It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do. ~ Edmund Burke
Today I would like to weave together two disparate stories to make my point.
The first is the story of my client, Sam, who was the CEO of a rather large client in the health services industry. Every so often one of Sam’s many employees would make a mistake, and someone would be harmed. The lawyers would say, “do not admit liability, say nothing to the client or their family, and report it to your insurers.” His insurance company would say pretty much the same thing and remind Sam that if he tried to address the situation himself, he may jeopardize his insurance coverage.
Sam would ignore them all. He would phone the client or their family and apologize. Then he would travel to wherever they were and meet with them. He would speak to them as one human being to another. He would offer to help in whatever way that he could to make things better. Funny thing. Sam’s approach almost always resulted in no lawsuit, and a quick settlement being reached.
My second story is about my friend Martin’s law firm. Martin was there for several decades before he withdrew as a partner and stayed on for a few years as Counsel under contract. His contract contained a six-month termination provision.
Eventually his firm tired of him, and gave him notice. Rather than asking him to meet one-on-one with the Managing Partner who he had hired many years earlier, telling him that they did not think that the existing arrangements were working for them, and discussing options to modify the arrangements, they did the lawyer thing. They called him into a meeting with both the Managing Partner and another partner who Martin thought was his friend. You know, to be sure that there was a witness. Then, they handed him a Notice of Termination.
Martin was not particularly perturbed that they terminated the contract, because he likely would have retired within a year anyway. However, he was mad as hell about how they did it. They covered their legal liability just fine, but years later Martin is still resentful about their failure to take a simpler, more ‘humane’ approach. You can just imagine how few clients he refers to them.
As an aside, my friend Martin and I have had a number of similar experiences in the profession. Unlike Martin however, I have moved on, because I am much more emotionally mature than he is, and I have let bygones be bygones.
So, there you have it. In our constant quest to reduce risk, lawyers often lose track of the human element inherent in their encounters. In doing so, they sometimes cause more problems than they solve.