10/24/2024
October 24, 2024: Anniversary Day
At 9:00 in the morning on this date in 1994, we made the move–and I still have the t-shirt to memorialize it. That morning saw the opening of Powers & Frost, the law firm I founded with Jim Powers. My sister Gwen was our first associate and, later, our first partner. We had a couple of contract lawyers, a few paralegals, a receptionist/business manager, and one secretary. We made rent and payroll on my credit card for the first couple of months. Jim had clients, you see, and I had credit. What an amazing ride it turned out to be.
In the initial phase, Jim was my rock star, and I was the stage manager. We kept him in trial as much as possible, while I ran the office. I had no business training. Each day was a learning experience. We found a banker that would give us a line of credit–the conservative kind where your debt is paid off the top of whatever money you bring in and you borrow again to cover any shortfall. That type of forced business moderation saved us in those early days.
Clients finally began to recognize my trial abilities, too. In not too many years, they began to view us as fungible. They didn’t really care whether they got Jim or me–just so long as either Powers or Frost would show up for trial.
That was exhilarating. It was also exhausting. All those nights on the road in cities around the country lost their glitter as the years passed. Then, tort reform roared through Texas and the inevitable march toward closure began. We had as many as 49 lawyers when tort reform passed, and we were as small as 8 when the time came for us to all decamp to a big national firm. I stayed there for a bit before moving to a different firm from which I ultimately retired a few years later.
Regardless of where I practiced, Jim always remained “my partner.” I didn’t realize for years that the term “partner” meant something different than what I meant. I meant business partner. And we still have either lunch or dinner every time we are both in the same city. We didn’t share all those highs and lows for nothing.
My favorite funny misunderstanding story comes from a client dinner, probably twenty years ago. Jim and I had just been hired by one of the world’s largest companies to do trial work for them. The inhouse lawyers and a group of their senior outside counsel took us to a private, fancy, very expensive dinner in New York. There was one other woman in the room, a mid-level associate of the national coordinating counsel. Everyone else was an old white man of prestigious background, most of whom we didn’t know at all and none of whom we knew well. As the evening progressed and the exquisite wine flowed generously, various people began to give toasts. One was to the in-house lawyer in charge and his extreme intellect. One was to an outside lawyer who was praised for his talent and ability to save the company from difficult business disputes. Jim was inspired to join in the toasts. He stood up, raised his glass, and gave a toast to me–” the woman with whom I've had the most successful relationship of my life.”
I groaned.
The assembled crowd simultaneously all arched an eyebrow and swiveled their heads to stare at me. I whispered to him, “I’m going to kill you.” Then, I smiled at them as though I had no idea what they were thinking. I knew what he meant. He meant a successful business relationship. However, as I explained to him the next morning on the flight home, no one else in that room knew what he meant. “Oh, they didn’t think THAT,” he said. “Oh, yes they did,” I replied.
But his heart was in the right place, and I would have to agree that he was the man with whom I had the most successful BUSINESS relationship in my life.
I’m glad we made the move. Happy Anniversary to us–even if we aren’t still the dynamic duo and don’t still have a firm. Jim is happily retired. And I’m happily…. whatever I am.
Enjoy your Thursday, everyone. Give a toast to the person in your life who was your most successful business relationship–just be sure to include the modifier. People’s eyebrows will rise otherwise.
Sharla
