The Appellate Cavern
“ O, heaven, were man
But constant, he were perfect!”
I recently had the opportunity to visit the Cavern Club in Liverpool. If you don’t already know, this is the venue where the Beatles started (as the Quarrymen) and ultimately cut their teeth, after their time in Hamburg and before their American tour and launch into superstardom. By cutting their teeth, I mean two-hundred and ninety-two appearances in two years! No wonder they created such impeccable art.
I wonder what my Cavern Club was? No, I am not comparing myself to the Beatles! But I have developed skills that I apply to my living. To do that, I had to put in the time. Perhaps, for me it was the combination of building a Shakespeare Festival and working my way through law school as an actor and musician. Therein, I learned creativity, time management, multi-tasking, and survival skills, to name a few.
Malcolm Gladwell has suggested that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. Early in my career, as a young lawyer, I raised my hand whenever an opportunity to write something arose. A manual on construction law? I said, “Yes.” A survey of Tennessee environmental laws? “I can learn that area of law,” I said to myself, “and write that.” And, of course, if someone needed an appeal done, I said, “Yes.” Little did I know I was building a facility for writing that would serve me well over my career.
A lawyer I respected once said that if you could write well, you would always have work to do. He was correct, I have always managed to be gainfully employed as a lawyer, despite my love affair with theater taking me away from the profession more than a few times. My willingness to write always provided me an entry back to the profession.
Unlike the Beatles, I rarely got chased down the street by screaming fans clamoring for a chance to read my briefs. But all that practice gave me confidence when given the opportunity to say “Yes, I will write that…”
Because, fellow legal professionals, what we practice is an art, and art takes practice.
What was/is/or will be your Cavern Club? I’d love to hear about it.
