Showing posts with label Retirement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Retirement. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
The Transitions Issue.
The February 2024 issue of Wyoming Lawyer was exceptionally good. Its focus was on "transitions", by which it mostly meant career transitions (but also had some articles on the scary advances of AI).
The magazine usually good, frankly. Indeed, a magazine that has such a limited circulation can't be expected to be great, but it actually is very, very good as a rule.
This issue was on transitions, as noted, mostly, and it had some truly excellent articles. One was about retiring Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Keith Kautz, who was a great judge. I liked the question he was asked about his favorite quotes, with the answer being:
I have two:
1. Encouragement is the oxygen of the soul.
2. The greatest day in your life or mine, the day we truly grow up, is the day when we take responsibility for our own attitudes.
Those are both pretty profound. Nothing will burn a person out quicker than to work with people who only criticize them. And taking responsibility for your own attitudes is existentially a magnus opus. I don't know that many people fully ever manage to do that, myself included.
Kautz is retiring as he's hit the statutory maximum for a judge of age 70. He didn't seem bitter about it. Justice Fox, who does seem bitter about the age limit being 70, mentioned it and Justice Kautz retiring in her State of the Judiciary speech. She did reference it with her dry wit, referring to the age of 70 as "constitutional senility" and Kautz was in the audience.
An attempt at dry wit, I think, was made by the Bar President in her opening article of the issue, which was about a long time assistant retiring. She had the line:
I always thought that money, fame, and power brought the greatest happiness, but according to the 80-year-old Harvard Study of Adult Development, close relationships with others is what really keeps us happy.
I'm pretty sure the first part of that was intended as a joke.
Her advice seems pretty standard, however, that being:
First, people have an innate desire to have a sense of purpose and meaning. When retirement comes, sometimes that sense of purpose can be lost. So, after taking some time off, it is good to start thinking about something meaningful that will fill the days. This could be volunteering, substitute teaching, or mentoring. It could also include learning a new skill (such as a new language), picking up a new hobby or seeing new places.
Second, try to maintain and/or enhance social connections with others. I always thought that money, fame, and power brought the greatest happiness, but according to the 80-year-old Harvard Study of Adult Development, close relationships with others is what really keeps us happy. In fact, these ties help delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.
Third, stay physically active as much as possible. Studies show that when someone retires, sedentary activities, such as watching television, increase dramatically. While watching extra television is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, much has been written about the link between longevity and good physical health. So, please try and enjoy our state as much as possible by spending time outside running, hiking or skiing.
Probably all solid advice.
Indeed, it causes me to recall that I recently was speaking to a cousin of mine who is retired from Federal service and who is keeping pretty busy. We were speaking on a grim topic, which caused me to joke that in old age I was going to take up grizzly bear wrestling. He stated he was going to take up heavy drinking (he doesn't drink) as that's what so many of his retired colleagues seem to be doing, to the point of death.
Grim.
Another article was about retirement planning itself, which didn't mention grizzly bear wrestling or heavy drinking. It was frankly really good, which is very much the exception to the rule in lawyers magazines. Usually in lawyer magazines and articles, the "planning" is about how you can go on practicing law for an additional ten years after you are dead. The articles are about how in "retirement" you can go from litigation to some other field of law, or perhaps switch from defense to plaintiff's work, or something equally moronic. This article wasn't that way at all. Indeed, it acknowledged:
Arthur C. Brooks, former president of the American Enterprise Institute and now a Harvard Business School professor, concluded in a July 2019 Atlantic article that professional decline is inevitable sooner or later, simply as the result of aging.
About time somebody said that. I've practiced against one lawyer who was a physical wreck and in clear mental decline, but was "never going to retire". He did, but I think it was because his (family owned) firm basically gave him a back room and things to pretend to do. Not very dignified. He probably doesn't actually know that he is retired. I used to ask his son how he was doing and to say hello, but it was clear it was an embarrassing topic, and he didn't want to have it come up.
I know another lawyer here in town, who is very physically fit I'll note, who is practicing law actively, not part-time, in his early 70s and declares that he'll never retire. How boring can you be?
I get that with certain occupations that are real vocations. But let's face it, most of the professions aren't. People may declare that they love being an accountant, or they love being a lawyer, or they love being an actuary, but they are lying. Shoot, they probably are lying if they say that about engineering. Farming, teaching, maybe medicine, the ministry, those are intrinsically different.
Indeed, because, in my arriving old age, my health has taken a beating the last few years one of my newer doctors, whose son was a high-powered lawyer in California and is now a Federal District Court judge in that state, asks me every time about my work. "You are a lawyer?". And he always asks, in the form of a statement, "And you love it". I'm not sure why that question is necessary to my medical treatment, but as its asked every time, maybe it is. Maybe it's because lawyers are so famously associated with depression, alcoholism and drug abuse that the medical profession regards it as necessary. Who knows. Anyhow, after doing it for over 30 years it'd be surprising if I broke down and started sobbing about it or something, but there are a lot of other things I'm interested in too. Having said that, I don't want to chat to somebody I barely know about those topics either.
Going back for a second, on vocations that make sense that people keep on keeping on in them, at least some of those actually have mandatory retirement ages, where the law allows it. I don't know about physicians, I think not, but there aren't that many that practice into old age, and I've been told that's because there's a general feeling that mental acuity decline in the late 40s and the practice advances so fast that you start to become dangerous to your patients. That's particularly true of surgeons, not all physicians, so you will see some practice into relatively old age.
In our diocese, Catholic Priests must retire at 70. We hear a lot about there being a shortage of Priests, although the reasons for that are debatable (Wyoming has never produced sufficient numbers of Priests for its own needs) but the Diocese nonetheless feels that 70, they need to retire, which usually means being quasi part-time. They can't be the pastors at a parish, for example.
Under Canon 401 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law all Catholid bishops must submit their resignation to the Pope at the age of 75.
It's a good policy.
Changing gears, even the back page interview, which is always of a practicing lawyer, was good for a change. It is occasionally, I'll admit, but more often than not it's an interview of somebody who just graduated from law school and is touring Patagonia or something. . . i.e., they haven't practiced law yet. This one was of a lawyer who has over 30 years under his belt and noted:
I was the only kid in my elementary school (and perhaps the only attorney in Wyoming) whose dad has been a matador de toros.
I'll bet that's right.
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Mid Week At Work: Endings.
I posted this the other day:
Sigh . . .
And depicted with a horse too. . .
Kroger retires after 35 years of service
CODY - Worland Wildlife Biologist Bart Kroger retired last month, bringing his 35-year career with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to a close.
“Bart has been referred to as the ‘core of the agency’, meaning through his dedication and continuous hard work, he has significantly and meaningfully impacted wildlife management within his district and throughout the state,” said Corey Class, Cody region wildlife management coordinator. “Throughout his career, he has been a solid, steady and dependable wildlife biologist, providing a foundation for wildlife conservation and management in the Bighorn Basin.”
Through his quiet and thoughtful approach, Bart has gained the respect of both his peers and the public. Bart is best known for his commitment to spending time in the field gaining first-hand knowledge of the wildlife and the habitat that supports them, as well as the people he serves in his district.
Found this old draft the other day
RETIREMENT ELIGIBILITY
Vesting Requirements
After obtaining 72 months of service, you are eligible to elect a monthly benefit at
retirement age. The 72 months of service do not have to be consecutive months.
Retirement Eligibility
You are eligible for retirement when you reach age 50 and are vested. There is no
early retirement under this plan. You must begin drawing your benefit no later than
age 65.
Which means, as a practical matter, if you are to draw retirement as a Wyoming Game Warden, you need to take the job no later than the beginning of your 59th year.
Of course, if you started at age 59, you wouldn't be drawing much, if anything.
That doesn't mean, of course, that you couldn't be hired after age 59. You'd just draw no retirement.
The actual statute on this matter states the following, as we noted in a prior thread, from 2023, quoted below:
Statutorily, the current law provides:
This differs, I'd note, significantly from the Federal Government. The cutoff there is age 37. That's it.
Have a wildlife management degree? Spend the last few years in some other state agency? Win the Congressional Medal of Honor for single handled defeating the Boko Haram? 38 years old now? Well, too bloody bad for you.
Anyhow, I guess this says something about the American concept that age is just a number and the hands of the clock don't really move.
They do.
On a somewhat contrary note, I was in something this week when a 70-year-old man indicated he might retire in order to take a job as a commercial airline pilot.
He's never been employed in that capacity, but he's had the license for 50 years. It wouldn't be carrying people for United or something, but in some other commercial capacity.
He's always wanted to do it, and has an offer.
Well, more power to him.
I did a lot of what this lawyer is doing here, when first practicing, in front of barrister cases just like this. No young lawyer does that now.
I spoke to a lawyer I've known the entire time I've been practicing law, almost. He's four years younger than me, which would make him 56 or so. He's worked his entire career in general civil, in a small and often distressed town, in a firm founded by his parents. When I was first practicing, it was pretty vibrant.
Now he's the only one left.
He's retiring this spring. This was motivated by his single employee's decision to retire.
I was really surprised, in part due to his age. I'm glad that he can retire, but it was a bit depressing. We're witnessing, in Wyoming, the death of the small town civil firm. Everything is gravitating to the larger cities, and frankly in the larger cities, they're in competition with the big cities in Colorado and Utah. That's insured a bill in the legislature to try to recruit lawyers to rural areas.*
It's not going to work.
The problem has been, for some time, that it's impossible to recruit young lawyers to small rural areas. The economics don't allow for it. The economics don't allow for it, in part, as the Wyoming Supreme Court forced the Uniform Bar Exam down on the Board of Law Examiners, and that resulted in opening the doors to Denver and Salt Lake lawyers. It's been something the small firms have been competing against ever since.
And not only that, but some sort of demographic change has operated to just keep younger lawyers out of smaller places, and frankly to cause them to opt for easier paths than civil law in general. I know older lawyers that came from the larger cities in the state, and set up small town practices when they were young, as that's where the jobs were and having a job was what they needed to have. I've even known lawyers who went to UW who moved here from somewhere else who took that path, relocating from big Eastern or Midwestern cities to do so.
No longer. Younger lawyers don't do that.
Quite a few don't stick with civil practice at all. They leave for government work, where the work hours are regular, and the paycheck isn't dependent on billable hours. And recently, though we are not supposed to note it, young women attorneys reflect a new outlook in which a lot of them bail out of practice or greatly reduce their work hours after just a few years in, a desire to have a more regular domestic life being part of that.
I guess people can't be blamed for that, but we can, as a state, be blamed for being shortsighted. Adopting the UBE was shortsighted. Sticking with it has been inexcusable. I'm not the only one who has said so, and frankly not the only one who probably paid a price for doing so. The reaction to voices crying in the wilderness is often to close the windows so you don't have to hear them. Rumor had it, which I've never seen verified and have heard expressly denied by a person within the law school administration, that it was done in order to aid the law school, under the theory that it would make UW law degrees transportable, which had pretty much the practical effect on the local law as Commodore Matthew Perry opening up trade with Japan.
Wyoming Board of Law Examiners bringing in the UBE.
The lawyer in this case is worried, as he has no hobbies and doesn't know what he'll do with himself. I'm surprised how often this concern is expressed. To only have the law, or any work, is sad. But a court reporter, about my age, expressed the same concern to me the other day.
Court reporting has really taken a beating in this state, more so than lawyers. When I was first practicing, every community had court reporters. Now there are hardly any left at all. Huge firms are down to just a handful of people, and people just aren't coming into the occupation. It's a real concern to lawyers.
It's always looked like an interesting job to me, having all the diversity of being a lawyer, with seemingly a lot less stress. But having never done it, perhaps I'm wildly in error. We really don't know what other people's jobs are like unless we've done them.
A lawyer I know just died by his own hand.
I met him when he took over for a very long time Wyoming trial attorney upon that attorney's death.
The attorney he took over for had died when he went in his backyard and put a rifle bullet through his brain. He was a well known attorney, and we could tell something wasn't quite right with him. Just the day prior, he called me and asked for an extension on something. I'd already given two. I paused, and then, against my better judgment, said, "well. . . okay".
I'd known him too long to say no.
He was clearing his schedule. If I had said no, I feel, he wouldn't have done it, and he'd be alive today.
The new attorney came in and was sort of like a goofy force of nature. Hard to describe. A huge man, probably in his 40s at the time, but very childlike. He talked and talked. Depositions would be extended due to long meandering conversational interjections, as I learned in that case and then a very serious subsequent one.
He was hugely proud of having been a member of a legendary local plaintiff's firm. That didn't really matter much to me then, and it still doesn't. My family has always had an odd reaction to the supposedly honorific. My father never bothered to collect his National Defense Service Medal for serving during the Korean War, I didn't bother to get my Reserve Overseas Training Ribbon, or my South Korean award for Operation Team Spirit, I don't have my law school diploma's anymore. . . It's not that they aren't honors, it's just, well, oh well. We tend to value other things, which in some ways sets standards that are highers than others, and very difficult to personally meet.
Anyhow, the guy was very friendly and told me details of his life, not all of which were true. He was raised by his grandmother, his grandmother had somehow encouraged him to go to law school, Both true.
He was from Utah and grown up there, but consistently denied being a Mormon. His wife was Mormon, he said. He was an Episcopalian. As I'm very reserved, I'm not really going to talk religion with somebody I only casually and professionally know, as opposed to one of my very extroverted and devout partners who will bring it up at the drop of a hat, and his religious confession didn't particularly matter to me, given the light nature of our relationship. As it turns out, and as I suspected, that wasn't even remotely true. He was and always had been a Mormon. Why did he lie about that? No idea.
I suppose this is some sort of warning here, maybe.
The first lawyer noted in this part of this entry had suffered something hugely traumatic early in his life and never really got over it. Some people roll with the punches on traumas and some do not. We hear about combat veterans all the time who live with the horrors they experienced, and which break them down, all the time, but I've known a couple who didn't have that sort of reaction at all, and who could coolly relate their combat experiences. Others can't get over something that happened to them, ever.
With the second lawyers, there were some oddities, one being that he jumped from firm to firm, and to solo, and back and forth, all the time. That's unusual. Another was that he seemed to have pinned his whole identify on being a lawyer. It's one thing, like the retiring fellow above, to have worked it your whole life and have nothing else to do, it's quite another to have that make up everything you are. He'd drunk deeply of the plaintiff's lawyer propaganda about helping the little guy and all that crap, and didn't really realize that litigators often hurt people as often as they help them, or do both at the same time. Maybe the veil had come off. Maybe he should never have been a lawyer in the first place. Maybe it was organic and had nothing to do with any of this.
Well, the moral of this story, or morals, if there are any, would be this. You don't have endless time to do anything, 70-year-old commercial airline pilots aside. You probably don't know what it's like to do something unless you've actually done it, but you can investigate it and learn as much as possible. The UBE, which the Wyoming Supreme Court was complicit in adopting, is killing the small town civil lawyer and only abrogating it, or its successor, and restoring the prior system can address that. The entire whaling for justice plaintiff's lawyer ethos is pretty much crap. And, finally, you had some sort of identify before you took up your occupation. Unless that identity was what you became, before you became it, don't let the occupation become it. It may be shallower than you think.
Footnotes:
The bill:
SENATE FILE NO. SF0033
Wyoming rural attorney recruitment program.
Sponsored by: Joint Judiciary Interim Committee
A BILL
for
AN ACT relating to attorneys-at-law; establishing the rural attorney recruitment pilot program; specifying eligibility requirements for counties and attorneys to participate in the program; specifying administration, oversight and payment obligations for the program; requiring reports; providing a sunset date for the program; authorizing the adoption of rules, policies and procedures; providing an appropriation; and providing for an effective date.
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:
Section 1. W.S. 33‑5‑201 through 33‑5‑203 are created to read:
ARTICLE 2
RURAL ATTORNEY RECRUITMENT PROGRAM
33‑5‑201. Rural attorney recruitment program established; findings; program requirements; county qualifications; annual reports.
(a) In light of the shortage of attorneys practicing law in rural Wyoming counties, the legislature finds that the establishment of a rural attorney recruitment program constitutes a valid public purpose, of primary benefit to the citizens of the state of Wyoming.
(b) The Wyoming state bar may establish a rural attorney recruitment program to assist rural Wyoming counties in recruiting attorneys to practice law in those counties.
(c) Each county eligible under this subsection may apply to the Wyoming state bar to participate in the program. A county is eligible to participate in the program if the county:
(i) Has a population of not greater than twenty‑five thousand (25,000);
(ii) Has an average of not greater than one and one‑half (1.5) qualified attorneys in the county for every one thousand (1,000) residents. As used in this paragraph, "qualified attorney" means an attorney who provides legal services to private citizens on a fee basis for an average of not less than twenty (20) hours per week. "Qualified attorney" shall not include an attorney who is a full‑time judge, prosecutor, public defender, judicial clerk, in‑house counsel, trust officer and any licensed attorney who is in retired status or who is not engaged in the practice of law;
(iii) Agrees to provide the county share of the incentive payment required under this article;
(iv) Is determined to be eligible to participate in the program by the Wyoming state bar.
(d) Before determining a county's eligibility, the Wyoming state bar shall conduct an assessment to evaluate the county's need for an attorney and the county's ability to sustain and support an attorney. The Wyoming state bar shall maintain a list of counties that have been assessed and are eligible to participate in the program under this article. The Wyoming state bar may revise any county assessment or conduct a new assessment as the Wyoming State bar deems necessary to reflect any change in a county's eligibility.
(e) In selecting eligible counties to participate in the program, the Wyoming state bar shall consider:
(i) The county's demographics;
(ii) The number of attorneys in the county and the number of attorneys projected to be practicing in the county over the next five (5) years;
(iii) Any recommendations from the district judges and circuit judges of the county;
(iv) The county's economic development programs;
(v) The county's geographical location relative to other counties participating in the program;
(vi) An evaluation of any attorney or applicant for admission to the state bar seeking to practice in the county as a program participant, including the attorney's or applicant's previous or existing ties to the county;
(vii) Any prior participation of the county in the program;
(viii) Any other factor that the Wyoming state bar deems necessary.
(f) A participating eligible county may enter into agreements to assist the county in meeting the county's obligations for participating in the program.
(g) Not later than October 1, 2024 and each October 1 thereafter that the program is in effect, the Wyoming state bar shall submit an annual report to the joint judiciary interim committee on the activities of the program. Each report shall include information on the number of attorneys and counties participating in the program, the amount of incentive payments made to attorneys under the program, the general status of the program and any recommendations for continuing, modifying or ending the program.
33‑5‑202. Rural attorney recruitment program; attorney requirements; incentive payments; termination of program.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, any attorney licensed to practice law in Wyoming or an applicant for admission to the Wyoming state bar may apply to the Wyoming state bar to participate in the rural attorney recruitment program established under this article. No attorney or applicant shall participate in the program if the attorney or applicant has previously participated in the program or has previously participated in any other state or federal scholarship, loan repayment or tuition reimbursement program that obligated the attorney to provide legal services in an underserved area.
(b) Not more than five (5) attorneys shall participate in the program established under this article at any one (1) time.
(c) Subject to available funding and as consideration for providing legal services in an eligible county, each attorney approved by the Wyoming state bar to participate in the program shall be entitled to receive an incentive payment in five (5) equal annual installments. Each annual incentive payment shall be paid on or after July 1 of each year. Each annual incentive payment shall be in an amount equal to ninety percent (90%) of the University of Wyoming college of law resident tuition for thirty (30) credit hours and annual fees as of July 1, 2024.
(d) Subject to available funding, the supreme court shall make each incentive payment to the participating attorney. The Wyoming state bar and each participating county shall remit its share of the incentive payment to the supreme court in a manner and by a date specified by the supreme court. The Wyoming state bar shall certify to the supreme court that a participating attorney has completed all annual program requirements and that the participating attorney is entitled to the incentive payment for the applicable year. The responsibility for incentive payments under this section shall be as follows:
(i) Fifty percent (50%) of the incentive payments shall be from funds appropriated to the supreme court;
(ii) Thirty‑five percent (35%) of the incentive payments shall be provided by each county paying for attorneys participating in the program in the county;
(iii) Fifteen percent (15%) of the incentive payments shall be provided by the Wyoming state bar from nonstate funds.
(e) Subject to available funding for the program, each attorney participating in the program shall enter into an agreement with the supreme court, the participating county and the Wyoming state bar that obligates the attorney to practice law full‑time in the participating county for not less than five (5) years. As part of the agreement required under this subsection, each participating attorney shall agree to reside in the participating county for the period in which the attorney practices law in the participating county under the program. No agreement shall be effective until it is filed with and approved by the Wyoming state bar.
(f) Any attorney who receives an incentive payment under this article and subsequently breaches the agreement entered into under subsection (e) of this section shall repay all funds received under this article pursuant to terms and conditions established by the supreme court. Failure to repay funds as required by this subsection shall subject the attorney to license suspension.
(g) The Wyoming state bar may promulgate any policies or procedures necessary to implement this article. The supreme court may promulgate any rules necessary to implement this article.
(h) The program established under this article shall cease on June 30, 2029, provided that attorneys participating in the program as of June 30, 2029 shall complete their obligation and receive payments as authorized by this article.
33‑5‑203. Sunset.
(a) W.S. 33‑5‑201 and 33‑5‑202 are repealed effective July 1, 2029.
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, attorneys participating in the rural attorney pilot program authorized in W.S. 33‑5‑201 and 33‑5‑202 shall complete the requirements of the program and shall be entitled to the authorized payments in accordance with W.S. 33‑5‑201 and 33‑5‑202 as provided on June 30, 2029.
Section 2. There is appropriated one hundred ninety‑seven thousand three hundred seventy‑five dollars ($197,375.00) from the general fund to the supreme court for the period beginning with the effective date of this act and ending June 30, 2029 to be expended only for purposes of providing incentive payments for the rural attorney recruitment program established under this act. This appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose. Notwithstanding W.S. 9‑2‑1008, 9‑2‑1012(e) and 9‑4‑207, this appropriation shall not revert until June 30, 2029.
Section 3. This act is effective July 1, 2024.
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Base Ten. 40 is a big round number, I guess.
40
I walked out of the courthouse with a lawyer I know, as that lawyer was in the same law school class as I was. We're not close friends, but his circle of law school friends intersects with mine, mostly due to a common interest in the outdoors. Other than that, I guess because our backgrounds are quite different, we never developed a close friendship. I guess friends of friends are sort of friends, however.
Anyhow, as we were walking out at the same time, having just argued motions against each other, I asked about a partner of his that I had been told was stepping into part-time. He laughed and noted that it was true, but they guy was busier than ever, which I'm sure he is.
At that point, he asked me, "what about you, what are your plans?", meaning not am I about to retire, but as we're law school colleagues, and therefore the same approximate age, do I have retirement on my horizon.
I begged off on the topic. I'm very private by nature and as this recent post indicates, I've had a lot going on recently. In the end, I stated "oh I'll probably die before I retire", which always come across as a joke, and I guess it is, but it's a half-hearted one. Given family history on my father's side, I probably will, and probably well before 65, which basically means, could be any time.
But then actually that's true for a lot of men over 30.
Anyhow, I'm not near retirement. My wife is a decade younger than me, I've had a year of health concerns commencing in October, 2022, and I need the insurance, and I don't want to run out of cash in retirement. And that's not what people really mean when they bring this up. What they mean, is that once you are 60, how far out are you looking?
I dunno. .. .I'll probably die before I retire.
And even if I don't, given my nature, I'll probably keep on keeping on until I'm full retirement age, which according to the IRS is 67 for people born in 1963. Of course, it's important to note that statistically a significant majority of men do not make it to the "full age". Women don't either.
Quite a few lawyers do, however, and beyond that.
Anyhow, he expressed that he intends to work until he's 68. He's presently 61. The reason is that at that point he will have been practicing law "for 40 years".
Shoot, if I make it to 67, that'd be true of me as well.
And I can't imagine a lamer reason to work beyond full retirement age than that. So you'll have been a working member of the bar for 40 years, so what? Is that actually something to be proud of, and if so, why? Or is it an achievement worth aiming for?
And what''s the magic of 40? That its' divisible by ten?
As silly as that question is, I think that is actually it. As we have a Base Ten numerical system, we tend to think of events that way. Military (and much other service) retirements start when a person reaches 20 years of service, which went down at the start of World War Two from 30 years of service. When I was a National Guardsman, the Guard issued Ten, Twenty, and Thirty years of service ribbons.The Wyoming State Bar used to confer honorifics on lawyers who had reached 30, 40 and 50 years of practice, although it doesn't seem to anymore. I can recall being at a County Bar banquet, which we also do not have anymore, when the County Bar acknowledged some lawyers who had just reached 30, 40 and 50 years of service, the first of which I've surpassed but which seemed like a long, long time, at the time.
A good friend of mine in the law just retired at age 67, sort of. Like a lot of retiring lawyers, indeed all the of the retiring lawyers that I've known recently, he's going to work "part-time". This is super common in law.
I don't get it, and I don't get going for the big round number either.
Law, if you really work it, is all consuming and hard on you. I've never seen one of the lawyers aiming for "part-time" succeed at it yet. Litigation certainly isn't a part-time thing and the schedule is set by the Court, not by individuals, so there's no part-time to it.
Beyond that, however, how can a person become so dull that they hang on for an artificial number?
I know, I know, people will say "I love the law" and that's why they're doing it. Well, bullshit.
Maybe they do love the law, but most lawyers in reality are in it because; 1) they're polymaths (and probably autodidacts) and it was the only thing that suited them, or 2) their undergraduate majors were a bust, and it was the only door open for a career, or 3) they were greedy and thought they could make a lot of money, or 4) they were delusional and mistook a career path that more properly involved a seminary for one that involved law school, or #5) they were the children of professionals that didn't want to become physicians, or #6) they were the children of blue collar workers whose parents held a gigantic outsized admiration for the law as they knew nothing about it.
None of that precludes a love of the law, although #1 suits it the best. #3 and #4 are paths to utter misery.
But that's the point.
Going back to the misty dawn of time when I was a law student, and looking at my collection of friends and associated, they were an interesting group. So were my undergraduate major geology fellows, I'd note. The geology students were all major outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen. Every single one without exception. We didn't sit around and talk about geology, we talked about mountains and fields and wolves and hunting and hiking and fishing.*
Law school was sort of like that, but with a group of people with very divergent interests. There were really dedicated outdoorsmen, but also people who had really pronounced intellectual interests. Law students I was aware of hunted, fished, hiked, climbed mountains in the Himalayas, worked on cars, followed sports, and the like.
I don't recall a single one, not one, who had an interest in the law, actually.
Not one.
And that's how practitioners start out. And to some extent remain. I'm down to a handful of genuine close friends who are lawyers, and then a little broader out than that, friends who are lawyers. Of my close friends, one is an avid outdoors man and gearhead, one is an intellectual and a historian, and one is an autodidactic polymath. Casting the net a little wider, I'd find outdoorsmen again.
Even today, in really thinking about it, I can't think of a single lawyer I know who is just a fanatic about legal topics. We'll discuss them, but its our line of country. I've never once been in a group of lawyers who said, "guess what I saw, a motion for an order to show cause on an injunction that . . . " like I've heard people say, "guess what I saw, otters in the river!".
Which brings me to this.
People acquire their identify from their occupations over time. Or maybe that's just true of some occupations. I have heard people, well, no, men, identified as soldiers, policemen, firemen, and the like long after they retired.
I think that's why somebody is interested in being able to say "I was a lawyer for 40 years". It seems like an accomplishment. . . if there's not much else left to be proud of, or anything else left.
Thing is, nobody really care about that.
It's quite literally, completely pointless.
There's also nothing intrinsically wrong with it, assuming that you didn't make half of that last decade leaning heavily on other lawyers, and that you were capable the entire time, but as an achievement, it isn't one.
Indeed, the much more interesting people are those who can start a conversation with "I was a lawyer for ten years, and then. . . "
At any rate, most people don't start off being some sort of AI image for their profession. We shouldn't see, to end up like that. Surely, a well-rounded person, from a profession of many topics, has other interests.
If they don't, they should.
Footnotes:
*The irony of geology is that so many people who are "granolas" end up being employed by industry. Geology students were the most environmentally minded people I've ever been around, but then they end up working for extractive industries. Among practicing geologist, I rarely meet one you'd call an environmentalist, unless they're employed in the environmental field. As the practicing geologists are drawn from the same pool as the students, it has to be their employment that impacts thier later expressed views.
Sigh . . .
And depicted with a horse too. . .
Kroger retires after 35 years of service
“Bart has been referred to as the ‘core of the agency’, meaning through his dedication and continuous hard work, he has significantly and meaningfully impacted wildlife management within his district and throughout the state,” said Corey Class, Cody region wildlife management coordinator. “Throughout his career, he has been a solid, steady and dependable wildlife biologist, providing a foundation for wildlife conservation and management in the Bighorn Basin.”
Through his quiet and thoughtful approach, Bart has gained the respect of both his peers and the public. Bart is best known for his commitment to spending time in the field gaining first-hand knowledge of the wildlife and the habitat that supports them, as well as the people he serves in his district.
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Reserve Retirement & Regrets.
It dawned on me the other day that if I'd stayed in the National Guard, I'd have been able to start drawing Reserve retirement pay starting in late May.
Even though I was in the Guard for six years, I've never really been able to grasp how Guard retirement pay works. I tried to look it up this morning, and learned that it's on a point system, one of those nifty military devices that has been around since at least World War Two in some ways. The system by which soldiers who fought in the ETO were eligible to go home, for example, when the war ended was based on points.
Anyhow, there are some really useful net articles on this topic, of which this is one:
What I ended up with, in the end, was this useful rough example, from the above:
The Final Pay Pension
For an E-7 with 2134 points starting their pension in 2016 it’d be $5061.30 * .1482 = $750/month.
Of course, you wonder how this applies to yourself. I was an E5 when I got out, and would have had to have gone (and should have already gone) to the NCO Academy if I was to carry on. Indeed, for the last half of my time in the Guard, I was in an E7 slot for much of that time.
Had I stayed in, I would have gone to Officers Candidate School. It would not have made sense not to, and I was eligible to do so. One of my good friends from the Guard did do so, and he retired from the Guard as a Colonel after reaching age 60.
Without trying to really figure the math, I think I likely would have drawn, had I taken that course, and assuming that I didn't take a grenade in a street in Iraq or Afghanistan, would have been around $1,000 to $1,500 per month.
Not bad, but not enough to live on, which, of course for reserve service, makes sense.
Some reservists, I should note, draw considerably more and even approach Regular retirement pay as they have so many active duty points. That would have made a difference, as our Guard units did serve in Afghanistan and Iraq, although not every soldier in the local units served in both. Some did. Some did more than one tour in one of those countries, for that matter.
Here's a big thing, however.
That alone makes me wish I'd stayed in the Guard and gone to OCS. I wouldn't be retired in the real sense now, but in real terms, I'd be a lot better off insurance wise.
Or so I say. At age 24, when I ETSed, I don't know that insurance was on my mind.
Well, I know it wasn't.
I also know that our full time NCS who was our Retention NCO wasn't doing a good job.
Friday, May 12, 2023
"Lummis reintroduces bill to raise pilot retirement age to 67"
Oh, crap. Why not just raise it to 167?
Or better yet, why not just have a special bill that Boomer get to run absolutely everything for a good decade after they're all dead.
Is there literally nothing whatsoever the Boomer generation won't get out of the way on?
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Thursday, November 24, 2022
The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
We noted earlier this week the passing of Tom McIntyre.
One thing that I've noted in particular is this. This is how this is captioned on Stephen Bodio's blog, a link to which appears to the side here:
Thomas McIntyre, 1952–2022
1952 to 2022. Seventy years.
1952 strikes me in particular. I wasn't alive in 1952. Indeed, my parents hadn't yet met in 52. My mother was living in Canada and my father was going to school in Lincoln, Nebraska. They'd meet and marry about six years later, by which time my mother had left Alberta to attend to her sister's wedding in Colorado, and had taken a job here on her way back north. My father had served in the Air Force and was back out and starting a career here in town.
I'd come along in 1963. So there's an eleven-year difference in that.
But there's a nine-year difference, almost ten, between my wife and I. About the same span of years here.
The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Psalms, 90:10.
I'm 59.
Mr. McIntyre made it exactly to the Biblically referenced number of years. That number doesn't amount to, I'd note, a indication that the inspired writer was promising that God was going to terminate your life at that point. No, rather, it indicates that even at that time it people lived just about as long as they do now. Indeed, what's noted is that life tended to be hard and people tended to die around age 70, maybe 80 if they were of strong constitution. Elsewhere, an upper maximum life span of 120 years is mentioned, which in fact does correlate to the rare examples of extreme old age.
Somebody I know well, and have for over 30 years, is very ill. It came out of the blue from nowhere. They're only slightly older than me.
Yesterday, a lawyer I've practiced with for nearly 30 years called and spoke to me. He's had a heart attack and is retiring. After that, a lawyer I know elsewhere in another city was learned to be retiring.
A month ago or so a practicing lawyer I know, probably in his late 60s, died suddenly.
The point?
Well only this. Financial planners may tell you to keep working forever, but you aren't going to live that long.
I've long said that after men reach age 30, they're living on borrowed time. Up at my age, that becomes increasingly obvious for anyone who has eyes to see.
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Retirement Ages. Mid Week At Work.
Fairly recently I ran some items here regarding retirement. That made me curious about retirement ages around the world.
And by that, I mean around the "developed world". I am friends, for example, with a Catholic Priest who reached 70 years of age here in our diocese, the retirement age for Catholic clerics hereabouts. He was from Nigeria, and went back. He told me that "In Nigeria, priests don't retire".
That was very admirable of him, as he could have retired. But in a larger sense, that's probably true of most Africans. No retirement. . . ever.
Something to ponder.
Anyhow, here's a chart (not mine) that I picked up from this website:
Retirement ages around the world
Pretty revealing.
So, age wise, for full retirement, the US age of 66, going to 67 soon, is not unusual. The old retirement age of 65, still apparently the Canadian one, isn't unusual either.
Indonesia has the absolute bottom at 56 for the year this chart was made, but It's boosting it to 65. South Africa has the next lowest retirement age of 60, but its means tested, so I don't really know how that works.
So, all in all, the US retirement age is pretty normal.
Now, that's the charts. What is the US average retirement age?
63.
There are a variety of factors in that, including those who wanted to retire early and did, those retired due to illness and the economy, and other factors. According to some statistics I've seen, most Americans actually retire younger than they wished to for a variety of reasons. Canadians make it closer to the system's target, with an average retirement age of 65. Germans make it to 66 before they retire, on average. Greeks retire, on average, at 61.
The military, it might be noted, wants you out the door at age 62, with some exceptions:
§1251. Age 62: regular commissioned officers in grades below general and flag officer grades; exceptions
(a) General Rule.—Unless retired or separated earlier, each regular commissioned officer of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Space Force (other than an officer covered by section 1252 of this title or a commissioned warrant officer) serving in a grade below brigadier general or rear admiral (lower half), in the case of an officer in the Navy, shall be retired or separated, as specified in subsection (e), on the first day of the month following the month in which the officer becomes 62 years of age.
(b) Deferred Retirement or Separation of Health Professions Officers.—(1) The Secretary of the military department concerned may, subject to subsection (d), defer the retirement or separation under subsection (a) of a health professions officer if during the period of the deferment the officer—
(A) will be performing duties consisting primarily of providing patient care or performing other clinical duties; or
(B) is in a category of officers designated under subparagraph (D) of paragraph (2) whose duties will consist primarily of the duties described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of such subparagraph.
(2) For purposes of this subsection, a health professions officer is—
(A) a medical officer;
(B) a dental officer;
(C) an officer in the Army Nurse Corps, an officer in the Navy Nurse Corps, or an officer in the Air Force designated as a nurse; or
(D) an officer in a category of officers designated by the Secretary of the military department concerned for the purposes of this paragraph as consisting of officers whose duties consist primarily of—
(i) providing health care;
(ii) performing other clinical care; or
(iii) performing health care-related administrative duties.
(c) Deferred Retirement or Separation of Other Officers.—The Secretary of the military department concerned may, subject to subsection (d), defer the retirement or separation under subsection (a) of any officer other than a health professions officer described in subsection (b)(2) if the Secretary determines that such deferral is in the best interest of the military department concerned.
(d) Limitation on Deferment of Retirements.—(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), a deferment under subsection (b) or (c) may not extend beyond the first day of the month following the month in which the officer becomes 68 years of age.
(2) The Secretary of the military department concerned may extend a deferment under subsection (b) or (c) beyond the day referred to in paragraph (1) if the Secretary determines that extension of the deferment is necessary for the needs of the military department concerned. Such an extension shall be made on a case-by-case basis and shall be for such period as the Secretary considers appropriate.
(e) Retirement or Separation Based on Years of Creditable Service.—(1) The following rules shall apply to a regular commissioned officer who is to be retired or separated under subsection (a):
(A) If the officer has at least 6 but fewer than 20 years of creditable service, the officer shall be separated, with separation pay computed under section 1174(d)(1) of this title.
(B) If the officer has fewer than 6 years of creditable service, the officer shall be separated under subsection (a).
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), in the case of a regular commissioned officer who was added to the retired list before the date of the enactment of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, the officer shall be retired, with retired pay computed under section 1401 of this title.
At least in my experience, most servicemen I've known, Regular and Reserve, have retired before age 60, with some retiring as soon as they have twenty years of service and then going on to other things, and others just retiring in their 50s.
What to make of this. Well, the ages are what they are. On average, folks retire right around 63 for one reason or another.
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