You Can Take the Lawyer Out of the Regulators . . .

So, I am suffering through a plight that is not uncommon for me in my chosen line of work. I have provided counsel to numerous types of businesses that are not viewed as being the most honorable, or whom provide services or products to folks that are sometimes deemed to be vulnerable in various capacities. So, I have dealt with lots of difficult issues -- some of you know that I have talked about being in the horrible position of having to legally analyze whether to foreclose upon someone's house, and worse yet, whether to proceed with formal eviction after foreclosing upon the house. In these situations, the results of the legal analysis can be cold-hearted and severe, but, the law is clear. I may not feel wonderful about the decision, but, at least I know that I have made the right decision for my client and served as the advocate I am supposed to be.

The more difficult situations for me, believe it or not, are when I have provided the appropriate legal analysis and my client chooses not to take my recommendation. In these cases, I am not talking about black and white legal obligations where the client's failure to comply would definitely cause a legal problem -- I am talking about legal analysis that is designed to minimize risk as much as possible. These types of situations are where I have to start off saying, "You could have no problems at all OR you could have lots and lots of problems, it all depends upon how much folks are paying attention to what you are doing and whether the press or the regulators or the plaintiffs lawyers think this is an issue in which they are interested."

My first job out of law school was to work for a federal regulator, so, I have built-in to my law analysis a bit of a regulator bias. And, there are times that that bias just causes me to be sick with worry when a client chooses not to take my recommendation. These are the times that Brooke is put in the role of reminding me that at the end of the day, it is now my job to provide advice, and to document it, and if the client goes another direction, at least I have c-y-a. That helps put things in perspective and puts my inner-regulator in its place, but, I still hate the feeling that despite my best arguments and my best intentions to keep my client from harm, they can go ahead and do what they want and possibly really regret it down the road. I will be there to help them clean it up, but, I really would rather save them the trouble.

It's kind of like being a parent, in that respect You know that a certain course of action is likely to cause problems, but, despite your best advice and intentions, your child is going to do what they are going to do. Who knows? Maybe your two-year-old can jump off the fireplace and land just fine, but, then again, maybe not. You'll be there to patch that knee and give kisses if needed, but, you wish in your heart that your child did not take such risks.

So, I think it is fair to say that there are times that I wish in my heart my clients would take the safe road. As I understand it, not all lawyers suffer through like I do and often are more likely to have their egos offended when clients do not listen (though, to be fair, that happens to me sometimes too!). But, I care and I want them to do what is right and keep themselves out of harm's way. Oh well. Tomorrow will be another day with another set of issues! :-)