Benjamin K. Sanchez

Successful GP|Solo NSSFC 2008!

I had a great time finally getting to meet fellow Solosezzers in New Mexico for the 2008 Fall Meeting (of the ABA GP|Solo Division) and National Solo & Small Firm Conference!  I didn't get a chance to explore the wonderful surroundings that Santa Fe had to offer, but the great people more than made up for my confined surroundings!  Thanks to Lisa Solomon, Carolyn Elefant, Jennifer Rose, David Kaufman, Eugene Lee, Gil Shuga, Duke Droulliard, CJ Stevens, Scott Barer, Andy Simpson, Ross Kodner, Nerino Petro, Sharon Campbell, and many others for making the conference and meeting a wonderful time for me as a first-time attendee!  I look forward to many more exciting meetings and conferences in the future!

For those of you who couldn't attend, you can find tweets tagged with #NSSFC for a few of us that tweeted the conference.  I also attended my first meeting as a member of the GP|Solo Magazine Editorial Board.  I look forward to working with my fellow Board members to continue the fine tradition of the magazine!

Now I'm back in Houston and getting ready for a long week of work followed by another ABA meeting and conference the following week, this time in Anaheim, CA, on behalf of the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyer Referral & Information Service.  The 2008 National Lawyer Referral Workshop will be held in conjunction with our Committee's meeting, so I look forward to seeing friends I made at last year's Workshop in New Orleans!

I close by saying that for any attorney who is longing to expand their network and influence, being active in bar associations is a sure way to achieve that goal!  As a leader within local, state, and national bar associations, I have benefited from my those activities.  I encourage all attorneys to reach out and make a difference in their worlds!

What the Public Doesn't See

     Lawyers often get a bad rap for supposedly making a lot of money for little work.  I won’t use this post to discuss just how little lawyers on average make in annual salary, but suffice it to say that the general public’s perception is inconsistent with the reality of the legal profession.

     I can’t count how many times I’ve worked late into the night.  What’s worse, especially according to my wife, is I can’t count how many times I’ve worked overnight.  You have to understand that I’ve never worked for Biglaw, those national and international law firms known to be the sweatshops of the legal profession.  I’ve either worked for myself or small law firms with no more than eight lawyers.  It hasn’t mattered whether I’ve been a true solo, worked for someone else, or had associates and staff, I have consistently worked late nights and overnight more than I care to remember.

     I can’t necessarily blame it on the work all the time.  There have been times when such a work routine has been unnecessary, but there I am, working away when the sun is down.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s just enough times where I’ve felt the need to get the work done, whether because of court-imposed deadlines, promises to clients, or that nagging feeling that something has been sitting too long.  Such night-time work is long and dull, basically pure drudgery.  It is hard physically, emotionally, and mentally to work all day and then keep going late into the night or all night.  College students do it every now and then when they cram for a test, but most people have regular work hours (whether one works day or night).  For me, when I am in my office at night, my mind wanders as I look out the window to most of those I deal with in my profession who are relaxing at home or lay fast asleep.  When I am at home working away at night, the sounds of my wife sleeping in our bedroom are a physical reminder of what I am NOT doing.

     I don’t ask for sympathy or pity.  I write this simply to remind the public that there are many times when lawyers are working through the night on behalf of their clients.  With a litigation practice of several thousand cases and a firm of six (three attorneys and three staff), I accept that night-working comes with the territory.  At the same time, I am trying to improve my work efficiencies and planning to lessen the amount of night-working I do.  As I sit here and write this, I am about to turn off the Olympics and get back to work…at 1:20 a.m.

ABA LRIS Committee Meeting in Sedona

I am a member of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Lawyer Referral & Information Service.  The Committee consists of 10 attorney members appointed for staggered three-year terms by the ABA President.  I am soon ending the first year of my three-year term.

The Committee meets every quarter to consider strategy, plan, implement ideas, projects, and initiatives that are important to the ABA in relation to lawyer referral services throughout the country.  Earlier this year we met in San Diego, CA, and today we are meeting in Sedona, AZ.  Sedona is home to many beautiful landscapes due to the red rocks that surround this city.  Sedona is most known for the Chapel of the Holy Cross.

I have enjoyed and am enjoying my service to and involvement with this Committee.  I have Janet Diaz, the Executive Director of the Houston Lawyer Referral Service to thank, as she has shepherded me in my lawyer referral service experience from a designated representative of the Mexican-American Bar Association of Houston on the Board of Trustees of the Houston Lawyer Referral Service to a Houston Bar Association appointee on the HLRS Board to the ABA LRIS Committee.  Janet’s tireless dedication and enthusiasm in lawyer referral services has certainly been a motivation and spark for me to do my best to honor her by giving all I can to this endeavor.

I head back to Houston tomorrow morning having had a great meeting with the Committee.  I encourage all attorneys to get involved in their bar associations, whether local, state, or national.  There is such a need for our help, and I am living proof that a desire and willingness to get involved and volunteer can do wonders for your career satisfaction.  I have seen attorneys who simply go to work all day and then go home, simply to repeat that process day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year.  In the end, they neither are happy nor have contributed to the profession and the community.  So, young and old attorneys alike, it is never to soon or late to start getting involved and doing more with your career than simply working for the money!

Growing and growing!

Who would have thought a year ago when I began my firm by sharing office space and a receptionist with two other attorneys that I would up to three attorneys and three staff in mid-May 2008?  I am excited and cautious at the same time.  I am looking forward to what we can accomplish with the help of additional human resources and cautious about making sure that the firm is financially secure for everyone’s sake!  I will keep you updated (hopefully)!

I've been a bad, bad boy!

I can’t believe it’s been almost six months since my last post!  (Actually, I can believe it…sad, but true!)  I have so many things going on that it’s sometimes hard to concentrate on the effort required of blogging on a regular basis.  I have thought about what I want next year to look like for me, and being consistent in what I choose to do is one of them, whether it be blogging, eating healthy, exercising, spending less money, keeping up with finances, developing and marketing my law firm, being more thoughtful of my wife and family, or just getting good, regular sleep (as I write this at 11:43 p.m. Christmas night, )!  I actually enjoy writing for my blogs and making videos for my YouTube site, so I want to put more effort into those things, as well as continue to be active in my leadership roles.  I will continue to explore ways of creating and communicating, in addition to my regular practice of law!

I hope that all of you have had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and that you will greet the New Year with a greater resolve to accomplish the goals you set for yourselves.  With that in mind, take a look at my video below for some inspiration!  Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Feliz Edad!

Tags: health, New+Year, blog, blogging, YouTube, inspiration, exercising, money, family, friends, Christmas, consistency

Doing it all, all of the time!

An ongoing discussion on the SoloMarketing List Serve regarding marketing tips reveals that some attorneys don't find that their bar association activities and leadership positions lead to much direct business.  An earlier discussion on the SoloSez List Serve revealed that some attorneys have decided they don't get much out of their bar association memberships and thus have dropped their memberships in the various voluntary bar associations and voluntary bar sections of mandatory bar associations.  While I understand how these attorneys can believe that not much comes from their bar association activities, my response is that "you get what you put into it!"

My friends and professional colleagues may consider me to be a Bar Junky, an affectionate term for those of us attorneys who actively and regularly participate in bar associations.  A list of my activities would be too long for this post (but you can find them here), so I will just say that I've been a local and state bar leader and now am making my way into the national scene.  My participation in bar associations is deliberate on my part.  Of course, it means that I give up other activities and some rest to do it all, all of the time!  I not only have a solo practice with a full-time paralegal and a full-time paralegal assistant, but also take on pro bono cases, participate in and lead various bar associations, sit on a city board, write articles and give presentations to attorneys and "civilians" alike, mentor young attorneys and students, and still give some time to my wife.

How do I get it all done?  First, a huge disclaimer:  I don't have children!  That in and of itself frees up so much more time that many attorneys don't have.  Given that extra time, I had to decide what to do with it.  I am not one to simply lie around and rest all of the time.  Don't get me wrong, I do have my occasional lazy and restful days (July 4th this year was one), but I also don't watch much television and I don't go home at normal hours.  Sad to say that my wife has become accustomed to going asleep alone while I slip into bed some time late at night or even early in the morning!  I'm sure that's not the healthiest way to sustain a marriage, but my wife understands that I am passionate about being a lawyer and a workaholic.  Passion and the stubbornness to keep working (sometimes I miss lunch and dinner...again, not healthy) are a potent mixture.

There are other attorneys and non-attorneys alike that suffer the same affliction:  they love what they do and they can't seem to stop what they do!  As the title of this post says, we're "doing it all, all of the time!"  It's simply a matter of priorities mixed in with a little bit of craziness!  As I write this, I'm in my downtown office at 1:15 in the morning, listening to gospel music, starting a fresh pot of coffee, and settling in for a few more hours!  (Caveat:  I'm traveling to a wedding out of town tomorrow/today, so I have to be home by 10:00 a.m. to get ready to go.  That's my excuse tonight.  There always an excuse that allows me to convince myself that this behavior is good/desirable/necessary!)