Connections guide life, practice

I went to a good friend’s law school graduation at the University of Chicago a few weeks ago. It was a very joyous day and I was very happy for my friend and proud of his accomplishments.

I didn’t think it would have much of an impact on me, as the graduation day belonged to others, but it did have an impact. My friend who graduated was an Irish law student who came to the United States to study a few years ago at DePaul University College of Law. Somehow our paths crossed, and long story short, he did amazingly well here and realized he wanted to stay and continue to study law. Eventually he ended up at the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated and was offered a great job on the West Coast. Here was someone that if not for the oddities of life, I doubt I would have met. After all he was from across the Atlantic and I was a born and bred Midwestern gal. I wondered had we never met, would his path have ended up where it is today?

On a broader scale, would I have ended up a practicing attorney? I didn’t start out with the intention of ever being one. I am not one of those people who always knew they were going to be a doctor or a lawyer.

To be honest I don’t think I ever even met a lawyer until my early 20s. I do remember thinking to myself that a career in the law was not for me back in high school. Based on my limited knowledge and what was on TV those days, I bought into the stereotype that all lawyers did was talk and fight a lot. I am a lot more informed these days.

My path to my practice today was not the most conventional. It wasn’t crazy either. I had hoped to join the Chicago police, but when that hope became too real, I chose to take a different path. That path led me to take some time off between college and graduate school as I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I started working at a law firm as a receptionist, and by the grace of those who I met, I was helped and guided to law school, through law school, through the bar and now through practice.

One of the commencement speakers was truly astute and spoke about his five career changes throughout his life. He talked about how people from school he never thought he would see again kept popping up in his various job incarnations and how through the years foes had become friends. One of the things he said that resounded with me was that although he may not have realized it at the time, he didn’t get to where he was today alone. People we meet have a way of appearing, disappearing and then reappearing. How true. We do not exist in a vacuum. We may at times feel as if we do exist on our own planet and have gotten to where we are on our own determination and successes, but that is rarely ever the case.

That I suppose is the point of this column. When we begin to think of ourselves as existing on our own, practicing law on our own, we then have a tendency to narrow our view of the world and can even see those whom we share this world with in a negative context.

If we take a step back and really take a hard look at our own legal paths, it will become clear for most of us that we are where we are because of the connections we have made throughout our practice and our lives.

Sitting in the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, watching the graduates, listening intently to the speakers, I wanted to jump up and say, “Remember where you came from and who helped get you here.”

I remembered in that moment, that in the legal field, no matter where we may end up, we all see each other again at some point. If we are mindful of that realization, of the point that the profession is not one in which we exist exclusively, then perhaps we can practice in a profession guided by civility.

Sometimes we forget when we are in a courtroom or responding to a brief that at the other end of the table or written words are colleagues who we need to work with. They are people like you. The practice is incredibly interconnected. When we pause and view our daily practice through different lenses, how we treat one another may also change. We may even realize that the profession is not one in which we strive to win at all costs, no matter whose shoes we step on or who we run over, that we are not always right and that there are many shades of gray.

Sitting at the graduation I silently thanked everyone who I was fortunate enough to cross paths with which led me to writing this article. I also vowed to return the favor down the road and be a good mentor, continue to seek good mentors and always practice with respect. I urge you to take a step back, remember your own path to this practice and continue to work together so the practice is one filled with courtesy for one another and not because we expect any favors from each other. This is what our profession demands — civility and a dedication to professionalism, to us, our clients, opposing counsel and the court.

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