WVBA President Robert Fisher Shares Quarterly Message

WVBA President Robert Fisher Shares Quarterly Message

By: Robert D. Fisher, WVBA President

A man has two perfect 50-yard line seats for the Super Bowl. As he sits down, another man, Bill, comes down and asks him if anyone is sitting in the seat next to him.

"No," he says. "The seat is empty."

“This is incredible,” said Bill. “Who in their right mind would have a seat like this for the Super Bowl, and not use it?”

The man says, “Well actually, the seat belongs to me. I was supposed to come with my wife, but she passed away. This is the first Super Bowl we haven’t seen together since we got married in 1967.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that,” says Bill, “but couldn’t you find someone else to take the seat, a friend, a relative, or a neighbor?”

And the man just shakes his head and says, “No, they’re all at her funeral.”

Life is all about priorities, after all. We all organize each minute of our lives towards some purpose, and as attorneys, our priorities are driven by our competing demands: demands from clients, the court, our staff, the public, and our families.

Practicing law could aptly be compared to running an emergency room: you prioritize the most critical case first. A motion that is running up against a court-imposed deadline can take priority over the estate planning of a healthy client. Or you spend one of the mornings of your week-long vacation getting a contract draft out for review before you hit the beach. Lawyers learn a lot of skills in school, but it’s only once you are a real-life practitioner that you learn the most important skill of all: prioritizing.

But even in the face of deadlines and client demands, there are some priorities that we should never let slip low on the to-do list. Any of us can learn to prioritize cases or figure out work/life balance, but it’s much more difficult to prioritize the more philosophical aspects of practicing law. These are the very aspects that help shape you as an attorney, because without attention to them, you may ruin your reputation before you’ve even started.

I recently read an article in the Charleston Daily Mail by General Robert H. Foglesong, where he discussed the six aspects of being a leader. I’ve paraphrased his points here because I think they are important aspects that all attorneys should be mindful of and prioritize in their daily practice:

1. Do not allow any gray area when it comes to your integrity, because gray area is where reputations go to die.
2. Be fully committed to the practice of law, to the point where losing or giving less than your best is not an option.
3. Do your due diligence on all your documents and work product, from the most basic deed to the most complex trial work.
4. Give respect not only to your clients but to your fellow attorneys and officers of the court.
5. Practice law with enthusiasm and passion because it is a privilege to serve this profession.
6. Know your moral code, and live and practice it every day.

We, at the West Virginia State Bar Association, are prioritizing as well. We consider legal education and access to legal mentorships our fundamental principles. We are currently working on a Solo and Small Firm Seminar, headed up by Rebecca Tinder, with Jessica Justice Stolarik, Steve Thompson, and Kevin Burgess on committee, which will serve our solo practitioners and our small firm brethren in West Virginia and surrounding states by getting them together to talk about the challenges of practicing alone, and introduce topics and resources that can help solos and firms operate more efficiently.  It’s important that we prioritize the health of these kinds of practices because our rural areas are at risk of having little to no legal resources available to them, and we believe that by better supporting our solos and small firms, especially those in rural areas, we can better serve more citizens of West Virginia.

Additionally, we are prioritizing virtual CLE courses that you can take at lunchtime, which are free to WV Bar Association members, and affordable for non-members. We hope to offer many more free trainings in years to come because continuing education should never be cost-prohibitive, as it is a vital part of being a good attorney. In fact, our first free Lunch & Learn of the year is being hosted on Tuesday, January 23 by Judge Brittany Ranson Stonestreet of the Eleventh Family Court Circuit and will address recet changes to the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act. I encourage you to register for this free virtual training by clicking HERE. 

We’re also prioritizing where we meet our fellow attorneys. West Virginia is the ninth-smallest state in the Union, but traversing the state to meet your fellow attorneys isn’t easy, and we often take for granted the traveling our fellow attorneys in the panhandles must do to stay involved with our state bar when so many conferences are held in Charleston, in Lewisburg, or at Stonewall Jackson. We want to do more work in the panhandles of West Virginia, so our members can spend more time talking about their experiences as attorneys competing with Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and less time on the road.

Finally, we are prioritizing communication with our members. We are launching a new Weekly Digest that will include upcoming event details, legislative updates, member news, save the dates, and more. In addition, we are researching new ways for attorneys to collaborate and share knowledge with one another. So much of being an attorney is learned by conversations with colleagues, and no one enjoys sharing what they know about a topic like an attorney does!

So, as we come to the time of year when it feels like prioritizing is the most challenging, just keep in mind that it’s up to you to define your priorities. If that means asking for a continuance, or saying no to a new client so you can spend a little extra time with family, those are decisions for you to make. Just make sure that when it comes to the practice of law, you also make the more philosophical aspects a priority as well, so your reputation as a good practitioner of the law remains intact.