{"id":27317,"date":"2018-01-27T17:50:49","date_gmt":"2018-01-27T22:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=27317"},"modified":"2018-01-27T17:50:49","modified_gmt":"2018-01-27T22:50:49","slug":"the-challenges-of-being-a-bad-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2018\/01\/the-challenges-of-being-a-bad-lawyer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Challenges of Being a Bad Lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I know this is technically a blog, but, if it were some other social media platform, that right there, my friends, would be \u201cclick bait.\u201d\u00a0 What?? This guest blogger is going to talk about how difficult it is to be a lousy attorney?\u00a0<\/em> But, no, I don\u2019t mean bad lawyer in the sense of legal incompetency or shaky professional ethics; I mean it in terms of being the bad-guy lawyer, the bearer of the bad news, the lawyer whose job it is to tell the client that he or she is not getting a settlement or can\u2019t win the case or \u2026any number of other unhappy communications.<\/p>\n

It turns out that I am conflict averse.\u00a0 That this was news to me was pretty lame because I chose \u2013 at age 49! \u2013 to go into litigation after graduating law school. In fact, I chose to join the products liability defense litigation practice group when I joined a Milwaukee firm the September after graduation.\u00a0 For some reason, I imagined that being a litigator would suit my personality, which, as my husband will confirm, likes to win arguments.\u00a0 But it turns out I didn\u2019t have a very good sense what litigation entailed: rather than using persuasive argument to prevail on some esoteric, high-minded point, litigation is really more like a bare-knuckled battle royale.\u00a0 For me anyway, there was just too much\u2026conflict<\/em>.\u00a0 And, I was too old for it. \u00a0It was exhausting.<\/p>\n

When I changed course in my legal career and became general counsel for a national insurance trade association, I thought I\u2019d left my conflict days behind me.\u00a0 But, another epiphany here (and, yes, I really am getting to be too old for these), there is \u201cconflict\u201d even in a legal profession that is primarily transactional.\u00a0 Broadly speaking, my work for the association entails monitoring and providing legal analysis of state and federal legislation and regulatory activity that affect the association\u2019s membership, advising on various areas of the law affecting the industry, and generally supporting the work and mission of the association.\u00a0 In other words, for the most part my role as general counsel does not engender much strife; there generally is no one on another side of a \u201cv.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, there are times when I must be the \u201cbad\u201d lawyer, and I\u2019ll admit that I find that difficult (but not impossible). I must, on occasion, terminate a contract or deny a claim, knowing that the vendor or claimant is going to be seriously bummed out.\u00a0 Recently I had to write a termination of employment letter, and, let me tell you, that was hard for me \u2013 although not as hard as it was for the recipient to receive, I imagine.\u00a0 Those days are unhappy days in my practice.\u00a0 I always flinch a bit emotionally when I take these actions, hoping that nobody shoots the messenger.<\/p>\n

You know that old saw: would you rather be liked or respected? For starters, I think that most people reject the premise of the question and want to be both liked and respected.\u00a0 Yet I think that most people \u2013 and certainly most lawyers \u2013 would choose to be respected, even if it means they weren\u2019t liked.\u00a0 For me, if push comes to shove, I would also choose to be respected.\u00a0 But I would hate making the choice and would hate not being liked.\u00a0 Perhaps I\u2019m wrong, but I think for most people (or for most attorneys anyway) that hypothetical choice is less ambiguous than it is for me.<\/p>\n

The trick of it for me, then, is to reframe my position on those occasions when I must act as the \u201cbad\u201d lawyer: even if it is personally uncomfortable, I am serving my client, and, ultimately, serving my client is doing the work of a \u201cgood\u201d lawyer.\u00a0 I think that litigators see it that same way, in fact.\u00a0 I remember talking to a very senior litigator in my group at the law firm, and expressing to him that perhaps the reason I was struggling as an inexperienced litigator was because I just hadn\u2019t found the right legal matter that I could \u201cget behind.\u201d\u00a0 He told me that it didn\u2019t matter what the legal issue was: all a good litigator cared about was \u201cripping the other guy\u2019s face off.\u201d\u00a0 Well.\u00a0 Okay, then. But, while that sentiment is a bit vivid, he didn\u2019t see himself as a \u201cbad\u201d lawyer; he saw himself as the \u201cgood\u201d lawyer ripping the other guy\u2019s face off on behalf of his client.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure who (if anyone?!) is reading this, but, as I write this blog post, I am imagining that the reader is a current law school student.\u00a0 Choosing to enter the profession of law means you have chosen a career that in its essence helps people; it is a helping profession.\u00a0 But understand this: sometimes in order to be a good lawyer, you have to be a \u201cbad lawyer,\u201d which is not always easy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know this is technically a blog, but, if it were some other social media platform, that right there, my friends, would be \u201cclick bait.\u201d\u00a0 What?? This guest blogger is going to talk about how difficult it is to be a lousy attorney?\u00a0 But, no, I don\u2019t mean bad lawyer in the sense of legal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[351,36,131,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-contributor","category-legal-practice","category-legal-profession","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/233"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27320,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27317\/revisions\/27320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}