Practice Management

My friend Corinne Tampas of What's Your Authority, an onshore outsource legal research and writing attorney, alerted me to this story.  There is nobody better to find a nugget in an otherwise nondescript article than a legal research attorney.

The issue probably thwarts our image of the United States Supreme Court, where the nine superior judges or justices in our county congregated in the Temple of Justice in Washington, D.C., surrounded by books, and staff, and law clerks, almost in a huddle, trying to resolve for each other and themselves the big issues of the day.  But, maybe not so.

In an article by Robert Barnes of the Washington Post entitled At 88, Justice Stevens gives no hint of retiring, the author helps uncover a startling fact about Justice Stevens, and no doubt the other secretive Supreme Court Justices.  Justice Stevens does not work much at the Supreme Court at all.  He works from his home in Florida except when the Court is hearing oral arguments.  In the words of the article, Justice Stevens "telecommutes".

Now telecommuting is itself a pretty old fashion term that simple does not do justice (pun intended) to the phenomena taking place here.  In short, Justice Stevens, although the longest serving and oldest Justice on the Court, having been born in 1920, is a Third Wave lawyer.  In short, he works from home using nothing but a telephone and broadband connection to do the work of the Court from Florida.  He is a downshifter, which allows him no doubt to continue with this full time job.  It is obviously a work-life balance issue that keeps the Justice still working and centered after all of these years.

There are so many lawyers and law firms out there that insist they they cannot operate in this way.  They cannot move the base of their operation home, they cannot move their staff home, and they cannot work with others primarily with the use of the Internet and a phone.  I have run into older lawyers especially that will not change, and they do not effectively use or want to use cheap tech to its fullest.  But, to these I ask, do you think you are better than an 88 year old Justice of the Supreme Court?  If it is the wave of the future for him, should you not accept it as the wave of the future for you?

I am not sure what people would think if they understood that Justice Stevens, and likely the other Justices, mainly opine from home, possibly eased into a couch or an easy chair, communicating with the help of some cheap wireless router.  But, what many know that some lawyers will not accept today is that this is the preferred way to work.