Editor's note: This is part of a series providing an inside look at how lawyers view their role in the  profession as they age.

For Andrew M. Epstein, being an octogenarian litigator in a Big Law firm has brought success and satisfaction.

At 82, he has no interest in retiring and he hopes to continue practicing as long as he can. He says drafting documents, arguing cases and the variety in his multifaceted practice bring a challenge and stimulation that's better than any round of golf.

Epstein has been with Wilson Elser in Madison, New Jersey, since 2016, when the firm recruited him and his colleagues, William Lipkind and Neil Prupis. Epstein says the firm brought on his group because it was eager to have Lipkind and Prupis' taxation practice.

Lipkind, 81, and Prupis, 78, are both still practicing there, Epstein said.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Did you make a conscious decision to continue working rather than to retire?

I don't see any reason to stop. If I saw some reason to stop, I would stop. But I don't see any reason to stop.

And retirement doesn't appeal to you?

No. Not particularly.

Are you a workaholic? Do you work a lot of hours?

I work as much as I need to work. I do whatever it is I have to do. I wouldn't say I was a workaholic but I work hard.

Tell me about your practice.

I'm doing a lot of different things and have always done a lot of different things. I do family law. I do probate litigation. I do commercial litigation. I do real estate litigation. I do legal ethics. I'll go to municipal court. I do appeals.

I'll do whatever I do in the ordinary course of the practice of law. Chancery work. There's some stuff I used to do more of that I don't do that much of anymore. I don't do much prerogative writs, but I could take one of those if I had to. And you know, odd cases come up and I wind up gravitating towards them.

Do your clients know how old you are? Do you think it makes a difference to them?

I don't hide my age. People tell me I don't look my age. You know, I don't know that it makes any difference. We do have ageism in this country, but I don't lack for work.

Do you teach other attorneys in the firm?

People ask me questions, and I answer them if I know the answers or I know where to look, I'll help them.

People can be very unforgiving of older people who are seen as less than sharp, as President Joe Biden learned recently. Do you encounter that sort of hostility?

I'm older than Biden, two months and 17 days older than Biden. Occasionally, but not generally in connection with practice. A couple of years ago I spent Christmas weekend in a hospital with pneumonia, and I felt they treated me like I was some dribbling old doofus, which I found insulting. If you encounter someone in a random situation and they know how old you are, they may treat you differently.

Is your firm friendly toward older attorneys?

They have tiers of when you can't be an equity partner, but I was past that age when I came here.

How long have you been at Wilson Elser?

I've been working [at Wilson Elser] since January of 2016. I was in a firm in West Orange, which closed at the end of December 2015, and several others came over to Wilson [Elser].

The other two principal people in the prior firm aren't of a significantly different age than I am. They wanted several lawyers at the firm. I didn't have anything to do with the closing of one firm or going to the other. I was told we're closing and we're going, so that's where we were.

What did you bring to the firm? Do you have a lot of contacts in the profession?

I do what I do. Other than the fact that I happen to be 82 years old, I don't think that what I'm doing is substantially different from what I've done for the first 57 years of practice.

Tell me about your career. Where else have you worked?

I clerked for a judge when I got out of law school, but after that year, I went into a firm that my father and uncle had founded in Elizabeth, New Jersey, at the time, and subsequently moved to Springfield and Morristown. Now it's no more. That firm was Epstein, Epstein, Brown and Bosec. I practiced there for 32 years, and after that period of time, I left the firm. And I went to a firm in West Orange, Lampf, Lipkind, Prupis & Petigrow, and stayed there until the end of 2015 when the firm closed, and then came here.

So you haven't done much jumping around.

No, I'm, not inclined to do that. Today, a lot of people do. That seems to be the norm. It's a different world from the world that I was in when I first started practicing law. The profession is drastically different.

Do you have jury trials?

No, not often, because the nature of the work I do does not ordinarily produce jury trials. Have tried cases to juries, but most of the work I do—family court, for example—there's no jury. The Appellate Division, there's no jury. Probate Court, there's no jury. Chancery, there's no jury. Municipal Court, there's no jury. Prerogative cases, there's no jury. You can't have juries in commercial cases. You can't have juries in certain kinds of real estate cases, not others. And you know, legal ethics is not a jury system. There is a hearing system within the practice, but not a jury. I haven't had tons and tons of jury trials, but I have had jury trials. But most of my work in terms of trials are bench trials, and trials today are far less frequent than when I started practicing.

I've heard that many people don't like a young doctor, they want to have a doctor who's older. Do you think that also applies to lawyers?

I think so. One of the things I was sort of surprised at when I started practicing law, since I went into a firm that was founded by my father and uncle, I think a lot of people assumed that I was in the firm because of some nepotism, which wasn't the case. People naturally tend to think that younger people, relatively recently out of law school, might not know as much as people who've been practicing for a while. And to some extent that could be true, and to some extent that isn't true.

Is there ever a time when being older is a handicap?

Well, I'll tell you what the problems are, but I don't know that they're necessarily because I'm older, although I guess in some ways they are. Technology is a challenge, the driving can be a challenge, but those are things that are challenges to people of my age for the most part, no matter what. And you learn how to deal with them.

Do you still drive? 

Yes.

Do you do a lot of traveling?

Well, I drove to Hackensack and back today, and I survived. On the other hand, I had to go to Delaware for a deposition a couple of months ago. We hired a driver for that. It seemed to make sense to do that. I had a court appearance in Jersey City, where they took away the parking because they're building a new courthouse. There's no place to park. You've got to find a place on the street. I hired a driver for that one too.

But if I'm going to court, I'm going to ordinarily drive unless there's some particular reason not to. Now that we have Zoom and Microsoft Teams, a lot of motions and even some appeals [are heard remotely].

Let me ask you about the technology issue. Are you ever embarrassed when you don't understand something?  

I ask people to help. We got a couple of [information technology] people in the office. I don't like the technology, but I know that to some extent I have to use it. I can look things up without any difficulty. I can email without any difficulty. Sometimes there are issues with respect to court filings. I rely on my secretary.

Do I like it? No! Do I think it necessarily solves problems? No! Do I have to deal with it? Yes, and I make absolutely no effort to cover up anything if I can't figure out how to do something.

It sounds like you enjoy your job.

I do. I find I enjoy practicing law. I have always enjoyed practicing law. I enjoy the intellectual challenge. I particularly enjoy, since I practice in a lot of different areas, going from one spot to another. I don't just do a particular area, and I find that stimulating and challenging.

I also like helping people, and sometimes, you know, you get results for people that are helpful, and I enjoy that. I like being a lawyer. I have always liked being a lawyer, and I don't see any particular reason [to retire]. I know at 82 I'm probably not going to practice for another 57 years, although I joke about that, I'm going to practice posthumously. I want to do it for as long as I can. If I felt that I were slipping, it wouldn't be fair to me, it wouldn't be fair to my firm, it wouldn't be fair to my client to do something. But I don't feel that I'm slipping.

Well, I enjoy being in court. I enjoy arguing motions. I enjoy arguing appeals. I enjoy the paperwork that goes with it. And I enjoy, you know, being able to help people. I enjoy being able to answer questions for other attorneys in the firm. I enjoy what I do.

Are you tempted to go to Florida in the winter to get away from the cold weather?

I had a place in Florida for about 17 years when I was much younger, and my children were younger, and ultimately, I gave it up because I just wasn't getting enough use out of it. No, I go to work. For some people, retirement is a blessing, and for other people, retirement is a curse. And for me, retirement would be a curse.

Tomorrow, I've got to endure something in the firm, you know, we have meetings and webcasts and stuff like that. Ask me whether or not I'm thrilled with that stuff, I would probably tell you, no. But when we get down to the actual being a lawyer, the actual practice of law, representing people, drafting material, arguing material, trying cases, yeah, I enjoy it, and I am not looking forward to stopping.