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By Murray Gottheil | June 7, 2025
Those of my era may remember the comic book character known as “Richie Rich”. A nice little kid, but having been brought up by wealthy parents, he was not on the same wavelength as some of his friends.
My friend Stan had a law partner who was kind of like a wannabe Richie Rich. He wasn’t rich yet, but by God he planned to be!
The problem that Richie had at Stan’s firm was that Stan and some of his other partners had not completely bought into the concept of working hard enough to become ultra rich. They wasted their time on frivolities such as fitness, and vacations, and weekends off, and talking to spouses, and playing with children, and other such nonsense.
Richie worked hard, networked like crazy, and was soon one of the highest compensated partners at the firm. But still, it was not enough. One of Richie’s friends was a senior partner of a Big Law firm, and he earned a lot more than Richie did. Another one was high up the ranks in a medium-sized firm, and he also out-earned Richie by quite a bit.
Richie spent a great deal of time pondering his situation. Sure, he made a lot of money, but he could be making even more if only his partners would stop obsessing over work/life balance and agree with him that the firm had to redirect a few career paths and hire people who were willing to put in more billable hours.
Richie used his considerable persuasive powers to obtain buy-in from a number of the partners, wrest control of the firm away from the lightweights, and implement his diabolical plans. Stan left, as did some others. The culture of the firm changed for the better, in Richie’s opinion.
With Richie so focused on people who could bring in business and bill a lot of hours, and willing to accept some character deficiencies from lawyers as long as they could generate billings, some bad behaviour was tolerated, which caused significant problems.
Despite having transformed the entire culture of the firm into something which neither Stan nor most of his original partners wanted, and amid all of the turmoil which he contributed to, Richie could still not make enough money. So he left as well.
Be careful what you wish for.
Murray is a happily retired lawyer who lives in the country, drives a pick-up truck, writes, teaches and mentors. You can reach him at murray@murraygottheil.com or see what he is up to at lawanddisorderinc.com.
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