Biglaw

The Reason I’m Not Tom Cruise

Being a lawyer today doesn’t resemble the prepandemic Hollywood version of it. And that’s a good thing.

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The first firm I ever wanted to work at was Bendini, Lambert & Locke. As a kid, sitting at home watching a VHS tape of John Grisham’s “The Firm,” I didn’t focus on the firm’s rampant tax fraud and mob connections. What I saw was Tom Cruise, all confidence and swagger, walking through a mahogany law library and getting paid to be smart and think on his feet. The law was cool, even dangerous, and watching Cruise navigate its twists and turns helped convince me that law was the path I wanted to follow.

I don’t think I’m alone in being inspired to the practice by something I saw on TV. Television and movies have long had a pretty defined vision of what the practice of law entails. In Hollywood, we as lawyers are always sporting perfectly tailored professional clothing, for a start. We’re always well-versed in whatever area of law our client needs help with. We go to court every day, say objection a few times, make an impassioned closing argument, then retire to our richly appointed offices for cocktails and witty banter.

Being a lawyer has always seemed tangible in media in a way that most other professions aren’t. There’s so much iconography to the practice of law. Briefcases and gavels, benches and robes, blind Lady Justice herself holding her scales. Lawyers are part of a millennia-old tradition, and carry responsibilities not just to our clients but to the systems of justice we live in. Being a lawyer comes with the power to be a hero, or a villain. We’re counselors, advocates, legislators, fixers. We’re the stewards of the corridors of power, or sometimes the seats of power ourselves. Lawyers, you would think, run the world.

And yet here I sit in my home office, wearing a T-shirt and flip-flops, preparing to connect to a Zoom meeting. Maybe later I’ll redline another document or create some exciting expense spreadsheets. Tom Cruise wheeling and dealing with mafiosos and models I am not.

The Pandemic’s Impact

 The pandemic forcing almost everyone to work from home certainly didn’t help maintain law’s glamorous image, but the reputation of the law has been misaligned with the actual practice for decades. The old school-cool attorney just doesn’t have much place in this world anymore.

Take litigation, which I’d argue is the most visible part of law in modern media. I don’t know any Perry Masons fighting it out in front of a courthouse jury every day. Many attorneys have full, happy careers never once setting foot in a courtroom, and those of us who are litigators by trade spend vanishingly little time in court. We spend our time doing briefing, taking discovery, and working toward resolutions outside the courthouse steps.

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As unglamorous as it may be, it’s undeniably a good thing. Law has pivoted away from the old days where you’d meet your client Monday, pick your jury on Thursday, and break down the verdict with opposing counsel at happy hour Friday. Our focus as a profession has shifted away from fast and loose, from-the-hip trial litigation toward more careful, thoughtful, probing exchanges of information. As these procedures (and the bodies of law surrounding them) have matured, parties’ abilities to realistically value their prospects have increased tremendously. Rational parties can and do settle the vast majority of litigation they begin, because we have the tools today to know where our cases are most likely headed if they continue.

Mason moments are rare these days. To even get to trial, it takes the investments of hundreds of hours of time and exorbitant amounts of money on both sides. Dozens of jurors have to report for duty, and the judges and their clerks have to be brought up to speed. It’s just not usually rational to incur those massive financial and societal costs. Some facts have to be just too muddy to properly assess, or one or both sides have to be too dug into their position to make settlement a possibility. The trials that TV and movies love to dramatize only usually happen today when our more efficient, evolved mechanisms for resolving conflict have broken down.

Why Are We Here?

It helps to remember why attorneys exist in the first place. We’re the tools a society uses to help it function better. A colleague of mine often says attorneys and plumbers have a lot in common. Members of both professions wade into other people’s messes and use some specialized knowledge and hard work to help clean it up. Even the billing structures are often the same. If there’s any difference, it’s that plumbers probably work harder, aren’t paid as well, and likely have a healthier sense of perspective on their place in the world.

The prepandemic tangible perks of being a lawyer — large, opulent offices and clothes — were nice, but they might actually have been hurting the core of what we do. No amount of high-rise office space, bespoke business wear, Italian leather briefcases, or tufted leather furniture can do the same job as a well-written brief, an elegant contract revision, a thoughtful question, or an insightful analogy. In our world, substance still wins.

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Stripping away the artifice and glamour of the practice of law leaves us with something that’s still noble and worthwhile. We’re here to shape and understand our world. We’re here to make sure the law stays vibrant and vital. We’re here to listen, counsel, and help people. That’s why I love what I do. Sure, I don’t mind sporting a suit once in a while, grabbing a drink in the lounge with my colleagues, and enjoying the amenities that the practice of law affords us. Wanting to be Tom Cruise is part of why I got into law in the first place. But now that I’m here, it’s the people I’ve helped and the relationships I’ve made that I’ll remember.

It’s the job, not the perks, that keeps me going day after day.

James Goodnow is the CEO and managing partner of NLJ 250 firm Fennemore Craig. At age 36, he became the youngest known chief executive of a large law firm in the U.S. He holds his JD from Harvard Law School and dual business management certificates from MIT. He’s currently attending the Cambridge University Judge Business School (U.K.), where he’s working toward a master’s degree in entrepreneurship. James is the co-author of Motivating Millennials, which hit number one on Amazon in the business management new release category. You can connect with James on Twitter (@JamesGoodnow) or by emailing him at James@JamesGoodnow.com.

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