reaction was that I had become one of those lawyers who had are acknowledged in the back of bar journals for living a long time. I realize I still have a long way to go - there's a lawyer in my building who is working on his third 25. But it still made me stop to think what it means to have practiced law for almost half of my life.
You regularly see lawyers promoting their years of experience - the assumption is that the longer you have been at, the better you are. That can be true, but it certainly isn't a constant. Some lawyers are no better than they were the day they started. I think it has a lot to do with desire, and the reason why you became a lawyer. If its to make money, that is your primary focus. You only become better if it helps you make more money. On the other hand, if you are truly concerned about your clients, you are always trying to make yourself a better lawyer, so you can represent them better. For those lawyers, experience really does mean something.
One thing we have to guard against (I'm referring to those of us with mostly gray hair) is the tendency to think we know everything, and that someone just out of law school can't possibly know anything. On the contrary, they can teach us a lot. They haven't been indoctrinated into "the way things are". They don't blindly accept things, and it's good for us to acknowledge that maybe there is a reason for that. i have to make myself - sometimes I'm successful and sometimes not - but I try to be open to ideas from lawyers who haven't been at it a long time. They have a different perspective, and that can be good.
I'm not someone who dreads birthdays - after all, the alternative is not too attractive. I wouldn't want to be 20 again. On the other hand, I do hope that I can always retain that desire to learn, and try to remember that I really don't everything.
I think I'll go find a nice frame for certificate now.
