The legal profession is generally renowned by the outside world as a hardworking, dedicated and sometimes exhausted collection of professionals and often exemplifies the same in real practice. All young associates have heard the horror stories of the lawyer who stores a sleeping bag in the corner of his office for those all-night negotiation sessions, or the new associate who stepped onto the descending elevator at 8 p.m. only to be confronted by an incoming senior partner who cautioned, “Hey, when you come back from dinner, make sure you come and see me, we have a new project to work on.”
The late nights, steady stream of coffee and other caffeinated novelties and missed personal engagements are often considered the norms of the industry. Such indices of exhaustion and sleep deprivation permeate through all firm sizes, all practice areas and all across the country. All lawyers, however, and especially young associates, must learn how to successfully transfer out of lawyer mode and return to the comparatively slow-paced, humane and welcoming real world where our friends, families and others reside. Every lawyer may have “esquire” attached, sometimes begrudgingly, to his or her name, but the shadow of such a title does not necessarily mean that the designation must pursue the lawyer constantly and eternally.
