Reflections on 30 years in law

I remember it like it was yesterday.  In Junior High School I remember telling myself:  “Self, you’re going to graduate from high school, not go to college, get a job working as a temp in some law firm somewhere, make three thousand dollars (seemed a lot in 1978), move to L.A. and try to become a movie star.”

Four out of five ain’t bad.  And how many people truly to move to L.A. with $3K and become a movie star?  There was logical reason as to why I didn’t end up in L.A. and that was because Seattle was quickly becoming “Hollywood North” and why fight up-stream when Hollywood was coming up here.  (Please Note:  Seattle was “Hollywood North” for about two years and then Hollywood went more North and has camped in Vancouver, B.C. ever since.)

But this blog isn’t about my failed acting career – it is focused on “get a job working as a temp in some law firm somewhere” and as of January 3, 2013 I will have worked in law in some capacity for 30 years.

In the fall/winter of 1982 I was working as a Santa at Aurora Village Mall and did a week-long temp job through my temp company “Hallmark Temps” working in a stamp making factory.  Again, another blog for another time.  But January 3^rd, 1983 I landed my first job working in a Law firm.  It was “Betts Patterson & Mines” and I was brought in to work on the WPPSS litigation.  At the time it was the largest class action suit ever brought and where money can be found – you’ll find attorneys.  Most every law firm in Seattle was pulled into the case and “BP&M” was right in the thick of it representing Chemical Bank.  I was hired, as a temp, to organize binders.  My desk was a window sill in the Bank of California Building.

Little did I know that this “bill paying job” would expand out for 30 years.  Sounds like a career...don’t it?  Sounds like a vocation.  A calling.  Well for me, and for every day of those 30 years it has been simply what it has been:  A job.  You see, normal people would gladly focus on what they wanted to do, get that education, seek that job, find it, and live (hopefully) happily-ever-after.  And if maybe I had actually raised the $3K and gone to Hollywood I would be sipping margaritas by my pool in Hollywood while servants waited on me hand and foot – three Oscars on my mantle, a gajillion dollars in my bank account, etc. but one makes their choices and my choice (besides marriage, home mortgage, children, etc.) was to stay in law...and write.

There are those lucky few who actually get a job they love doing.  As someone once said:  “Find a job you love and you’ll never work another day in your life.”  I refer to this as a “soul feeding” job.  A job that, while you’re doing it, you feel your soul being fed.  What feeds my soul?  Writing and teaching.  Try as I might, though, I can’t seem to make a living at either one...yet.  So if you can’t find your soul fulfilling job, you find a “bill paying job” and feed your soul on the side.

Some reflections on 30 years of “bill paying jobs:”

I’ve been sexually harassed.

I’ve been praised.

I’ve been put on an “improvement plan.”

I’ve been honored.

I’ve been yelled at – even in a meeting with all staff.

I’ve had to fire people.

I’ve had to hire people.

I’ve heard more stories about the most bizarre things you can even imagine (tattooed teeth?).

I’ve cried.

I’ve been cried on.

I’ve sent out e-mails to “all-hands” when I shouldn’t have.

I’ve found seemingly lost documents that no one else could find.

I’ve made more than 10,000 boxes, at least.

I’ve copied more than a million pages, at least.

I’ve watched friends get laid off.

I’ve played “good cop” to HR’s “bad cop.”

I’ve watched a co-worker eat 40 mini Hershey bars in one sitting.

I’ve coordinated attacks on leftovers from various meetings to feed my staff and co-workers.

I’ve pissed people off.

I’ve never been fired (yet).

I’ve worked with some AMAZING people.

I’ve worked with people I could go the rest of my life and not see again and I’d be fine.

I’ve flirted.

I’ve acted like an idiot.

I’ve said the wrong thing.

I’ve done the wrong thing.

I’ve run the streets of Seattle delivering documents on deadline.

I’ve mentored.

I’ve been mentored.

I’ve taken advantage of an open bar and a buffet.

I’ve been trained.

I’ve done training.

I’ve worked hours of overtime.

I’ve fallen asleep at my desk.

I’ve believed we’ve been working on a higher purpose.

I’ve believed we’re just doing what we’re doing to make a living.

I’ve lost co-workers to the great law-firm in the sky.

I’ve made enemies.

I’ve made friends.

I’ve lived.

The simply reality of a “bill-paying job” is that I would leave it in a heartbeat if I sold a script or won the lotto and was able to feed my soul.

But, you may ask, after 30 years did NONE of this feed your soul?  Well – when I was managing a department – that was when I truly felt like I was doing something to better this world.  I worked hard to be the manager that I always wanted to have and (sadly, more often than not – did not have).  I may not have been the best manager – but I know my staff believed in me and respected me.

But feed my soul?  If I’m being truly honest – working 30 years in law has not fed my soul – it has EXPANDED my soul.  And that, besides bringing home a paycheck and working in-doors, has been worth it.

To another 30 years.  Or when I sell that script.  Whichever comes first.