Calling Atticus
The Firm’s “We Before Me” culture took root with this Founder’s memo to employees on the occasion of its April 1st rebirth.
I’d call Atticus.
Were I an association president in need of a lawyer’s help to steer my community through some ugly storm, I’d call Atticus Finch.
Remember him? Maycomb, Alabama – the infamous fictional depression era small town in “To Kill a Mockingbird” – was torn in two by an incendiary crime: A black man charged with raping a white woman. Atticus Finch, a humble small-town lawyer, answered the call to defend the accused. And Atticus failed. The all-white jury convicted Fred Robinson.
Remember Atticus? Millions do. Atticus Finch is our most beloved hero, according to an American Film Institute survey conducted to discover America’s favorite film heroes and villains of all time. In the hearts of Americans, not even Indiana Jones can hold a candle to Atticus Finch.
Our admiration of Atticus runs as deep as it does wide. Countless lawyers, asked why they entered the profession, credit Atticus Finch. They say that his courage in trying in vain to call forth the best in his neighbors on that jury inspired them to do likewise. They say Atticus is the reason they entered the profession so firmly determined to do good and, in so doing, to make life better for others. They describe Atticus as the modern embodiment of virtues long attributed to the blindfolded, scales-holding, sword-wielding “Lady Justice” whose statue adorns the entrance of courthouses across the country: Blind to another’s shortcomings, fair to a fault, and powerful enough to shape the ultimate outcome of human events.
I count myself among those countless thousands who, inspired by Atticus, devote their lives as lawyers to trying to make life better for others.
And Atticus Finch does more than inspire us to help others. He helps teach us how.
“First of all,” he tells Scout, “if you can learn a simple trick, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
Did you catch it? He says “skin,” not “shoes.” Sure, it means about the same, either way. But it’s not exactly the same.
Climbing into someone’s shoes is to know how she thinks. Climbing into someone’s skin is to know what is in her heart. And life has taught me that, while my thoughts may steer my acts, my heart ultimately drives all I do. So, to climb into someone’s skin is to go further, go deeper, in trying to understand someone else’s way of seeing things. And this deeper understanding, he seems to tell us, is where we will gain the power to shape the ultimate outcome of human events.
Today, countless presidents and managers will wish they could call Atticus to guide their communities through some storm, to a better place. And for those who call us for help, we can become Atticus – a wise, skillful lawyer, capable of shaping events in a way that makes life better for others, and fully devoted to doing just that.
Did you catch it? I said “lawyer,” not “lawyers.” In truth, we are ten unique professionals who come together five days each week to help communities get through this problem or that. Now climb into the skin of the president or manager who needs a lawyer’s help. Listen, with the president’s ears, to the words “law firm” and you hear the words “our lawyer.”
To that president or manager, we ten are simply “the lawyer.” Or, to give that lawyer a name, we are Atticus.
We ten now face a challenge we can never fully overcome: Creating, for each president and manager who turns to us, the experience of having hired “Atticus.”
Good news, though. We start this work with our work half done. Our law firm has turned away close to a thousand applicants since its inception. The ten of us here now were chosen to be here because we share important traits in common. We want what we do to matter. We want to make lives better. We want to put our hearts into what we do, as well as our heads. And it is our willingness to put our hearts into our work that enables us to achieve that depth of understanding needed to shape events in a way that, often enough, makes the lives of those we’ve served just a little bit better.
Hard work lies before us. Last year’s “we five” is this year’s “we ten.” And on the heels of that growth comes the dawning awareness that creating the “Atticus” experience through ten pairs of arms and legs is more than just twice as hard as doing it through half as many.
In time, our flailing limbs will settle into their natural alignment. And calling us in to help will come that much closer to the Atticus experience community leaders long for.
Today, we begin anew.
