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September 18, 2009
L'Enfant: Build it up on Jenkins Hill.
Law is the ultimate backstage pass. It's the new priesthood.
--John Milton/Satan (Al Pacino), in L’Associé du Diable (1997)
Never merely a technician, a good Washington, D.C. lawyer is a thinker, doer, creator, planner, problem-solver, consiligere and true trusted adviser. And no lover of routine. His or her firm is not just a shop--but a laboratory for new ideas. Not for law cattle practicing cookie-cutter law. You won't meet better lawyers. Or people.
"Aggressive", generally, is a good thing here. "Professionalism" means putting clients first--not wimpy cocktail party civility that is "all about the lawyers" and local bar association.
Lawyers are everywhere here; it's not enough just to be one. No one cares you're lawyer. They ask themselves--and the bolder ones will even ask you directly--this question: how good a lawyer are you really? Pecking order is complex, nuanced and important. Talented and feisty folks choose to move to Washington; they are not "stuck" here, or here by default. The city brims over with energy and personality. A rich library of people with moxie and talent.
Posted by JD Hull at September 18, 2009 11:18 PM
Comments
Oh now I see where Duddington Place came from.
Posted by: Kathleen Casey at September 20, 2009 10:03 AM
Yes ma'am. And also: the old restaurants Jenkins Hill and Duddington's on Pennsylvania and 3rd SE near the Library of Congress, the Tune-In and Hawk n' Dove.
Posted by: Dan Hull at September 20, 2009 01:43 PM