We’re All in It Together
“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.”
“Let’s get together before we get much older.”
In the midst of our current Wintergeddon, my son, having no electricity, and hence no heat, decided to take his cat and join a friend and his family of five. On the way, he got trapped by fallen trees. Some folks with a mini-monster truck (no idea what that is, so let your imagination fill in the blanks) rescued him, driving over the trees and getting him to his friends. Turns out his friend and his family also had no electricity or heat. So, my son, his cat, his friend, his family of five, and their dog all came over to my place, as we had heat and electricity. My partner Jo and I and all our guests got warm, shared some meals, and played board games. I told some Shakespearean stories to the kids about magic fairies, as we all waited for power and some sense of normalcy to be restored amid d-ice-ruption.
It felt good. It felt like true community. When the paradigm as we knew it froze over, we banded together and shared the warmth of each other’s company. I am sure many of you have similar stories where shared adversity brings people together.
Our professional community can work much the same way. We can band together when the paradigm shifts. We can stay connected. We can work together to preserve the law when things get icy.
I recently joined the board of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, an organization of which I have been a proud member for many years. The AAAL continues to raise the bar of appellate practice across the country, promoting the highest professional standards, and bringing practitioners together to share insights. Membership in the AAAL has allowed me to network with the best in the appellate field and learn how incredibly different things can be in other states.
This organization is only one of the many ways that attorneys can stay connected in the field. The Nashville Bar Association has an Appellate Practice Section that I have been a member of for more than 30 years. It has provided a plethora of benefits, not the least of which is working with dozens of people to publish, every year, the Appellate Advocacy Handbook for the bench and bar in Tennessee. The Appellate Practice Section of the Tennessee Bar Association also provides members with opportunities to connect and share knowledge. Those are just the appellate organizations for you to consider contributing to and joining. The list goes on inside the legal profession and, of course, in the larger community as well.
So let me encourage you, dear practitioners: if you feel low on power, out in the cold, or, on the contrary, are well-empowered and want to share some warmth, reach out and join your community. As Harry Tuttle said in the movie Brazil, we’re all in it together.
