Lawyering from the Inside Out Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
- PART II YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU
- 9 Introduction to Emotional Intelligence: Theory and Practice
- 10 Advanced Emotional Intelligence Skills
- 11 Emotional Intelligence on the Page: The Writer's Life
- 12 Giving and Receiving Feedback
- 13 Empathy
- 14 Cross-Cultural Lawyering
- 15 Making Mindful, Client-Centered Decisions
- PART III YOU AND SOCIETY: FINDING GREATER PURPOSE
- Index
13 - Empathy
from PART II - YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2018
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
- PART II YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU
- 9 Introduction to Emotional Intelligence: Theory and Practice
- 10 Advanced Emotional Intelligence Skills
- 11 Emotional Intelligence on the Page: The Writer's Life
- 12 Giving and Receiving Feedback
- 13 Empathy
- 14 Cross-Cultural Lawyering
- 15 Making Mindful, Client-Centered Decisions
- PART III YOU AND SOCIETY: FINDING GREATER PURPOSE
- Index
Summary
If you find yourself saying “But I'm just being honest,” chances are you've just been unkind. Honesty doesn't heal. Empathy does.
Dan Waldschmidt
Empathy is an understanding of and an interest in the human condition. It is a personal trait that allows each of us to identify with the thoughts and feelings of another person and then respond appropriately. Legal scholars describe empathy as the sense, emotionally and cognitively, of knowing what it is like to be the other person, and becoming “attuned to the emotional resonance of another person.”
Legal employers expect young attorneys to arrive at their first law jobs with well-developed interpersonal skills, as well as the ability to be self-aware. Empathy ranks highly among those desired skills. Clients also crave empathetic lawyers and may prefer these over the smartest and best technicians. Unfortunately, some scholars note that traditional legal education “systematically eliminate[s] empathy from law students.” Here we try to reverse this process and bring empathy back.
This chapter discusses how to improve empathy skills. After discussing empathy in general, it explores the importance of empathy in developing cultural competence. This chapter then examines the role of empathy and cross-cultural competence in the attorney decision-making process.
Learning to “think like lawyer” in the traditional sense is all well and good, and you will have three intense years to learn to think like a lawyer, but remember, the core of the profession is serving others and the first step is empathy. Empathy is critical to good lawyering for at least four reasons, and you can probably think of more:
Empathy allows us to acknowledge and respect other people's thoughts, so they feel heard and valued.
Empathy reduces the likelihood of miscommunication and misunderstanding, which could otherwise lead to wasted efforts and counterproductive results.
Empathy allows us to discern other people's reactions so we canmake adjustments when we are having a negative or unintended effect on situations or other people. In other words, if people think we are acting inappropriately, we can pick up that cue, stop, adjust our behavior, and move back into the problem-solving role.
Empathy for adversaries and clients, in particular, allows us to better understand and tell their stories.5 It improves an attorney's results.
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- Lawyering from the Inside OutLearning Professional Development through Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence, pp. 194 - 207Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018