See? That would be me, breathing underwater.

In case you didn’t know, I am a scuba diver. In fact, just this summer I completed the coursework and dives for both my Nitrox and Advanced certifications. That’s scuba-speak for, “Now I can do deep dives, wreck dives and dive longer.” Fun stuff.

I was at the bottom of the ocean, at 107 feet floating on top of the wreck of the Castor, waiting for my assigned dive buddy in the class to descend. He had some problems with his equipment, and stayed on the boat for a few minutes after the rest of us made our descent in order to fix the issue. I was thinking about what my original scuba instructor taught me is the first rule of diving: “The dive never gets better.”

What that means, simply, is that if you are having problems at the surface, they are not going to get better the deeper  you go. Issues do not fix themselves. The problem will only get worse during the dive. Without giving you the litany of problems that can happen with dive equipment, suffice it to say that it’s all easier to fix on the surface, and in the case of bigger problems, it’s better to just stay out of the water that day.

My dive buddy fixed his problem with his buoyancy compensator (e.g. that little inflatable vest divers wear) on the surface and made it down the descent line after a few minutes. We swam happily along, looking at the goliath grouper and barracudas and starfish that make their home on the wreck. If he hadn’t fixed it, he could have had huge, even life-threatening, problems underwater instead of enjoying a gorgeous dive.

What is good advice for a diver is also good advice for a lawyer. The <insert issue here> never gets better.

• The case never gets better.
• The client never gets better.
• The employee problem never gets better.
• The billing never gets better.
• The judge never gets better.
• The partnership never gets better.
• The opposing counsel never gets better.

You name it, and it’s not going to get better – on its own. If a problem arises, deal with it head on because that problem is only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger as you get deeper into it.

As lawyers, we are so used to fixing everyone else’s problems that our own get short shrift. We take on that bad client or lousy case, not listening to that inner voice that warns us there’s a problem. Then, when things go from bad to worse, we have absolutely no way to fix it.

The fix for this is easy. Stupidly easy. If the problem is fixable at the onset, fix the problem right then. Do not delay, and do not go any further with it until you do fix it.

For example, if you have a non-paying client, why on earth would you keep racking up the billing? In for a penny, in for a pound does not work. Yes, of  course, there are certain obligations to the client that you have to take care of to avoid ethical complications. It’s part of the territory and you will do what you must – but no more. From the client’s perspective, amassing a huge debt to you is not going to make the lawyer/client relationship  go very smoothly. Better to have that uncomfortable conversation when he owes you hundreds of dollars, not thousands.

Or maybe you have a client that treats your staff like dirt. He is perfectly nice to you, but your staff dreads it every time he calls. It’s not going to get easier to tell him to quit being a jerk or you’ll have to fire him as a client. And if you let him get away with it, how long before he starts treating you that way? Better to nip it in the bud.

For bigger problems – law firm life-or-death issues like an out of balance IOLTA account, for example – you have to (to use more scuba-speak) “call the dive.” That means that you stop everything – and I mean everything – unless and until the problem is fixed. You do not do client work until it you have resolved the problem. You do not even answer the phone until the problem is attended to. Capiche? Because the problem won’t go away on its own. It’s only going to get worse, potentially much worse, unless you fix it. Right. Now.

Because the dive doesn’t get better. Like everything else, problems appear larger when you are underwater.