Win by Winning…

“A few months after I started practicing law in a large law firm, I learned that the other lawyers who started with me were paid $8,000 a year. I was paid $6,000 a year (with wife and 3 kids).  I learned I was paid less because the others went to Harvard, Michigan, Yale, etc, and I went to West Point and the University of Illinois for law school. I was deemed not as smart, less worthy, than my colleagues. Today, of course, young lawyers who learned of this disparate treatment would be crushed. My reaction? Use this as positive motivation to pursue a
new personal philosophy which I invented, that day,
which, since then , I have called: ‘win by winning.’ This means win by doing better, working harder, rather than by complaining that you have been ‘unfairly treated´ It worked.”
– Fred H. Bartlit, Jr.


“Fred Bartlit is a top corporate lawyer who’s client roster includes Presidents’ Barack Obama and George W. Bush, DuPont and Reebok…The National Law Review noted that Mr. Bartlit was  “one of the most successful corporate defense litigators ever, with a long history of big wins…The secret to his success is an unusual one: In an industry that seeks every opportunity to bill by the hour, he doesn’t even glance at the clock – he collects fees only when he wins the case.”


Sources:

  1. Thank you Execupundit
  2. Forbes Magazine (3/23/12) – How to Score That Impossible Win, A Top Lawyer’s Advice.

21 thoughts on “Win by Winning…

  1. He’s right – I can only imagine what the associates on ‘abovethelaw’ or ‘greedyassociates’ would have said about the disparity! Bravo for his turning an issue of inequity into a paradigm for success!!

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  2. Being a graduate of The Citadel, I would have to say they got the pay range wrong. His experience at West Point prepared him well to use this to his advantage. Not as well as if he had gone to The Citadel or VMI, but certainly good enough. 😉

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  3. Getting paid (in money and otherwise) to win: I really, really like this! I had known about Attorney Bartlit and some of his famous clients, but I had not known he only accepted payment for cases that he won! Wow!

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