Back to the Future in the Practice of Law

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a lawyer. While my kindergarten friends reveled in episodes of Scooby Doo and Speed Racer, I sat transfixed by old reruns of Perry Mason, my hero. At the tender age of 5, I became determined to become a criminal defense attorney in order to right all the injustices of the world.

After graduating from law school, I went to work for a large full-service firm in Dallas, practicing commercial litigation. (Yes, by that time, reality had set in, and the idea of being a criminal defense attorney did not seem as palatable.) For five years I worked long hours, billing 2,400 hours per year, and spent more time at the office than at home. Part-time lawyering did not exist, and there certainly was no such thing as “hybrid” or working from home. I knew that if I continued to work hard and put in my hours, I would remain on the seven-year “partnership track.”