The Hartley Law Group Newsletter

    Last week I had photos taken to update the firm’s website. You can imagine I was reluctant ok that might be too weak of a word. Let us agree that the right word to describe my feelings toward getting my photo taken is recalcitrant. Close friends and my staff know that in a world of selfies and photobombs I prefer anonymity. We have a strict no press policy at the firm to the degree that we give reporter’s the opposing lawyer’s information If we are contacted. My resistance is akin to what many people suffer from with public speaking. I never know how to pose, act or relax. My resting tension is palpable forever ready to get away which is far from naturally photogenic. Pictures are so limited. I mean does the Mona Lisa really portray dynamism? I don’t think so but whatever she is thinking I would venture that most people’s guesses are way off from what she was actually thinking. Photos are never quite right because the circumstances surrounding the photo are missing. That one moment in time never quite captures the real picture because we miss all the context. If we take a picture does it really last longer?

    My few minutes of “torture” last week sparked a thought that one of my goals with practicing law is an attempt to cement the context. Life events such as death, disease or divorce send reverberating changes throughout your life. Legal documents such contracts, wills and trusts attempt to capture permanence but also set context in the present and the future. Legal bulwarks you can create or in other words that you control to stave off tsunamis of change. Pictures statically provide a jumping off point but without the structures of context we are shifting sands. This idea of creating your own context is a call for all of us to be the narrator of our own story which I think makes the best picture. I am ok with being the “photographer” if clients want to create their own legal photos. I just don’t want to be the subject of a glamour shot!!!!

Albert R. Hartley