Law Office Management
Nov. 2, 2010
My Amazing Vacation
"I've taken vacations, but never when I couldn't use my BlackBerry or contact anyone," says Victor Jih, a Los Angeles lawyer who competed in The Amazing Race with his sister Tammy Jih.
Law firm partners with Harvard Law JDs aren't supposed to appear on reality television shows. The lawyers who do participate typically have decided to quit the profession or are just starting their legal careers. Someone like myself, with more than 13 years in practice, is supposed to know better. Nevertheless, on March 1, 2009, 10 million Americans watched as I got myself and my sister Tammy hopelessly lost trudging through the mountains of Romania. Dehydrated, exhausted, and utterly disoriented, I eventually listened to my sister's protests that we were going the wrong way, and we survived another day. Tammy was a third-year associate at another law firm when we competed in the 14th edition of The Amazing Race, CBS's Emmy award?winning series in which two-person teams vie for a million-dollar prize. Video of the frenetic four-week competition around the world is then broadcast in twelve episodes: Starting in California, we raced from the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base to the Swiss Alps, where we bungee-jumped off a dam and slid down manure-covered hills carrying 50-pound wheels of cheese. Then it was on to Salzburg, Austria, to hang-glide off a mountain and hurl pies at each other; to Transylvania to hunt for vampires; over to frigid Siberia to take part in a 5K "underwear" run; and down to the "Pink City" of Jaipur, India, to feed camels. We pressed on to Thailand searching for gorillas and then for transvestite "lady-boys"; up to the mountains of Guilin, China, to train cormorants to retrieve fish; over to the Olympic venues of Beijing; and ultimately to the finish line in Maui, Hawaii. Lawyers who learn of my televised adventures tend to react in one of two ways. There are those who (like my parents) think I must have been crazy and ask why anyone would ever want to subject themselves to such an extreme challenge or to such public scrutiny. Then there are those (obviously jealous) who ask how anyone in my position could ever get a chance to do The Amazing Race: "How did the firm let you do this?" "How were you able to take time off?" For me, it was never a question of whether I wanted to race, but rather how a litigation partner like me could ever make such an opportunity a reality. It's not your typical vacation. What made the situation even more complicated was the fact that I could not tell anyone the reason I wanted to disappear for a month, given strict confidentiality requirements. I've taken vacations for a few weeks at a time before, but never when I couldn't check email, use my BlackBerry, or contact anyone. To be honest, I was worried that even raising the issue might be a career-limiting move. I would never have taken the steps to go if I had not had mentors to guide me, colleagues who would take care of my clients in my absence, and clients who strongly believed in a work-life balance for both in-house and outside counsel. I was lucky to be surrounded by people who were willing to trust me when I declared that I would need to disappear for a few weeks. I wanted to go on the race for one reason: It would be a chance to do something extraordinarily different. In hindsight, there are so many more reasons I'm glad I went: It reaffirmed my belief that, despite an increasingly demanding legal world, a lawyer need not give up all nonlegal pursuits or personal interests. It confirmed the importance of taking risks and putting myself "out there." (How many trial lawyers get to conduct a nationwide focus group on what people think of them?) It was also a chance for me and my sister - with nothing more than each other - to test the limits of what we thought we could do. Tammy and I were fortunate to cross the finish line first. But whether first or last, I returned from the race more confident, engaged, and grateful for my sister, my firm, my colleagues, and my clients. And although competing in the race was not part of some grand plan, it has brought me new opportunities to meet people across the country and to connect with many important legal, minority, and charitable groups. Lawyers love to bash law firm life as unsustainable and oppressive, but in my experience, it can also be rather amazing. Victor Jih is a partner based in the Century City office of O'Melveny & Myers and a member of the firm's Business Trial and Litigation group.
Kari Santos
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