Tips for a young lawyer to become a great lawyer скачать в хорошем качестве

Tips for a young lawyer to become a great lawyer

The Olsen on Law Radio Show has been on the air for 40 years. From our radio show, we have videos of real people asking real legal questions. We help people to avoid probate and do their estate planning including wills, living trusts and powers of attorney. We also help people get free in-home care for seniors and help people protect their wealth from the cost of a nursing home. We are the Olsen Law Group in Orlando and we assist clients throughout the State of Florida. Attorney Alexis Richards: I told them about your dad was the one who started the law firm back in the day. Attorney Tom Olsen: Yes. Robert Olsen was my father. He'd been a lawyer in Orlando since the mid-50s. When I became a lawyer in 1981, I'm going on 45 years now, I started practicing law with him. He was a joy to be around. He was a great mentor to me, and we practiced law together until he retired. I'll always tell the story about practicing law with my father. Became a brand new lawyer in 1981, and that is for the first couple of years, really, all I did was to sit in his office and listen to him talk to clients and learn that way. I remember thinking, "Gosh, how will I ever know as much as he knows?" I couldn't imagine the day. Then, as an early lawyer in 1981, I'd be talking to people on the phone, and they'd ask me a legal question, and I'd go, "You know what? I don't know. Let me check it out, and I'll call you back." First of all, you and I, we don't like people who BS. All the compliments I've gotten on the radio show over the years, you think the number one compliment would be, "Tom, you're so smart," but the number one compliment is that Alexis: Straight shooter Tom: -"Tom, we appreciate it when you tell people you don't know the answer." That's just the way I live my life. If I'm ever with a salesman and they start BSing me and making it up, I don't like it. Alexis: No, you don't. Tom: I would say, "Hey, I'm talking to somebody. I don't know the answer to that question. Let me go find out for you." I'd go talk to my dad, and he'd give me some good advice. I'd do a little bit of research. I'd get the person back on the line, and they'd say, "Great, Tom. Thank you for getting that answer for me, but what about this?" "I don't know. Let me hang up. Let me go check it out." That's the way it works. Alexis: It is the way it works. Tom: You learn a little bit at a time. Alexis: Absolutely. Tom: Law school is a great foundation, but the bottom line is it's a real-life experience that's going to teach you how to be a great lawyer. Alexis: I know people think that, oh, once you come out of law school, it's like, oh, you know everything. You've had a touch of everything. You know. It's like, oh, no. That is just a very basic foundation. The real learning comes once you're outside of school. Tom: Let me add some of that to it. Not only is it knowledge that comes from experience, and one of my favorite sayings is there's no substitution for experience. Whether you're practicing law or driving a car or driving a boat, you got to do it before you're really good at it. That experience is just part of the learning process, but beyond that, what is so critical about what we do with our knowledge of the law for people, and I know you do this, I see you do this, I have people tell me how great you are because I know you're doing this, is being able to explain the law to people in a way that they can understand it. Alexis: I helped clients yesterday, and they told me that when we were finishing up our meeting. That compliment just made my week. I really appreciated that they took the time to even say that and acknowledge that, because we all try and do it because that's our goal here, is education. That's what we sponsor. That's what we push is we want to help to educate people. Tom: Exactly. We've all been in situations where we're with another professional, and often this has to do with taxes for me, where somebody is trying to explain something to me, and I just don't get it. Part of that is me, and part of that is the person that's trying to explain it to me. I've gotten better at it because I've gotten a pretty good foundation on taxes, so that's not a great example. Part of being a lawyer when you're explaining to people is that explain it to them in a way that they can understand it. Sometimes they'll look at me or look at you, and you get it, they don't quite get it. I'm going to go through this again. I'm going to put maybe a little bit more detail in it. I'm going to put a little bit different twist on the way that I explain it to you, and that's part of what we do. That's what it takes sometimes to get people to understand it, and that's part of having a good knowledge of the law and a way of explaining to people, and a way that they understand it is critical. [