Work Matters: The lessons of 30 years as a lawyer: The law is a grind.

Work Matters: The lessons of 30 years as a lawyer: The law is a grind.

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The lessons of 30 years as a lawyer: The law is a grind.

Here is lesson No. 4 from my three decades in the law. While I love the law, it is a grind. It’s full of lawyers threatening sanctions, clueless judges antagonistic to airtight arguments, and arrogant and rude opposing counsel. You will get your hair messed up tangling with these people. But as an exasperated Hyman Roth let loose in “The Godfather: Part 2,” this is the business we chose. So, you just need to suck it up, which, according to the Urban Dictionary, is "[t]o endure a period of mental, physical or emotional hardship without complaining." This means not running to the judge every time opposing counsel pokes you in the eye, not dropping a footnote in a brief accusing the other side of unreasonable and unethical conduct, and not bullying a younger colleague who didn't guess what you were thinking. I return to Marcus Aurelius, "The cucumber is bitter? Put it down. There are brambles in the path? Step to one side. That is enough, without also asking ‘Why did these things come into the world at all?’ ” Now that’s good advice.

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