Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

What You Can Do While You’re a Lawyer (Part 3): Politician / Judge

The freedom to run for office -- legislative and judicial -- without having to ask for anyone’s approval is another example of the much broader universe of possibilities that is open to you in SmallLaw.

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Gary J. Ross

Gary J. Ross

This is the third of a four-part epic series on other professions you can dabble in while still being a lawyer, that will actually help you in your legal career. This dabbling is, of course, much more feasible in SmallLaw as opposed to Biglaw, which is the point of all this and something on which I’ll go into more detail next week. The first part was teacher, then last week was small businessperson, and we’ll wrap it up next week with writer. Today is politician and judge, which I’m grouping together, since at the state and local level, at least they are similar.

Politician

Every year, one or two of my attorney friends will get the politician bug, and I’ll get a Facebook invite to like their “Bruce for 116th District Judge” or “Alyx for Alderman” webpages, followed up soon after by an email asking for money (or letting everyone know they’re about to start asking for money). Some I knew always had a passion for public service. Others surprised me a bit. I guess the older we get, the more we start to realize the people running the show aren’t any brighter or more gifted than anyone else. You see a few people get elected and realize it’s not all that hard. Just put your hat in the ring and get more votes than anyone else. How hard is that? Someone has to win. Might as well be you.

Maybe you handle drug or elder law cases and want to see the drug or elder laws changed. Or, maybe your motivations are less noble. Maybe you read about all the perks elected officials get and think, I want mine! I knew a guy who got elected mayor specifically so he could get a piece of property he and a couple of buddies owned rezoned from residential to commercial. After he pushed through the rezoning, he promptly resigned to spend more time with family. Made millions of dollars, which I’m sure he promptly gave to charity.

A few large law firms are okay with their lawyers also holding office. Most aren’t, which is why you’re far more likely to find office-holders in SmallLaw than Biglaw. Some leave the Biglaw cocoon specifically to run for office, while others get the Biglaw boot and decide to spend part of their new-found free time in public service.

Since a lot of state assemblypersons are part-time, it’s ideal for practicing SmallLaw attorneys. We already know much more about the lawmaking process than most folks. Once in office, with the right support, a SmallLaw attorney should be able to handle a part-time caseload. With most other jobs, it’s a bit harder to go part-time.

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Yes, any election you could lose, but friends who have ran for office and lost say that even when they lost by a rather wide margin — the deck is stacked against newbies — it helped their practice gain prominence and the phone started ringing like never before. Once you’ve run for office, you’ll know your community better and it will know you better. Unless you have some kind of scandal, you should benefit from this enhanced recognition.

And why stop at the local level? More lawyers have been president than any other profession, though if you do become president of the United States, I would probably recommend suspending the law practice for a while and concentrating on the presidency job, at least until you get the hang of it a bit. One good thing about D.C. is that it’s relatively easy to waive into, so if you’ve been practicing law in, say, Texas or Arkansas, and manage to get yourself elected POTUS, you could go down to the D.C. traffic court a couple of times a month and pick up some extra cash getting people out of parking tickets.

Judge

Ever sit in court listening to a judge’s ruling and wonder what the heck he’s thinking? How he got there? How much longer he plans on dispensing his special brand of arbitrary justice? Or maybe after years of dealing with clients, the bench seems like a pretty cushy job. Not exactly different from being a lawyer, but it’s also not exactly the same.

There are a lot of opportunities to be a judge, and they’re not going to zookeepers. (For that matter, they’re also not going to Biglaw attorneys.) Think of all the state and local courts that need judges, not to mention the many state and federal Administrative Law Judge positions. Most aren’t full-time, so you can still keep your clients. In fact, once word gets out you’re a part-time judge, you’ll gain a lot of credibility with clients. I know a small-town DUI lawyer in Georgia who is a county judge a few days a month, and when he’s a judge, he decides DUI cases! I wish I could tell people I worked at the SEC part-time reviewing securities filings.

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The freedom to run for office — legislative and judicial — without having to ask for anyone’s approval is another example of the much broader universe of possibilities that is open to you in SmallLaw.

Next week: Writer.

Gary J. Ross opened his own practice, Jackson Ross PLLC, in 2013 after several years in Biglaw and the federal government. Gary handles corporate and securities matters for startups, large and small businesses, private equity funds, and investors in each, and also has a number of non-profit clients. You can reach Gary by email at Gary.Ross@JacksonRossLaw.com.

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