ACT FIVE
Soon the people learned what the lawyers were learning. The poor and lowly learned a new way to scam the rich and powerful – hiring the fourth lawyer to file lawsuits against the rich and powerful, even though they weren’t really hurt.
The rich and powerful began to believe that everyone who filed a lawsuit against them was trying to scam them. But they paid more and more money to settle the lawsuits and then passed along the costs to all the people by raising prices on their products and services.
Meanwhile, the third lawyer continued to have trouble in the big firm. His partners told him he had to bill more hours if he wanted to raise his compensation back up. His partners told him to “market” himself and the big firm to find more work. “Sell the sizzle,” they told him. They would not give him any of their work because that would take away from their own hours and their own compensation.
So the third lawyer set out to market himself and the big firm, but he found that it detracted from practicing law. He didn’t want to be a salesman; he wanted to be a lawyer. Meanwhile his billable hours continued to dwindle, even though – and maybe because – he continued to be efficient. His compensation continued to dwindle, as well. He found himself growing dissatisfied with being a lawyer.
The first lawyer marketed himself, but he didn’t really market the firm. He figured he could someday leave the big firm and start his own firm. He wanted his clients to be loyal to him, not to his partners. As he spent more time “selling the sizzle,” it cut into his time for actually practicing law. So he started billing for hours he spent marketing, only he called it something else when he sent out his bills. Working with the second lawyer, he helped cut the third lawyer’s compensation, and they split the extra money between themselves. He still made more than the second lawyer because, after all, he had more clients and made more money for the big firm. He just threatened to take his clients and leave the big firm, so the second lawyer went along with him.
The second lawyer also wasn’t happy with the third lawyer because he didn’t think he was billing enough hours. The second lawyer billed lots and lots of hours, and played lots and lots of golf. He and the first lawyer made an uneasy alliance based on money, working to make sure they both made more money than the third lawyer. He helped the first lawyer in “selling the sizzle” but, like the first lawyer, he marketed himself, not the big firm. He didn’t want to have to share his clients or his money with the other two lawyers.
None of the lawyers in the big firm were happy with the fourth lawyer. He had started filing frivolous lawsuits along with good lawsuits, which made it hard to figure out which was which. He played tricks, hid facts, and coached his clients to lie. He, himself, was willing to lie in order to win. After all, that was the name of the game. If he couldn’t win, he couldn’t get his forty percent.
And as unhappy as the big firm lawyers were with the fourth lawyer, he was equally as unhappy with them. They buried him with paperwork and, since he was only one lawyer, he didn’t have time to respond to everything the big firm threw at him. That was one of the reasons he did some of the things he did to the lawyers in the big firm.
And God saw that it was bad.
Mike Farris
(214) 979-0100
mfarris@tiptonjoneslaw.com
