It may be Halloween this week but there’s no guarantee we can speak with the spirits. Get in your kindness and heartfelt praise now. One of the things a long life teaches you is that tomorrow is promised to no one. I am lucky to have worked with many of the early giants of the profession – Burkey Belser, Jay Jaffe, Sally Schmidt, Gerry Riskin, Diane Hartley, Mike O’Horo, Elizabeth Lampert, Deborah McMurray, Larry Smith, and the list goes on. Bob’s monthly Legal and Corporate “Communiques,” reporting on “What’s Hot and What’s Not in the Legal Profession,” was a must-read for three decades. Arizona that state bars could not prohibit law firms from advertising and marketing. He was already a legend when I came into the legal marketing profession in the late 1980s, a decade after the Supreme Court ruled in Bates v. He was one of the great pioneers of law firm marketing, but I do wonder how many of today’s law firm marketing professionals recall his wisdom, or even his name. For 45 years he provided management, marketing and leadership services to over 400 law firms and legal organizations throughout America. I remember his accessibility, kindness and thoughtfulness. I recall vividly our first telephone conversation. One such giant was Robert Denny, who died this past week at 88. May we never forget that we stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us. We wonder, do we mourn for them or for ourselves? When people only half a generation ahead of us pass, it is a shocking and sobering event. But as we age, it is no longer a joke when older generations begin to die but rather a signpost of the road ahead. We even make a joke of it, teasing our elders about how old they are after a famed singer, actor or athlete from their era passes. We first safely acknowledge human mortality when someone famous, from our grandparents’ or parents’ generation, passes away. Time is a fickle master, caring little for our own values or perspectives, constantly moving on, measuring itself in eons even as we’re staring down at our watches. When does glory fade? Far too fast for us mere mortals. Alfred Tennyson’s eloquent poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” bears profound witness to how the miscomprehension of British commanders during the Crimean War in 1854 fatally led the now-fabled brigade to mistakenly charge Russian troops by riding down the hill instead of up.
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