* Says Law School Is Intense, Students Always Compete Against Themselves
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Mr. Olajide Abiodun Esq. has said that law school is intense as students are always competing against themselves for the best grade.
Mr. Olajide Abiodun Esq., made this statement in a presentation titled, ” TEN THINGS NO ONE KNEW IN LAW SCHOOL; LEARNING TO PRACTICE OR PRACTICING TO LEARN,” which he delivered during a session at the Nigerian Bar Association Conference 2019.
According to him, some students become extremely defensive and do everything they can purely for personal gain at the expense of others, adding that, this is rare, but law school can be a bit like being on “The Apprentice” competing against others in a high-pressure environment with backstabbing and drama.
Below read the full Paper Presentation
BEING A PRESENTATION AT THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE 2019 AT A SESSION WITH ITS TOPIC ON:- TEN THINGS NO ONE KNEW IN LAW SCHOOL;LEARNING TO PRACTICE OR PRACTICING TO LEARN. BY OLAJIDE ABIODUN ESQ.
When choosing the degree or study of law, we were probably young, naive and full of expectations.
The following points will be useful to those considering a law degree and that current law students can relate to them.
1. Career prospects
Law is a well-respected degree but its graduate prospects are not as good as universities like to make out. Law firms and chambers have been robbed off the number of training contracts and pupillages, with some firms refusing new wigs intake, as pupillage is no longer encouraged. Furthermore, a law degree does not guarantee riches. There is a stark contrast between the high earnings people think lawyers are paid and what they are actually paid. I’m sure that the Nigerian Bar Association can verify this.
2. There’s so much reading
I had some idea that there would be a lot of reading, but I had no idea that horror stories of law students spending all day and all night in the library were actually true. There is a LOT of reading. I once spent so much time in the library that I genuinely started to feel homesick. Be prepared to study long and hard hours as a law student.
3. Work hard, work smart, be organized
The workload becomes easier if you are well organized and focus on working efficiently. Planning ahead early and prioritizing work over play avoids dreaded all-nighters. When reading, one should focus on the end goal: learning the law in order to apply it correctly in an exam. Shortcuts in reading may be made too: having an idea of a case’s facts and legal principle mean that the case report may be read much more quickly with more focus on the key points. This is not something which is taught; rather I have had to learn this myself during my law degree.
4. Everyone will try to pawn free legal advice from you
If I had a pound for every time a friend has asked a legal question… For some reason, people think that law students are overflowing fountains of legal knowledge to be tested at will. This is simply not the case. No, I do not know about the legal intricacies of internet libel law. No I can’t help you get out of your mobile phone contract. No, I can’t help you if you’ve killed a man! And even if you do give advice, be sure to add disclaimers.
5. Law school is intense
In law school, you are always competing against your fellow students for the best grades. Some students become extremely defensive and do everything they can purely for personal gain at the expense of others. This is rare, but law school can be a bit like being on “The Apprentice” competing against others in a high pressure environment with backstabbing and drama!
ONE OF MY FIRST PROJECTS AS A LAWYER WAS TO PREPARE CROSS-EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.
I panicked. This was definitely not really covered in law school. I should’ve asked for more instructions but, not wanting to look foolish, I left the partner’s office without asking a single question.
It took me over a week to prepare same. After a lot of research and cramming I finally figured out some basic points to ask.
Law school prepares you for a lot, but there’s plenty more to do with the actual practice of law that law school just doesn’t cover.
Here are some other things that schools should teach young lawyers about in law school—and that you should be learning about yourself in the meantime.
1. How to listen
In law school, students are trained to listen in order to run legal analysis—they gather the relevant facts, figure out the applicable rules, and use them to analyze those facts. They’re also taught to listen so they can respond or react as is necessary, for example, during an oral argument.
What they are not taught is to listen so that our clients feel truly heard and understood.
Often, when a client comes to see you, it’s probably the first time he or she’s ever shared their story with anyone. Clients might be deeply distressed and full of raw emotions. Many might be angry at themselves, their ex-business partners, their spouse, or at the world.
What I learned was that if I moved too quickly into “lawyer mode” and started asking detailed questions about their briefs, the clients would often freeze. I wasn’t building empathy.
The clients deeply wanted to be felt, heard, and seen.
Lawyers are in the trauma business. Rarely do clients come to see you with happy news. As lawyers, we need to acknowledge the trauma so that clients feel seen, heard, and understood.
This way of listening is useful in dealing with other people as well, including opposing counsel. Often, when I feel frustrated because she’s being unreasonable, I’ll notice my own emotional response to the situation. Rather than reacting from this place of anger and frustration, I’ll take a curious stance. Sometimes, I’ll ask her, “Please help me understand your client’s position so I can explain it to my client.”
2. How to manage the unintended consequences of lawyering
According to a study, 20.6% of lawyers screened positive for hazardous, harmful, and potentially alcohol-dependent drinking. Levels of depression, anxiety, and stress among counsels were significant, with 28%, 19%, and 23% experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively.
Why? Again, lawyers are in the trauma business, and it affects them too. According to observations, “almost 35 percent of public defenders meet the criteria for [secondary traumatic stress] STS and about 75 percent of those with STS symptoms meet the qualifications for functional impairment.”
It’s puzzling that despite these consequences of lawyering, lawyers get zero training in law school on this issue.
Therapists who are also in the trauma business receive training on vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, compassion fatigue, burnout, and other unintended consequences that can arise simply because they’re doing their job. They also receive training on strategies for avoiding and working with these potential consequences.
About the only “tool” law school offers is happy hour. Small wonder, then, that so many lawyers use alcohol and other substances to manage the stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout that can come with lawyering.
Learning about the unintended consequences of lawyering early on—and creating strategies for avoiding it, including self-care, mindfulness, emotional intelligence—is crucial for a successful legal career.
3. How to nurture creativity
Creativity is the most important skill a leader can have. Yet, “80% of Nigerian workers feel pressured into being productive rather than creative.” This is also true for us lawyers.
Creativity is important because it’s the foundation for new ideas and solutions. Often, law school kills the creativity and curiosity that law students start with. They stop reading for the fun of it, stop creating art, stop writing fiction pieces, stop dancing, etc.
When you’re engaged in a creative process, you can access a state known as “flow,” also sometimes known as ‘being in the zone.’ Mihaly is a researcher and author that studies this phenomenon. His book is titled Flow:
Exercising your creative muscles will help you to think of creative solutions for your clients. Some of the best trial strategies have revealed themselves when you are engaged in activities that allow you to access flow.
As our legal system becomes ever more complex, as more data and technology becomes available, it’s critical for lawyers to stay agile and nimble—and these skills can be cultivated and practiced through creativity.
Good lawyering involves finding solutions to difficult problems. The solutions are not immediately apparent, especially in these times of rapid change. Creativity (implementing new ideas based on seeing problems clearly) is crucial for problem-solving lawyers.
4. How to have a difficult conversation
As lawyers, you’ll likely hear stories you’ll never be able to unhear, and see images that you’ll never be able to unsee. This also means you may need to have very difficult—and sometimes, unthinkable—conversations with your clients. Learning how to meet your clients in their most vulnerable state, learning to meet their suffering with empathy and compassion—these are cornerstones that will help you manage difficult conversations.
5. When to use alternative methods to help clients
Abraham Maslow said, “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.
Lawyers are trained to view every situation through the lens of lawyering, but we rarely pause to ask, “Is the law an appropriate solution here?”
Having worked for many years in litigation, I’ve learned that “winning” a litigation case rarely restores the client whole. Often, they’re still bitter because the underlying conflict remains unresolved. The client may still be bitter about the dispute she’s had with her business partner or her ex-spouse, for example. In these situations, a little compassion can go a long way. Having local professionals to refer your clients to (e.g., therapists or accountants) can help solve their problems more completely.
6. How (and why) to hone your conflict management skills
In law school, we are taught about the law and how to procedures necessary to navigate the legal system.
What we are not taught about is how to deal with the various personalities—the passive aggressive people, the yellers, the screamers, and the jerks. We’re not taught how to manage the discomfort that often accompanies conflict. Unless you’re fortunate enough to take a class on negotiations or something similar, there’s no training on how to de-escalate a conflict, how to find win-win solutions, or how to understand the needs of the other party.
We also need tools for being able to manage conflicts at work effectively, as well as conflicts that can arise in our personal life.
On Lawyer Well-Being, “chronic, unmanaged conflict creates physical, psychological, and behavioral stress. Research suggests that conflict management training can reduce the negative stressful effects of conflict and possibly produce better, more productive lawyers.”
7. How to be resilient
People have different capacities for bouncing back and surviving life’s difficulties and traumas. This ability to bounce back is known as resilience. However, factors that can enhance resilience include, optimism, confidence (self-efficacy), effective problem-solving skills, a sense of meaning and purpose, flexible thinking, impulse control, empathy, close relationships and social support, and faith or spirituality.
8. How to run a law practice
Law school teaches students about “the law,” but not how to make a living practicing it. There’s no class on how to get clients, on networking, or on the business end of running a law practice.
When you quit your law firm jobs to start your law practice, you will be surprised by how little you know about the business of being a lawyer.
This is unfortunate. As much as lawyers like to think of themselves as professionals that frown upon having a frank conversation about how to build a financially successful practice, the reality is that the only way we’ll be able to continue to do our work is if it’s sustainable.
Law students would benefit from a foundational understanding of how a business works. Courses could include: accounting, economics, finance, management, marketing, and organizational behavior.
9. How to manage your personal finances
This is a topic that I believe should be taught much earlier on in the education system, a law practice management course at a local law school. Because so many students would opt to start their own law practice out of law school.
The questions that are relevant to be asked are:
How are you going to build a sustainable law practice?
How much do you need to generate to pay your overhead costs?
How much money do you need to survive, and better yet, to thrive?
More law schools may consider offering courses like this in the future, but until then, law students can take matters into their own hands by taking out books on financial planning or following financial planning and business blogs while in law school.
10. How to nurture an internal sense of success and self-worth
Most lawyers get to where they are because they are high achievers. Often, they’re at the top of their class. They’re successful, and they are driven.
These external yardsticks can be useful drivers, but when taken to an extreme, they can also can be toxic. When law students become used to looking externally for a sense of self-worth and satisfaction, it can become difficult to create those feelings from within.
I’ve worked and spoken with so many lawyers who feel as though they’re only as good or successful as their last win—they struggle with the sense of constantly failing. This expectation that we be perfect (a pressure which seemingly comes from every direction), in an environment that encourages aggression, can lead to chronic stress for many lawyers.
There is always someone richer, more attractive, or more successful than we are. And even when we do manage to feel self-esteem for one golden moment, we can’t hold on to it. Our sense of self-worth bounces around like a ping-pong ball, rising and falling in lock-step with our latest success or failure.”
It was a long journey for me to reorient my own internal compass for understanding where my priorities are and for feeling a sense of self-worth. Each and every one of us has an inherent self-worth and value—not because you’ve won that latest case, or appeal, but simply because it’s your right as a human being to be valued.
Meditate. Take time for self-reflection. Keep a journal of things that went well every day. Whatever it takes, make time to improve your ability to create your sense of self-worth internally. Lawyering is a tough career, and the more you can do to keep yourself resilient, the more successful (and healthy) you’ll be in the long term.
Preparing for success as a lawyer means preparing yourself in more ways than one
There’s more to being a lawyer than just practicing law. From managing finances, to dealing with the business side of law, to protecting your mental health, there’s a lot to consider for young lawyers wanting to set themselves up for long and successful legal careers.
The legal profession is a demanding one, but it is possible to have a balanced life and a fulfilling career—it just takes a bit of personal care and a lot of preparation. The more young lawyers prepare themselves for the multiple facets of a career in the legal industry, the better equipped they’ll be to not only help others, but to have rich, healthy professional lives themselves.
Another Thing You Didn’t Learn in Law School:
BILLING
Billing–it’s the bane of every lawyer’s existence. Whether it’s capturing billable hours, explaining and justifying fees to clients, or trying to collect fees from non-paying clients–it’s never “fun.” Then again, we all knew when we entered law school that practicing law wasn’t all fun and games.
But, like many of the things on our list of the Top 10 Things You Didn’t Learn in Law School, billing is one of the many experiences for which law school simply didn’t prepare you.
EFFECTIVE BILLING TIPS
First and foremost, the easiest way to avoid falling into the trap of succumbing to billing pressures and over billing your clients is to ensure that you capture all of your time.
Detail, detail, detail! Provide detailed descriptions of billable items. Clients will appreciate it and will have less questions about invoices.
Don’t bill in blocks. Break down your tasks and avoid billing large blocks of time all at once.
So instead of billing for “responding to discovery demands,” instead reduce the task to its elements and bill separately for “reviewing demands,” “reviewing file to locate responsive documents,” “phone call to client to ascertain location of missing documents,” and “prepare draft of response to discovery demands.”
Another way to avoid billing issues with clients is to communicate clearly and often with your clients in order to avoid confusion about bills and to ensure that you have happy clients.
Be clear from the outset. Discuss the fee agreement prior to beginning work on a case and put it in writing, if possible.
Establish a reasonable fee. Doing so will prevent problems down the road and result in happier clients.
Earn your retainer fee. Don’t expect your client to pay you if you haven’t done your job.
Put yourself in your clients’ shoes. Make sure that your fee arrangements make sense, are set forth in an understandable manner, and that your invoices–and your description of legal work performed–are easily understood by a lay person.
Avoid unexpected rate increases. Discuss rate increases, added expenses, or additional fees with your clients beforehand. No one likes to be surprised by invoices that are higher than expected.
Send bills on a regular schedule. Don’t let your invoices build up. Instead, bill your clients frequently on a regular schedule, whether it’s bi-weekly or monthly. That way your clients will understand the work that you’ve been doing on their case and won’t be unpleasantly surprised by a large bill comprised of many months’ worth of legal work.
BILLING AND COLLECTING FEES ETHICALLY
When clients fail to pay for services rendered, it can be incredibly frustrating to try to collect monies due while still acting within the boundaries of your ethical obligations. That’s because there are a number of ethical issues to consider when trying to collect delinquent fees.
Withdrawing from representation if non-payment. It is wise to include this possibility in the retainer agreement. Withdrawal from representation is often permitted if doing so will not have a materially adverse effect on the client’s case.
Thank you for your time.
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