As I approach a forty-one year career working for Locks Law Firm (Greitzer and Locks when I started), and thirty-nine years as an attorney for the firm, I find myself thinking about the eighth and final stage of Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development (that’s what happens when you are married to a psychoanalyst). To simplify, Erickson theorized that people reaching the end of their lives look back on those lives with either integrity, because their life was well-lived, or despair because they regret choices and missed opportunities.
I grew up “on the wrong side of the tracks” in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, the son of a foundry worker. As a child and young man, I aspired only to rise above my circumstances and prove to those who I felt looked down on me that I could be successful. Thanks to my parents, who believed that I could do anything and encouraged me to do so, I was able to attend Temple University and Temple University Law School.
Although I have been working since age twelve, my entire professional career has been spent with Locks Law Firm/Greitzer and Locks.
The first half of my career was spent almost exclusively trying asbestos cases. There was a reason that I, and many others, were able to obtain huge punitive damage verdicts in these cases; there was clear and compelling evidence that asbestos companies such as Johns-Manville, Philip Carey and Pittsburgh Corning, to name just a few, were well aware of how dangerous the products they were manufacturing and selling were. There was never any question in my mind that in trying to obtain compensation for sick or dying, primarily working class, persons from these companies, I had justice on my side. I was truly blessed that, for the most part, the evidence I needed was readily available to me thanks to the amazing work of Gene Locks and the other trailblazing pioneers of the asbestos bar.
The second half of my career has been spent as Managing Partner. In this position, I have been involved in virtually every type of litigation a plaintiffs’ firm can handle. I have had the privilege and pleasure of working with many wonderful co-workers, both attorneys and support staff. Dozens of men and women who worked for our firm as support staff have gone on to become practicing attorneys. I would like to believe that I played at least a small role in some of them doing so.
I am proud of my career and all that I have accomplished, and I do not regret any of my decisions. But I struggle with whether any member of my generation, the Baby Boomers, can feel completely comfortable that they have lived a life of integrity, given the state of the country and the world we are leaving for future generations.
I have one final goal before I retire: to ensure that Locks Law Firm is a successful law firm doing meaningful work when both Gene Locks and I retire and that those who follow in our footsteps end their careers knowing that they have done what they can to make the world a better place. I don’t have all the answers to how that can be done, but I am determined to try.
If you are an attorney interested in joining us on this mission, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.
