"Looking ahead and considering ‘how-things-might-be’ takes a back seat in a job that focuses on precedent – on the past."
In 2019, Free Range Lawyers dealt with many enquiries that went like this:
Law firm: “We’re desperate for a [corporate] lawyer in [Brisbane]. We’ve been looking for a year and can’t find one. The team is on its knees. Can you help?”
FRL: “Absolutely. Since we reach lawyers working remotely, we find quality people that others can’t. Sound good?”
Law firm: “Great – tell me what you have”.
Some days later...
Law firm: “Thanks for that profile. The lawyer is ideal. The work is piling-up and we are really keen to get someone on board. We don’t have anyone else available to us, but ultimately, the partner says they want someone to do the work in the office rather than remotely, so we won’t be going ahead.”
Working with psychologists for most of the last decade, I appreciate why doing things differently is such a challenge for lawyers. It turns out that most are not conceptual thinkers (either naturally or by dint of their training). Looking ahead and considering ‘how-things-might-be’ takes a back seat in a job that focuses on precedent – on the past.
Add this to the pressure of being a [corporate] lawyer whose team is under-staffed, and it is small wonder that the partner in [Brisbane] simply couldn’t consider working in an unfamiliar way.
This – precisely this - is why current circumstances present a such an opportunity.
Within a few days in March, most of us became virtual, flexible workers. Decades of article and conference content morphed into lived experience. Concepts grew into reality. Plans became the stuff of experience.
Thinking conceptually about ‘how-things-might-be’ was replaced with experiencing what is.
In March, we were forced to leap. We leapt and we landed with bones intact.
Now we know we can do it.
And if we can do that….what else can we do?
