Thanks Dad -- Part I

Although my dad retired from the steel mills of Youngstown, Ohio, he taught me the secret to being a lawyer. As usual, he taught me through stories, two in particular, and I thought I would share them with you. This article tells the first one.

When I was a kid, long before I ever thought of becoming a lawyer, my father told me about an experience he had with his lawyer. His lawyer, Mike, was also his fishing buddy (there is a lesson I learned from that also). One day my dad went to Mike's office to pick him up to go fishing. While my dad waited in his office for him to finish some paperwork, the phone rang. Mike answered the phone. My dad heard Mike say "yeah," then there was a short pause, "yeah," then another short pause, "let me get back to you; I'm in a meeting … bye," and then Mike hung up. Mike told my dad he would need another couple of minutes, then went over to his bookshelf. He pulled down a book, opened it, and began to read. After a few pages, he told my dad he was almost ready. He picked up the phone and called the person back.  Mike asked "now what did you need?" After a pause, Mike began to eloquently and intelligently explain to the caller what he had obviously just read in the book. 

When the call was over, my Dad said, "Mike, anyone can look in a book." Mike just smiled and said, "Nick, what book would you look in?" 

That's it. That's the secret. You have to know what book to look in. 

As I gained experience as a Lease Negotiator, I used real books less and less. I find them too cumbersome, and quite frankly, they have too many blanks to fill in. I remember piecing together one form in a book. I had to jump all around the book to eventually find that the answer to the blank was either "Landlord" or "Lessor," whichever I preferred. How silly. No, I have found form books too basic now that I have experience. 

I recently reflected on the secret my Dad taught me in his story and wondered why I abandoned it. I was surprised, and somewhat pleased, to find out that I was still using the secret my dad taught me. I seldom draft language from scratch. I find a similar provision and tweak it. All experience did was shift my use from real books to figurative ones. My figurative library consisted of 2 primary sections. Both of these "library sections" had been built over time (I guess that is why experience is so valuable). 

The first section of my library was prior deals. I found myself searching my computer files, or physical files, looking for the last deal in which I used a similar concept. The book I was looking in was the prior deal. Experience didn't change the need for books, rather it simply changed the book itself. Whenever I knew I had drafted something similar, I would unknowingly turn to my new library section (prior files) and new book (prior deal). 

The books in the second section of my library were my close colleagues. When I was confronted with a concept that I had never drafted before, or couldn't find that prior deal I was looking for, I would call a close colleague. Again, experience merely changed the book from a real book to a figurative one, in this case a person.  I guess "network" is the 90's term for it. 

Although quite pleased that I was using the secret my dad taught me, I realized that my library was extremely disorganized.  Prior deals were on the hard drives of old computers, in zip files I couldn't easily search, and in boxes in off-site storage areas.  Colleagues were often unreachable or busy, and thus sometimes provisions would take days to complete. It was like going to a library and finding out the book I wanted had been checked out and I would have to do something else until it was returned.

Nowadays, I'm using a more organized library -- LeaseLanguage.com. Last night I told my kids a story before they fell asleep. the story ended with "he said, 'anyone can look on the web,' and I just smiled and said, 'which web site would you click on?' Goodnight kids."