|
bit of a defensive position about the way the practice of law has changed . He said , “ Look , we shop differently now , we go online and we buy everything from Amazon . We do banking differently now ; we do everything online . You don ’ t step into a physical bank . These stone bank buildings with big columns outside are not going to be around that much longer . We get medical advice or medical information or share medical data with providers differently now , so what makes us think that the practice of law is not going to change ?” And he is right about that . We may not be happy about it ; we just have to learn how to not only live with it , but we have to learn how to harness those things so that we can use them to our advantage . We have to get a step ahead of the change .
TC : And show the value to the skills that we do have that others can ’ t pick up just by googling something on a particular topic .
BP : You can do all of this research and bring up all this stuff and prepare all this stuff for your case , but the lawyer adds value when the lawyer looks at your research and your homework and says , yeah , you can do this , but ... Or , this doesn ’ t really apply to your case because ... And there ’ s that check that the lawyers should always be used for , so the people don ’ t get themselves into further trouble .
TC : That is a very good point , because I think there ’ s a tendency , you know , to get the snapshot , so you think that ’ s it . It takes somebody who has experience , who ’ s seen a variety of situations or is familiar with the case law , to be able to say that doesn ’ t exactly fit , or that approach is going to be to your disadvantage . What would you say have been the biggest improvements or advances in the past twenty years that have helped lawyers in their practice ?
BP : I think not only the amount of information available to us , but the speed at which that information is available to us . Going back to the Journal article . It was a quarterly Journal and now it ’ s the Daily News on the Internet , legal news on the VBA website . I think that is huge .
TC : Yes . Actually it ’ s one of those double-edged swords , because you ’ re able to help your clients so much more quickly , but on the other hand they can constantly access you . I remember thinking the only time I thought I was off limits was when I was in the courtroom . Now I see lawyers in the courtroom getting texts from clients .
BP : I am sure your old firm , like mine , went through the debate back in the Eighties asking “ Do we really want a fax machine ? Because if we get faxes , that means people are going to want things right away .” Now , of course , if it ’ s not email , its
|
texts or they call your cell . So , either way , people want stuff right away .
TC : I can remember being amazed by the self-correcting key on the typewriter ! I ’ m aging myself . Given all of the advances that have taken place within the Vermont Bar Association thanks directly to you and your energy , what is the one thing that you would say you ’ re most proud of in terms of where we are now with the VBA ? To me , we ’ re just so far beyond where we were when you first took the helm .
BP : Let me answer that two ways . There is a lot of internal stuff — internal changes here within the VBA . We didn ’ t have a website , we didn ’ t use email , we didn ’ t have list serves to allow our members to talk to each other , we didn ’ t have Casemaker , which saves members hundreds of dollars a year in research costs . But a lot of that stuff , or some of that stuff , was going to happen anyway , just with the passage of time . But most of that stuff happened because of the staff that we have here that does the research and says , “ This is something that we should offer our members , let ’ s buy into this thing .” We do have great staff here . Going back to sort of the legislative advocacy thing that I talked about earlier , I couldn ’ t do that five months a year if it wasn ’ t for the staff here that can manage the day-to-day operations . Yes , there have been a lot of improvements , but I don ’ t take credit for the improvements , they go to people like Lisa Maxfield and the others . Lisa has been here ... she was here when I came .
|
TC : I saw her picture in the 1996 Journal !
BP : She was here when I came , and you have heard me tell the Board , “ I work for Lisa .” So what am I most proud of is that I think now the legislature respects the bar and the association and they turn to us for information and advice . We have become a presence in the statehouse , and it wasn ’ t like that twenty years ago , and that I think is what I am most proud of .
|
TC : And rightfully so . Shifting gears a little bit , what advice — given all your background as a lawyer , as executive director of the VBA , and your involvement in the legislature — what advice would you give a young lawyer today wanting to enter this profession ?
BP : I encourage the young lawyers in this state to become involved in the bar association , whether it ’ s through the Young Lawyers Division or a substantive law committee in their area of practice . I think that networking , learning about who their colleagues are , helps breed collegiality in the system . It helps to keep us the way we believe we are , even though some lawyers may say , “ That ’ s not collegial . It ’ s not as nice as it used to be thirty years ago or forty years ago .” I have spent time with bar associations around the country , as you will and already have done as president during your year . The practice of law is very different from state to state , and I think that our small nature , the fact that we only have thirty-four trial judges that we are going to see again and again and again , and only so many opposing lawyers on the other side of those types of cases that we handle , keep us in check , if you will . And I think that is really important .
TC : On the other hand , what advice would you give not-so-young lawyers today , in terms of working in this profession and adapting to the changes ?
BP : Bring a young lawyer into your office and get their help in doing that . Think about transition of your firm ; think about a succession plan for your firm . That just means that we cannot say , “ I am 65 . I am going to lock the doors and send all of my files back to my clients and say go find somebody else .” We cannot do that , we have an obligation to those people to not do that kind of thing . And it appalls me when I hear that is what some people are thinking or feel that they may be forced into doing , because they are very rural and nobody wants to go work in that area or they don ’ t have the money to bring some-
|
Interview with Bob Paolini |