I was sitting at dinner with my family and we were all answering the question, “How was your day?” I answered, “It was great.” The conversation moved around to a chat about the type of cases that I worked on. I explained that I settled a divorce case where at one point during the meeting the wife expressed her gratitude for being able to sit with her husband because “Two years ago I would have ripped his face off.”
I met with a man who had inherited a substantial amount of money from his deceased mother. His sister, the only other heir, who had inherited a not so substantial amount of money from their mother, had made some not so veiled death threats to my client.
A man called and explained how a major pharmacy had given him a bag with his name and instructions for the administration of an oral medication for a heart condition. However, the medicine in the bag was for another person for a different condition. My prospective client took the medicine for one month and wanted to know if he had a claim….
I also received a copy of a temporary restraining order issued against my client for stalking and harassment. My fourteen year old son’s mouth hung open and he asked me with a gasp, “How do you sleep at night?” It is a good question. As society’s problem solvers, lawyers are faced daily with the vexing problems of real people. We listen to terrible things that have happened to our clients and that our clients have done to others. We objectively analyze these problems through the prism of our experience, statutes, regulations, case law, and a “feel” for how the case might be resolved.
The skill needed to get through a day of hearing the troubles of so many people and listening intently, filtering out the emotionally tinged extraneous information, while maintaining a genuine measure of human compassion is developed over years. Even after seventeen years in practice, it is not always easy to remain objective.
If a lawyer loses objectivity, the lawyer becomes part of the problem instead of part of the solution. If I adopt the client’s emotionally biased view point and use strong emotions to advise a course of conduct, I will have done a disservice to the client and to the legal profession.
As to the question of whether or not I can sleep, I can. Not only do I owe it to my clients to listen intently and carefully to their story, and to probe their conclusions but also to get a good night’s sleep so that my energy and focus belongs entirely to the client during the day.