The connection between our patron saint & your iolta trust account

Note: This is taken from a discussion over at www.LawyerControl.com. Suggest you check it out if what you read below sparks your interest.

The connection between our Patron Saint and our IOLTA account is thatMoore was known to be so committed to his aspirations that he wouldoccasionally self-flagellant. That is, in an effort to demonstrate hiscommitment he would physically harm himself.

Next time you go to a Bar Mixer & you’re standing around with agroup of lawyers try this experiment. You just find an opportunity inthe conversation to sigh & mention that you spent fifty hours in theoffice last week. Then see if some other lawyer doesn’t try &out-do you by announcing he or she spent MORE time in the office thanyou did. 9 out of 10 times this experiment will work.

So why do you suppose lawyers are going around taking pride in howmany hours they’re spending in the office instead of how efficientlytheir offices run so they can invest more hours with their family &friends? Isn’t spending time at the office the modern lawyers’ way ofdemonstrating his or her commitment, albeit to a different deity?

Don’t lawyers find all kinds of ways to make things MORE difficultfor themselves than things have to be? And then take pride in how hardthey work, instead of how efficiently we run our practices?

A ritual is any prescribed code of behavior regulating socialconduct. For self-flagellants it’s the ritual of beating themselvesupon the back with a leather whip until they tear the flesh todemonstrate solidarity with Jesus. For lawyers its the ritual of“working hard” for our clients instead of working smart for them and forourselves. There are partners of law firms who half-way-brag about thenumber of divorces they’re on because of their commitment to the lawfirm!

Of course we don’t use a leather whip to demonstrate our commitmentto helping our clients but we allow ourselves to be surrounded by otherinstruments of pain.
Like our IOLTA client property trust accounts.

Think about how ludicrous this is: We graduate from law school andwe’re told over & over & over again about the heavy weight ofresponsibility we have for managing & accounting for our clients’money and property. That if we don’t we’re going to lose our barlicenses (akin to going to hell). But then those very same people whotell us about how bad things are going to go for us if we screw-up ourIOLTA’s…they don’t bother to ever actually teach us a simple system forhow to set-up, manage & reconcile a law firm client property trustaccount?!?!?

And hundreds-of-thousands of lawyers simply accept this arrangementwithout question, no they actually take pride in how many hours theyhave to spend in the office???

Our patron saint certainly gave us plenty to aspire to. But goingout of our way to make things harder on ourselves than they have to beshouldn’t be one of them.