On Books: Finding Bliss: Innovative Legal Models for Happy Clients & Happy Lawyers

Deborah Epstein Henry’s latest book, Finding Bliss: Innovative Legal Models for Happy Clients & Happy Lawyers, tackles head-on the skepticism that the title invites. This ambitious book identifies and explains innovations in the legal profession and how to use those advances to foster mutually beneficial relationships between lawyers and clients. While telling their own stories and showing that there is no single path to success in the legal world, Epstein Henry and her coauthors offer advice for improving areas of legal service delivery by examining innovation, value, predictability, trust, flexibility, talent development, relationship building, and diversity and inclusion.

From the foreword by Anne-Marie Slaughter to the quote from Michele Coleman Mayes that opens the last chapter, Finding Bliss is sprinkled with varied insights from in-house counsel on what makes legal clients happy. The authors describe relationship building as a way to be a generous person and not as a quid pro quo. They also include bold proposals, such as outsourcing the practical skills training for junior lawyers to bar associations. “Happy lawyers are ones who feel valued and enjoy both the substance of their work and the lifestyle it affords them . . . ”