I got an e-mail from an associate who left a number of years ago, asking if I would be a reference for her. She left here to go to a competitor, and now she's applying for in-house jobs. I don't remember her work product particularly well, and in fact all I remember about her were the inappropriate outfits she would wear -- thigh-high boots, leather skirts, blouses that bordered on see-through. So I would perhaps be more comfortable giving her a reference for a job at, say, an adult entertainment parlor. But she seems hell-bent on continuing to practice law, so I suppose I can say pleasant things about her if someone calls. I asked her to remind me of some of the projects she worked on. Her memory was not much better than mine. I'm wondering why she isn't just using people at her current firm as references, but perhaps that has something to do with why she's leaving. If I needed a new job, I'm not sure there are too many people I'd feel comfortable asking to be references. I suppose there are partners I work with who would be able to say decent things about me, if I prepped them first, but probably not too many. Ever since I stopped caring, it's been a real struggle to produce work product that anyone would say is anything exceeding the average. I can do competent legal work without a tremendous outlay of energy, but to really put together top-notch noticeably-good stuff, I really need to be engaged, and lately that just hasn't been happening. Sure, I'll put in the hours -- but they're just hours. The energy is harder to find. Too often I'm reading a regulation and find myself drifting off into thoughts about my golf swing, or the Dodgers, or if there's any associate I can pass this work off to. I don't think anyone has noticed the flagging intensity -- no one pays that much attention to what other people are doing. As long as you seem busy, and nothing goes wrong... it's easy to get away with mediocrity as long as the clients still pay. That's the name of the game I guess. If I start losing clients, then I'm in trouble. Well, sort of. I've invested well, my house has equity, I could live without this. I don't know what I'd do all day, but I wouldn't starve. Maybe the kids don't get grad school all paid for, but they get college, they won't starve, maybe my wife could get off the couch and do something, who knows. Maybe I'll write a book about being a lawyer.
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