Thirty years a lawyer

Today marks the 30th anniversary of my admission to the Pennsylvania bar, where I practiced for nine months before moving to Charleston, South Carolina, and where I remain on non-resident active status.

Thoughts? Humbled by the thousands of individuals who trusted me with their legal problems. Proud of the work I’ve done helping these clients and assisting younger attorneys develop their own law practices. But primarily old.

I attended the Charleston County Bar’s annual holiday party last night. There I schmoozed with a number of attorneys I have known 25 years or more, including a close friend who was instrumental in me opening my practice 28 years ago. When we attended these parties in the 1990’s we were among the younger members of the bar; now we’re the elders–as the grey hairs and slightly bowed bodies cruelly remind us. My brain may convince me I’m youthful but the gym and my increased need for naps demonstrate otherwise.

Still thirty years of being a lawyer seems worth commemorating, if only because this is the last year I will have to meet the South Carolina Bar’s annual legal education requirements.