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Attorneys Should Respect Elder Lawyers

As a friend of mine loves to say, they call it the 'practice' of law for a reason, and people usually gain more knowledge of the law the longer they are practitioners in the legal profession.

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white men white male lawyers old young partner associateThis past week, I paid my annual bar dues for a jurisdiction in which I practice. When I looked at the fee schedule for the bar dues, I noticed that attorneys who have practiced law for 50 years or more no longer needed to pay annual bar dues. My first instinct was to wonder why senior attorneys did not need to pay bar dues since they practice law just like the rest of us and should seemingly pay the same dues as everyone else. However, upon further reflection, this policy makes a lot of sense and perhaps reflects the respect people should have for senior lawyers in the legal profession. In many instances, senior lawyers add much value to legal practice and should be respected by other attorneys.

I routinely encounter senior lawyers in my practice, which I am loosely defining as attorneys who have practiced law for at least 40 years. Such attorneys can be a wealth of information about the legal profession and might understand more about why things are the way they are today because of practices employed by legal professionals in the past. I interacted with a senior attorney on a file recently, and like many of the senior lawyers I encounter, he enjoyed discussing his varied experiences in the profession.

At one point, we were talking about the need to conduct a procedural task in our case to move the matter forward. Most practitioners knew that this procedural task needed to be performed, but few probably wondered why this procedural task existed in the jurisdiction. The senior lawyer told me that he thought that it was a remnant of an era when efiling did not exist and people had voluminous paper files that were not easy to search. Even though papers are served and filed electronically these days, this particular procedural task still likely still exists because of long-ago practices.

Senior lawyers also have numerus interesting stories about current judges before which many lawyers practice. Most jurists used to practice law, but since I have only been in the legal profession for around a decade, I do not know too many former colleagues who are currently judges. However, more senior lawyers likely remember current judges from their days practicing law.

Some infamous judges in the jurisdictions in which I practice are known for being sticklers with the law, knowledgeable about legal matters, or notorious for other habits. It can be hard to think that these renown individuals were once practicing attorneys dealing with all of the stress and difficulty that comes with practicing law. I always enjoy talking about what judges were like as practicing attorneys, which makes it less intimidating to go before these judges for legal matters.

Senior lawyers are also a great resource since they typically have an encyclopedic knowledge of the law. As a friend of mine loves to say, they call it the “practice” of law for a reason, and people usually gain more knowledge of the law the longer they are practitioners in the legal profession. Senior lawyers are far more likely to be familiar with a legal issue that they might have handled in their decade’s long career than someone who has not practiced law as long.

Earlier in my career, I had to deal with a peculiar legal issue that caused substantive and procedural issues in a case I handled. I spoke with numerous lawyers, and no one had dealt with the exact legal issue before. Finally, I spoke with a lawyer who had practiced law for decades, and he told me he faced the exact issue earlier in his career. This senior lawyer gave me a number of helpful tips that made it much easier for me to deal with this issue for my client.

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All told, senior lawyers can be a great resource to the legal profession, and I understand why state bars cut senior attorneys a break with bar dues and why senior lawyers are afforded other courtesies. If a senior lawyer is a stakeholder to a legal matter, they can be a solid resource for the other attorneys involved.

Rothman Larger HeadshotJordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

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