No doubt you have heard the rumors about the cutthroat environment in which law students and lawyers work. You probably also have heard about the adversary system, the money, the greed, and the power struggle etc. I have heard of them, too. In fact, I have also seen them all on Law and Order. As I finish my fourth week as a pretend practicing lawyer, I must confess that I have seen very little cutthroat and, instead, a lot of cooperation.

About three times a day some attorney at the firm will send out a system wide email asking for assistance or expertise on a specific topic and take advantage of the collective knowledge pool of a large law firm. They get responses within seconds from their colleagues on questions that might have taken them hours to research. Perhaps even more frequently, one client matter gets referred to several different attorneys each with their own expertise to provide the client with a comprehensive solution. Even as a summer associate / pretend attorney, I quickly realized how practicing law is all about utilizing and contribution to the power of people.

I was given an assignment to research enforcement actions states’ Attorney General brought under the authority of a certain regulation. Unlike judicial decisions, these enforcement actions are typically not published or readily available. So I had to get creative with my research. After some preliminary research on the internet, I found out that one practicing attorney / internet law professor has published several articles on the topic in question. I found his contact information on his firm’s website and even though I knew it was a long shot, I e-mailed him anyway with my question. Much to my surprise, he called me within thirty minutes offering his insight and expertise for no profit or fame. The same thing happened when I called a state administrator. He answered my email within ten minutes. I was getting a lot of good information from these folks when I suddenly realized that I have a family friend who works in this field and deals with this question on a daily basis. A conversation with her gave me almost all of the information I needed for my project. A while back, I wrote a blog entry on the importance of networking in the law profession. I realized this week that it is important because the law is a people profession. We need each other to best serve our client.