Practice Management

I do not know for certain, but it certainly seems this way.  More lawyers are moving home full time or part time.  I get emails weekly from lawyers in transition.  They are cutting overhead drastically as a result.  They are wanting to end their long commutes.  And, what is spurring this on?  High gas prices.  It might not be the full impetus for these actions, but  I think it does represent the straw that is breaking the proverbial camel's back.

Also, to those not moving home, the trend is to get rid of those gas guzzlers they have been driving to and from work, to and from court, and to and from every place else.

As the New York Times is reporting, the higher gas soars, more and more buyers are flocking to small cars.  Just looking around the courthouses, I am noticing this trend as well. 

In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.  ?It?s easily the most dramatic segment shift I have witnessed in the market in my 31 years here,? said George Pipas, chief sales analyst for the Ford Motor Company.  ?The era of the truck-based large S.U.V.?s is over,? said Michael Jackson, chief executive of AutoNation, the nation?s largest auto retailer.

Indeed, and good riddance.  I cannot tell you the number of attorneys I know that went off and purchased huge automobiles, which they used for commuting, because the Bush administration and Congress gave them unbelievable tax right offs on these gas guzzlers years ago.  In downtown Houston I use to watch the parking garage after court as one after another Escalade, Navigator, Sequoia, Expedition, Armada, Q7, Suburban, Tahoe, Durango and the like pulled out.  A veritable parade of heedless extravagance.

It is true that I use to drive mini-vans, but I also had four small children to tote around.  However, in later years I use to be amused by the one person in a gigantic SUV stuck in traffic because they could not use the HOV lane, or waiting in line to pick up their only child at school.  I use to think how painful that was for them.  However, with things as they are, I now find myself getting resentful -- especially the other day when I saw a lady waiting in the school line in her brand new (temporary tags on vehicle) Hummer.  I feel they are affecting the quality of my life and that of my children with the pollution, the gas prices, the higher grocery prices, and now the upcoming increases in school taxes and tuition due to the energy prices.  Tax deals or no tax deals there is not an excuse for such thoughtless disregard.

But, I calm down and realize that not all of us are perfect (especially me), and everybody could do more.  Most of us are trying our best.  Ultimately, I am happy to see the changes, and if gas prices represent the impetus for lawyers across our country to simplify and uncomplicated their lives, to cut their expenses and their stress, to buy cheaper and smaller cars, and to incur less debt then maybe it is worth it.