How does a lawyer know what to do? There's so much to be concerned about. How do you sort it all out?
Sometimes you can obtain a result the client likes and sometimes you have to advise that this course is not legally possible nor otherwise advisable; would you like to adopt the reasonable course or would you like to see bad things happen if you don't? The choice is yours.
Here's an example from another profession, architecture.
The problem was that a new Academy of Science was needed to replace the aging one in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. This was a place with an aquarium, a planetarium, a rain forest, a rock collection, human artifacts from around the world, and displays of animals in African habitats. To top it off there was a Foucoult's pendulum hanging from the ceiling on a 30' wire, which had you scratching your head as it swang, knocking over little wooden pegs arranged in a large circle on the base below as the world turned around and around beneath. Some guy replaced the pegs to stand them upright overnight when you weren't looking.
So the directors began looking for an architect to design a new building that would fit in the park and attract lots of people.
Perhaps you're thinking, well that should be easy, building a structure to accommodate all these functions...first you build a box with so many stories and put one on each floor. Or, how about five boxes in a row, or around an opening...no problem, right?
Now the board could turn its attention to finding an architect.
The vision for the academy was coming together. It would be a landmark building designed to top environmental standards while housing five unique operations - a planetarium, aquarium, living rain forest, natural history museum and research center.
The core group needed someone who could handle the sheer complexity of it.
By July 1999, the choices were narrowed to five finalists, all with different approaches.
One of them, British architect Norman Foster, arrived with five associates, two trays of slides, and detailed mockups of two specific designs. He talked for an hour and a half.
In contrast, Italian Renzo Piano simply began by rearranging the room chairs in a circle. Then he pulled out a blank sketch pad and listened as board members described the issues that were important to them - nature, biodiversity, naturalistic forms. As they talked, Piano sketched.
Piano was best known as one of the designers of the Pompidou Center in Paris and, in 1998, had won his profession's top honor, the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Architect 'got it right away'
In the end, Piano was the unanimous choice.
"His idea was to look out and see the beautiful park around you, have the building be a part of the park," Wilson said. "Renzo got it. He got it right away."
Why do you think Piano got the job and not Foster, who came prepared with five associates, two trays of slides, and mockups of two alternative designs. He really wanted the job and lectured for an hour-and-a-half on how well his designs would work. But he lost. The competition shows up with a blank pad and a guy.
Here's what we can do, he says, and produces a sketch.
They love it.
They buy.
And now we have a new Academy of Science, opening as we speak.
What made the difference between competing architect, Mr. Overprepared, and Mr. Prepared?
Mr. Overprepared came in with his preconceived plans to tell the directors what HE wanted.
Mr. Prepared came in with all of the necessary skills and experience to build the directors anything they told him they wanted, not what HE wanted.
There's a difference.
Two creative architects, one who will build what HE wants, and the other who will build what YOU want.
Which would you hire for your next building?
The full article from the San Francisco Chronicle (sfgate.com) is below.