A lawyer dies and goes to heaven. “There must be some mistake. I’m only 55.” Saint Peter checks his book. “Actually, you’re late – we added up your billable hours and you’re 110 years old”. Lawyers, eh?
I used to be a lawyer. For nearly 6 years, first in Amsterdam, then in London.
On a holiday I was reading the 4 Hour Work Week when I jumped up and yelled at my (by then frightened) girlfriend: I’ve made a mistake, being a lawyer is not SCALABLE, aaargh!
I made a bold plan to come into work the next week, quit, get my hands on an Aston Martin, start a better version of Facebook and execute various other killer plans. I was going to live the dream.
But as you may have guessed, a couple of years later, I was still at the law firm. A seed had been planted though and I made a decision to actually quit, for real this time!
Looking back, the hardest part was walking into my boss’ office to tell him. We got along really well and I was afraid it would disappoint him somehow.
It actually took three attempts before I finally walked in. On the first two, I pussied out and decided to make a blank copy on the copy machine right outside his office.
My goodbye email to the rest of the firm was leaked – you can find it by searching “Binsbergen Resignation Letter” – and I was free to do what I wanted.
Now I’m building a legal startup called “Lexoo”. We help businesses get fixed quotes from multiple UK lawyers, all working on a low overhead basis (if you google “Lexoo” you can find out more).
So far it’s working out. It’s nice not to wear a suit. Our investors are great guys. And a large bunch of customers are using our service. Turns out that companies reaaaally hate overpaying on legal work, so we’re solving a problem.
What about you guys? Any funny, crazy or disturbing lawyer stories? I wrote a free entrepreneur’s guide with insider’s tips and tricks on how to deal with lawyers (google: “Lexoo book”). I’d love to update it with your stories!
I’ll end with a Woody Allen quote that always makes me smile:
“Some men are heterosexual and some men are bisexual and some men don’t think about sex at all, you know, they become lawyers.”
Find me on twitter or send me an e-mail, I would love to hear from you!
Daniel van Binsbergen
@DvanBins
[email protected]
London