‘Planning a Fulfilling Legal Career in An Unpredictable World’
Remarks Offered by Barry E. Fields, ’91, at the 2024 Law School Diploma and Hooding Ceremony
Dean Miles, thank you for the nice introduction.
Faculty, distinguished guests, proud families, friends, and, most importantly, the Law School graduating Class of 2024, good afternoon. I am honored to be part of this celebration and to be present as you begin or continue a wonderful professional journey.
In June 1991, 33 years ago, I sat in this very chapel waiting to receive my diploma. My then girlfriend, Kim, was in the audience. She is in the audience again today—except she is now my wife of almost 32 years. We have two wonderful children—Courtney and Nicholas—and a son-in-law, Courtney’s husband, Karlos. My mother was also at that event. If there are not any technical challenges, I imagine she’s probably watching on livestream today.
I think it is crucial to have a very supportive and loving family. That’s one of the keys to having a fulfilling and rewarding career. I am blessed to have such a family.
Not surprisingly, my career meant I missed many family dinners, some school events, some other events, and had less family time than I would have liked in a “perfect world.” (That’s a challenge that many of you will face in the future—if you’re not already facing it.)
Our family adapted to this challenge. We believed that dedication, hard work, and some sacrifices would create great opportunities for our family and for those around us. We were indeed correct.
As a trustee of the University, a lecturer of law, and a proud alumnus of the Law School, I express my heartfelt congratulations to the class of 2024.
You have accomplished a feat that many people dream of but far fewer achieve. Whether you are receiving a JD degree, an LLM degree, or any other degree, today is the culmination of years of dedication, hard work, and perhaps a few sleepless nights. Moreover, receiving this degree may serve as part of a personal testimony about the struggles you had to endure and overcome to get to this day—whether financial struggles, family-related struggles, health struggles, academic struggles, or the like.
The law school experience has molded you for your upcoming journey. And what would the law school experience have been like without a distinguished faculty. And we have a distinguished faculty at this law school. The faculty is filled with distinguished scholars who also really love to teach students. The faculty pushed you, challenged you, and helped shape your legal mind. Some of the professors that taught me decades ago are thankfully still part of the institution’s fabric.
As a matter of fact, I was talking to Judge Diane Wood and mentioned that she taught me Civil Procedure. She didn’t appreciate that much because of the passage of time. In any event, she was one of the people that helped mold my legal mind. One other person I saw here today is Professor Geof Stone, who is celebrating 50 years of service to the University.
Thankfully, you also have been guided by a new generation of professors –professors who are now (or will become) thought leaders in their respective areas.
A great law school needs more than a top-notch faculty; it needs outstanding students—like you. Your passion, intellect, and thirst for knowledge played an important role in creating an unmatched dynamic learning laboratory for this class.
When it comes to law school graduation speeches, the verse “there is nothing new under the sun” probably rings true. There is likely nothing new that needs to be said. It never hurts, however, to reinforce certain points that may be important to achieving long-term success in the legal profession. I am going to make a couple of points.
Point 1: Your Predictive Power Is Far Weaker Than You Think and Believe
Some of you may have developed a career plan for the next 10 years or more. For example, you have identified the organizations for which you plan to work, the cities in which you plan to live, the promotions you plan to achieve, and the timetable for achieving those various goals.
Let’s be clear: there is nothing wrong with planning your career. It’s a good thing. A plan can help create a rough roadmap for your future achievements. Plans are usually anchored, however, by predictions. Planning involves making decisions based on events you predict will occur (or not occur) in the future. The problem is that our limited predictive powers hinder our planning ability.
To put it mildly, predicting the future is very difficult. The National Weather Service has advanced supercomputer models running around the clock trying to predict weather for today, tomorrow, next week, or weeks in the future. Yet sometimes the organization flubs the snow forecast for the next day. Financial organizations use complicated computer models to predict how the stock market will perform over the next day, the next month, the next year, or the next 10 years. As you probably know, those predictions often turn out to be, well, wrong.
The real world (whether you are focused on nature, the stock market, or human behavior) is very complex and poor data quality and unanticipated events can lead to unpredicted future outcomes. As Philip Tetlock put it: “[I]t’s misguided to think anyone can see very far into the future.” The question for you is: How accurately can you predict the course of your career journey over the next five years—let alone 10 or 20 years?
Back in the early 1980s, I did not predict I would be a lawyer. I had never even thought about being a lawyer. When I entered law school in 1988, I did not predict I would attain a judicial clerkship or I would begin working at Kirkland & Ellis. In 1992, I did not predict I would spend my entire legal career—more than 30 years—at Kirkland & Ellis. Five years ago, I did not predict I would become a member of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees. A year ago, I did not predict I would ever receive an award from the Law School. The list goes on and on. Yet each of these unpredicted, unplanned events play a role in having a fulfilling career.
One of my favorite psychology books is by Professor Dan Gilbert. It’s called “Stumbling on Happiness.” In the first few pages of the book, Dr. Gilbert makes a pretty thought-provoking comment: “The human being is the only animal that actually thinks about the future.” You might be thinking: “Well, what about those squirrels? Every autumn they’re out there digging up acorns and storing food. They must be thinking about the future and planning for the future.”
Not according to Dr. Gilbert or sources such as Psychology Today. That’s just a biological storage program that runs in every animal at a certain time of year. It is instinct, not insight.
Gilbert explains that, as it relates to humans, we base many of today’s decisions on predictions about the future. We spend a significant amount of time trying to predict how future events will make the future us feel, and then we try to plan accordingly. If event “A” happens in the future, will it make the future me happy? If event “B” does not happen in the future, will it make the future me sad or depressed?
According to Gilbert, the problem is that humans are just bad at predicting what will make them happy or sad in the future. He says this shortcoming arises because of how our minds operate. When imagining a future event—such as your career, the mind leaves out (or it lacks) important information about that future event—and the consequences of the event. Equally important, how we feel now about an event can erroneously influence how we think we will feel about the event in the future.
I will use an example similar to what Gilbert uses. You go to 5-year-old Johnny and you say to him: “What would you like to be when you become 20 years old? What would make a fulfilling career for you?” Johnny smiles, thinks about it, looks up at you and says, “I would like to drive a clown car.”
Now, many of you know Johnny probably is not going to have a fulfilling career driving a clown car. Why is Johnny making that decision? He is making that decision for two reasons. One, Johnny does not understand some of the ins and outs of the life of being a clown car driver. Two, Johnny is answering that he would like to be a clown car driver in the future because he wants to be a clown car driver at that moment. Now, as we mature, we get better at analyzing situations and predicting, but we should not pat ourselves on the back because we’re not all that good.
Despite all your wonderful planning and your numerous predictions about the future, you will likely incorrectly predict the impact that future events will have on your ability to have a fulfilling career.
In planning, you may assume that an achievement 10 years from now will make the “future you” happy. Perhaps that is because such an achievement would make you happy if it occurred right now. Right now, you may predict that becoming a partner at a prestigious law firm in 2034 is necessary for a fulfilling career. You may be wrong. A lot can change over 10 years.
While certain achievements are certainly worth striving for, please recognize that those achievements may not bring you the fulfillment that you currently predict. Likewise, an inability to achieve some planned goal may not be as “devastating” as you predict.
Given your limited power to predict what will lead to a fulfilling career over the long-term, please do not wed yourself to inflexible career plans. Over the next five, 10, and 20 years, various aspects of your life should and will change. Unanticipated challenges will arise, unplanned relationships will develop and evolve, and unexpected opportunities will appear. These new events should cause you to re-evaluate what will bring you fulfillment and joy. What you value most today may not be what the future you values most.
Principle 2: Always Remain a Person of Integrity
While you cannot fully control whether a certain career-related event will materialize, there is one aspect of your career that you do fully control, and it should serve as a compass as you plan your career: Integrity.
Integrity is not simply about complying with state-issued ethical standards. Integrity is also about being honest, being fair, being true to your values, and respecting others—even under the most difficult circumstances. Integrity is a valuable asset that you should never sell, trade, or barter away.
Years ago, famed investor Warren Buffett said that Berkshire Hathaway looked for three qualities when hiring people: (1) intelligence, (2) initiative, and (3) integrity. He remarked that if a person does not have integrity, then the first two qualities (intelligence and initiative) will kill you. He quipped, if you are going to hire somebody with no integrity, you do not want the person to be smart and have initiative; you want the person to be dumb and lazy.
Law school graduates generally possess intelligence and have initiative. Thus, a lack of integrity can result in major problems for those around them. There are numerous examples of lawyers who have engaged in unethical, dishonest, and outright illegal conduct—resulting in significant harm to clients and others.
Today, your integrity may be unwavering. Keep it that way. In the future, you will encounter pressures of job performance, career advancement, financial success, and time deadlines. These various pressures may tempt you to compromise your values—beginning with small ethical lapses.
- The temptation to bend the truth to meet a deadline.
- The temptation to claim you worked a few minutes longer than you actually worked to meet billable hours goals.
- The temptation to exaggerate your skills or experience to attract a new client.
Do not fall victim to the temptations.
These small ethical lapses can accumulate quickly, become increasingly easy to rationalize, and create a slope for your integrity to slide downhill rapidly.
Make sure your integrity remains as a guiding principle as you plan your career. Constantly evaluate your actions, decisions, and plans to ensure you are not compromising your values and beliefs. Knowing that your actions and plans are always aligned with your values and beliefs should provide a level of inner peace, fulfillment, and satisfaction. Indeed, research suggests a strong correlation between unwavering integrity and one’s sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.
The bottom line is that the combination of integrity, flexibility, resilience, and perseverance should help you counter the unpredictability of the legal profession, position you for growth, and lead to a more fulfilling career. Who knows, you may even end up stumbling on happiness instead of planning for it or predicting it.
In closing, I know you have received a wonderful legal education—just like earlier generations of students did. That education has provided you with vital tools to help craft your career and to, frankly, make this world a better place.
As you walk across this stage to receive your diploma and hood, be joyful and be proud of your accomplishment. But also take time to be thankful for all the support you have received and will continue to receive from family, friends, colleagues, former teachers, and others. You did not and will not achieve great things on your own. That’s not a prediction; that’s a fact.
Congratulations, class of 2024. We expect and will await more great achievements from you.