Day 70: Is Lawyering “Doing Homework for Other People”?

This weekend, I had a conversation with a retired lawyer and CEO who once had the opportunity to get one-on-one coaching with Steven Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. My friend said that a key take-away was to focus your time and energy on your priorities rather than reacting to other people’s priorities.

Thinking about that in the context of lawyering, I was reminded of something I heard entrepreneur/intrapreneur Jay Samit tell Dr. Michael Gervais on the Finding Mastery podcast. Samit decided not to go to law school because, he said, it looked too much like “doing homework for other people for the rest of your life.”

Doing Homework for Other People

It’s a funny line, because in a way it’s true. As lawyers, we do spend our time working toward goals that other people have defined as important to them.

Obviously, that means it’s important to work for clients whose goals you believe in. But I want to push back on the idea of lawyering as “doing homework for other people,” too.

Samit’s quip implies that doing something that’s important to someone else is inferior to doing something that’s important to us. That seems consistent with the message that my friend took from Covey’s coaching.

But my friend’s wife, a devout Catholic, looked at things differently during our conversation this weekend. The message of the Gospels, she said in response to her husband’s comment, urges us to be a servant of others, not of ourselves.

Pay It Forward (It’s Science)

There’s plenty of scientific support for the notion that real happiness comes from giving, not from getting ahead.

fMRI scans show that our brains our hardwired to take pleasure from helping others. (Maybe Jesus had a glimpse into neurology with that whole “do unto others” thing?)

There are some conditions about how to give to make it pleasurable - but really, those conditions are probably just factors for defining what is really “giving” and what is just people-pleasing.

For example, it works best if we give proactively and from a sense of passion, not from a feeling of guilt or obligation. And it’s better to give time than money, where possible, and in a way that we can see how others benefit. And while the motivation should be largely about helping others, it’s more impactful (and sustainable) if we give in ways that tap into our own skills and interests.

from covey to christ and back again

Some of these principles probably help to bridge the apparent gap between what my two friends were saying this weekend (or between Covey and Christ, if you will).

Yes, we should give to others - and we should do so proactively and in ways that allow us to feel that we are using our God-given gifts. Hopefully, if we’re in the right profession, our work allows us to do both.

And yes, we should proactively seek to do our work in a way that generously helps others. If we don’t do this, we risk being materially successful but not genuinely happy (or blessed). But there may be times when we are straying from using our talents in an effective way because we get caught up in reactive people-pleasing.

That’s not true giving - and so it’s probably not a habit of highly effective people, either.

Another Way of Looking at Lawyering

I think Samit’s quote about lawyering may have missed the real issue.

It’s not a problem to have a profession that centers around serving others. That quality itself is essential to happiness in any profession. In fact, Samit has explained that it’s the reason he now writes books about how to be an entrepreneur.

The only problem was that lawyering wasn’t the way Samit felt best able to serve. Speaking for those who are less equipped to speak for themselves is a valuable and noble way to serve - it’s just not the way everyone is meant to serve.

Knowing When We’re in the Right Place

But some of us are. Today, I had one of those moments when we receive confirmation that we are serving in the way we were meant to.

This week, the WVU Immigration Law Clinic helped resolve a case for a family from the Ukraine. They stopped by today to pick up documents, and they brought flowers, chocolates, and a thank you note.

It was a lovely gesture - but the greatest rewards were their smiles and happy hearts, and then getting to forward a photo to the law students (now graduates) who helped them reach their goal.