Auld Lang Syne

I just returned from a conference in Orlando where I met many other people from all over the world who perform work somewhat similar to mine.  Some of the workshops challenged the methods we use, stimulating discussion and generating the occasional controversy among people who are generally very opinionated and not hesitant to speak their minds about much of anything. 

A lot of the folks are colleagues with whom I previously shared professional adventures and respect immensely.  Renewing acquaintances and catching up on life proved easily done;  the vast majority of people I had never met.  Over the course of two-and-a-half days I added quite a few new professional friends to my cadre.  Although we all share this particular profession, we have arrived at it from extraordinarily different paths.  Some are retired federal judges – too bad Bill didn’t ask that question of his audience first before his session started – and others have owned successful engineering or construction companies, like my new friend Alan. 

None of us is a spring chicken:  I guess that is mainly because we are getting paid for something that takes years to acquire.  So, in a sense we are like a wine that’s aged.  By definition time has to pass for the aging to occur.  My expertise did not arrive all of a sudden when I received my law degree.  I suppose an argument could be made that a certain amount of expertise had been acquired by the time I became board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization (that's a mouthful -- but the legal ethics require us to say it that way), but even that would probably not be sufficient to satisfy what people want for this area of work.  I am not saying all of this in any sense to be bragging – please don’t misunderstand. 

The point is about staying around long enough to have been around the block two or three times.  Or twenty or thirty.  Or two hundred.  That’s what we are getting paid for:  expertise that has been compiled over time.  Seeing the shifting sands of time, the coming and going of trends and fads, the tendencies in human nature, and those things that can be counted on time and again.  What is valuable and what is simply fool’s gold.

I have no way of knowing if anyone will ever ask me to work on a case again.  I have the ability to withdraw my name from consideration if it is time for me to stop, and that day may come.  I don’t know about that either.  In the meantime I am grateful for the opportunity to meet my colleagues from other parts of the world and to renew old acquaintances. 

Here’s to Auld Lang Syne.