Essential Reading: The Soul of the Law
Author: Benjamin Sells
By Ginger Grant
More and more lawyers are leaving the practice of law for other endeavours. What happens between the desire to pursue law as a career and the decision to leave the practice? When we ignore or attempt to eliminate the living spirit of the law and concentrate instead on pure profit, we begin to destroy a profession that was at one time highly respected.
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In The Soul of the Law, Benjamin Sells offers many astute observations, including the view that an archetypal approach should be used when dealing with the complexity of people. Sells offers up an interesting metaphor—imagine what the “Law” looks like as a person; a client who comes to you with a problem. What are his or her complaints? What is wrong? What is being overlooked?
As mentioned in a previous column, the current workplace demographics that we face are unique. Approximately 80 million baby boomers in North America are approaching retirement. The cohort that follows the boomers is approximately 46 million strong. That equals a vacancy rate of 34 million in North America alone. Law as a profession is not exempt from this demographic shift.
In The Soul of the Law, Sells brings his experience as a former Chicago lawyer who leapt to the world of psychotherapy and a counseling practice, to address some overall problems in the legal profession, the negative attitude towards lawyers and the ever-increasing number of lawsuits flooding the courts. He attacks the blind and short-sighted mindset that addresses only the profit margin and that views human potential only in terms of billings. As he so aptly states “ ... it is precisely the ability to think of human worth in property terms that allowed slavery to flourish for centuries” (65). He is neither gentle nor politically correct in his analysis, which makes for an engaging read.
‘Superstars’ in the legal profession are noted for their ability to see around corners, become passionately engaged in their work and provide innovative approaches that break adherence to legal precedent. They also possess an intense desire to meet the needs of their clients. It is more than calm, measured, analytical advocacy—it is driven, passionate laser-like intellectual commitment and an idealism that is born of the heart, not the head.
Sells notes that the law that lives in our imaginations is more influential than we might think. Regardless of the drudgeries of daily practice that are all too familiar to any lawyer, the image of law held by society addresses such archetypal themes as truth and justice. It is this discrepancy that causes the tension between the image and the practice of law. And it is within this tension that today’s lawyer lives. The author addresses the fact that lawyers are taught to bluff, to never admit error or ignorance. Such positioning leaves the lawyer no way out and is an effective prescription for lonely isolation.
Sells maintains that law schools enforce a highly specialized language that seeks to excise metaphor, simile and image. And yet, for a lawyer to become a ‘superstar’, to establish new law, it is the very ability to imagine beyond the confines of ego-driven logic that brings success. A paradox is created that encourages dissociative thinking in order to cope with the resultant cognitive dissonance. Such dissociative thinking can not support intimate relationships outside of the office, for such communication does not rest on carefully articulated rational ideas. A specialized language is perhaps necessary to any profession. But, as Sells points out, “it is one thing to craft a sentence to convey a precise meaning and another to reduce language to a kind of pseudo-mathematics where metaphorical depth and imaginative power are denied and suppressed” (56).
To ignore the guiding metaphors that established law as a profession, to reduce those ideals to mere philosophical dinner-table conversation in favour of procedural technicalities, reduces the practice of law to the level of technical competence. Such competence is necessary (any artistry has its foundations in technical proficiency), but to lose the artistry and the craft of the practice itself leads to procedural myopia and an image of lawyers as mere technicians. It’s no wonder then that depression plagues the profession. When you reduce every interaction to a dissociative objective stance with no room for error, you destroy the creative impulse innate in every human being.
Sells notes that if you reduce the practice of law to technical skill alone, you reduce the practice of law to one that will forever compete on lowest price for services rendered. There is a limit to technical expertise. There is no limit to the human imagination. Which kind of lawyer do you want to be? A technician who knows all the rules or an artist who makes them?
Some of the more disturbing findings reported by Sells include:
1. Lawyers are almost four times more likely to be depressed than the population at large.
2. One in four lawyers experiences feelings of inadequacy and inferiority in interpersonal relationships, anxiety, social alienation and isolation, or depression, all at much higher rates than the generation population.
3. A disproportionate number of lawyers is believed to commit suicide, often “at an age when they would be expected to be most socially productive”.
4. Some states report that substance abuse is a factor in up to seventy-five percent of all disciplinary complaints involving lawyers.
5. Researchers in California and Oregon estimate that sixty per cent of disciplinary actions against lawyers in those states involve substance abuse or emotional distress. (pg. 99-100).
While Sells’ findings are based mainly on U.S. statistics, studies have revealed a similar phenomenon occurring in Canada. The CBA’s Legal Profession Assistance Conference has gathered similar findings that reflect that lawyers and judges are:
1. Three times more likely to be alcoholic.
2. Three times more likely to be drug-addicted.
3. Three times more likely to be clinically depressed.
4. Six times more likely to commit suicide.
5. Women are three times more likely to give up entirely and leave the practice of law.
The Project for Attorney Retention at the American University in Washington pegged the cost of losing an associate at between $200,000-$500,000 USD. If the profession was not in trouble, why is the “Project for Attorney Retention” even necessary? The costs to law firms are staggering if you extrapolate across the profession the number of lawyers on the move, whether laterally or out of the profession entirely.
The numbers suggest that the necessity of professional development for loyalty can now be said to equal learning. If you provide continuing development as part of your associate package, your chances of retaining star performers increase. But, does such development include training that handles the psychological demands of the profession as it now stands? Does such ongoing education include ways of handling the stressors that seem to be inherent in the practice of law?
The Soul of the Law is a wake-up call to all legal professionals, to change the way we work. Emphasis only on the bottom line without equal consideration to the impact on people is no longer a viable approach. Our workforce is no longer expendable, if it ever really was. The so called ‘soft skills’ of people management are the hardest to practice let alone master. It takes a very high level of expertise to motivate rather than manipulate people and the line between the two is very faint indeed.
If you are having difficulty recruiting star performers to your firm, check the following list and see if any of these not so tongue-in-cheek conditions rings true.
10 Ways to Lose Your Intellectual Capital
1. Never ask your associates about their goals, dreams, desires or aspirations. Who has time anyway? Bill more.
2. Spend huge amounts of money on advertising why your firm is better than any other. Invest none or little in associate development.
3. Increase billable hours with no explanation, preferably by e-mail to demonstrate your superb communication skills.
4. Demand associates go out and obtain new business for the firm. Do not show them how. After all, business development is a required course in law school.
5. Establish a national policy with no regard for geographical or generational diversity. Rigidity enhances operations and increases profitability.
6. Ensure that all partners who have zero people-skills are the mentors available in your office. This reduces mentoring time and provides more time to bill.
7. Discourage having children entirely. This will eliminate any unseemly and costly requests for maternal or paternal leave and provides more time to bill.
8. Never share decision-making across offices. This would encourage the ridiculous thinking that partnership meant a living community instead of mere ownership.
9. Abandon all pretence that law is or ever was a noble profession, a calling to serve and protect fundamental rights.
10. Abandon the ideals of accountability, ethics and justice. In fact, abandon all ideals as impractical. It is far easier without them and probably more profitable. After all, law is just about billing.
Alternatively, read The Soul of the Law and let that soul speak again, like it did when you first heard “The Call”. Remember the way you heard the voice when you eagerly entered the field of law, and make a commitment to change the profession from within.
About the Author:
Ginger Grant, M.A., is the President of Creativity in Business Canada Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in corporate culture and creativity. Her column is late as she is in the throes of wrestling with the last sections of her dissertation and has just completed the first “Creativity in Business” pilot in Canada with a group of litigators in Vancouver, BC. Her new book, entitled “When Assets Have Feet” is scheduled for publication in 2004. Ginger can be reached at: ginger@creativityinbusiness.org or 604-924-5360 or through www.creativityinbusiness.org.
Neither the author nor the CBA should be construed as endorsing any product or website listed in this article. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CBA.
In this document, any reference to "jurist" or "lawyer" includes, where appropriate, "Québec notary". |
