I refer of course to the frightening unacceptence by many practising lawyers that owning and running an average law firm right now is damn hard.
Right now, today, for too many lawyers struggling to keep a business together... things are slow, cash flow is a problem and serious business or personal debt issues are either looming or are here, now and frighteningly real.
But ask any sole-trader or small partnership firm lawyers and they will tell you that not only is everything "Ok" but that their business is "...doing well in the circumstances..." and that "..things will improve..." or "...there will be a turn around in the economy and we will be ok..."
This prolonged economic and cultural shift in the way legal services are delivered versus the way the buying public want them to be delivered is causing many sleepless nights, serious alcohol problems, drug problems and relationship problems with many lawyers and partners and the fear of the future is causing an inability to accept this and act.
How do I know this? Because as a result of this blawg, as a result of speaking at seminars and as a result of a simple ability to "do the maths and say it like it is" I speak to a lot of lawyers and I know things are bad because I look into their eyes and ask and they eventually tell me.
Either that or they phone to ask to meet me at a neutral location and after a short while they admit that they or their firm has serious problems and they want to talk about what to do about it.