Today at work, a lady came by me and said, "I hear congratulations are in order!" "What did I do?" I replied. "You're a lawyer, right?" "I am. I have been for a while."
"I have some questions for you."
Uh-oh. Folks, as much as I love what I do, I hate hearing that sentence. To me, it inevitably means that someone wants free legal advice. It also means that the asker assumes that I know everything about every aspect of the law. I wish I did, but were that true, I wouldn't be able to retain the knowledge of 80s music or the random trivia I can pull out of my ass. (Or make up. Get me to tell you my theory about the name Wayne, and all permutations thereof, sometime.) It almost always means that someone wants me to do research on his/her specific circumstance, without the benefit of being paid for it.
I'm betting that I'm going to be answering family law questions tomorrow. I also bet that by the end of the week, I'll be answering a whole lot more. And this means that I can't put my personal spin on what people tell me (not out loud, at least).
Still - I bet doctors get this all the time as well. And it's not that I mind answering, it's just that there are potential repercussions for even attempting to give advice, no matter how vague. But I will try, because although I don't know even a quarter of the law, I do know more than someone who hasn't gone to law school. Plus I want people to like me.
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