Carolyn Elefant has a very provocative post at My Shingle on the subject of volunteers.  The impetus for her post is a story in Newsday about how my very own Nassau County Attorney’s office has opened its doors to volunteers (read currently unemployed) attorneys in order to keep them off the streets.  Remember, idle lawyer hands are the devil’s workshop/tools/playthings (pick ’em).  Of course, my beloved Nassau County can always be counted upon for a Menckian solution.

I realize that on the surface, the prospect of free labor sounds eminently attractive. 

I’m just not a fan of free labor.  I’ve had one or two free volunteers at my practice over the past 15 years, but mostly, I’ve paid even though when I started out, it usually meant a $10/hr salary, with the intern or clerk receiving payment before I did.  In at least one case, I found the free employee unreliable and not really very motivated, but because I wasn’t paying her, I didn’t feel that I could crack down on her as much as I would have if she’d been paid.  And assuming that  a diligent volunteer were working for me, I’d feel as if I were taking advantage even if I were teaching him or her the tricks of the trade.

Carolyn’s problem, obviously, is that she’s a softie.  Ironically, she takes it out on the inchoate volunteers because they make her feel guilty.  Not me.  I’m neither a softie nor do I feel guilty about it.  This isn’t involuntary servitude.  No one makes them volunteer, and if they want to do so, then I expect them to produce the same quality as anyone else.  I have no place, and no use, for slackers.  That’s what the Nassau County Attorney is there for.

Like Carolyn, however, I too am not a fan of free labor.  From the perspective of the outsider, the availability of a free piece of meat competent lawyer is indeed “eminently attractive.”  But that’s all it is.  The paycheck is just one cost to me of an extra body in the room.  There are others, far more expensive, that need to be considered.

New people require time, attention and energy, three very expensive commodities in my practice.  There’s a way I want things done.  I mean, every thing that I do.  It’s not that it’s necessarily a peculiar way, as much as the “right way” as far as I’m concerned.  And since it’s my shop, my way is the right way.  I do not run a democracy. Anyone who touches anything that happens in my shop needs to do so my way.  You know all those practice management gurus who tell you to “encourage your employees to explore” new directions, and “empower” them to seize “positive greatness?”  Screw ’em.  I want excellence.  Whether they are pleased with themselves doesn’t cut it.

So while volunteers may have no direct out of pocket cost, they most assuredly have a cost in my time and attention, taken away from the focus on my clients in order to deal with the needs of the new warm body.  Unless there’s a very good reason for me to pay this price, the freebies cost me more than I care to spend.

Secondarily, while I have no qualms about directing volunteers or providing them with my own special brand of “guidance”, because I’m not anywhere near as nice as Carolyn, most volunteers have a belief, whether conscious or not, that they are doing you a favor.  Somehow, somewhere, this will manifest itself.  It’s only human for volunteers to feel that their efforts have value to you, and that you’re getting that value for free, and that provides them with sort of entitlement.  Sometimes, this entitlement shows in inconsequential ways, such as seeking a pat on the back for a job well done.  Other times, however, this results in a passive aggressive reaction which will impair my representation of clients.  We can’t have that.

I’ve tried volunteers, including a stint with law students as part of a mentoring program with a law school.  The drain on my time from these very eager lawyers was exhausting, and could eat up time like nothing until twitter.  In the end, I’m with Carolyn.  Thanks, but no thanks.  When I need someone, I will invest in them, both by paying them for their time as well as giving them of mine.  Until then, I can only thank the Nassau County Attorney for keeping the unemployed off the streets.