2011 started nice with a great time at the Penguin Plunge, but has been pretty much work and escrow frustration ever since, with a big touch of something-I-ate wiping me out.  At least the something-I-ate is helping me get started on the gym goals I set after seeing the Penguin Plunge photos, without the bother of actually going to the gym.

Just going through one of those periodic points of time with the practice where I wonder where to go and what to do.  Adapting to the recession led me to take on some work I didn’t really enjoy, and it came to a head in the last month.  With more than 10,000 attorneys in San Diego County there are plenty of choices and being more selective about the cases and clients I take on, even in a recession, is better for everyone in the long run.  Especially since I can’t go back and repo someone’s divorce when they stiff me, and I suspect the bar and karma would both frown on me deliberately trying to stress out a client, former or otherwise, just for the joy of payback.

The swimming’s always been good therapy for these times, but I’ve been out of the pool the last couple of months trying to let some things heal (and die, in the case of at least one respiratory bug).  Need to get back in the water.  Need to go to my happy place.  Need to make sure the Crackberry is turned off when I get there.

I expect the Labor Day weekend will be getting an early start in the next couple of hours.

No big plans for the weekend – still taking things day by day as I try and get over this respiratory thing.  Probably won’t even make it to the Triton Invitational water polo tournament over at UCSD.  It might be fun to watch, but with only five teams the tournament itself is just a shadow of it’s former self.

Been doing some cleaning up of my pending projects this week.  Maybe pruning would be a better word there, or maybe purging. I love practicing law, but have made no secret here of my disdain for the business of law.  For a couple of projects lately it’s been seeming like I spend more time working on getting paid than I actually spend on the projects themselves.  Life’s too short to deal with that nonsense, even if it means a few less billables until some new projects materialize.

So on that note, I’m celebrating Labor Day for the next 84 hours or so, and while my shop might not be organized in any way, shape or form, I can celebrate the trips we’ve taken courtesy of Spinner’s organized labor entity (San Francisco, Palm Springs, San Jose, Irvine),  their efforts to give him a better work environment, and by extension, the union benefits that give us a better life together.

I whine here on occasion about the Business of Law.  I like Practice, but never really got into this to spend hours each month reconciling accounts, dealing with accounts receivable issues, et cetera.  Every now and then I even think about jumping ship, though I’m not really certain what I’d do with my time.  Even being a stay-at-home leash holder for Diego only takes so many hours in a day, and he tends to get cranky if I schedule too many things during naptime.

Jumping to other jobs isn’t really an option either.  The market is non-existent, and I have no interest in relocating to another city.  Just talking to other solo and small-firm stakeholders around town I hear enough about the state of the market to know that no matter how bad solo practice gets, it may be the best thing around.  There are too many stories of laid-off BigLaw attorneys applying for receptionist positions and small firms lowering their advertised pay-rates just as a tool to reduce the size of the applicant pool.

So, quite bluntly, I wasn’t surprised at all to see this post at Above The Law.  Law firms advertising for associates at below-minimum wage rates of pay?  $10 per hour for part-time associates?  Sure.  The market is glutted with unemployed and underemployed professionals, the economy is trashed, and I’m certainly not buying into the hype that the recession is behind us.  No matter how frustrated I get, looks like I’m staying where I’m at.

I learned a long time ago that the Business of Law isn’t that different from countless other professions.  Sure, I’ve got my little card from the Bar, but on another level my work isn’t that far removed from various other consultants and technical writers.  Various legal pundits have been on a kick lately about the death of the billable hour; we must find another way to bill that blah, blah, blah.  

Yeah, that’s about as far as I get in those articles, so it was refreshing to see a good piece on the pros of the billable hour today that mirrors my experience from Jhames (a designer).  Personally, flat fees have a time and a place, just like several other masochistic activities I can think of.  Running comes to mind, as does getting my blood drawn.  Billable hours at a negotiated rate are the best way of measuring value and services that’s fair to both parties.

That said, while I love to do the occasional pro bono work, take everything Jhames says about the time-wasting proclivities of clients on a flat fee and square it for clients who aren’t paying anything.  He hints at the problem near of the end of his post when he discusses clients who aren’t being charged enough: without fail it’s the pro bonos (and my clients from my Public Defender days) who stand me up for meetings and generally run me ragged holding their hands as though they were in kindergarten.   Hate to say that most people seem to need a financial incentive to show common courtesy, but some days it certainly seems to be true.

This was supposed to be the day I got my mojo back.  Spent the end of last week focussing on the Business of Law because I was kinda sick of the law itself.  Family law does that to me sometimes, and I have way too much of that on my desk at the moment, to the detriment of the transactional work that I truly enjoy.  Gotta go where the money is, especially in this economy.  But the mojo wasn’t on my desk this morning.  It’s on my calendar, in the form of deadlines throughout the week, but it just isn’t here.  I looked behind the Afrin, and under the Naproxen, and checked to see if Diego had chewed it up (like so many other things these days), but it just isn’t here.  Hopefeully it will turn up after my nap, otherwise this could be an ugly week.

Dear [Redacted]:Poor planning, starting with getting knocked up and continuing through failing to take time off work for your paternity hearing that’s been on the calendar for three months, does not lead to an emergency on my part.  Given the history of your conduct in this case it barely warrants a raised eyebrow.

- C -

Pro per adversaries are so much fun.