Practice Management

"Man am I tired".  "I've got so much work, I'll be up all night".  "I can't seem to catch up".  Deep breaths taken.  A slight moan or wheeze for others to hear.  How about just letting your head fall a little too quickly to the desk in front of you.  Better yet, leaving to go get a caffeine-hyped power drink.  "Does anybody else need a Red Bull"?

There are just some lawyers (and a few judges) that like to tell everybody the degree of their exhaustion.  I guess I am guilty of it from time to time as well.  Lawyers in particular like to flaunt their fatigue as it means something positive to clients and colleagues.  I guess it is like a badge which reads look how hard I am working for you - or against you.

Most of the time, however, I read it as nothing but an excuse as to why you do not have your work completed, or my settlement check order and to my office.  I do not care if you are tired.  Just show me the money!

I jest a little, but I remember a time when I would ask one of my colleagues how he or she was doing and he or she would just say fine, whether it was or was not true.  Now, lawyers like to express their upward boundness, and the fact they have a neat family, a big house, a cool gas guzzler, a large office, a country club membership, kids in private schools by telling you how tired he or she is.

Look, being tired or being in a state of fatigue is not a status symbol.  So, cut it out.  It is also not a defense mechanism, so do not try that with me.  Just because you stay at the office to 3 in the morning does not impress me in that I tend to think you are not really working, but are instead having an affair with your secretary or paralegal, or you are just trying to avoid your nasty home life while sitting in your office and watching reruns of Bay Watch of Sex In The City on your computer.

I read somewhere that a psychologist said that people in general, but I think lawyers in particular, use "tiredness as a proxy for effort".

If you really do not have enough time then narrow your practice field, move home, stop the commute, get rid of the big office and staff, and try to simplify your life.

Unless you have newborn or very young kids at home you should not get to play the fatigue card.

And, that is just my opinion.