Lawyers Need to Keep Emotions Out of Cases

By Karen Munoz

I heard something the other day that has really resonated with me.

I went to yoga class after a very long, hectic day at work. I was ready to put the day behind me after dealing with court, a deposition, client meetings and answering discovery. In short, I was lacking energy and didn’t even want to do anything but watch mindless television.

I did manage to get myself to class that night because it was important. It turned out to be more important mentally than I could have thought of after the long day.

Liz, my instructor started telling a story during class. She usually doesn’t, so everyone ears perked up to listen to what she had to say. I found out that aside from teaching yoga, she was also a school teacher. She started telling the class that she had been working with a team of psychologists and counselors to come up with an individualized education plan for a student.

The team had eventually come to the same conclusion as the teacher on her individualized education plan for this child, but the teacher was still resentful regarding the parents’ interference.

Liz, however, gently reminded the teacher that they could accomplish more if they worked together — teacher and parents — in a positive way for the well-being of the student. Essentially, if the teacher could put aside her own judgments or opinions, more could be done. Her simple words just made sense to me, especially that day.

We as attorneys and advocates spend our days and our practices essentially delivering messages. It happens in discussions with our clients. It happens with our communications with the court and it happens in our communications with each other.

It is what we do. We work with each other to fix problems, solve issues and come to resolutions.

We all just have different ways of doing these things. But we can sometimes waste so much energy trying to be right that we don’t see the forest for the trees.

We can let our emotions take over without consciously realizing we are doing that. Working in anger or never being able to see the other side really doesn’t help us do our best as attorneys. When we try to solve problems for our clients, being able to understand where other people are coming from or trying to understand their point of view can make all the difference in the world.

Think about your interactions with the attorneys you work against. It is customary to have disagreements with other attorneys on cases. It is after all an adversarial process if you litigate or try cases.

I have noticed that when you start to take things personally or refuse to see an issue in any other way, professional relationships can suffer. In turn, your client’s case can suffer too. We are more likely to want to work with lawyers who are understanding and civil.

Nobody likes to work with someone who is inflexible. You are less likely to do someone a favor, whether it is an extension of time or work out some discovery issue, when that attorney has not reciprocated.

Liz’s story just reminded me that our goals can still be accomplished if we come together and work together. It also reminded me that in every encounter, every interaction we have on a case, leaves an imprint. We may not think it does, or we may forget in the day-to-day practice, but we all leave trails. The tone of a communication can dictate the end result of any transaction.

For example, there have been times when you have a bad interaction with someone. It could be a client, a clerk or your boss. You don’t plan on it, but sometimes it just happens. We can sometimes let that affect the rest of our day and every other interaction we have going forward.

If we are frustrated or upset it can easily be reflected in the next phone call we take or the next letter we send out. I know what my instructor said in class that day is nothing new or earth shattering, but for me it was a wake-up call. I am trying to incorporate the philosophy that we leave a bit of ourselves in everything we do.

Think to those times where we let emotions dictate how we conduct ourselves. It can be reflected in a motion, a hearing or how we talk to a client. I think it’s important to take a step back and try and cast aside any emotions that color our judgment.

I find that when I stop being defensive and really try to understand the situation at hand, I can better deal with it. An understanding approach and really listening can go further than always trying to win or always trying to be right.

Sometimes what we as lawyers have to say is not as important as the manner in which it is communicated.

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