Sensitive Lawyers? You Must Be Kidding
A new type of lawyer is emerging: One that uses the right side of the brain as well as the left. Lawyers discover that creativity, empathy and emotional intelligence are they key factors to success both inside and outside of the court room.
(PRWEB) August 16, 2005 -- It’s a rare day when the ABA Journal, the largest
legal trade publication in America, runs a cover story (July Issue 2005) touting
how some lawyers are becoming more empathetic, creative and caring in their work
for clients. It’s a new “strategic approach” to client counseling that
encourages lawyers to fully understand the totality of their clients’ needs and
circumstances — one that requires emotional intelligence, sensitivity, optimism
and a big-picture perspective. This is soft stuff from a traditionally skeptical
and tough-minded profession.
Lawyers have prided themselves on being
intense left-brain thinkers — not for being sensitive, creative or opportunity
driven. For most of them, this means the glass must always appear half empty,
there is no such thing as upside opportunity and danger is believed to lurk
everywhere. Lately, however, this mind-set is being viewed as both unnecessary
and counter-productive. This is especially the case when it comes to building
strong and trusting relationships with clients as well as legal colleagues. It’s
also viewed as being generally bad for business.
According to Dan Pink,
best-selling author, journalist and presidential speechwriter, the future
belongs to a very different kind of lawyer with a very different kind of
mind-set. Pink, a graduate of Yale Law, says that the era of “left-brain”
dominance found in lawyers and many other knowledge workers is giving way to a
new world in which “right-brain” qualities such as inventiveness, empathy,
creativity and emotional intelligence are the qualities that will be most in
demand from professional service providers like lawyers.
The “sensitivity
shift” among lawyers is not going unnoticed by the business pundits either. Some
see a broad-reaching paradigm shift taking place within the entire professional
services work force. Author and business guru Tom Peters agrees, observing that
professional service firms are also in the “dream business” and their added
value comes from making the dreams of their clients come true. Even for lawyers,
it’s about innovation and transformation — making the experience of being a
client both meaningful and wherever possible inspiring.
Tom Peters calls
Pink’s book A Whole New Mind “a miracle” and Alan Webber, founding editor of
FAST COMPANY, calls Pink’s work “brilliant.” While it’s hard to imagine lawyers
as sensitive and caring, it’s turning out that both the lawyer and clients are
benefiting from this new arrangement. “There is no question this shift in
‘feeling’ as well as ‘thinking’ is also good business,” says attorney and
marketing consultant Henry Dahut. “Emotional traits like empathy, creativity and
sensitivity are slowly making their way into the skill development curriculum at
some very big and prominent law firms. These firms are spending millions of
dollars cultivating this mind-set among their associates and partners. It’s no
business fad - it’s more an organic process Dahut says, “Law firms are very slow
adapters to new ways. This new shift in thinking,” he argues, “is the real
thing, and it’s transforming the way law is being practiced.”
Dahut,
like others, believes it’s part of a new paradigm shift affecting all types of
knowledge workers. He has written an entire book on the subject. In his
Marketing the Legal Mind (LMG Press, 2004), Dahut not only uses modern brain
science and organizational psychology to explain how the business of law is
taking a new and more enterprising shape, but he also argues, “The rules of
marketing have changed for law firms…everything a firm does or communicates
impacts the clients’ experience of the firm.” According to Dahut, it’s not what
lawyers think they’re offering that counts, but rather what the clients are
experiencing that matters most.
The critics and experts on the practice
of law like what they are hearing. Timothy Corcoran, VP of strategic planning at
Martindale-Hubbell, one of the world’s largest legal publishers, calls Henry’s
book a compelling and inspiring road map to growing and managing law firms.
Perry Viscounty, a managing partner at Latham and Watkins LLP, a
sixteen-hundred-lawyer global powerhouse, says Dahut’s book is a must-read for
every lawyer — not just for partners. The book is also getting attention from
Dan Pink, who calls Dahut’s work both compelling and inspiring and one that
clearly demonstrates the expanding role of legal professionals.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/8/prweb271790.htm