How you look at the world is colored by your background, education, race, politics, etc. Many of my clients initially see me as an overfed (meaning the diet is not working) white lawyer and think I am a trump fan, which I am not. But, that is their perspective. Pre-Covid, I would meet every client in their home, regardless of how good or bad their neighborhood was. I thought and still feel that I owe that to clients. These days we zoom, but it is not the same. If you are in someone’s home, you get a sense of who they are that you cannot get on the phone or zoom. I have seen good and bad and everything in between. I have been to homes where children have no beds to sleep on and to homes where clients tell me that the $25,000 value I assign to their case is not enough to even pay for the last vacation they took. So, I see a lot of people living their lives.
I generally think that most people are good people and want to do the right thing. I also know that there is about 10-15% of our population, who are just no good. Right now, it seems that we are in a tense period where people are feeling unsafe and others are desperate. I have a client who is often in the City of Philadelphia. He said that before the pandemic, people would steal tools from his work trucks. Now, they steal the truck….at gunpoint.
Recently, I was in between depositions and two female lawyers were discussing how unsafe they felt going to work in the City at a large office building in Center City. They would not work late, go out for lunch, park in public lots etc. Now, I am not a white female lawyer or a young woman. However, it was certainly a distressing thing to hear. The mood or sense of how the City is doing comes and goes, rises and falls, and changes over time. Right now, we are heading towards a mayoral election in the not too distant future and it may be an important one. Sticking with the same old machine politicians is not helping things. So, let’s hope that things get better soon.