Holidays and Seasons, Small Law Firms

The Only Thing I Want For Christmas

What's the one thing that all lawyers want this holiday season? Time -- and more of it.

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holiday gift Christmas presentI know it’s late, but there is one more shopping day before the big day on Sunday — two if you count Christmas Eve. So it’s not too late to get me something. In fact, maybe you should leave work right now, so after you buy it you have enough time to overnight it to me. I’m not going to list out a bunch of products that I’d like to find under the tree — this is not that column (that column is here and here). Instead, I’m just going to give you one gift idea, and this really will be an “idea”.

Time.

That’s what I want. More time, your time, ways to save time, I just want time. If you can wrap it up and put it under the tree, that would make it a very Merry Christmas in the Ross household.

I don’t want an app that’s going to take me two hours (or one hour or even 30 minutes) to master. I don’t need yet another thing to read or to do that isn’t billable. I just want time.

So how should you give me time, you ask?

Give me an assistant who handles everything I can’t bill for. Someone who can read my mind so I don’t have to spend time explaining things.

Give me clients who pay immediately after receiving the bill (and let me get away with shorter billing entries).

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Give me clients who understand that putting “quick question” in the subject line doesn’t make my response non-billable (otherwise I would never bill, my firm would have to close, and I’d be back living at home like the millennials).

Give me peaceful flights where I can work, since it’s been years since I had a flight in which I didn’t more work to get done than flight time.

Give me seats on the subway, quiet streets where I can walk on the sidewalk, and take a conference call without having to repeat every sentence.

Give me a home office where the “home” part doesn’t have quite so many distractions.

Give me laundry service that knows when I’ll be home and automatically shows up to pick-up and deliver.

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Give me food that is fast that isn’t fast food.

Give me someone who can Tinder for me who knows when to swipe right and when to OMG-why-would-someone-post-that swipe left.

Give me a service that calls my parents every other day to check up on them and hear what’s the latest with the relatives. (“Me? Same old same old. Yep, at work.”)

Give me ideas for articles that write themselves.

Give me students that speak up so I’m not talking for two hours solid (and completely exhausted afterwards).

Give me extern applicants who huddle among themselves and decide who the unlucky person is who’s going to get stuck with me, so I don’t have to interview anyone.

Give me vendors who don’t call (or email).

Give me an in-house notary — oh wait, already have that.

Give me taxes that aren’t complicated.

Give me networking opportunities I don’t have to travel for.

Give me people who come to informational interviews with lists of questions, instead of just sitting there and expecting me to inherently know what the person wants and how I can help them.

Give me 90-minute runs that don’t actually take 90 minutes.

Give me time.  That’s all I want this year.  And if you know someone like me — no, not happy and handsome, but someone who got a perfect score on the busy test — then time is the most valuable gift.  What will save this person time?

Enjoy the holiday weekend.

gary-rossGary 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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