Your Unemployed Lawyer keeps harking back to the questions Anonymous posed on Monday night. I especially keep thinking about Anonymous’ seeming doubt that lawyers, either employed or unemployed, would ever help each other. I know that I generally addressed the issue on Monday, but it has stayed with me. I think it is too important to discuss only in general terms. I have to say that experience has taught me that they will, not just once, but over and over again.

Look at the amazing Ann Israel. She doesn’t know the Unemployed Lawyer. We are strangers except for some very enjoyable chats by email that have brightened my days several times. Consider her kindness, support and generosity. She has brought this site to the attention of most of my readers by writing about in it her New York Lawyer column, Advice to the Lawlorn, in which she helps other lawyers every week. Talk about going out on a limb! How much more could one lawyer help another?

Then there’s every reference listed on my resume. They gamely answer emails and telephone calls time after time, never once complaining or telling me just to go away and leave them in peace. Thank you all, each and every one an employed lawyer, for helping an unemployed lawyer.

How about every total stranger who agreed to see me on the recommendation of a friend? That’s two lawyers helping—both the friend who asked for time and the stranger who gave it.

Thanks to the partners I know of in firms where the axe fell hard, who spend precious billable hours talking to the casualties, giving not only words of comfort, but references and referrals. I wish I could post your names here as champions among men and women. You know who you are.

Some recruiters have been more than generous. They have continued to coach and direct me, even when it became clear that they weren’t going to place me, at least not any time soon. Lawyers helping lawyers, perhaps even to their own personal cost.

This is like an acceptance speech at the Oscars. I don’t want it to be too long, but I’m afraid of leaving people off.

Finally, I can proudly point to my employed and unemployed lawyer friends. We help each other. We send each other job information. We try to give each other inside information. We do what I am trying so hard to get all of you to do—act cooperatively instead of competitively. It has never cost one of us anything and has certainly made life less lonely, more pleasant, and more productive.

So, yes, I do believe that lawyers will help other lawyers. I have seen it with my very own eyes.

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[1] A Streetcar Named Desire, Charles K. Feldman Group, 1951, starring Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh.