Is it possible to be a lawyer and have a satisfying professional AND personal life??
As I move along in my fourth decade of being a lawyer, I can personally say that life is more satisfying than ever. Not that I could have said that about fifteen years ago. At that point in my career getting up in the morning, putting on my suit and tie, and going to work was simply not enjoyable.
Then, in 2008, I took my introductory Collaborative training. This was before the Uniform Collaborative Law Act (RCW 7.77) was promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission (2009; Amended 2010) and adopted here in the State of Washington (2013), where I practice. Immediately upon taking the two-day training I had a visceral sense of coming home to the work I was going to do for the rest of my life. While it took me a couple years to work through the matters involving contested hearings and trials, I have not done such work since 2010 and now I focus on an out-of-court client-focused Collaborative / Mediation practice.
One takeaway from my decades of legal work is the realization that we attract what we intend to attract, and we do this through our “Practice Signature”.
A second takeaway from this shift in my practice was that when I aligned my core values and professional / personal attributes, my professional life became more satisfying.
Your Practice Signature is how you hold yourself out to others in your professional life. How you present yourself, and how others perceive you, has a direct relationship on clients hiring you, professionals wanting to work with and refer cases to you, and even finding creative ways to expand the work you offer to create even more fee-producing opportunities.
Consider the consultations that I used to conduct prior to my Collaborative (and Mediation) training. In these consultations I focused on getting facts to which I could apply the law, or present to a court for a Judge or Commissioner to make a ruling that favored my client. I took a lot of notes, focusing on what I was writing rather than on what the client was really saying. These consultations were not really about the client as a person, but about the result I thought I could get for the client and whether he or she could pay my bill. Clients who liked this approach or did not know that there were other avenues to take, were drawn to this approach and hiring me as their attorney. There was a hit-and-miss nature to the connection between the consultation and getting hired as if the client did not feel I would “fight” for them adequately, I would not get hired.
In my current approach to consultations, I take relatively few notes. I keep my focus and vision on the client: I rarely look away unless the focus is uncomfortable to the client. Rather than focusing on what happened and what result I think they will have if they “go to court”, I get to ask questions about what they most care about, what they want their future to be, and what they look and feel like when they are happy. As a result of this approach to my consultations my conversion rate is higher than when I was a litigator, and I get to work with people who are committed to being an active participant in their result, rather than having a lawyer take over the case and “getting” a result.
First, take personal stock, remembering that your Practice Signature is how you hold yourself out to others in your professional life and how others perceive you.
What values guide you in your life? Values are principles or standards of behavior. Another way to describe values is to understand what is important in life. When you ask yourself that question do you have different answers when you think about your non-professional life compared to your professional life? Or does your answer to the “what is important in life” question encompass all aspects of your life?
Second, as you take personal stock, think about your job. What do you like about your job? What do you not like, or even hate? Are you happy with your current practice? What makes you wake up and want to go to work in the morning and stay all day. How would you describe your ideal work situation?
I look back at my development and see clearly that I have moved from having a litigator Practice Signature [diligent, hardworking, comfortable in court, quick on my feet, invested in getting a good result for my client] to my current Collaborative Practice Signature [client and child-focused, responsive, exceed client expectations, timely, high quality of work].
Third, the shift in one’s Practice Signature is not a passive activity. Rather, there is an intentionality and mindfulness that comes with aligning your legal practice with your core values. Consider this exercise:
Find a quiet place to sit. Or take a quiet walk. Think about your work. Think about those things that give you negative feelings or emotions at work. Write them down or visualize them in your head. Think about those things that bring you joy, peace, or reward in your work. Write them down or visualize them in your head. Next, put all the things that are negative in one pile. Put all the positive things in another.
You only get to choose one “pile.” Which one will you choose?
Imagine having your practice be made up of people, tasks, and hours that help you enjoy, rather than which cause you to dislike, your work.
Fourth, take stock of your personal attributes. A personal attribute is defined as a quality or characteristic of a person, place or thing. There are too many examples of qualities / characteristics to list here and lists are easily found online.
Other ways to learn more about your personal attributes, core values, strengths and weaknesses can be found here:
Fifth, your Practice Signature requires authenticity. Trying to be something you are not (for me it was being a litigator rather than a Collaborative practitioner) creates discord. When you can be authentic and line up your core values and personal attributes, you have a Practice Signature that will work for you. For me this meant:
The Dispute Resolution Collaborative Law Committee is a small section of the ABA that is dedicated to helping clients who choose a non-litigation, Collaborative approach to resolving their conflict, whether Civil or Family in nature. In order to stand out to consumers of our services and to other legal professionals, it is our Practice Signature that helps make us who we are and helps identify the work in which we are skilled and committed.
