Mark Bennett, the Texas tornado, is “in” trial (what we call “on” trial, but they have to be different).  And as any trial lawyer knows, when you’re on trial, you need a little help from your friends to cover the calendar on other cases.  This is the sort of thing that you can ask a friend to do, if she’s going to be in the courthouse anyway.  It’s not a big deal, but has to get done.  And it’s not difficult to do, but then, it can be.

This falls under the heading of professional courtesy.  We do a favor because we know that we will need it back someday.  But a favor is only a favor if you do it right.  When you need someone to cover a case, you don’t need them to show up a few hours late and let your client forfeit bail and get a bench warrant.  Clients really hate it when stuff like this happens.

We talked about professional courtesy before around the practical blawgosphere, but usually in terms of being treated poorly by some snot-nosed prosecutor who wants to flex his arrogance.  This is about burning your own friends. 

It used to be that all favors went into the bank.  We made a deposit when someone needed a hand, and then a withdrawal when it was our turn to need some help.  Everyone understood that favors were banked, and everyone realized that we all benefited from being able to count on friends to help.  But this isn’t the way anymore.

Mark posts about how he, when doing a favor, will go out of his way to make sure that it’s done right, promptly and makes the person for whom the favor is done look good.  In other words, he tries to help, not merely repay a lent-hand begrudgingly.  That’s the right way to do it.  That has always been my way as well.

I’ve helped out a lot of lawyers over the years.  I have always done my absolute best work for them, so that they always looked good for my having been involved.  Sometimes it was covering a case.  More often, it was representing them or a family member at a discount or in an emergency.  When I’m doing a favor, I do it with the same zeal and effort as my best-paying client ever.  Maybe even more.  I would hate to let a friend down.

So you would think that I’m fairly rich in the favor bank department, right?  Not so, apparently.  At least, not any more.  There are some youngish lawyers whose children were fed because of my referrals who can’t seem to find the time to cover a case for me when I’m on trial.  There is another who charged me twice what anybody in the world would pay him to get some documents for me, because he knew that I get higher fees than him. 

A couple of days ago, I received a call from a lawyer I didn’t know.  He told me he was assigned an appeal for a co-defendant of my client.  It takes a while for assignments to be made, and in this case it was about 8 months since the sentence.  I had already completed and filed my appellant’s brief. 

He told me that he received a letter from his client.  The letter said that his co-defendant, my client, had a family with the resources to hire “one of the best appellate lawyers in the whole country.”  It went on to say that his client “had no money and was stuck with him.”  Obviously, this client knew how to make friends and influence people.  We had a big laugh about the letter.

I told this lawyer that the appeals had some common arguments that applied to both defendants, as well as some that didn’t.  Since I was way ahead of him, I told him that I would send over my brief and that he was welcome to use as much of it as he wanted.  Moreover, when I received the respondent’s brief, I would send that over as well.  This is a huge benefit, as it gives him the heads up as to their argument before he writes his brief, and allows him to deal with their points in advance.

The point of this tale is that we, lawyers on the same side of the fence, need to extend a hand to each other as a matter of professional courtesy and to help our clients.  We need each other.  We do better when we help each other.  But when help becomes a one way street, the favor bank goes bankrupt.  This is a terrible shame.  If you owe me a favor and won’t repay, then I’m going to remember it and adjust my favors accordingly. 

I hate to do this, and don’t plan to stop helping others.  But we need to remember about the favor bank, and stop the selfishness.  No more one way streets.  And to those kids who think that the world owes them a hand, but they have no obligation to repay the favor, you’re going to find out how difficult survival in the courthouse can be when you mistakenly think that you’re the center of the universe.  If you can’t help others for the right reason, then chalk it up to a debt that’s come due.  But do it, and do it right.