Just as in life, a professional career cannot start at the apex. One has to crawl his way-up, bearing the pains, celebrating small triumphs, and absorbing the failures. Man grows not out of happiness and success but of rising above every time he stumbles.
So as becoming a private law practitioner. After taking the lawyer’s oath, the windows of opportunity are open. A new lawyer can go to government, to private companies, or the less-travelled private law practice. He has to start somewhere in the troughs of any career.
Private law practice is a challenge. Many have tried this path, but only few survive. The challenges are daunting. You have to spend for office rent, salaries, electricity, gas, office equipments and materials. After the new office blessing, reality sets-in. Clients come to the office sparingly, and the frequency come too long in-between. After awhile, the new lawyer is seen posting in the social media taking his oath of office in the government service, or his new job in a private company.
Being an associate in a law firm to start a private law practice is always an option, and as I reflect, it is the best option. Without a client of your own, the new law private practitioner can handle the law firm’s cases. He can appear in court a day after his acceptance to the firm usually as assisting lawyer. In time, he gets busy writing pleadings, conducting interviews, and appearing in court. Most handy is the pieces of advice of senior lawyers in the firm. Being an associate is an internship with pecuniary rewards.
I was fortunate enough to be an associate of Libra Law Firm based in Butuan City. All hats off to our senior partner, the great Atty. Roan I. Libarios, once a Vice-governor, Congressman, and National President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. His writing is irresistibly poignant. His pleading entertains, educates, and persuades. After 32 years of law practice, I have yet to read a pleading as excellent as that of Atty. Libarios.
During my stint with the Libra Law Firm, writing became second nature. Studying the style and elegance of Atty. Libarios’s writing honed mine too. But more than writing, I learned how to conduct myself as private law practitioner.
Study of law is both rigorous and expensive. Thrust suddenly into the legal community, a new lawyer is tempted to short-cut the whole learning process. Some wanted to earn huge sum immediately. Some new lawyers tend to over-charge their clients and refuse pro bono cases. Greed overtakes patience and diligence. No wonder some lawyers were subjected to suspension, if not disbarment.
There is no short-cut for any career. A new lawyer should not deny a client for money. Accepting low paying clients, or even pro bono ones, will help one’s budding career. You may forego pecuniary benefits now in favor of a more stable future. Help one pro bono client, and when he returns to his barangay, he will be your number one propagandist. To your surprise, your pro bono client has brought to your office many paying clients.
The first five years of private law practice is most challenging. It is this time that a new lawyer has to decide to continue or not. But so long as you learn the value of hard work, diligence, and build your reputation around the values of excellence and integrity, there is no way for you but to go higher in the ladder.