In the twilight of his career, Phelan says the practice of law has changed dramatically in recent years.
“Fees, profits and income are up. Trials are down. Competition for business is up,” he says. “Electronic data is a burden in multiple ways; it may be the single biggest reason trials are down. ‘Work hard and do good work’ is no longer enough. ‘Good work comes to good lawyers’ is no longer the mantra.
“Our profession is now a business,” he says. “We are managed, tracked and measured. That has a lot of effects, some (like profitability) are welcome; others (like internal competition) are not.”
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“Those guys and others like them tried hundreds of cases,” he says. “Now a big-firm commercial trial lawyer is lucky to have tried 10. The stakes are high, the cost is higher, clients are scared to roll the dice, and more and more cases settle.”
Phelan accepted the DBA’s Trial Lawyer of the Year honor by making a simple statement to the profession he loves.
“When winning and doing right collide, winning has to lose,” he said.
