6 Tips For Lawyers On Maintaining A Positive Outlook

There's far too much negativity in law firms, according to columnist Gary J. Ross.

happy face smiley face quality of lifeWhether you’re Biglaw or SmallLaw or government law or stay-at-home-parent law, there are a few things that are important to pay attention to every day.

  1. Keep your fitness at an acceptable level. If you’re billing 80 hours a week, you’re probably not going to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Kona. But don’t let yourself get so unfit you’re dead by 50. If you don’t have time to do anything else, take the stairs, even if you’re on the 35th floor.
  2. Keep your wardrobe up-to-date. Buy a new suit every year, and for God’s sake, throw out those 3.5” wide ties. Don’t be a clown, bro.
  3. Maintain a positive outlook.

Today I’ll discuss the last item. Maintaining a positive outlook is every bit as important as the other two items, with the possible exception of throwing away your 3.5” ties, and yet there is far too much negativity in law firms (and government law, though I can’t speak to stay-at-home-parent law). Oh, I hate my job, I hate that I can never go home, I hate that clients are always calling me, I hate that clients are never calling me, I hate that the partners give me too much work, I hate that the partners never give me any work. For some people, life is one bad thing after another. As attorneys, aren’t we already ahead of most of the population?

Leaving aside the fact that some of the complaints above can be cured by going out on your own (though unfortunately not the never going home part), here are some suggestions for how to maintain a positive outlook to get you through your day.

Memorize a lot of motivational mantras. “I can do it!” “Life is good!” “I’m the (wo)man!” “I’m a big swinging duck!” “I’m a master of the universe!” (Or at least of my domain.) “I’m $200K in debt and have no marketable skills!” (Scratch that last one.) Learn a lot of these, then try to use them whenever you need them. Speaking of which, “No, try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.

Repeat these mantras over and over. Before work. Before every meeting. Before every date. Even do it out loud. Maybe you can get everyone on the train to chant along with you. I once saw a crazy guy board the “L” in Chicago and start singing “Amazing Grace.” Some people started singing along with him. (Um, no, I did not.) You never know. Speaking of which…

Sing to yourself more. There are a lot of songs that can instantly lighten your mood. Everyone has their own favorites, but here are some of mine: “I Can”, “Happy”, “Firework”, “Big Balls”, and of course, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”

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Encourage others to be positive as well. Maybe you can spread the positivity. I suppose if you’re a new associate or a legal assistant, spreading positivity could provoke undesirable reactions (“our new lawyer’s a crackpot!”), but if you run a firm or a practice group or are the senior attorney in a small group of people who work together often, then why can’t you? Get your team engaged. A friend of mine runs a government contracting company and has his team line up every morning in two facing rows and pass a ball back and forth, each person reciting a motivational mantra upon catching the ball. Hokey? Maybe. But it seems to have worked.

Encourage clients to be positive. Aren’t clients going to like being around you if you’re a burst of positive thinking? Be happy! Maybe they’ll call you just to pick up on your positive vibes, like a couple of mine do. Easy billing.

Encourage even your enemies to be positive. Maybe if you can get your frenemies to look at the bright side, they’ll slip into the friend zone for good. (And it’ll be a positive, unlike college, where friend zone was a bad thing.)

Other ideas:

• Do push-ups right before lunch.
• Always smile, even if on the inside you feel like a dope.
• Don’t let those negative thoughts creep in. There’s enough negativity out there. Fight it! (By the way, Fighter is another good song.)

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The Mayo Clinic says positive thinking offers a lot of benefits, including “greater resistance to the common cold.” So you can save on Tylenol by thinking positively.

If you’re in SmallLaw, there’s a lot against you. Where will clients come from? Why is anyone going to switch to your firm from their current representation?  How are you going to pay all these bills? If you stop to think about it, it can seem overwhelming. So don’t stop and think about it. Chant your mantras. Sing your songs. Be happy, smile at the pain, lighten your step, and thank [insert applicable deity] for making you who you are.


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.