Ever since I returned to practice law, I get invited to all sorts of fancy events. Usually, I neither care much about them, nor do I have the time.
But when I saw the name of the place where the Bar Association of Saxony held its annual reception, it was clear that this was a coded invitation to the most exclusive club of the world. So I did show up.
Looking at my attire, I really don’t understand why they double- and triple-checked my credentials. (I mean, I have come a long way from my hobo days.) But in the end, I managed to charm my way inside.
You may not have heard much about the Bilderberg conference. In fact, you shouldn’t have, because it is top secret. No photos, no quotes, nothing. You don’t even swap business cards.
But, as I usually get invited to anything only once, I have nothing to fear anyway. So, I am going to spill two of the most important lessons I took away from the conversation with a fellow lawyer.
Lesson one:
He told me how he had once been extremely close to a burnout and had taken a few days off over New Year’s, to reflect on his options and to decide whether to continue in that field. He came to the conclusion that it was really just a handful of clients that caused all the stress and the headache. The rest were okay, some of them even nice.
When he returned to the office, he sent a letter to all the annoying clients, telling them that he no longer wished to work with them.
Sure, he lost business and revenue. But he regained joy and energy and peace of mind. After all, there are more important things in life than work and money.
He went on to give me his most important advice. Once a quarter, he goes through his list of open cases, firing the most annoying 10% of the clients. Because like in most other businesses, it’s a few clients who cause most of the headache. (And they are probably the ones who don’t even bring in much revenue.)
Funnily, clients are often surprised when I terminate my relationship with them. “You can’t do that,” they exclaim, apparently in the erroneous belief that they have hired me for life. I even know lawyers who aren’t aware of that possibility and believe that once they accepted a case, they have to stick it out.
Obviously, with experience you get pretty good at identifying such people before you take them on. In life and in business, the word “no” should be used as often as possible. But, like in relationships, some people seem nice at the beginning, and their darker sides only becomes apparent over time.
Lesson two:
As we were standing at the dessert buffet, the same lawyer told me about Quarkkeulchen, a local Saxon specialty.
These things are an absolute delight. A revelation. A feast of happiness and yumminess.
Maybe I should combine these two lessons and only accept clients who know how to cook Quarkkeulchen and a prepare a full platter for our first consultation.
The Happy Hermit 
Your first lesson is one which I have also been implementing, but not as rigorously as your friend.
I agree that it definitely contributes immensely to one’s mental health.
But it’s not always so clear cut which ones are the annoying ones.
For instance, I have clients who are neurotic and worried all the time, but are quite nice and pay well.
Then I have clients who are not neurotic, they are nice, but are extremely sensitive to fee increases.
So I agree with the goal, but just want to say that it’s not always so easy to determine.
Absolutely true! And we have to consider that the really easy-going people probably don’t need lawyers anyway.
One of the main things I look at is organization. I don’t mind if a client is demanding and the case is complicated, if he/she can convey the information in an organized manner.
But if I get a piece here, a bit there, “I don’t know where I put this” excuses and a box of unrelated paperwork to sift through, then I lose interest.
And when I do have a slight problem with one specific type of behavior (for example people calling me at midnight for no reason; people asking the same question every week; people double-checking what I tell them by going on Reddit), I address it. Sometimes, that’s all that needed, and we can continue working together.
I never thought about fee increases, to be honest. That’s one thing where I am more the stick-it-out kind of guy.
But then, I rarely have cases that drag on for more than a few years, so I can usually stick to the original hourly fee without much loss to inflation. (Whenever I quote a flat fee, though, I usually regret it at one point. On the other hand, it saves all the hassle of time-keeping and discussing the invoice.)
Pingback: Die zwei wichtigsten Lektionen von der letzten Bilderberg-Konferenz | Der reisende Reporter
Quarkkeulchen! Looks and sounds delightful. I have to taste it sometime, if non-lawyers are allowed to eat them.
Absolutely!
The strange thing is, I have never seen them in bakeries or in cafés. They seem to be a typical home-made dish, but all the recipes seem frightfully scary to me.
I will now make it my mission to find Quarkkeulchen in the wild!
Let us know how the hunt goes
I thought you might like the adventure of making some goodies on your own. Enjoy. https://www.craftaliciousme.com/soulfood-saxonian-quarkkeulchen/
and taking the quarkkeulchen up a notch — https://www.craftaliciousme.com/soulfood-saxonian-quarkkeulchen/
To people who know something about cooking, this may seem like an easy recipe.
To me, it looks as scary as the instruction to build my own nuclear power plant.
But maybe I find some prefabricated ones.
The “Kartoffelpuffer” from the freezer are actually quite good.
When people suggest that I might enjoy cooking my own food, I always imagine what that kind of world would look like.
Next time you go to the dentist, imagine them suggesting: “Well, here are the tools, and there is a book. Now, how about you try to do that root canal yourself?”
Or when someone approaches for a legal problem, I could reply: “Don’t you think it would be fun to go to law school for 5 years, pass the grueling exams, go through 2 additional years of professional training and pass the bar exam? Then you can represent yourself!”
I really think there is a great benefit in the division of labor. Not just economically, but also because not everybody enjoys the same things as other people.
Dear Andreas,
I have enjoyed reading your travel adventures very much! You tell a good story! You take good pictures. Quirky humor.
Settling down in an apartment in Chemnitz and resuming your legal practice after a decade of experiences out in the world starts a new chapter in your book of Life. You are well seasoned and fully cooked. I salute you!
DaveZ
Hello Dave,
I had to laugh out loud at “well seasoned and fully cooked”. :D Sometimes, I feel more like a pizza that I left in the oven for too long.
The good thing is that the years of vagabonding have turned me into a minimalist. As I still don’t need cars and boats and all that fancy stuff, I don’t need to work full-time.
So hopefully, there will still be time to travel and to write about it. (Actually, I would have enough stories to write about for a couple of years even if I stopped traveling right now. Sadly though, in recent years I have mostly published the travel stories on my German blog only. I just don’t get around to writing everything in two languages, especially not the longer articles.)
Hope all is well! I didn’t know you went back practicing law now but that Quarkkeulchen looks really good. Enjoy. ☺️
I still haven’t found Quarkkeulchen anywhere else. :-(
And I realize that I must really suck at marketing.
But then, what would it help if I announced my return to the law bigly and boldly and loudly? After all, my readership consists of mostly law-abiding and reasonable people who get along well with everybody.
I guess it will take a few years for the news to sink in, by which time I will have retired again to travel the world for a couple of years. :-)
They look absolutely delicious.