Lawyers Are Scared Right Now
Lawyers Are Scared Right Now by Arnie Herz (The Complete Lawyer, April 2009)
Master the Four Elements of a Coachee's Success
Master the Four Elements of a Coachee's Success, by Arnie Herz (The Complete Lawyer, March 2009)
A New Spin on Rainmaking for Lawyers: Client Evangelists
A New Spin on Rainmaking for Lawyers: Client Evangelists by Arnie Herz (The Complete Lawyer, February 2009)
Global Lawyers Need Critical Relationship Building Skills
Global Lawyers Need Critical Relationship Building Skills by Arnie Herz (The Complete Lawyer, December 2008)
Infuse Law Firm Life With Participation And Meaning
Infuse Law Firm Life With Participation and Meaning by Arnie Herz (The Complete Lawyer, September/October 2008)
Creating A Connection Culture In The Law
Creating A Connection Culture In The Law by Arnie Herz (LATNEWS Summer 2008), a publication of the New York State Bar Association Lawyers Assistance Trust
The New Exit Strategy for Today's Lawyers: Manage Your Own Career
The New Exit Strategy for Today’s Lawyers: Manage Your Own Career
by Arnie Herz (The Complete Lawyer July/August 2008 Issue)
Relationships Are King
Relationships Are King, by Arnie Herz (Touro Law Review, Vol. 24. Number 1 (2008))
What's On Your Mind?
What's On Your Mind? by Arnie Herz (The Complete Lawyer, May/June 2008)
Cultivate Work-Life Synergy: A Guide For Women Lawyers
Cultivate Work-Life Synergy: A Guide For Women Lawyers, by Arnie Herz (The Complete Lawyer, March/April 2008)
For Associates, Relationship Building Skills Are Essential
For Associates, Relationship Building Skills Are Essential by Arnie Herz (The Complete Lawyer, October 2007)
Critical Relationship Building Skills for Associates
Critical Relationship Building Skills for Associates, by Arnie Herz (The Complete Lawyer, Sept. 2007)
Beyond Balance: Creating Work-Life Synergy
Beyond Balance: Creating Work-Life Synergy, A Legal Sanity Learning Programs Eguide PDF, by Lori Herz and Arnie Herz
fearless networking
Fearless Networking
(Strategies: The Journal of Legal Marketing published by Legal Marketing Association, January 2006)
First Steps to an Uncluttered
First Steps to an Uncluttered Mind
By Arnie Herz
(As appeared in the ABA GPSolo Newsletter, Fall 2005)
Meditation helps us tune out the stream of information that inundates us at work and at home. It also allows us to access calmness and clarity and to de-stress from the rigors of everyday life. This article will help you start meditating on a regular basis.
The beauty of meditation is its accessibility. Anyone can meditate. You don't need to renounce your worldly ways, or even dramatically change your daily routine to reap the many physical and mental benefits of meditation. Best of all, you simply can't do it wrong.
And that's the real key to a healthy meditation practice--giving ourselves permission to suspend judgment and simply accept each meditation session for what it brings. This can be difficult for those of us used to critiquing and labeling for a living. But, it's essential for beginner and advanced meditators alike.
Although there's no black letter rule, most people meditate for 10 to 30 minutes at a time when getting started. However, the number of minutes is not as important as the number of times you meditate each week. The more you meditate, the faster the practice will bear fruit for you.
My advice is to start out by meditating five to 10 minutes a day using the following directions.
Find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted. (It's great to establish a regular meditation site in your home or office.)
Sit on the floor with your legs crossed and back and head upright. Or, sit in a chair with your feet on the floor.
Rest your hands on your knees with both palms up or both palms down or fold your hands in your lap.
Close your eyes and take a few slow, deep breaths.
Returning to a natural, rhythmic breathing, start to focus on your in-breath and out-breath.
Observe the qualities of your breath as it flows in and out.
If your mind chatters or wanders, which it will, gently return your focus to your breathing.
Slowly bring your awareness back to your body and take in the sounds around you.
Move your fingertips and toes, stretch a bit, and open your eyes.
Congratulations, you're a meditator!
Arnie Herz is a lawyer, mediator, and speaker nationally recognized for his practical and inspired approach to conflict resolution and client counseling. He regularly gives seminars on helping lawyers achieve work-life balance. He also writes the popular blog, legal sanity, at www.legalsanity.com. You can contact him at arnie@arnieherz.com.
Meditation: Tool for a Clear
Meditation: Tool for a Clear Mind and Competitive Edge
By Arnie Herz
(As appeared in the ABA GPSolo Newsletter, Spring 2005)
What's on your mind? For most of people, there's a steady stream of ideas, concerns and musings—reams of information to digest and act on. Lawyers tend to consider the mind a great ally. After all, it churns out the clever insights about rules, arguments, and strategies that build your business and boost your reputation.
Unfortunately, such productive thoughts usually come bundled with others that make you experience fear, anger, and stress. These challenging thoughts run something like this: Can I cover my overhead and mortgage this month? My adversary is such a jerk. What do I do now that the computer is down? This isn't why I went to law school!
Given the well-documented mind-body connection, all the unproductive thoughts you entertain daily inevitably take a toll on you physically. They promote a weakened immune system, raised blood pressure, and insomnia. Under their influence you feel burnt out, and your work and personal lives suffer.
Wouldn't it be amazing if you could control your mind's inventory by cultivating useful and uplifting thoughts and disarming the useless and harmful ones? What a competitive edge you'd have. What a boon to be free of the physical fallout negative thoughts engender.
This is not a fanciful notion. You can change your mind right now by retraining it. Like any new skill, it simply takes understanding and practice. And the foundational practice is meditation.
Meditation rests on the premise that the mind works best when it's quiet and poised. When the flow of thought slows to a trickle in meditation, any ideas, questions, and understanding that do arise are often inspired and profound.
Imagine you're listening to Beethoven on your car radio when, all of sudden, you're flanked by SUVs blaring hard rock and rap. The dissonance is intense. You can't hear the nuances and sweetness of your music. That's just how it is with the mind. It serves us optimally when unencumbered by dissonant thoughts that don't serve us at all. Meditation helps you turn down the mind's noise and tune in to a place of calm and clarity.
If this has whetted your appetite for meditation, stay tuned for the next article in this series: "Meditation: How to Get Started."In the interim, if you want to try meditating, follow these simple instructions. Remember, even a few minutes are fine to begin with.
Close the door, silence the phone, and take a seat with your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands on your lap. Closing your eyes, inhale deeply, and exhale long through your nose. Continue to breathe in this way, focusing on the rhythm and flow of your breath as it moves in and out. When you're ready, slowly open your eyes and notice your improved state of being.
Arnie Herz is a lawyer, mediator, and speaker. He provides seminars and consulting services nationwide on conflict resolution, client counseling, and building skills, success, and satisfaction in the law. Visit his blog, Legal Sanity, at http://legalsanity.com, or contact him at arnie@arnieherz.com.
To Sue or Not to
To Sue or Not to Sue?
By: Arnie Herz
Keeping your business disputes out of the courtroom might be your best strategy for a winning resolution.
(As appeared in the March/April 2005 issue of the New York Enterprise Report)
Although litigation has a bad rap in today's business world, it's not inherently evil. Like many other things, litigation can be a tool for doing good, but is often tainted by abuse and excess.
People typically race to their lawyers at the first whiff of a business dispute, convinced that any wrong they supposedly suffered can be righted only by a day in court. When that day turns into years and the years translate into huge legal bills, much time away from the office and heightened uncertainty, the same people become incensed with the very monster they helped create. As an entrepreneur with limited time and financial resources, you must beware of the litigation trap. The real challenge for businesspeople is to identify those situations where the win-lose dynamic of a lawsuit is the best and only way to restore business health. Most "must-litigate" disputes can be discerned by candidly addressing the following questions:
Do you know exactly what you want and are you sure that this goal serves your real business interests?
Tom came to me to sue the company that bought his business the year before. The relationship had soured into mutual threats of litigation. Tom had a penchant for standing up to wrongdoers and wanted to fight and win. But when I asked him, he admitted that his vision for the future did not include protracted and expensive litigation. What he really wanted was freedom from his non-compete provision so he could go back into business for himself. I told Tom that this revised goal better served his long-term business and personal interests. His adversary was on the verge of bankruptcy, so the chance of Tom's actually collecting any money damages was tenuous at best. With this shift in perspective, Tom saw just what he stood to lose by blindly proceeding toward his initial, short-sighted goal of a litigation battle.
Do you understand your chance of success in court?
Most people overestimate their chance of success in court because they look at the dispute solely from their perspective. When I first asked Tom to forecast how his case would end, he stated that the court would find that his adversary mismanaged the company and would order that it be returned to Tom. Tom got a reality check when I informed him that, although he had a good case on most of his proposed claims, the governing contract terms and case law undermined his position. Understanding that his case was far from airtight, Tom reconsidered his charge into litigation.
Are you aware of the investment of money, emotions and time that litigation requires, from filing to disposition to collection?
Even the simplest litigation will likely take a year or so from start to finish, with larger business disputes spanning many years. The real world is very different from The People's Court, where litigants file a complaint and, presto, find themselves in a courtroom poised to face the judge right after a commercial break. In real time, the continuum of stipulations, conferences, motions, discovery, trial, appeal, judgment and collection is long and arduous. It's also more expensive and emotionally draining than any potential litigant ever imagines. Tom was envisioning a quick fix to his legal dilemma. After hearing my candid appraisal of the major investments of time, money and emotion he likely faced, he opened up to exploring alternative paths to achieving his real goal in the matter.
SIDE BAR
Is your lawyer pushing you to litigate?
Sometimes litigation is unavoidable. But it is only a last resort. Here is my checklist of what you must
receive from your lawyer by the end of your first or second consultation if she is pushing to litigate:
* Identified goals that are crystal clear, worthwhile and attainable.
* A precise estimate of the cost, time commitment, and your chances of success.
* A confidence that your lawyer has superb interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills with a proven track record of quickly resolving even difficult cases.
* A lawyer who believes in and engages in mediation. Referrals to ten satisfied clients and check out 5 of them.
* A list of credentials, awards and peer review ratings check out Martindale-Hubbell (www.martindale.com) to
see if your lawyer has been peer reviewed.
* A lawyer who treats you with respect, is committed to keeping you informed and knows the importance of keeping you involved.
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Arnie Herz is a highly regarded mediator, business lawyer and public speaker with offices on Wall Street and in Port Washington, N.Y. He is the author of the popular blog Legal Sanity (http://legalsanity.com) and can be reached at arnie@arnieherz.com.
Harnessing the Power of Mediation
Harnessing the Power of Mediation to Resolve Your Business Disputes
by Arnie Herz
(As appeared in the December 14, 2004 edition of the New York Real Estate Journal)
Let's face it. Conflict happens. It's pretty much rampant in day-to-day business life. But with revised deal points, replaced products or assuaged feelings, things usually get back on track in short order. There are times, however, when a business dispute resists home remedy. The situation escalates as negotiations falter and accusations of damage turn into a threatened or actual lawsuit.
As business owners, you've likely found yourself at this turning point more than once. It's not a happy place to be, even if you're the one gunning for legal action. The mere prospect of litigation usually brings up feelings of dread. For starters, there's the inevitable investment of your money, time and emotions - all precious resources. Then there's the specter of uncertain results and abdicating control to lawyers and the legal system. Catch 22; zero-sum game; lose-lose proposition: however you size it up, the litigation whirlpool seems inescapable.
But there is an escape route.
No matter what side of a conflict you're on or where you are in the litigation process, mediation is not only a viable option, it's an outstanding one that more and more business owners are exercising to resolve a wide range of disputes. Mediation provides a problem-solving forum in which disputants have equal opportunities to air their differences and tell their stories before a neutral professional. Mediators don't render decisions. They help parties explore avenues for negotiating and reaching resolution on their own terms.
The following profile of a mediation I recently conducted in a construction clean up case really brings home how efficient and effective the process can be in even the most complex and acrimonious disputes.
Deconstructing the Anatomy of a Conflict
In June 2004, a perfect storm was brewing between New York City officials and private contractors who helped clean up the World Trade Center site. Whatever good will existed between the parties right after September 11th was long gone. Simmering hostility had turned into unbridled animosity capped by a complaint for over a million dollars in damages. A Federal judge assigned me to mediate the matter.
The mediation session took place in the conference room of a posh office in the heart of Manhattan. Present were three parties, four attorneys and me. One lawyer at the table nicely summed up the party line at the outset when he told me that there was no way the case would settle, which was why he had parked his car at a two-hour meter. Having met thirteen different times to try to sort things out on their own, the parties believed that this was just another perfunctory pre-trial exercise. They seemed to be on autopilot.
I duly acknowledged their take on the odds of settlement, but would not let it sidetrack the process. Rather, I reiterated my unbiased commitment to giving this mediation the best possible chance of success by listening and responding with integrity and objectivity to what I heard.
And so, for the fourteenth time, the parties related why they were right and the other guys were wrong. After everyone had their say, I turned to the lawyers and inquired how many years of experience they each had. The answers came: 41, 35, 26, 18 years. Tallying my own 13 years and some other variables, I said, "You mean to tell me that with 133 years of legal experience, 80 years of business know-how, six college degrees, five JDs and two MBAs, you think we need an overworked judge to resolve this dispute for us?"
This wasn't a flip or sarcastic remark. Being a skilled mediator and experienced lawyer, I knew that if they could cut through their entrenched perspectives, hurt feelings and destructive goals, the parties would have a breakthrough and find a mutually favorable solution. As is so often the case in stymied business dealings, they had become fixated on what was wrong - on their disagreements. There were fifteen claims of wrongdoing in the pending lawsuit, but the parties could only see one huge, insurmountable problem.
So I asked them to do something different. I asked that they reorient themselves a bit and tell me on what points they all agreed. Lo and behold, after looking at the issues one at a time for just one hour, everyone realized that there was substantial or complete agreement on all but three claims. With this shift in perspective, the atmosphere radically changed.
Indeed, buoyed by the prospect of imminent resolution, the parties wanted to adjourn for the day and come back in three weeks to finish up. But I knew adjournment was risky because, in the interim, emotions would resurface and issues would again appear larger than life. The parties heard me out and decided to proceed that day.
Employing Shuttle Diplomacy
I felt that the three remaining issues were more likely to resolve if I worked with each of the parties separately. As I engaged in the shuttle diplomacy that mediators call caucusing, the parties' unrealistic expectations soon receded along with their feelings of being wronged. The more insight they gained into the realities and nuances of the matter, the more they expressed a desire to see it disappear in a quick and cost-effective way.
The caucuses also afforded a vital opportunity for both sides to negotiate without disclosing their bottom line to each other. The parties told me in confidence what they'd be willing to settle for. It turned out, as it almost always does, that they were much closer to agreement than their direct negotiations had indicated. Without revealing the offers, I was able to reassure the parties that they were within range of settlement. Surprised and relieved at the news, they became even more flexible going forward.
After several hours of these back and forth discussions, the matter resolved. We wrote up the formal settlement agreement, signed it and the parties shook hands genuinely thrilled that the ordeal was over.
Understanding Why Mediation Worked in this Case and How it Can Work for You
Although it involved a unique and very complex set of issues, the profiled construction clean up case was actually quite similar to most matters I encounter in my mediation practice. The parties came to the table with a fervent belief that they were miles apart and that settlement was unlikely at best. The palpable anger and discord that pervaded provided the only apparent common ground.
Mediation is made for these kinds of situations.
Especially when confronted with conflict, people tend to focus on what's gone wrong instead of what's still right. Mediators are trained to look beyond this human tendency and encourage participants to pinpoint areas of agreement. As demonstrated in the profiled case, once people in disputes identify points of common interest and understanding, the opportunities for settlement increase exponentially.
Similarly, mediators help people get out of their own way. In the throws of conflict, people often find themselves driven by anger and stubbornly striving for short-sighted goals that fail to serve their larger business and personal needs. And so they become their own worst enemy. Mediators help people see where they're stuck and how to move through the obstacles they've created for themselves. Thus, in the profiled case, I took the opportunity in caucus to ensure that the parties understood the costs and risks of litigation. I asked them to tell me exactly how protracting the matter in court would promote their business and individual agendas. From this vantage point, all agreed that a courtroom battle would only undermine their interests.
The value of getting parties to look at conflict in the context of their own lives cannot be overstated. I believe it's one of the most effective tools in the mediator's kit. What seems so all-important in the midst of a dispute loses its potency when isolated and placed in proper perspective.
The profiled case provides a particularly poignant example of the power of perspective in mediation. Since the events of September 11th were part of the fabric of the dispute, I asked the parties in caucus what that historical day meant to them - how they felt when it happened and in the weeks that followed. This exercise put them all in a more cooperative mode as it tapped their innate desire to be helpful and conflict-free.
Whether you have a complex construction dispute, a business conflict or a personal grievance, mediation is an optimal forum for intelligently addressing and resolving everyday conflicts on terms that work for you.
© Arnie Herz, 2004. Arnie Herz is a lawyer, mediator and consultant nationally recognized for his practical and inspired approach to conflict resolution. His successful service model has been featured in a number of distinguished publications, including the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, the New York Law Journal and the ABA Journal. His popular blog, Legal Sanity, chronicles national efforts to better the legal profession and address lawyer life balance. Arnie can be reached at arnie@arnieherz.com or www.arnieherz.com.
When Your Case Must be
When Your Case Must be Litigated
By Arnie Herz
(As appeared in the October/November 2003 edition of GPSOLO, a publication of the American Bar Association)
Although alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes and negotiation typically provide the most efficient and effective means of resolving legal conflicts, sometimes a just resolution simply is not possible without court intervention. The problem today is that people often resort to litigation too quickly, without sufficient forethought. Because litigation is a drastic recourse with inherent risks, this mad dash to the courthouse is never a prudent strategy. Clients are unhappy to discover deep into the case that their odds of success are not as good as they had imagined, their legal bills are much higher than expected, and the requisite investment of time is beyond their means. By trial's end, litigants often find themselves tapped out financially and emotionally, and entirely disgusted with the litigation process.
The real challenge for lawyers, then, is to strike a balance between litigation's value and overuse by identifying those matters that must be litigated—in which the win-lose dynamic of a lawsuit is the best and only way to restore a client to health. Although there is no golden divining rod to employ in this quest, practitioners can discern most "must-litigate" matters by taking time to answer the following questions:
*Does the client know exactly what she wants, and is she sure that this serves her real interests?
*Does the client understand his chance of success in the courts?
*Is your client aware of the investment of money, emotions, and time that litigation requires, from filing to disposition to collection?
*Is there an acceptable less costly alternative that might better meet the client's overall interests?
*Have you tried to resolve the dispute through negotiation or one of the current modes of nonbinding ADR, such as mediation, to no avail?
*Have you examined the viability of different forms of binding or adjudicative ADR as alternatives to court?
*Is ADR not an option as a result of any of the following conditions:
-a significant power imbalance between the parties, such as a history of coercion or abuse;
-a steadfast unwillingness on one party's part to resort to ADR; or
-a need to commence an action to avoid a time-barred claim, to prevent irreparable harm, or to protect someone's physical well-being?
If this inquiry process confirms that litigation is the only or best means of advancing a conflict resolution, lawyers can move ahead with an action confident that they are serving the optimal health of their clients and the court system while sealing their reputations as savvy and conscientious professionals. Even in these situations, however, counsel should vigorously explore opportunities for constructive resolution as the litigation progresses and parties' needs and expectations shift.
The following is a case study exemplifying how the inquiry process plays out:
A software company that lost its building in a fire began threatening Ben, a young employee with a new family, with termination unless he met several condition that seemed unacceptable and exploitative to him. Because the company was sponsoring his green-card application, Ben felt enormous pressure and attempted suicide. When he got out of the hospital, he consulted a lawyer. Given the company's reputation and past actions, the lawyer advised Ben to expect XCorp to make a tough stand.
Sure enough, the company refused to negotiate, started an action, and sought a temporary restraining order to prevent Ben from working in the software industry. Assuming that Ben was still mentally and emotionally vulnerable and recognizing the massive disparity in financial resources, XCorp expected his quick capitulation. They were way off. Believing in his case, Ben held firm, and he and the lawyer had a plan to meet each of the company's subsequent maneuvers. In the end, the judge ruled in Ben's favor and granted his settlement terms; the company abandoned further action.
Although litigation was not his first choice, Ben knew exactly what he wanted and that it served his real interests of standing up for himself and getting what he deserved. He also understood that he had a good chance of success in the courts and that the cost justified the effort and risk. There was no viable alternative in the face of XCorp's staunch refused to negotiate or otherwise constructively resolve the dispute. In this scenario, litigation proved to be extremely valuable and effective.
© Arnie Herz, 2003. Arnie Herz is a lawyer, mediator and speaker with offices on Wall Street and Long Island, NY. He can be reached at arnie@arnieherz.com or www.arnieherz.com.
Optimizing The Attorney-Client Relationship To
Optimizing The Attorney-Client Relationship
To Achieve Outstanding Results
By Arnie Herz
(As appeared in the September 2003 issue of ICM Update, a publication of the Institute for Conflict Management)
Clients expect their lawyers to handle matters with proficiency and professionalism. It is widely reported, however, that many lawyers fall way short of meeting their clients' expectations. The shortfall manifests in pervasive public criticism of the legal profession, overburdened court dockets, and lawyer stress and burnout.
The gap between what clients want and what lawyers routinely provide derives in large part from a fundamental breakdown in communication. Clients are not always adept at articulating what they really need and lawyers lack the insight or inclination to help them fill in the blanks.
Failing to ascertain their client's real needs, lawyers focus on achieving the typically superficial goals their clients reactively declare at their first meeting. Even if such goals are fully realized, clients rarely come away feeling truly satisfied or whole. In conflict scenarios, client satisfaction is further undermined by a huge investment of money and time for protracted litigation.
To avoid this communication pitfall and bridge the gap to client satisfaction, lawyers need to bypass the routine approach to providing legal services and reframe the heart of their practice - the attorney-client relationship.
One effective way of doing this is to lead clients through a process of self inquiry that helps them pinpoint the goal they really want to attain. These "real goals" are often quite different from the goals clients articulate when they first seek counsel. They are ones that meet deepest needs and larger life interests; goals that usually get lost in the emotion and tension surrounding legal issues.
To focus in on real goals, lawyers can ask clients to envision their lives six, twelve and twenty four months into the future and, from that vantage point, gage how the initial goal they identified aligns with their larger life vision. If the alignment is off, lawyer and client have to work together to parse through other options until they pinpoint the outcome that best serves the client's real needs and interests.
This exercise is a powerful tool because it compels clients, perhaps for the first time, to think of their legal issue not only in the context of their life as it now is, but in the context of their life as they wish it to be. With this broadened perspective, clients and their lawyers are more attuned to pursuing meaningful results.
Beyond serving larger life interests, real goals are reasonably attainable. Thus, in taking them through this inquiry process, lawyers must ensure that their clients are realistic in their goal-setting. Clients need to be grounded and understand the limits of their entitlement in both a legal and practical sense.
With the clarity gained in the course of identifying real goals, lawyers and clients find themselves well on the way to being in sync and in the best possible position to devise, implement and follow through on an optimal game plan for realizing the targeted outcome.
In sum, by understanding the true nature of the attorney-client relationship, learning a new skill set to optimize it, and using those skills to empower clients to choose real and meaningful goals, lawyers can find inspired, innovative solutions to the legal problems brought to them and achieve outstanding results. In doing so, they become more contented and fulfilled in their work lives and the legal profession thrives.
© Arnie Herz, 2003. Arnie Herz is a lawyer, mediator and speaker with offices on Wall Street and Long Island, NY. He can be reached at arnie@arnieherz.com or www.arnieherz.com.
Lawyers as Everyday Peacemakers: Reframing
Lawyers as Everyday Peacemakers:
Reframing the Attorney-Client Relationship
for Optimal Conflict Resolution in the 21st Century and Beyond
by Arnie Herz
(As appeared in the February 2004 issue of ICM Update, a publicatoin of the Institute for Conflict Management)
As a resource of first resort for people in disputes, the legal profession is uniquely positioned to be on the 21st Century's conflict resolution front line. For lawyers, opportunities for deescalating and ending conflict begin when prospective clients first walk in the office and continue as the legal process unfolds at the negotiating table, in a forum for alternative dispute resolution, or before judge and jury.
Unfortunately, these opportunities often go unrealized. Clients usually are unaware that, more often than not, there is a huge difference between the goal they pronounce at an emotion-filled initial consultation and what they really want to gain from the conflict situation. Equally unaware, and otherwise disinclined to think outside the box, lawyers do little to help clients pinpoint and pursue real goals - realistic, just, and reasonably attainable outcomes that meld the clients' needs in the present with their hopes for the future.
Out of sync with such real goals, attorneys and clients end up investing an enormous amount of time, money, and emotion chasing superficial outcomes that do not meet the clients' real needs. The waste of resources, the client dissatisfaction, and the attorney burnout born of this impaired dynamic have become so prevalent, that they are considered par for the course of doing business in our legal system. And, so, legal consumers and service providers alike have largely adapted to the malaise that plagues the profession.
But, there are a growing number of practitioners and academics who are trying to change the status quo of a legal industry that tends to kindle rather than extinguish conflict. Although aligned in different movements and organizations, they share the belief that it is possible to raise the bar and revitalize the lawyer's role as a conduit for resolving conflict in a way that promotes the clients' real interests and overall wellbeing. In this way, they see the potential for lawyers to become this century's quintessential peacemakers.
As a practicing lawyer and mediator, I share this vision for the reformation of law as it is commonly practiced today. Without sacrificing vigorous and savvy representation or financial gain, legal service providers can better serve consumers and more effectively resolve conflict by reframing the hub and heart the legal profession - the attorney-client relationship.
Reoriented for optimal health, the attorney-client relationship is a symbiotic one forged on a multi-step process of goal-setting and goal-attainment. Although it is more readily stated and understood in linear form, this process is essentially a fluid and flexible one, and its component steps can be revisited as attorney, client, or the evolving conflict scenario requires.
The first step in the process is helping clients identify real goals for the conflict they face. This step is pivotal because it ensures that the legal system is being engaged for good reason and in good faith. After trying to glean real goal options, the attorney-client team may find that none exist and that, consequently, perpetuating the dispute would be a waste of their time, energy, and resources.
Assuming that there is a real goal to pursue, attorneys move the process forward by compelling clients to recognize and surmount any hurdles caused by inner obstacles - distortions in the clients' perception of the conflict at hand caused by the clients' emotional state and reactive patterns. Once this roadblock is cleared, lawyers can then focus the process on overcoming any outer obstacles to goal realization, such as power imbalances between the parties or challenging points of law.
With inner and outer obstacles leveled, the next step in the process is making a goal-oriented game plan incorporating effective strategies and skills clients can readily understand and help implement. At the end of the dispute, attorneys lead their clients through the final step of getting closure by helping them contextualize the conflict and its ultimate resolution in terms of the clients' larger life interests.
After becoming well-versed in how the attorney-client relationship functions in peak form, all professionals working in the legal arena - whether lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, or judges - can find optimal solutions to the conflicts brought to them. As a result, client and attorney satisfaction grows and the legal profession revives and thrives as a vehicle for everyday peacemaking in the New Millennium.
© Arnie Herz, 2003. Arnie Herz is a lawyer, mediator and speaker with offices on Wall Street and Long Island, NY. He can be reached at arnie@arnieherz.com or www.arnieherz.com.
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