Dear Fellow Lawyers: Don't Rush Things!

I have been in your shoes. I know the pressures involved in practicing law. There are stresses from bosses, from judges, from opposing counsel, from clients, stress from parenting, stress in relationships, maybe stress from personal medical issues. Young lawyers might be stressed about finding that first job and clearing their law school debt.

Despite all of those stresses, you have to have a clear mind in practicing law. There are many landmines out there in the real world of law so be careful!

I read a recent Ontario case with the following facts:

The law firm partner told his junior to draft a marriage contract. Neither the partner nor his junior had ever drafted a marriage contract. It’s a rush because the client needs the contract before he closes on the transfer of the family farm to him and he wants the farm to be excluded as a matrimonial asset. The junior scrambles to find a precedent and drafts the contract and gives it to the partner. The partner doesn’t read the contract, tells the client to come to the office to sign it and tells him to bring his fiancé. He then thinks better of that and hurriedly sends her off to another lawyer in town to get ILA. That lawyer spends 20 minutes with her, doesn’t thoroughly review the terms and she signs the Certificate of ILA. The couple separate several years later and guess what? The wife wants the marriage contract set aside and she is successful at trial and on appeal in doing so.

The husband then successfully sues the partner, the junior and the law firm, for negligence and he is awarded close to $1M in damages. 

Lynn’s Tip of the week: When you rush things it never ends well! Spend the time to think it through and try not to let your everyday stresses cause you to become less alert to potential landmines.