As 2019 reaches its close, I’d like to take a moment to commemorate the passing of The Blue Suit, which met its end earlier this year, and explain its significance to me, my Firm and my philosophy.
The Blue Suit became a part of my professional career in 1995, when I was fortunate to secure a paying job as a summer law clerk for the City of Philadelphia’s Law Department after finishing my first year of law school at the University of Pennsylvania. The Law Department required their clerks to wear suits to the office every day, however, and this presented a problem for me because: (1) I did not own any suits at the time, and (2) I did not have any money other than what I had borrowed for law school, and the little that I had earned from working the previous summer.
Scraping together what I had left, I bought two relatively inexpensive suits at Today’s Man during a “two for one” sale: The Blue Suit and The Grey Suit. I then wore them to my law clerk job at the City that summer, alternating each day: Blue Suit, Grey Suit.
Remarkably, the two suits from the summer of 1995 proved to be relatively indestructible. They not only made it through that first summer, they continued to be worn throughout the remainder of my time at Penn Law, and then on through the start of my legal career. Eventually, I was able to buy other suits that became new options for my professional wardrobe, but I still continued to wear the two suits for many years. In fact, even after I became a partner at two different law firms, and a principal attorney at another, the two suits from 1995 continued to go to court, to depositions, to law offices, to bar association events, and to other occasions. When I founded The Feldman Firm in February of 2018, I carried on the tradition of wearing the two suits.
And so it came to pass that on February 25, 2019, I was wearing The Blue Suit and heading to the Lancaster County Prothonotary to file some papers for a client. I was walking down a sloped sidewalk, heading towards the Courthouse, when I suddenly slipped on some wet pavement and fell, tearing open the knee of The Blue Suit and scraping my left knee on the pavement. Although the papers made it to the Courthouse, and the knee was only scratched, The Blue Suit was clearly finished.
So why did I — and why would any lawyer — keep wearing the same suit for nearly 24 years? After a while, it became a philosophy.
You don’t hire a lawyer based on the suit he or she is wearing – you hire a lawyer because of the person wearing it. Clients don’t need the flashiest lawyer. They need a lawyer who is steadfast and reliable, who is focused on providing real value to his or her clients, who is humble enough to listen, and whose dedication to the principles of his or her profession will outlast any passing fashion or the latest trends.
So, as 2019 draws to a close, I wanted to take a moment to salute The Blue Suit and thank it for its many years of service. Although it has met its end, the ideas and values it has inspired have not.
With the help of my clients, colleagues, supporters, family and friends, I look forward to continued success in 2020 — and to having The Grey Suit make a cameo appearance now and then.
