New Year, New Perspective on Clients and “Interruptions”

By:  Rich Mitchell

Staff Writer

I always love starting a new year—all the opportunities for resolutions to “fill in the blank.”  We hear that many of the resolutions go by the wayside by March, if not sooner.  The new year has provided me with a new perspective on, of all things, “being” a lawyer.  I share it with the hope that others might seek out the opportunities available to experience what it could mean to “be a lawyer.”

With finals over on December 18, I had the opportunity to return to the small, one lawyer  firm that I work for one day per week during the school year.  During the week preceding the start of the spring semester of law school, I worked almost every day of the week, all day.  I was trying to complete about a dozen Section 341 files (required to be sent to bankruptcy trustees prior to their Section 341 meetings with creditors).  Being in the office all day, I saw how unpredictable the office really is.  I felt as if I couldn’t get anything done.  The phone rings all day long.  Clients come in with various problems and concerns, interrupting my train of thought.  I just could not make headway on the files, which have to be accurate and complete, or the trustee continues the 341 hearing, delaying the client’s discharge or plan confirmation.

By Friday, however, I realized that I had been concerned about paperwork, and had lost perspective on the really important stuff that had gone on during the week.  At lunch on Friday, the office staff and I started talking about what we had done during the week.  We had all engaged in trying to find the time to work on our files, motions, and memos and were frustrated with our inability to complete them as quickly as we knew we could do without all the “interruptions.”  But we had also done other things.  For example, we had reassured new clients, who had called in droves, to consult with the attorney about bankruptcy and/or divorce (or sometimes both).  You could sense the clients relaxing, simply by being encouraged by us that they had made the right decision to call the office, and get their questions answered.  People often call us in times of great distress, and as attorneys, it is a great gift to be able to reduce their stress simply through a smile, a handshake, or an encouraging word on the phone.

We had a boyfriend/girlfriend come into the office.  The boyfriend had been through four attorneys and had gotten nowhere with his soon-to-be ex-wife, who was threatening to take one of their five children and move to Alabama.  Within a few hours of consulting with the attorney, a police report had been filed and a restraining order drafted, prohibiting the ex from taking the child out of the state.  They were thrilled to write the check to the attorney to take on the concern.  As it turned out, the ex had also decided to not make payments on their family home, and it had entered the foreclosure process without his knowledge.  A few calls, an appearance filed in Lake County Circuit on the client’s behalf, and the process was halted.  Talk about helping to reduce the man’s stress.

We had a Hispanic gentleman come in on Wednesday whose house was to be sold at sheriff’s sale on Friday.  On Thursday, the bankruptcy was electronically filed in federal court.  We faxed the case number to the sheriff’s office and on Friday, while houses were sold at the sale, our client’s house was not among them.  Again, we not only reduced the man’s stress, we saved his family’s home, at least for now.

And my favorite story of the week was hearing from two of our clients that their two cars had been repossessed on Thursday night.  The attorney dropped everything, e-filed their Chapter 13, and then had me contact the creditors.  I was amazed that within three hours of filing the Chapter 13, I had one of their cars on a flat bed being delivered to their driveway; the other will be delivered on Monday.

We are becoming lawyers.  After this week, that means something qualitatively different to me.  I quoted Dean Curt Cichowski in another article where he said something to the effect of “that’s what this lawyering thing is all about,” in talking about the importance of the law clinic.  I get it now—this “lawyering thing.”  It is not about paperwork.  While that’s important to get done eventually, the “interruptions” are the essence of why we become lawyers.  We change peoples’ lives.  We are counselors, not only in the legal sense of that word, but actually very much in the psychological sense of it as well.  We reduce stress.  We solve problems for people.  And I can’t describe how good it felt to be a part of all that.  I could feel the gratitude from these clients.  I could sense them relaxing.  And when I called to let the client know his car was on its way back to his driveway, and he said, “Thank you for all your help getting this done today,” I knew that I didn’t care that the 341 files weren’t completed.  That’s for Saturday now.

As we start back with a new semester in a new year, I’m going to approach it with renewed enthusiasm for the work we do here in anticipation of the work we’ll do “out there,” where this “lawyering thing” becomes very real and very human.

Rich is a 2L and can be reached at forum@valpo.edu.