"Leaning In" as a Woman Lawyer

The June 2013 issue of the ABA Magazine features women who have ascended to the heights of law firm management.  It profiles seven women who currently operate as the managing partner in medium to ubber-large law firms.  Most of the women are in their late 40’s or early 50s, and they talk about the choices they made to get these positions in their firms.  I want to share some of their comments:

• Most importantly: Ask to take on the management responsibilities as your skills and credibility expand.  Don’t wait to be asked! 
• “Lean in.”  Do it consistently over a long period of time. 
• Actively create the future you want for yourself.
• Avoid any distractions from your top priorities.  Develop laser focus on your goals.
• Establish your credibility by being a very good lawyer who works hard.  Have a “dogged” work ethic.
• Build a lucrative book of business that gives you economic power within the firm.
• Show you have a “business mind” as well as a “practical legal mind.”
• Advance the agenda of the firm.  Consistently add value.
• Gravitate toward the most complex legal matters or cases in the firm.  Ask to work on those tough cases where partners will notice you.  Make sure you stay in the spotlight.
• Be “a master at relationships.”
• Educate yourself about the psychology of “people, relationships, and the impact of fear on their choices and actions.”
• Be a good firm citizen, by working well with others and by acknowledging the rules of the firm. But, do not be afraid to help change the rules that may keep women from finding the work-life balance they need to succeed.  
• Accept that a work-life balance will still require you to work towards your professional goals with commitment, but that at different times in your life you may have different priorities.
• One managing partner is quoted saying:  “When we talk about work-life balance, it’s all life.  It’s doing what you do at certain points in your life because those are your priorities.  And that’s where you figure out your balance.” 
• Be brave.   Ask for what you need to excel.   
• If your firm won’t give you what you need to thrive, you may need to move to a new firm. 
• Take risks!
• Ask your male colleagues for help.  “[T]ake the team concept to heart.”
• Turn a deaf ear to social pressures.  If you need to feed your family every night at 9:30 p.m., then do so.  Who says dinner has to be at 6 p.m.?
• Do not succumb to self-inflicted guilt about not spending enough time with your family.  Ask for help, either by hiring a good nanny, by using a great housekeeper, or by marrying a man who truly takes on 50 percent of the responsibilities at home. 
• Marry a man who supports your career aspirations.  If your spouse does not support those aspirations, it may be time for a new spouse or the single life.
• Assume the role of legal technologist.  Push the firm to update software, web platforms, and client communication systems. 
• Help the firm get on top of the sea changes happening in the profession.
• Be a good listener and a good communicator.
• Be more present in meetings with partners by listening, focusing on their concerns, understanding their motivations, and participating more actively.  Take a seat at the conference table and engage.
• See business possibilities in those conversations with partners.  Lead the efforts to capitalize on those possibilities. 
• Understand that leadership is about integrity “and the willingness of others to follow because they think you’re interested and will listen to them and represent their interests and needs best.” 

Gee.  Sounds like the subjects I teach in our dispute resolution program prepare our students well –  whether men or women – for lofty positions in law firms.  So grads, trust yourself and your training.  Lean in. 

Disputes Less Suitable for Mediation

Hal Abramson, the author of Mediation Representation: Advocating in a Problem-Solving Process, suggests that the following types of disputes or circumstances make mediation less desirable:

·        The party needs to establish binding precedent;

·        The party needs to deter future claims by establishing a “hard-ball litigation – no settlement reputation” (aka the Walmart strategy);

·        The party seeks validation or vindication by a person in authority who declares that the client was blameless, but the other party was a low-down, dirty SOB;

·        The party wants or needs to go for a litigated “jackpot” damage award, no matter the statistical chance of winning that award;

·        The parties are embroiled in a value-based conflict on which they see no room for compromise;

·        The party will not be effectively represented in mediation, either because he or she is unrepresented or represented by inexperienced or unskillful counsel;

·        One or more parties refuses to participate in good faith in the process; or

·        The parties cannot bring into the process one or more persons essential to a resolution.

I would add to this list disputes in which:

·        A party seeks retribution; or,

·        A weaker party needs the power of the court or of law to balance a significant imbalance of power or resources.

The Maryland Handbook for Lawyers identifies four types of disputes in which mediation would not be successful or is not considered appropriate:

·        When a party victimizes the other party;

·        When alcohol or drug abuse plays a significant role in the dispute or undermines a party’s ability to effectively participate in the mediation;

·        When only a court can offer a remedy to the dispute, especially in matters of first impression or those matters requiring injunctive relief; or,

·        When relationships cannot be healed. 

I would challenge two components of this last list.  

While the mediation community continues to debate whether victims of spousal abuse or domestic violence should ever participate in mediation, several authors suggest that with sufficient safeguards the process may offer an attractive alternative for abused spouses.  One of my former students, a victim of spousal abuse, wrote a seminar paper advocating the use of med-arb in divorce proceedings involving abused spouses.  After her experience in the West Virginia court system, in which a judge openly expressed his bias against her, she preferred a process giving her more control, especially, over the outcome.

I also suggest that mediators successfully handle many cases in which the parties either had no pre-existing relationship (auto accident cases) or do not wish to preserve the relationship (divorcing spouses with no children). 

As mediators, lawyers, and their clients gain more experience with mediation, fewer and fewer types of disputes will seem less amenable to the process.  Even if mediation only succeeds in improving the parties’ communication, in identifying their underlying interests, in narrowing the issues in conflict, or in helping them more carefully evaluate their litigation option, it can move the dispute towards a quicker, more cost effective resolution.  

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Lawyer, Dec. 2006, and was reprinted in The Insurance Receiver, Winter 2006 and at http://mediate.com/articles/young18.cfm (footnotes in original omitted in this posting).  By providing this information, the author does not intend to create an attorney client relationship with anyone reading or relying on this post.

ABA Law Practice Management Section

I recently joined the ABA's Law Practice Management Section in an effort to support our graduates who will start solo practices because of the lack of opportunity in law firms and other traditional employers of lawyers in this recessionary economy.  I blogged about the day-long solo practice workshop the Appalachian School of Law offered this past spring here.  I blogged about the employment prospects for new grads here, here, and here.

This past week, I received the section's welcome packet and its May/June 2013 issue of the Law Practice Magazine.  The section focuses on the following four core areas: marketing, management, technology, and finance.  It provides section members with six issues of its "award-winning" hard-copy magazine, a monthly webzine, a bimonthly e-newsletter, and a legal technology blog.  It also focuses on the challenges women face as rainmakers and sells an impressive collection of books.

The May/June issue of the Law Practice Magazine provided excellent content.  I plan to read nearly all the articles.  The ones I have read so far were well written and covered very timely topics in a thoughtful and clear way.  This issue includes the following articles:

• Accelerated Strengths Development (riffing off Tom Rath's "Strengths-Based Leadership" concepts)
• Helping New Grads Be Better Lawyers Faster
• Alternatives to the Partnership Track
• Can we Talk? (about communication in law firms)
• Millennials: What Other Generations Say About You (and What You Can do About it)
• Solving the Multimillion-Dollar C Player Problem, and
• The Secret to Writing Persuasively

The issue also covered "rainmaking circles," engagement letters, promoting the professional development of others, the latest version of a voice recognition technology called Dragon, the use of apps to support courtroom evidentiary presentations using an iPad, tips for teleseminars and webinars, managing receivables, "future-proofing" your law firm, and your firm's governing structure. 

I am especially impressed with the diversity of covered topics and the expertise of the authors.  These folks are keeping up with the important trends in the profession.  I have to say, I look forward to picking it up, when possible, to digest the next bit of advice it offers.  

New grads:  I strongly recommend that you find the money to join the ABA and then this section, if at all possible.  This section can keep you from making many mistakes.  It can also help you become a firm innovator, which will propel your career.  I will post on that topic next. 

Using Pre-Mediation Questionnaires in Litigated Cases

Prior to the mediation, I circulate to the lawyers a confidential pre-mediation questionnaire modeled on a form developed by Richard Sher, a well-known St. Louismediator.  This form helps the lawyer, the client, and me get ready for the mediation with a structured analysis of the case.

It asks the lawyers to disclose the status of the case in the litigation process and whether any dispositive motions are pending. It asks about the status of discovery and how much more discovery the parties need to do.  It asks about the facts of the case, the claims and defenses of the parties, the disputed issues of liability or damages, the amount and characterization of damages sought, the attorneys’ fees incurred to date, and the expected fees the client will incur getting the case to trial.  

Next, it asks about the history of negotiations and why that lawyer believes the negotiations have failed so far.   It then asks for a candid assessment of the “soft spots” in the claims or defenses and whether the client has sufficient information to form a realistic assessment of the legal case or the settlement options.  If not, the questionnaire asks the lawyer for what additional information the client needs.  

It also asks about settlement authority, who will be attending the mediation, and for any additional information the lawyer thinks may be helpful in settling the case.

Do you use a pre-mediation questionnaire?  What additional information does it seek?    

Lawyer as Artist.

As I read Seth Godin's new book, The Icarus Deception, I kept asking myself: What is my art?  What do I create joyously, diligently, passionately, and with increasingly greater skill and insight?

In the early 1970s, my high school  -- University City High -- had one of the most REMARKABLE art departments in all of St. Louis County.  Staffed by three teachers, the program taught painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, and fiber arts. Thirty years later, I still have pieces of art I created at that time: pencil drawings of my boyfriend and the male rhinoceros at the zoo; a bronze cast sculpture of a heavy-bottomed woman; a huge hookah pipe, made of coiled clay, I now use as a deck ornament; a silk screened T-shirt imprinted with an original design; and watercolor landscapes.

The program also introduced me to many techniques and materials that I have used fearlessly throughout my life. The course made me a better problem-solver.  About a week ago, I needed to create a "vision board" that suggested how our Lion's Lounge at the law school would look after renovations.  I had no trouble creating this board in just a few hours.  I had many of the materials I needed stored in my basement waiting for me to turn them into something else.

Most importantly, the high school program cultivated my eye for design, color, shape, texture, and space. I see the world differently from the way many people see it.  I now understand that I access the right side of my brain more routinely than other folks.  Have I always had that ability?  Or, did exposure to art courses help me access it more confidently throughout life?  Most recently, I used my art to choose and place accessories in the Lion's Lounge in anticipation of our Open House for prospective students. Overnight, I transformed the feel of the room, and interestingly, students are using it more.

Over the last decade, I have carefully and lovingly designed my garden.  I think of it as a living canvass of color, texture, shape, and scent.  My house, decorated with many primitive antiques from central Appalachia, also expresses my design eye.

For me, most of these activities seem more like hobbies than art.  For me, my art takes other forms these days: teaching, writing, and public speaking.  I am especially excited when I am drafting complicated simulations for student use.  They are multi-layered stories, typically based on a news articles, that reflect the complex emotions, interests, and needs of several parties, all of whom must "bargain in the shadow of the law."

When I was still in private practice, my art took the form of creatively solving a client's problem, communicating emphatically with clients, counseling them effectively, and writing persuasive motions and briefs.  That art also included the thoughtful design of deposition questions or the well-designed presentation of evidence that effectively told my client's story.

More recently, that art expresses itself in my mediation practice.  I now use all my talents to design the best process I can for parties, with careful thought given to the location of the mediation, the food I offer, the communication skills I use, the way I encourage them to brainstorm creative options, and the ability to bring peace into the room.

I hope that my students see the path they have chosen, not just as the path of the professional, but also as the path of the artist.

Nov. 23, 2013 Update:  Another take on the topic.  http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/is_practicing_law_like_creating_art/?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_email