THANK YOU for allowing me to share in this important time of your life.

Remember our first class – "Why are you in this class?" "Because nothing to do in Dallas on a Thursday afternoon!" On this last afternoon together, let's talk about what you're most interested in, or anxious about – and then about larger questions of "why you're doing all this" and other things that really matter.

Three Parts:

•       I'm sure you're interested in how to get a job to pay off all these loans – or if you already have a job, how to change jobs three to four years from now, as you may well find you want to do. So Opening the (Right) Door is Part One.

•       You're probably also concerned about how to get off to a good start in your first, second, or third job. So A Good Start is Part Two.

•       In Part Three, let's return to the question of why you're here – but not just why you're in this class, or even in law school, but why you're on this earth, what you're doing with your life, and what Professional Success really means.

1. STEP ONE: NAME YOUR OBJECTIVE – Which Is the RIGHT Job for YOU

•       YOU – NOT for SMU, your parents, or for the person sitting next to you

•       It's NOT NECESSARILY the name of the firm, size of salary, or cachet of deals

•       Right Job for You = job that will BRING OUT THE BEST IN YOU

•       The PEOPLE you work with – wherever you are – will always be infinitely more important than the name on the door!

2. START with Office of Career Services, BUT DON'T STOP THERE

They are the nicest people in the world. They can't advise 775 people too individually, but they DO have:

•       Excellent resources, information, and advice

•       Ears to the ground regarding hiring patterns, competition with other schools

Even mentioning OCS raises two things to keep in perspective:

On-Campus Interviewing speed-dates through a tiny portion of this huge talent pool, ignores the huge majority. If it worked for you, great! But if you didn't find the love of your professional life in Law's equivalent of Friday night on Greenville Avenue, then so what? There are a million possibilities, still, and constantly.

Big Law Firms take up a lot of oxygen but aren't nirvana. You may get good money, training, and exposure, and you might take root; I loved my 35 years in one. But NOT the Right Job for everybody. Clients are rebelling against sky-high fees; AI is threatening foundations; young people haven't been hired "for life" in ages; Partnership isn't "tenure" anymore; and training young associates takes more time than anyone has.

(A nice presumption, maybe – "she or he came out of X so must be smart" – but give me substance every time. I learned that early, when I had my head handed to me by a guy whose law school and firm I'd never heard of.)

Ironically, you may get more substance – personalized training, more responsibility and experience, closer friendships, and become part of each other's lives more easily in small- to mid-size firms. My wife and I both loved her 20+ years in one!

So: Big Firms or Small, I Can Give You 10 Reasons to be Happy!

3. SOME SPECIFIC STEPS:

•       Personalize your search, more like your grandfathers' ("door to door") than parents' ("Escalator"). From whom do you want to learn?

•       Use modern information tools!

•       Present yourself in person as much as possible.

• GO to the courthouse in person. Join the Dallas Bar Association! Do a GOOD JOB at HARD, REAL committee work (Best way to get noticed!) (Remember DBA STEER Program for young lawyers).

• Look Beyond Firms! Remember "you can do anything with a law degree?" (You just forgot it 30 minutes into your first 1L class.)

• And remember, if you don't get an offer or get laid off, it's almost ALWAYS just because of money, and may be a blessing in disguise (even if it's a "very effective disguise").

4. IMPORTANT GOOD NEWS:

•       There are GOOD career paths in and out of Every job, at Every stage of your career, at Any Time! (Say that again!)

•       Whole new fields we can't imagine will be opening up

•       All this will be so much easier once you're out of school, away from each other. Advice you give each other is awful, because it's human nature to seek validation of what you're doing yourself. The huge (surprising!) majority don't have a job right when they graduate, but do within a matter of months.

1. LEARN Your CRAFT

(Holmes: "The business of a lawyer is to know law")

First, Learn Your Craft:

•       Legal Technology (because older people expect it)

•       Fundamentals ("Steady, Reliable, Methodical, Thorough, Clear")

•       Subject matter expertise – how to do something (best self-protection for changing jobs)

Ideally, learn TWO specialties! Why? Your "primary" field may be legislated out of existence (that's what "reform" means); commoditized by AI; dried up like the Dust Bowl by market conditions; or your mentors may be "de-equitized." ("What do you do when the music stops?")

Keep Learning Constantly: "You can learn from anyone! – other lawyers, receptionists, opposing counsel, and especially paralegals and administrative assistants! ABSORB!" (TRUE: and you'll have to learn by LISTENING! – which is why I don't use PowerPoints in class.)

Plan to INSIST on your training. YOUR initiative.

2. "MARKETING" comes ONCE YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SELL

•       Clients hire lawyers they KNOW, TRUST, are COMFORTABLE WITH, and occasionally by big reputations (never a guy they met at a cocktail party or luncheon – so most "networking" is wasteful and tiresome.)

•       Pet peeve: Focus on REPUTATION, not "personal brand." You are not a cow, detergent, or a luxury watch. You do not need a "personal brand." You are a professional. You need to EARN a REPUTATION.

• Reputations take TIME to earn. Must not rush or exaggerate. NEVER "fake it till you make it."

• Tip: Start with each other! BEHAVE like a lawyer you'd want to hire.

3. UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF "WORK-LIFE BALANCE"

•       Work-Life Balance is measured over lifetimes. (You'll have many ambitions; they'll change as you grow. It's okay to zero in on different ambitions at different life stages.)

•       Balance requires hard compromises. Can't be perfect at everything.

• Hillary Clinton used to say, "Career; Family; Social Life. Pick 2."

• One Imperative: MUST prioritize FAMILY.

• "Screw that up, and nothing else will matter."

4. Certain LIFE SKILLS: HOW TO...

A. CONCENTRATE in Real Time: "Do what you're doing"

B. "FAIL WELL" – "90% of Practicing Law is digging yourself out of the holes you dug yourself into."

That's why I've been more interested in your struggles than your achievements, your failures than your triumphs, your courage to keep going more than your grades.

C. BEHAVE YOURSELF — SELF-CONTROL, 24/7

To be an American Lawyer isn't something you "do" during working hours; it's something you BECOME, and ARE, 24/7, and must behave like (including after business hours), for the rest of your life. Are you doing what you say you'll do? Is your word your bond? With Integrity, which transcends every aspect of your life? If you find you're in bad company, are you getting out?

D. ENDURANCE – which is what you must have when you cannot have anything else.

E. HUMILITY – TO REALIZE that you MAY NOT BE RIGHT.

So that's how to get off to a Good Start. NOW LET'S TURN toward things that are timeless, and what "Professional Success" will look like. (Remember, it's a blessing even to be able to think about what constitutes "success.")

An old professor once said that "Anytime you rise to speak of the Words of Life, The Things that are Timeless, of the 'Things that Cannot Be Shaken,' always remember that at least one person in the sound of your voice is desperate to hear it." If you are that person now, then what you are about to hear is from my heart to yours.

1. Accept that Practicing Law is HARD

Always has been. (1880's speeches will send you running screaming from the building.) WHY? Because Law is a PROFESSION, one of the three ancient Learned, Service Professions (law, medicine, theology) ("standing in the delicate balance between Heaven and Earth"), and of the three, Law is hardest.

Why? Because others have limits: medicine can only go as far as its science, theology can only go so far before it has to proceed on faith. But Law is about People, so Law has no limits just as People have no limits. The Best and Worst Visions of People (and their Law) are both REAL, and they touch the TRUTH at both extremes. At their Worst, People (and their Law) are Horrible. But at their BEST, People (and their Law) are TRANSFIGURING.

2. "Hard" is about to get Exponentially Harder. WHY? Three reasons:

(1) Our Profession is under enormous pressure to act like "just a business." (How often have you heard the lament, "oh, it's just a business now?") – Know the difference between a Profession and a Business? Business focuses on ITSELF, and its Purpose is PROFIT; Profession focuses on OTHERS, and its Purpose is SERVICE.

(2) Society itself is under near-unendurable pressure, from mass media and social media. We're in a New "Gilded Age," where:

1.    Appearance counts more than Substance

2.    The Artificial more than the Authentic

3.    Courtesy is scorned as Weakness

4.    Vulgarity masquerades as Strength

5.    Vision is blinded by Spectacle

You're Generation Z, aren't you? Aren't you ALREADY TIRED of all that – of the Shoddy, the Synthetic, the Substitute?

Well, better get "un-tired," because of Reason 3: we have moved from "Merely Gilded" into a New Dark Age, with a new birth of Open Corruption, Proud Ignorance, and Unapologetic Cruelty, on a scale and in ways we've never seen before.

•       Never in my wildest nightmares did I imagine that someday I would have to explain and defend the Rule of Law... Let me tell you what's happening:

•       Recently, the president of a major national bar association returned from a trip to Germany, and reports being told that "10 years ago, everyone wanted to be Americans – the integrity of your legal system, the kindness of your people, the openness of your expression and debate – Now, NOBODY wants to be like you."

•       You can hardly open the news without seeing senior, experienced lawyers (and judges!) violating basic ethics rules – Right & Wrong 101, obvious to any layman – for fear of losing money or status.

•       Ten years ago a friend from Russia, well traveled all over the world, told me that of all the world's bureaucracies America's is by far the hardest to deal with, because "there's no one to bribe!" Yet three weeks ago I sat with an old friend, a 40+-year lawyer of national renown, who literally had tears in his eyes when he asked, "Did you ever imagine that 'just pay $1 million to the most senior government officials or their families' would be sound legal advice?"

•       Like it or not, you will be in the middle of that – because you will be an American Lawyer, and American Law itself will be in the center of the storm.

3. SO: What will YOU DO, in this new, dark age? What will you do?

Will you grab for your own, personal version of "the Good Life," plunge in like a rugby player to "Get Yours," and knock over everyone weaker than you in your grab for the Brass Ring?

Or – will you stand up and show by your words and by your life that American Law is about far more than just "power" or what it takes to keep it? (In a democracy, any clever fool can take power and any mediocrity can leap on his coattails. Look at our history – haven't we proven that often enough?) Do you realize – in your SOUL – that American Law is about far more than mere "power?"

Do you realize – are you committed to the ideal – that American Law, the Constitution itself, is a covenant? – a covenant among each other, with the world, and with the future – about how we will behave, how we will treat each other, and how we will engage with the future and with all peoples and nations of the world. I hope you realize that Truth, because in 6-24 months when you step up to join the Bar, you'll be asked to commit your life to it.

4. What will you NEED INSIDE YOURSELF, in this new Dark Age?

You've been told that practicing law takes a few brains but mostly a lot of hard work. That is true. But I tell you now that brains and hard work are just the table stakes. Starting now, You must ALSO have COURAGE:

•       Courage (as Learned Hand said) to have HUMILITY, NOT TO BE "too sure you're right," to listen to all sides, and to remember that the fact that you may be wrong is the very "Spirit of Liberty"

•       Courage, having listened, to CHANGE YOUR MIND

•       Courage, where you see CORRUPTION, to SACRIFICE money and status in order to fight it, to TURN DOWN OFFERS OR LEAVE places where the rot has become evident or embedded, and to DO WHATEVER ELSE IT TAKES to avoid becoming complicit in it

•       Courage, where you see IGNORANCE, to suffer the consequences of Speaking the Truth in its Face

•       Courage, when you see CRUELTY, to use every ounce of your strength, and your brain, and your voice to STOP IT

•       And Courage starting NOW, to define for yourself and live by a New Model of "Success" – not one defined by others, be it by grades, prestige, social acceptance within the herd, or billable hours

5. Up to now, your "Success" has been gauged by others' standards

– grades, achievements – in order to "get in" to the next school or internship. NOW, it's Time for YOU to find a New Model of Success for YOURSELF.

6. Three Models of Success are competing for your attention

All three will drive you crazy. One drives you crazy because it serves somebody else, and the other two will drive you crazy because they are in conflict with one another.

"Institutional" Model: This is the one that will drive you crazy first. Every institution you've ever been part of (school, business, firm, Army, church…) has "Institutional Models of Success," where they say, "Here's what Success looks like. Be Them!" But if THEY'RE "what success looks like," and THAT'S NOT what you see in your mirror staring back at you, then what are YOU?

Solution: Institutional examples serve the Institution's needs, not yours. Don't look AT these examples – real heroes don't want you to look at them anyway. They want you to Look Where They're Looking, and work to get there in your OWN WAY. So do that, and set the Institutional Model aside.

The Other Two Models Compete with Each Other:

•       "Business" Model says: "Aww, it's all just a business now. Look to Yourself! 'Network!' Build your 'Personal Brand!' Hustle 'Business' and 'Rankings!' and Awards! Don't fall behind – Clock more billable hours every year! Raise your rates every year! Ignore conflicts! All hail the great 'Rainmakers!'"

•       "Professionalism" Model says: "Respect conflicts and turn down conflicting work! Stay far back from the ethical lines! Honor your obligation of candor to Courts and others! The client isn't 'always right' so be ready to withdraw – and lose the business – if the client wants things you should not do!"

Can you feel the TENSION, the war inside your head, between the Business Model (practicing law for money and the more of it the better) and the Professionalism Model (calling you to the greatest of the Service Professions)?

The War in Your Head between these two has now become so toxic that it's actually causing us to lose our damn minds. Look again at these senior lawyers from best firms committing horrible ethical breaches, while the list of young lawyers whose lives are being ruined (or taken at their own hands) is long, hideous, and growing.

Solution? How DO we AVOID becoming the clinically depressed alcoholics Steve Yeager is worried we'll all become?

•       We're doing better! Awareness, counseling, no more stigma, therapy dogs, goat yoga (whatever that is… sounds like a rude joke by Tea-Sippers about my Aggie friends). All that is great!

•       Still: War in your Heads is a Serious Issue and needs a Serious Solution, which may not be found in goat yoga. We Need a New Model of Success.

I Suggest the "Moral Tradition" Model (From Aristotle!)

SUCCESS = "Virtue!" and VIRTUE! = Three things:

7.    Pursuit of SUBSTANTIVE EXCELLENCE (get really good at what you're doing)

But "Excellence" alone is just the Business Model! Al Capone was an "excellent" gangster, maybe the best. Was that enough?

8.    ...in a life of SERVICE...

9.  (here's the key)...At Something WORTH DOING!

What's "worth doing?" "PEOPLE are the only thing that matter very much."

Put them together, and you have:

The PURSUIT of EXCELLENCE, in a life of SERVICE to OTHERS.

(Or, "Help other people, as best you can, for as long as you can.")

That's what it means to be an American Lawyer.

You may wonder:

"Does this Mean a Life of Poverty?" No – no hairshirts, locusts, or honey required. You can make a perfectly grand living through a life of service, provided you can FEEL HOW what you're doing HELPS other people – though you should respect and lift up in honor the people who Holmes said "feel they cannot afford to be rich."

"How will I know if I'm successful?" The Universe may send you little "attaboys" now and then, but the fact is you may never know. But think about it: Did the people who've helped YOU most in your life ever know? Or know how much?

"How will I know when I'm finished?" You'll never finish. And that's okay; Peter Gomes used to say that nobody ever finishes anything they set in motion, or sees everywhere it leads or where it ends. (Not a single worker on a medieval cathedral ever saw its start and finish.) But we can make beginnings and progress – and we can help other people make their own beginnings and progress – and those are no small things.