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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    June 01, 2002

    Letters

    Michael Eckert; Thomas Kelly; Bruce Pagel

    Wisconsin Lawyer
    Vol. 75, No. 6, June 2002

    Letters

    Letters to the editor: The Wisconsin Lawyer publishes as many letters in each issue as space permits. Please limit letters to 500 words; letters may be edited for length and clarity. Letters should address the issues, and not be a personal attack on others. Letters endorsing political candidates cannot be accepted. Please mail letters to "Letters to the Editor," Wisconsin Lawyer, P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158, fax them to (608) 257-4343, or email them to wislawyer@wisbar.org.

    Lawyers are judged on performance, not slogans

    I am writing to ask some questions that apparently have never been asked regarding the slogan campaign by the State Bar designed to improve our image. Our executive director, in his April column, states that our slogan will improve our image in order that we can compete better in the marketplace.

    Has anyone ever thought about the image of Wisconsin plumbers and whether they have a slogan? Until now, I have to confess that I haven't. Could it be that these professionals have never felt a need to worry about slogans and their image for the simple reason that they have no competition? Let's face it, if you need your sewer fixed, you are going to call a licensed Wisconsin plumber.

    As I understand it, you have to be a licensed Wisconsin lawyer to practice law here in Wisconsin. Therefore, we don't have any competition. So my question is, Why do we need to blow our horns about the expert advice and service ability of Wisconsin lawyers? Are we a product or a commodity?

    Apparently, according to our director, this program is based on the success of the accounting profession, where they have spent millions of dollars to remake their image from that of "bean counters" to "trusted business advisers." Trusted by whom? Are the State Bar leaders aware of the recent publicity regarding Enron and the leading accounting firm in the nation? Apparently the accountants in that case went far beyond their traditional "bean counting" role and generated a million dollars a week in fees while they were providing "trusted business advice." Perhaps if they had done their jobs, the Enron advisees would not have been able to perpetuate the scam that they have to this point gotten away with.

    I believe the only image that the organized Bar needs to be concerned about is the image that each of us projects to our clients. Like plumbers, we are judged upon our performance, not upon slogans touting generic "Wisconsin lawyers." Such a program benefits only the advertising agencies and media that have been able to sell it to our leadership. How much is this going to cost us anyway?

    Thomas J. Kelly
    Spring Green

    Atty. Kelly is correct when he states that Wisconsin lawyers are judged "upon our performance, not upon slogans." The research behind the branding campaign supports the fact that the majority of people who have contact with a Wisconsin lawyer come away with a favorable impression. But branding is not sloganeering and the people this effort is trying to reach are the third of Wisconsinites who have no impression of lawyers. Lawyers face competition every day from other professionals for tax, real property, estate planning, corporate, and other "traditional" legal work. Nonlawyers represent people before various state tribunals outside of the courts. More than half of all divorces in Wisconsin are handled pro se. In other states, GAL work can be handled by non-lawyers. Successfully branding lawyers as expert advisers who solve problems and serve the community will educate the public about the value of lawyers. Doing so may help overcome this competition as well as those annoying lawyer jokes.

    George Brown
    State Bar Executive Director

    Saluting the Bar for supporting lawyers called to service

    The December Wisconsin Lawyer finally caught up with me at Eagle Base, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and I read "Military Lawyers: A Sense of Duty" with great interest. I was particularly pleased to see a mention of my old friend Judge Jim Eaton. I'm here finishing up a tour as part of the 29th ID and SFOR 10.

    Although a member of the Wisconsin Bar, I live and work in Virginia. Nonetheless, I'd like to applaud the Bar for its efforts in supporting Wisconsin lawyers who are called upon to serve and for the great programs that are available to the rest of those soldiers in Wisconsin who are now participating in military operations all over the world.

    Serving those who serve is still a high calling, and I salute everyone connected to the program. Great job.

    Bruce A. Pagel, Lt. Col.
    Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina

    A lawyer's lament

    Editor's Note: This letter was sent anonymously to the Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program. We are reprinting a modified version in the hope that other lawyers will seek help - or at least a sympathetic ear. To learn more about WisLAP, visit www.wisbar.org/bar/wislap.html, or call (800) 543-2624. Your confidentiality is respected.

    * * *

    I am so tired of working until midnight every night or feeling guilty about not working until midnight when I only work until 10:30, long after my colleagues and staff have gone home and are sleeping or enjoying time with their families and loved ones. I am so tired of coming back to the office after the lights in the hallway have shut off and having to pay extra-careful attention so I don't make a mistake, even though I am exhausted. I am so tired of working so hard and worrying about work every waking minute that my health, my eyesight, and my dick no longer mean anything to me.

    I am so tired of busting my ass so my unreliable or counterproductive employees can get paid instead of me. I am so tired of risking my home and my family's financial future each day because my law partner won't put his financial ass on the line like me. I am so tired of not being able to let up for a moment lest my competitors devour the shambles of a business I have left.

    I am so tired of being controlled by domineering clients who demand the moon and then either don't pay or think they're doing me a favor by paying me bottom-feeder rates to put up with their egocentric shit. I am so tired of not having the time, resources, or energy left to do better for the clients who actually deserve it.

    I am so tired of the ever increasing, never ending, unbearable, unbeatable stress that makes me want to go back to bed the moment I get up, and makes me want to go to sleep every hour of the day. I am so tired of it that I just want to cry. But I can't - I have to get back to work now.

    (Sorry for unloading on you in this way, but if I can't send this to you then I don't know where else to send it. These are the first honest words I've expressed in a long time and throwing them away would have broken my heart. Thank you for existing; I mean that truly.)

    Mandatory pro bono reporting isn't necessary

    In response to President Mowris's pro bono message in the April Wisconsin Lawyer, my firm, since its inception, has done adoptions as its pro bono obligation, among other things, free of charge. We don't consider it necessary to "toot our own horn" regarding our pro bono work. If that's the intent of mandatory pro bono reporting, it's wrong.

    If the intent is to show the public how much pro bono work Wisconsin lawyers do to enhance our reputation, that can be accomplished with voluntary reporting without establishing another expensive State Bar bureaucracy for that purpose. As professionals, can't we be counted on doing something simply for the sake of doing it without turning it into a mandatory requirement?

    Michael L. Eckert, Rhinelander


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