{"id":3550,"date":"2005-01-05T00:15:37","date_gmt":"2005-01-05T04:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2005\/01\/05\/fee-fie-foe-and-fum\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:58:04","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:58:04","slug":"fee-fie-foe-and-fum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/01\/05\/fee-fie-foe-and-fum\/","title":{"rendered":"fee fie foe and fum"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

While thumbing through his dictionary tonight, ethicalEsq<\/EM> learned that <\/FONT>fum<\/FONT><\/A> means “to  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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 play a fiddle.” He insisted on sharing that information (which <\/FONT>Steve Minor<\/FONT><\/A> probably<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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 already knew) and then asked to “guest post” here at his old weblog on the topics of <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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fees and lawyer-client relationships.  Naturally, we couldn’t refuse.                                                                                           <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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\"fiddle   From the dEsq of ethicalEsq<\/EM>:<\/FONT><\/P>
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Fa, Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he live or be he dead,
I’ll grind his bones to make me bread<\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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The <\/FONT>verse<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A> from <\/FONT>Jack and the Beanstalk<\/STRONG><\/EM><\/FONT><\/A> seems more relevant than ever to America’s lawyers.  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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When it comes to fees, our legal profession is fiddling away its scant goodwill, while its clients — <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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and<\/EM> youngest members — scream “<\/FONT><\/FONT>fie<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A>” and are treated like foes.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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An example is found in the latest cover story of Washington Lawyer<\/EM>, which is one more lament <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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over “<\/FONT>The Tyranny of the Billable Hour<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A>.” (Jan. 2005)  The Billable Hour, rather than lawyer\/law-firm <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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greed, is cast as the evil source of lawyer discontent and lousy lifestyles.  It’s as if the writer and <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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interviewees honestly believe law firms who shift to other billing methods will gladly allow each <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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lawyer to generate less<\/EM> income.  If you happen to see any hint of such an attitude (for instance, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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here<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A> or <\/FONT>there<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A>), please let us know.  Until there’s proof to the contrary, the track record of the profession <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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suggests that lawyers will either charge more while working less, or work just as much while collecting <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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at least as much in fees, which will merely be structured differently.  (e.g<\/EM>., our one-breath blurb <\/FONT>here<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A>)<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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The one good aspect of the Washington Lawyer<\/EM> Billabe Hours article is the realistic approach — <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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taken by two lawyers who are outside the law firm rat race (MCI’s Anastasia Kelly and Justice Steven <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Breyer) — that puts a lot of the onus on associates for accepting excessive billable hour.  The article<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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says:<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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            \"\" <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Referring to lawyers who work for her at MCI, and who reported to her when she partnered <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Kelly says emphatically, “The quality of your life is your <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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responsibility! It is not my responsibility to give you a quality of life.  If you don’t have a <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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quality of life, it’s your responsibility to come to me and say, “I don’t have a quality of life, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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and it’s because you’re making me work 80 hours a week.  So many people say it’s the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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responsibility of a law firm or a company to make sure that their people have a quality of life. <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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It is a two-way street!<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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 “Moreover, says Kelly, any lawyer who feels an employer?s demands on his or her time are <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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too burdensome always has the option to walk out the door and go find a place that gives <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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you quality of life. That’s your responsibility: to go.  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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“Justice Breyer, who sympathizes with the predicament of newcomers to the profession who <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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find themselves overworked, expressed a similar view in 2000:  More young lawyers may <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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have to speak up, tactfully of course, in an effort to help the firms create the workplace <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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environment that they will need. [They must] decide consciously what kind of career they <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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want and what they want the story of their lives to say.<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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If young lawyers want to work saner schedules but don’t want to sacrifice income or “prestige,” they need <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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to stop whining and realize that they are part of the problem (while, perhaps, hoping that maturity will bring <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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a change in priorities).    Is fumming related to fuming?  [read about lawyers and <\/FONT>chronomentrophobia<\/FONT><\/A><\/FONT> — the<\/FONT> fear of time or clocks]<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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<\/FONT> <\/P>
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looking now
with greedy eyes
bare winter trees<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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greedily using up
the year’s first water…
the woman<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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 <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Kobayashi Issa<\/EM><\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A> – translated by <\/FONT>David G. Lanoue<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A>
<\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While thumbing through his dictionary tonight, ethicalEsq learned that fum means “to   play a fiddle.” He insisted on sharing that information (which Steve Minor probably  already knew) and then asked to “guest post” here at his old weblog on the topics of fees and lawyer-client relationships.  Naturally, we couldn’t refuse.                                                                                              From the dEsq of ethicalEsq: Fa, Fe, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-Vg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13425,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions\/13425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}