Commentary: Is there a mentor in the house?

Wil Scotsen looked perturbed. Given his jovial nature, it was noticeable.

“Have to park a couple blocks from the courthouse Wil? Your face is red.”

“I am steamed,” he said.

“What happened?”

“Young lawyers are hard headed, and they are driving me nuts.”

I stumbled at this because I used to be hard-headed. I still am, but also I used to be.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I am too old to keep fighting baseless motions,” he said. That resonated.

I had a dispute with a young lawyer recently. As a contingency fee lawyer, I don’t have much patience to take up discovery objections that won’t stand up in court, or to make them. (Gentle Reader, I know that sentence could have ended after the word “patience” but humor me.)

I told my opponent how the arguments would go in court but he was strident. When the rulings went as I had predicted, my opponent was graceful to apologize and acknowledge that I had been right. Experience rather than intelligence got the credit.

“The real problem is that young lawyers don’t have the resources we did. Mentors are scarce these days.”

“The focus is more on landing clients and cases than on what to do once they are in the boat,” Wil nodded. It didn’t help his mood to be right. But he was.

With a new swarm of lawyers getting their tickets to practice, I offer the following advice. I don’t claim credit, it was all passed to me when I was green.

Sides are drawn in pencil, bridges burn in ink

Lawyers are to be zealous advocates, but not overly zealous. Attorneys who make enemies on one side of the bar have to patch up those relationships should they change firms later in their careers. Given the temporary nature of law firm jobs, that is a “when” and not an “if.” Regardless of which side of the V. your clients are on today, your reputation for being fair and honest transcends your current client. At the end of the day, your reputation is all you have and it is tough to fix a damaged one. See also: Karma.

Karma is real and mean

Karma is reputation’s soulmate. No matter how big your legal community, reputation is your currency. You may be extremely thorough and diligent but we all eventually need a favor — a continuance, an extension of time, a kindness of some sort. The same goes for the other side, and the lawyer you hard time today will have a hard time to hand you when it is your turn.

Sometimes you can’t represent your client and still do someone a favor. But when you can, you should.

Dance like no one is watching, write like it will be read at your sentencing hearing

I once wrote an insurance adjuster that my client’s case was worth a billion dollars, only to see that email when the case was removed to federal court on the basis of diversity. I told the judge and my opponent that I was clearly joking but neither of them knew what a joke was. Spoiler alert: the case wasn’t worth a billion dollars, nor close to it.

Older lawyers who grew up without cell phone cameras and social media are less aware than new lawyers that everything is potentially public. My mentor told me to assume every letter I wrote would be in the local paper. That goes for emails too.

Wil and I left the courthouse doing the lawyerly thing — consoling each other with war stories. Both of us said or did some things that made us cringe over the years. That didn’t make it any better to be on the receiving end now, but it did give us a laugh or two. If you can’t laugh in this profession you may as well quit. Laughing at yourself is good for the soul. Laughing at your friends is of course better.

©2026 With All Due Respect. Spencer Farris is the founding partner of The S.E. Farris Law Firm in St Louis, Missouri. He wanted to eat rice with Mitch Hedberg. Comments or criticisms about this column may be sent c/o this publication or directly to him via email at [email protected].