By tomorrow my name will be on the outside of a building prominently featuring the words Law Offices. I definitely don't feel like a person who should have their name backed up by a building. I am still waiting to feel like a lawyer. I'm still waiting to find out exactly when a person makes the transition from feeling like someone trying to do a job to someone actually doing a job.
The thing is, being someone's lawyer entails a lot of responsibility that I take very seriously. You could really, really screw things up for your client if you aren't careful. I'm not especially comfortable with a learning curve that involves other people. All this is not to say that anyone should worry that my inexperience could be detrimental to clients, I would never allow that to happen and I have plenty of help from experienced attorneys to make sure that it doesn't. Basically, what I am getting at with all this is the dichotomy between care and cowardice.
At some point I have to get out there and just do it. There has to be a first everything. A first court appearance, a first deposition, a first jury and at some point I have to be comfortable with someone putting their trust in me as their attorney. They will see my name on a building and expect things from me. Putting yourself out there is hard, putting yourself out there for someone else is even harder.
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