More praise for
The Curmudgeons Guide to Practicing Law
Part primer. Part comedy. And part keen insight into the practice of law in America today.
Stephen Phillips, Defense Liaison Counsel, In re Orthopedic Bone Screw Product Liability Litigation
Required reading for anyone who is a lawyer, knows a lawyer, or has ever laughed at a lawyer joke.
David Gulley, Ph.D., Navigant Consulting
Ive had Mark Herrmanns Memorandum From A Curmudgeon tacked to my office door for years. Now Ill have to find a bigger tack.
Professor Sue Liemer, Director of Lawyering Skills, School of Law, Southern Illinois University
Mark Herrmanns book is the perfect graduation gift for new lawyers. Dont let the humor fool you into thinking that this book isnt serious; its the most practical introduction to life as a lawyer you can find.
Ian Gallacher, Director, Legal Research and Writing, Syracuse University College of Law
Mark Herrmann has written a funand incredibly usefulbook It could fairly be called Everything Youve Ever Wanted to Know About Law Practice But Were Afraid to Ask. Now, at last, we can find out the tricks of the trade without the risk of appearing stupid. And we can do so with a book so humorous that at times I found myself laughing out loud.
Professor Robert H. Klonoff, Douglas Stripp/Missouri Professor of Law University of Missouri/Kansas City School of Law
The Curmudgeon cuts to the chase about how to practice law successfully Instructive, insightful, and just plain fun!
Gary Garfield, General Counsel, Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC.
This is the only book Ive ever read that I wish had been longer.
Robert C. Weber, Senior Vice President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs, IBM
Im already drafting papers to get Mark Herrmann drummed out of the lawyer corps for spilling the beans.
Ron Coleman, Coleman Law Firm PC, author of The Princeton Review Pre-Law Companion and the Likelihood of Confusion blog
I loved this book! No, reallyI mean it.
Tracy Stratford, Jones Day litigation associate, who knew that thered be hell to pay unless she said something awfully nice about this book
THE CURMUDGEONS GUIDE TO PRACTICING LAW
MARK HERRMANN
Portions of the text of this book were published in some form in the following publications, reprinted here with permission:
Alternate Meanings for Commonly Used Phrases, The National Law Journal (July 21, 1997) (co-authored with John W. Edwards II); Trial Balloon: How To Write: A Memorandum From A Curmudgeon, Litigation (Fall 1997); This is What Im Thinking: A Dialogue Between Partner And Associate From The Partner, Litigation (Fall 1998); and On Self-Justifying Bills, For The Defense (Nov. 2003).
Cover design by ABA Publishing.
The materials contained herein represent the opinions and views of the authors and/or the editors, and should not be construed to be the views or opinions of the law firms or companies with whom such persons are in partnership with, associated with, or employed by, nor of the American Bar Association or the Section of Litigation unless adopted pursuant to the bylaws of the Association.
Nothing contained in this book is to be considered as the rendering of legal advice for specific cases, and readers are responsible for obtaining such advice from their own legal counsel. This book and any forms and agreements herein are intended for educational and informational purposes only.
2006 American Bar Association. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission contact the ABA Copyrights & Contracts Department, or via fax at (312) 988-6030.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Herrmann, Mark
The curmudgeons guide to practicing law.
Mark Herrmann
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file.
e-ISBN: 978-1-62722-837-4
Discounts are available for books ordered in bulk. Special consideration is given to state bars, CLE programs, and other bar-related organizations. Inquire at Book Publishing, ABA Publishing, American Bar Association, 321 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60654.
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Table of Contents
Foreword
The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., The Common Law 1 (1880)
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermeres Fan , in The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde 385, 418 (Barnes & Noble ed. 1994)
English vocabulary includes a variety of terms for people who, like Holmes and Wilde, speak unpleasant truths in memorable language. We might call them, with slightly different slants and any number of opportunities for irony, sages, wits, or wiseacres. Curmudgeon properly refers to a different type that may but need not overlap this first: a cantankerous, disagreeable person, usually elderly.
Lexicographers have put forth several speculations about the origins of the word. Samuel Johnson, who might justly have put his own picture beside the entry, suggested that curmudgeon derived from the French coeur mechant or bad heart. Subsequent scholarship has discredited Johnsons speculation, and the reputable dictionaries now say simply origin unknown. Of the unfalsifiable theories that remain, the one I like best traces the word to the Middle English cur , derived from Germanic verbs meaning to growl, and mudgeon , a Scotch word for grimace.
Language, like law, evolves, and nowadays curmudgeon commonly refers to any gentleman of the world, north of thirty, who delivers some accurate (and impliedly unflattering) assessment of the human condition in a style thats hard to forget. Which brings us to Mark Herrmann and The Curmudgeons Guide to Practicing Law .
Mark is not at all cantankerous or disagreeable, so long as hes dealing with people in the ninety-ninth percentile who have prepared themselves completely for the project at hand. Thats the reason his law firm trusts him with important cases, and, in turn, the reason clients trust the firm. Thats the reason ambitious young lawyers should read this book.
Am I saying that ambitious young lawyers must commit their entire lives to the profession, billing 3,000 hours a year and spending the remainder of their waking time in therapy and divorce court? No. You dont need this book to do that. On the contrary, you may need this book to avoid doing that.
The Curmudgeons Guide is a book about time: your time, the partners time, and the clients time. You make choices about your time, and those choices can consumeor liberatethe time of partners and clients. Throwing your time at problems mindlessly will produce an impressive figure of billable hours. Will that consume, or free, time for partners and clients? If you have to pause and think about the answer, you need to rethink your use of time.
This book can help you do that. For instance: how much time is it worth to a partner in litigation to be able to trust, absolutely , the legal research of even one associate? If Partner spends ten minutes on the computer verifying every hour of Associates work, and A gives P 1,000 hours of work, P will spend more than 160 hours for no better reason than to compensate for the absence of real trust. P will do this because P has learned that most As are not absolutely reliable. P will continue to do this with every A until A convinces P to spend that time adding value for the client. Once A has earned that trust, do you think P wants to see A work for anyone else?