A lawyer’s role as
problem solver and peacemaker: It’s time to change our approach to client
service and our image
By Patrick Kelly
President, State Bar of California
We and the media have often
thought of lawyers as courtroom advocates. As a trial lawyer, I understand and
respect that aspect of our practice. However, it is time to refocus our
thinking to include a more vital need in the current social and economic climate
– our responsibility to act as problem solvers and peacemakers.
Abraham Lincoln recognized
this need almost 150 years ago when he said: "Discourage litigation. Persuade
your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the
nominal winner is often a real loser, in fees, expenses and waste of time. As a
peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good [person].
There will still be business enough."
Just as Lincoln
recognized, we as lawyers need to accept and act upon the public's need for us
to be not only advocates, but more, to be problem solvers and peacemakers. With
the decline in available court resources, this need is more critical than ever.
I’ve devoted much of my
career to the peacemaker’s role through alternative dispute resolution and peer
mediation such as the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Services,
now known as the Center for Civic Mediation.
Through that work, I became
acquainted with many of the leaders in ADR. One such leader, Forrest Mosten, a
mediator and UCLA School of Law professor, is an expert on the subject. He has written
a companion column in this month’s California Bar Journal about how his law
practice thrived after he decided to be a non-court lawyer.
He also helped involve some
of the best and brightest thinkers on the subject to offer their insights on
this issue. I’d like to thank these columnists for their valuable contributions
and urge each of our members to carefully review their thoughts and suggestions
for the evolution of our practice to one that thinks of client needs and
problem solving as our highest priority. To give you a brief review of these
contributions:
- Luz Herrera, a professor at the Thomas Jefferson
School of Law in San Diego, writes about how limited-scope services can play a
role in serving the needs of clients and increase the peacemaking role of
lawyers.
- Thomas D. Barton, a professor at the
California Western School of Law, discusses the importance of preventive legal
health care.
- Russell Korobkin, a
professor at the UCLA School of Law, covers how to incorporate principles of
peacemaking to the process of negotiating a settlement agreement.
- Richard
Chernick and Barbara
Reeves Neal, who are noted mediators and arbitrators at JAMS, give a primer
on how to design an effective dispute-resolution process.
- Kenneth Cloke, director of the Center for Dispute Resolution in Santa Monica, instructs us on
how to be agents of forgiveness and reconciliation.
I encourage my colleagues
to read and carefully consider the guidance these distinguished contributors have
given us. If we, as attorneys, can address this need ourselves, not only will
the public be better served but, in time, the public will recognize this added
dimension and its positive impact on our service to them – and to our image as
attorneys in the community.