“We’re going in together because I’m doing personal injury and she’s doing family law,” he said.

“I get large fees, but they’re spread out and unpredictable,” he continued. “She gets a steady stream of smaller fees,” he said. He’s planning on using her fees to balance out his fees so they have regular cash flow.

I hear some variation on this theme every week. This is the story we tell ourselves when we join forces with another lawyer so we don’t have to do this alone.

How does it work out?

Fast forward to when the big fee comes in….

It arrives. It’s the one we were waiting for. It’s not a single. It’s not a double. It’s not a triple.

This is the big one.

This is the home run.

This is the one we’ve been waiting for.

This is the one that starts the litigation between the two partners. This is where it ends badly. This is where the whole freaking world explodes and the local legal community gets a front row seat watching how this whole “I practice in one area, you practice in another—cash flow magic” works out.

Boom. Meltdown. Disaster. Big mess.

This won’t be you, right? This will be someone else.

This is The Scorpion and the Frog.