Pros, no cons

The good thing about having having a job that consumes every waking moment (and then some, if rookie Law Society Prez Joe "I dream of the law most nights" Catanzariti is representative of his flock) is that it stops one obsessing over trivialities, like whether there's a point to it all.

Technology has been a real boon in this respect.

Undergraduate idlers and other dregs of society may while away precious (billable) minutes on public transport pondering life's big questions, but there's gold in them thar moments.

Correspond with the cash cows: flick a client (bird in the hand, etc.) an email to touch base, why don't ya.

It pays to be a rainmaker in lean times. I still have the words of one erudite College of Law lecturer (is there any other kind?) ringing in my ears:

"Say you're schlepping away in some shonky suburban practice. Some broad comes in with a bung knee, reckons she slipped on a slimy grape that escaped from the fresh produce aisle at Franklins."

He pauses for dramatic effect.

"Whaddya gonna do?"

He is momentarily deflated by the dead-eyed silence that follows but rallies to deliver the prologue to the punchline.

"You take the personal injury gig, obviously.

You take the gig, but then you gotta go the extra mile. Drum up some business."

More dramatic posturing.

"You ask the cat if she's got a will, and bing-bang-boom! You gotta tasty bone to toss to the wolves in Wills & Estates."

(Some creative license may have been taken in the expression of those sage sentiments).

I imagine the corporate firm equivalent is asking those much-feted Blue Chip clients if they're feeling a spell of insolvency coming on.

Tact and discretion, obviously, but what's the worst that could happen? You get fired?

Perish the thought.