©2019. Published in GPSolo eReport, Vol. 8, No. 11, June 2019, by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This  information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association or the copyright holder. 

As Queen and David Bowie so eloquently put it:

Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you, no man ask for
Under pressure that burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets 1

As the owner of a small virtual law firm in Seattle, Washington, I have woken up many times with that song in my head, mindful of the day before me. I imagine most attorneys in solo and small firm practices have joined me in humming that song a time or two. It’s the nature of our chosen careers to hear the constant drumbeat of the high-intensity responsibility of practicing law and running a small business. When does it stop?

This year marks my 20th anniversary of owning a law practice. Like so many other solo and small firm practitioners, I’ve worked relentlessly to establish my firm in a competitive marketplace; to finely tune all the systems and processes that a small law firm needs; and, of course, to provide an outstanding level of client service. That all takes time—time spent working through weekends instead of joining friends and family at fun events, time spent working while on vacations, and time spent tossing and turning through sleepless nights, wondering how to handle an internal problem in my office or address a troublesome client issue. As my 20th anniversary grew near, I sensed that taking a significant break from my practice would tremendously benefit my mental well-being and help me maintain my motivation for the years ahead.

In January, I embarked on a vacation that lasted for essentially an entire month. I traveled to Australia, where I thoroughly enjoyed exploring Sydney and Melbourne, including making friends with some extroverted kangaroos, tasting wine in the Yarra Valley, and attending the Australian Open tennis tournament. And, lo and behold! No one appeared to have died due to my departure. Knock on wood, I have not been sued for malpractice nor hunted down by the tax authorities. The world continued to revolve on its axis, and I now feel more connected to it after some much-needed downtime. So, how did I do it?

Plan Ahead

1. Consider your dates. I began to put plans into motion almost a year before I left. Most importantly, I needed to ensure that I had adequate attorney and administrative support during my vacation period. In my firm, January is a terrific month to take a vacation. Most of my office team members want to take vacations during the holidays or perhaps in February, for a long President’s Day weekend. Consider which month might work best for your particular firm and areas of practice.
2. Let your clients know of your plans well in advance. I started informing our firm’s clients in October that I would be out of the office in January through several means, including our client newsletters, notices in their monthly invoices, a bolded notification in my e-mail signature line, and direct reminders whenever I spoke to them on the phone or by e-mail. This long lead time to communicate my absence proved to be quite wise. No one was shocked or panicked, or felt that their needs wouldn’t be adequately met in my absence.
3. Adjust office routines to accommodate your time away. My law firm has had a set billing cycle at the beginning of each month. I needed to adjust our long-established routine of reviewing and finalizing client invoices due to the New Year’s holiday coupled with my flight to Sydney on January 3. After discussions with the vendor who generates our bills and other office team members involved with billing, we agreed that the December bills would be sent out right after Christmas instead of early January. We informed our clients of the change in our billing schedule in early November so there would be no surprises. I also budgeted for the cash flow differential that would occur from shortening the December billing period, as well as for my lack of billable time in January.
4. Communicate with office team members and third parties. Early notice of my departure allowed office team members to spot potential issues that might arise when I was gone, discuss them with me, and brainstorm solutions. Over time, as various items came up, the inevitable question was raised, “How should this be handled when you’re gone?” This planning with my team helped alleviate panic for everyone when it was time for me to board the plane for my exceedingly long Qantas flight.                                                                                                                                                                                                 In addition, I normally teach a continuing legal education course at the very end of December. My participation at that time would have made leaving in early January problematic because I would have lacked sufficient time to engage in the earlier-than-usual monthly billing process. I informed the course organizers of my departure well in advance, and they were graciously willing to bump up the dates of the course by a week.
5. Consider a limited durable power of attorney. Depending on your desires for a longer vacation, you may not be able or willing to be accessible during your time away. If that’s the case, consider executing a limited durable power of attorney—allowing a trusted member of your office team to take over certain key tasks, such as signing checks or agreements with new clients or firm vendors, during your absence.

Be Realistic

In relation to my law practice, I knew that I could not realistically avoid all work responsibilities for an entire month. However, I determined not to be thrown off or frustrated when my professional responsibilities popped up while I traveled. I brought with me to Australia my laptop, mobile printer, MiFi cellular hot spot, and cell phone with a global pass—intending to work. I traveled in cities with adequate Internet coverage. Significantly, I purposely put some open spaces into my itinerary for work. If I had planned on never working at all for an entire month, I would likely have become angry and frustrated when issues arose requiring my attention. That frustration would have compounded if, say, I had to cancel some sort of expensive tour due to work responsibilities. Instead, I enjoyed several one-day tours where I was off-grid, the shorter formats enabling me to check in with the office on the following day. I ultimately ended up working about five hours per week. Because I had set those expectations and adjusted my schedule in advance, rather than being frustrated about having to work, I was instead delighted that it only took such a limited amount of time!

Share the Fun with Your Clients

I tend to be fairly camera happy, and I enjoyed taking hundreds of photos during my time in Australia. I shared some of these photos on social media and in our client newsletters. Clients seemed interested in my trip and more willing to be supportive of my time away when they could share in the fun of the journey.

Care about Yourself

Queen and David Bowie said it right: “This is our last dance.” In addition to being lawyers, we need to remember to be humans as well. And humans can’t work nonstop. I found that taking a longer vacation helped me tremendously in terms of my ability to unplug and come back refreshed and energized. I can hardly wait to return to Sydney and Melbourne, and also discover Tasmania in January 2021!

Notes

1. Queen / David Bowie, “Under Pressure,” 1982.

Reprinted with permission from the American Bar Association GPSolo eReport.

This article is the fourth and final installment in our series exploring the stories, lessons, and advice of high-level athletes who went on to become successful solo and small firm attorneys.

This article series explores the relationship between sports and the law, and how athletics provides the perfect training ground of hard work, discipline, strategic skills, competitiveness, passion, balance, teamwork, and sportsmanship—all desired qualities for running a successful solo or small firm legal practice. In my first article I introduced four notable athletes who went on to develop successful solo and small firm practices, and who have been featured throughout this article series: Kathleen McRoberts, Merrell Bailey, Bob Mionske, and Patricia Miranda. My second article explored how a background in athletics can impact an attorney’s fundamental decisions about his or her career. My third article explained how aspects of the athletic experience can influence an attorney’s approach to practicing law. In this article I will discuss the valuable lessons learned from sports concerning teamwork and sportsmanship, and how these lessons impact an attorney’s approach to engaging as a lawyer. I’ll also address how involvement in sports provides a unique perspective that assists attorneys in tackling an ever-present issue in our profession: work/life balance.

Teamwork

As a former junior tennis player, I loved playing doubles. Successful doubles teams confer briefly and frequently with each other to discuss the strategy of each point and provide constant positive reinforcement. My experience playing doubles with Kathleen McRoberts strongly influences how I run my law firm today. My firm employs a team approach in handling our client files, and we frequently confer with each other to review and edit each other’s work and to select the best strategy to apply to a given situation.

Merrell Bailey described the lessons about teamwork she learned from rowing: “With rowing, everyone needs to know what to expect. Everyone needs to know what the terms are. You have to know what you are trying to accomplish, and everyone needs to work together to make things happen. So it is such a great microcosm of the business world. A single rowing shell is the perfect business model.” She continued, “You’ve got eight people who have to know what to do and how to get things done. And you’ve got the coxswain as the manager making sure that everything happens. Everybody has to know what the goal is and speak a common language of stroke rate or how you even get in and out of the boat. That needs to be very structured. If you can succeed as a sweep rower in an eight, you can be a very successful business person.”

Sportsmanship

In a sports competition, it’s called sportsmanship; in a legal matter, it’s called civility. The principle is the same: treating your opponent with a sense of dignity and respect and playing fairly by the rules. Many athletes learn key lessons about sportsmanship that they later adhere to, as high standards of civility, as they practice law. Kathleen noted, “Everybody knows, there’s always the cheater in tennis. You see it all the time. The ball was in, but they’re calling it out. The analogy to that is working with other attorneys who are basically calling the ball out when it was in. You don’t have to play that way.”

Patricia Miranda explained the similarities between wrestling competitions and legal battles: “Everybody is going to lose at some point, and it’s very humbling. With sportsmanship, that’s what you recognize. That person across the way could just as well be you. It’s not an offense to anyone that they want to win, too. You have a right to want to win; they have a right to want to win. They had the gall, same as you, to step into the ring and that deserves a bit of respect. I feel that same way about my colleagues. This profession is a weight that you carry, a great honor. They chose to be responsible and to absorb anxiety for their clients. They chose to try to make a difference. They chose to step in the ring. It takes a lot before I believe less of opposing counsel. I’ll always give them the chance.”

Similarly, Merrell remarked: “You realize when you’re an athlete that you’re competing against someone down the street attending a different high school or across town attending a different college. You’re going to run into these people. The sporting world is very small, and so is the business and legal world. You compete fiercely during the competition, and then when it’s over you need to be able to sit down with those people and have a good time and enjoy them.” She continued, “It never hurts to be nice. Today you might be the winner, but tomorrow you’re going to be the loser—so know that you have to be kind to people all the way through because we’re all in this competition together.”

Work/Life Balance

Does experience as an athlete impact an attorney’s current choices in pursuing both a successful law practice and other interests? Bob Mionske offered this comparison: “In bicycle racing, the way the sport has developed, you race all the time. You’re always racing. That’s kind of like the legal practice. You wake up, and there’s always a fire to put out. And there’s always something you can be doing. So, you have to have endurance. When you’re training, you can’t go out and overdo it for a week or two. You’ll put yourself in a hole. It’s the same with your practice. You have to take time out. You need to mix in the things in life that enable you to endure and keep going.”

“As an athlete, you try to find a balance between your commitment to your sport and your commitment to whatever else is in your life,” Kathleen explained. “Because you can’t just be a tennis player, because then you burn out. And you can’t just be all about your legal practice, because you will burn out.”

An athlete’s continued interest in a sport can create a pleasurable option in pursuing another interest outside of law. For example, I’ve enjoyed my deep involvement, originally as a board member and now as a member of the advisory board, of a Seattle-area nonprofit, Tennis Outreach Programs (TOPs). TOPs operates a tennis facility providing a safe and supportive environment for children to pursue tennis regardless of their economic circumstances. I’m also looking forward to attending one of tennis’s four major tournaments, the Australian Open, next January.

Kathleen still plays tennis, coaching her daughter, who is a competitive junior tennis player in Idaho. Bob continues to cycle, noting, “Living in Portland, there’s a pretty developed cycling culture here. I ride my bike everywhere I go. My friends are all cyclists. The Bike Law Network of attorneys is filled with cycling lawyers, and we meet up and do rides. Cycling is a large part of my life and continues to be.” Merrell happily reported, “I still row today, at the Orlando Rowing Club as a Master. We row at dawn. It’s beautiful to watch the sun rise. It’s such a Zen sport, and it’s very quiet. You row in the dark, and then the sun comes up and it’s just gorgeous out there.”

Conclusion

Bob, Merrell, Patricia, and Kathleen provide great insights into how the careers of notable athletes have translated into careers as successful solo and small firm attorneys. Their sports differ, and, as practicing lawyers, their practice areas differ. But their stories are similar and can serve to motivate and inspire all attorneys—regardless of whether those attorneys are former Olympians, casual players who enjoy a friendly competition at the family ping-pong table, or anywhere in between.

Reprinted with permission from the American Bar Association GPSolo eReport.

This article is the third of four installments exploring the stories, lessons, and advice of high-level athletes who went on to become successful solo and small-firm attorneys.

This article series explores the relationship between sports and the law, and how athletics provides the perfect training ground of hard work, discipline, strategic skills, competitiveness, passion, balance, teamwork, and sportsmanship—all desired qualities for running a successful solo or small firm legal practice. In my first article I introduced four notable athletes who went on to develop successful solo and small firm practices, and who will be featured throughout this article series: Kathleen McRoberts, Merrell Bailey, Bob Mionske, and Patricia Miranda. My second article explored how a background in athletics can impact an attorney’s fundamental decisions about his or her career. In this article, I will discuss how aspects of the athletic experience can influence an attorney’s approach to practicing law.

Work Ethic

Athletics demands a high level of commitment. When I was a senior in high school, my role as the top-ranked female on my tennis team was to assist my coach in ensuring that our team worked hard during our daily practices. One afternoon, one of our players appeared to be sneaking out of practice. I called out, “Hey, why are you leaving early? Practice isn’t done yet.” The player responded, “I need to leave early. Prom is tonight, and I have to get ready.” I’m sure my jaw dropped, as I stared at her in stunned silence. I had been working at a part-time job to pay tennis-related expenses, attending classes, studying hard, and practicing and competing in my sport. Between all of that, I had no idea until that moment that the prom, considered by some to be a hallmark of high school, was even occurring! As an athlete, clearly, my high school experience was atypical. Like many accomplished athletes, I cultivated a strong work ethic and the related ability to focus my time and energy on the elements most critical to successfully managing a variety of roles. This work ethic, fortunately, has never left me. It serves me well today as I tackle the ongoing responsibilities inherent in practicing law and running a small business.

Patricia Miranda explained how the lessons she learned about hard work as a wrestler apply to her current role as an attorney: “These are the skills I built before. It was simpler back then. But I still need to be my own friend. I still need to set little goals. I still need to be proud of what I do, and go to sleep tired every night. That used to be something that would go through my head when I was training: ‘I need to do everything I can do to earn this rest.’ And in a legal case, it’s like that too. I need to be okay with how much I put into it.”

As a bike racer, Bob Mionske developed valuable insights concerning his capacity for work. He stated, “I figured out how to push myself past the limit. I would pay a heavy price if I did that, but I could do it. I found that to be important. I thought: ‘Well, if I can do that with my body, if I could take on difficult odds like that and stay focused, I should be able to do the same thing as a trial attorney.’ The first trial I won felt a lot like winning a bike race. It was very gratifying. I had done a lot of work.”

For Kathleen McRoberts, “the defeats were the most defining moments, not the victories.” She continued, “In my entire tennis career, there was only one time when I felt I did not give 100 percent. And I know exactly what match it was. I lost, and it was a bad loss. And it has stuck with me to this day. I always remember that feeling of not giving my best. I hate that feeling. It was just awful. My mom was there, and I remember thinking, ‘Why did we travel all this way to this tournament so I could come out and not give it my all?’ I always gave a hundred percent when I stepped onto that court. And it’s the same now in law.”

Competitiveness

Athletes tend to be highly competitive. Merrell Bailey laughed as she discussed her competitive nature: “I was the valedictorian of my law school class, so I think the whole competitive thing is probably imbedded in me. Now, I absolutely get fired up about my law practice. I love what I do.”

A key difference in approaching an athletic competition as opposed to a legal battle lies in the very nature of an attorney’s work—representing someone else rather than, as an athlete, achieving a good result for yourself. Bob was quick to point out that competing as an attorney differed from competing as an athlete. In describing his first trial, Bob affirmed that he obtained “a good, just result for my client.” He paused, then continued, “And that was a different feeling than doing something for myself, getting a pat on the back in sports. It was a lot more powerful, to help someone else rather than yourself.”

Patricia expressed similar sentiments: “Any case seems like the entire world. And it really can be in a lot of ways. It’s much harder than wrestling, because it matters to somebody else and not just me. I think that makes it much harder in terms of the pressure. ‘Some dad isn’t going to see his kids anymore because I wasn’t able to learn all the right cases and arguments.’ My goodness, that is so much more important than, ‘If I don’t win the semifinals, then I will not be in the Olympic finals.’” She chuckled. “That matters to nobody but me.” Patricia continued, “I get very competitive when I see an injustice being done. That’s where you are going to see me get very revved up about something. I try to calm myself down and then be practical. If there’s an injustice, it’s very easy to mobilize my competitiveness. But if it’s something that I don’t feel is a deep injustice, then my competitiveness is limited to competing with myself. I need to know that I did not drop the ball. I need to know that I’m making a difference, and that my client is getting the best attention, service, and care.”

Strategy and Preparation

To achieve success in athletics, an athlete must prepare. As a tennis player, I needed to study my opponents, analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and come into every match with both a plan of attack and a Plan B to implement if my initial strategies prove ineffective. As an attorney, I find the need for strategy and preparation in order to earn good results for my clients to be remarkably similar to my needs on the tennis court.

Similarly, Kathleen stated, “One of the things I’m really good at, and I’m assuming my athletic endeavors are what helped me with this, is that I have a keen understanding of strategy. It’s that idea that every point in tennis does not have the same value. It might look like it does, but it doesn’t. If it’s 30 all, that point has more value than the first point of the game, right? There’s a lot of strategy in tennis. The ability to strategize is a strength of mine. It’s knowing when to push people, push judges, and knowing when to step back. Having a really good read on the situation. Knowing when things are more valuable, at what time. I really think all of my athletic endeavors have honed that strategy piece.”

Merrell echoed these thoughts, in terms of her responsibilities as a business owner: “As a managing partner, you have to know what you’re trying to accomplish on a certain date, and then you back into what you have to do to get there, which is exactly what you do to get ready for any type of competition.”

“I was a race winner, I won a lot of races,” Bob explained. “I wasn’t necessarily one of the best guys, but that’s the beautiful thing about bicycle racing. It’s highly psychological. The strongest rider doesn’t always win. There are so many variables in a bicycle race. To lay out a simple example, if the best rider at the very end takes off, and the second-best rider decides to chase him down and pulls everyone up to him; well, it’s a guaranteed fact that neither of them will win the race. That leaves it open for the third, the fourth, or the twentieth best guy. Bicycle racing is highly tactical. There’s a lot of strategy. It really keeps your mind in the game.” Bob continued, “One comparison between bike racing and practicing law is that, what helps your strategy in cycling is having an idea of what your competitor is thinking, what their strategy might be. I notice some attorneys get so headstrong in their positions—it’s ‘us against the other side.’ They don’t stop to think about what the other side might be thinking, and what it’s like to stand in their shoes and the variables that they’re confronting. If you can take the time to do that, it helps you alter your strategy. I think knowing what your competitor in a case is doing and what motivates them is very valuable.”

My fourth and final article in this series will discuss how involvement in athletics can contribute to an attorney’s legal skills regarding teamwork, sportsmanship, and the ability to handle pressure.