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2537 results in Legal Skills and Practice

Page 31 of 127

  • 16 - Purpose, Creativity, and the Practice of Law

  • from PART III - YOU AND SOCIETY: FINDING GREATER PURPOSE
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 223-243

  • Summary

    This chapter describes the relationship between purpose, creativity, and satisfaction in your career. It begins once again with awareness of each of our unique strengths and weaknesses, as well as an examination of our passions. The chapter ends with ideas about how to transform our experiences with the law to create the most meaning in life.

    WHO AM I?

    Who am I?

    Am I spirit or flesh?

    Am I sacred or secular?

    Am I irrevocably shaped by the circumstances of my personal history, or am I still free to move and grow, to uncover a new and brighter path?

    Am I fragile or strong?

    Am I broken or am I whole?

    When I listen deeply to my inner life, what do I hear?

    What is the substance of my soul?

    What is the core of my being?

    What is my true nature?

    Wayne Muller

    If you are more self-aware, people will respond more favorably to you. As a result, self-awareness is your ticket to better relationships and a happier and healthier life in the law. Self-awareness serves an even more critical function, however, as it helps you learn what is important to you. With self-awareness, you will be drawn to what is important to you, consciously and unconsciously.

    In her book with Karen Gifford, The Anxious Lawyer, Jeena Cho explains that throughout the majority of her career, she worked harder with each passing year, but never gave much thought to why she was working harder or what she was working toward. She changed jobs a few times and worked harder at each successive job. Cho felt certain that becoming a partner, climbing the ranks, and having more and more clients would make her feel fulfilled.2 As she explains:

    I wasn't exactly unhappy. I just felt lost. I felt overworked, and constantly exhausted. Then I returned to a practice I had abandoned since law school: meditation. Through meditation, I was able to calm my mind, which was constantly operating in overdrive. Once I found stillness, I had space to examine my life.

    Why are you here? What makes you feel alive? What is the unique gift of yourself that you are bringing to all of us?

  • Introduction

  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 1-4

  • Summary

    Welcome to legal education and all that a law school education has to offer. There is virtually nothing as eye-opening or personally fulfilling as finding ways to help solve society's problems, which is one thing lawyers do. Studying law is challenging in all of the right ways. It is intellectually stimulating, socially valued, useful in everyday life, and meaningful on multiple levels. It also opens doors in ways few other educational opportunities do. The fact that you are studying law makes you one of the fortunate few.

    This book is designed to help you make the very best use of your legal education, and to help you develop your professional identity as a lawyer through mindfulness and emotional intelligence practices. Some might find it frivolous to study professional development, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence in law school, particularly compared to the study of contracts or torts. However, teaching professional development in law school is a trend that is hitting law schools by storm. While law was not the first field to jump on the bandwagon, the importance of teaching valuedriven purpose, as well as personal well-being, is now well-recognized in law, medicine, and all of the professions. This subject matter is incredibly important to your future, and by the end of this book, we think you will understand the significance of the subject matters covered here.

    Mindfulness means learning to live in the present moment and to do just one thing at a time. For lawyers, mindfulness exercises can help in three fundamental ways. On the most superficial level, these practices can reduce stress. On the next level of practical utility, these practices can help us keep calm, stay focused, and, as a result, increase productivity. On the most meaningful level, mindfulness practices can help us find our life work and our purpose here on earth. The practices are simple but the results can be life-changing

    Some exercises ask you to practice being still, and others request that you be actively reflective. All are designed to help with one of these fundamental goals: calm, focus, and purpose.

  • 6 - Building Your Professional Identity

  • from PART I - NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
    • By Kendall Kerew, Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of the Externship Program at Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta, Georgia
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 71-82

  • Summary

    Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion.

    Simon Sinek

    As you already know, law school can be an overwhelming experience. It challenges not only the way you think, but also the very essence of who you are and what you stand for. It takes the typical law student at least one semester, if not the whole first year, to adjust to the daily pressure of law school. Given that, youmight be wondering why you need to focus on building your “professional identity,” especially now when you are busy being a law student. The reality is thatmany law schools do not place an emphasis on building a professional identity, leaving law students to figure out who they want to be as a professional only after they graduate and enter law practice. The result: unfulfilled, unhappy, and, in some instances, unethical lawyers.

    INTRODUCTION TO PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY FORMATION

    The Third Apprenticeship

    The Carnegie Report (referenced in Chapter 5) is one of a series of comparative studies examining how different professions educate students and prepare them to enter the profession. The report identified three apprenticeships necessary to legal education: the cognitive apprenticeship, the apprenticeship of practice, and the apprenticeship of identity and purpose. The concept of professional identity formation is rooted in this third apprenticeship, which is often overlooked in legal education.

    The Carnegie Report suggested that:

    [t]he apprenticeship of professional identity should encompass issues of both individual and social justice, and it includes the virtues of integrity, consideration civility, and other aspects of professionalism. The values that lie at the heart of the apprenticeship of professionalism and purpose also include conceptions of the personal meaning that legal work has for practicing attorneys and their sense of responsibility to the profession.

    Professor Neil Hamilton defines professional identity formation as involving “a change from thinking like a student (where he or she learns and applies routine techniques to solve well-structured problems) toward acceptance and internalization of responsibility to others (particularly the person served) and for the student's own pro-active development toward excellence as a practitioner at all of the competencies of the profession.”

  • 18 - Gratitude

  • from PART III - YOU AND SOCIETY: FINDING GREATER PURPOSE
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 260-261

  • Summary

    Think back to Chapter 1, when we learned how to improve our lives by planning the perfect day. We hope you're still at it! The next time you plan the ideal day, start by expressing gratitude for all the wonderful things you have in life. In his book The Upward Spiral, neuroscientist Alex Korb cites dozens of empirical studies showing that gratitude practice activates a gratitude circuit in the brain. This circuit elevates physical and mental health, boosts happiness, improves sleep, and helps one feel more connected to other people.

    Gratitude practice is easy. We just write down one or two things we are grateful for each day. I like to do this in a calendar. As you look back, you see all the things you have to be grateful for in one place. As explained by yoga teacher Deborah Joya:

    We lift ourselves and each other when we are grateful in the moment. A gratitude calendar can help remind you to take time to reflect on the abundance in your life. Beginning and ending every day with a gratitude list helps us move into the day and night feeling good, enhancing our experiences. Imagine how uplifting to see on your wall a whole month full of things that made you grateful!

    We can choose to be grateful for everything, because even the biggest challenge has a blessing, which may be a valuable lesson. When we look through the sunglasses of gratitude, beauty and generosity show up all around, and peace and joy can be found in anything.

    When I know I am going to see a challenging person or be in a difficult position, listing all the things I am grateful for about that person or situation greatly helps me be more calm, present, and gracious. Physiologically, a relaxed state of mind (which can be induced by gratitude) helps the body's nervous system shift into the parasympathetic mode, giving more energy to the normal self-healing functions of the body.

  • 2 - Introduction to Mindfulness Techniques

  • from PART I - NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 21-32

  • Summary

    Later in this book, we tell you more about how, why, and for how long people have been using calming techniques like meditation and yoga to improve their lives. These techniques are sprinkled throughout this book, and in Chapter 8 we review the history and development of mindfulness, as well as some of the many mindfulness techniques you might find useful. Here we give you a taste.

    WHY BE MINDFUL?

    Being mindful and practicing simple mindfulness techniques, even in small doses, can strengthen your intellect, improve your resolve, and improve your interpersonal skills. Mindfulness techniques can also help you relieve stress. Although being an attorney is not an easy job, it can be very rewarding. The difficulties of the job are part of what make the work of an attorney meaningful. As Tal Ben-Shahar explains in his book, Happier, we are happiest when we work in jobs that combine our strengths with what we find pleasurable and meaningful. We also grow deeply and steadily through adversity. As Ben-Shahar explains, “we are designed for the climb.”

    Adversity happens to us and those around us every day, yet we survive and often thrive. Part of what helps me survive and thrive is the practices of mindfulness. I have been practicing the techniques shared in this book, in one form or another, for a long time. While I still get upset, hurt, and even depressed sometimes, and while my own life ebbs and flows with the same sort of problems as everyone else, I have been able to ride the currents a little easier because of these techniques, and also get more done, more effectively, because of the way mindfulness techniques improve focus and flow.

    MODERN VIEWS ON MINDFULNESS MUDDY THE WATER

    Admittedly, mindfulness is now in vogue, almost to the point where it means nothing. Everyone is now talking about mindfulness, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and many other publications. When the subject of mindfulness first went mainstream, this seemed to be a great development. As mindfulness has flourished as a topic of conversation, it has also lost some of its meaning. Magazines feature the obligatory “Ten steps to making you happier and more mindful.” Popular culture makes mindfulness sound new, complex, and difficult, when it is none of the above.

  • 13 - Empathy

  • from PART II - YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 194-207

  • 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.

  • 10 - Advanced Emotional Intelligence Skills

  • from PART II - YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 138-164

  • Summary

    This being human is a guest house

    Every morning a new arrival.

    A joy, a depression, a meanness,

    some momentary awareness comes

    as an unexpected visitor.

    Welcome and entertain them all!

    Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

    who violently sweep your house

    empty of its furniture,

    still treat each guest honorably.

    He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

    The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

    meet them at the door laughing,

    and invite them in.

    Be grateful for whoever comes,

    because each has been sent

    as a guide from beyond.

    Rumi

    The Sufi poet Rumi states the truth when he says that “this being human is a guest house.” We need to experience and welcome the full range of emotions if we are to truly live. In this chapter, we discuss some of the most complex emotional intelligence skills, including processing emotions, practicing nonjudgment, dealing with difficult people, and forgiving others. Everyone who is fully alive struggles with these issues. Indeed, many of the authors who share advice on these subjects admit that they write about these topics because the issues challenge them. Many of the world's greatest leaders exhibit these advanced emotional intelligence skills, while at the same time struggling with them. I guess that means, just like the rest of us, they are human.

    As in the last chapter, it is helpful to see difficult situations as opportunities. We now turn to the topics of practicing nonjudgment, processing our emotions, dealing with difficult people, and forgiveness. Like the subjects of Chapter 9, these skills build on one another, in roughly the order in which they are presented here.

    LEARNING TO RECOGNIZE AND PRACTICE NONJUDGMENT

    What is love?

    Love is the absence of judgment.

    Dalai Lama

    LAW PAUSE

    Think of a time when someone judged you and the person was incorrect about that judgment. What made the person judge, and did he or she find out that the judgment was incorrect? How?

    Now think of a time you incorrectly judged someone. How did you find out the judgment was incorrect?

Page 31 of 127