ID-700-Joseph Peiffer

Q: Two weeks ago I left the law firm I’ve been with for sixteen years. I share the concerns of the person who just spoke and it reminds me of something someone once told me: if you always do what you always did you’re always going to get what you always got. That’s why I’m no longer with that firm. It’s time to break that mold and to start over. It’s a paradigm shift that I’m seeking to learn how to let go of those things and empower others to help me. That’s the fear right now, to let go and move forward. How do I let go and move forward?
A: The standards that we are taught and the standards that we ought to keep in the practice of law are very different from the standards that we must use in the business of running a law firm. In the practice of law you never ask a question you don’t know the answer to. In the practice of law you never present a case without turning over every stone. In the practice of law you don’t make mistakes because what happens when you make mistakes in the practice of law? You get sued for malpractice. You get bar grievances, other lawyers ridicule you and it hurts your reputation. That’s what’s been drilled into you for the last sixteen years. Business, it’s mostly about making mistakes. You want to fail fast. You want to fail cheap and you want to move on. You want to make lots of quick mistakes. So how do you let go of control? Have an objective standard. Have an objective criteria that you can use before you let go of control. You see, letting go of control without having an objective criteria or an objective standard is not called delegation, it’s called abdication. I am not advocating abdication. I am advocating delegation. How do you know if this job is done to your satisfaction? Because if you don’t know how this job is done to your satisfaction, how am I supposed to know how this job is done to your satisfaction? How are we supposed to have a conversation about the issue without it devolving into a personal argument?