By Daniel M. Mills

Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered
around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.
—Stephen C. Foster, 1854

There is irony in the fact that it is hard times for lawyers at a time when there is such great need for what lawyers do.

Those who provide legal services often fall into one of two categories in terms of their response to dire economic conditions. There is the group trying desperately to hold on to what it has known and what is familiar. These people try to make the old model work and complain bitterly as they fall further behind. Then, there is the group willing to walk away from what no longer works and reshape the manner in which it brings legal services to its clients.

And in spite of hard times, it remains true that law is our main form of social control. It is also a fact that, as lawyers, we are unique in our ability to move both inside and outside the legal system in which we operate. Our role is special in that we manifest solution to one degree or another. We succeed to the extent that we understand the system, bring about the solution, and provide service to the client.

What is it that we truly do as lawyers? We are not a healer, physician, therapist, spiritual leader, or possessor of a magic wand. But we are much more than a technician or a scribe.

We work with facts. We work with law. We manifest solution, and we advise and guide. The client looks to us for security. We offer professional judgment.

In this context, it is a fact that opportunity exists for those willing to rethink the delivery of professional services. For those who are licensed to solve others’ problems, there is often resistance to looking within; however, for one willing to step into the uncharted territory of these hard times, looking within cannot be avoided.

Are we willing to question everything and put all assumptions to the test of what is really important in our view of our own selves, those in our intimate circle, and those in our professional life? Are there aspects of our belief systems and behavior patterns that limit and prevent us from seeing a better way?

What we have to sell is professional judgment. This is not an easy service to market. After being restricted from marketing for decades, lawyers have not been particularly expert at their efforts to market their services.

We tend to market as our lawyer friends and competitors do, thus adopting a herd mentality with an expectation that any marketing should produce nearly instant results. We often believe that our hard-earned dollars spent on marketing require that we find something to do for nearly every prospective client, thereby abandoning discretion and taking on too much. We talk too much about ourselves and focus too little on the problems we can solve.

Now more than ever, we must be better at the business of providing professional judgment. Being conscious of this fact is a step in the right direction. Take the next step, and that begins with a serious, unhurried conversation with our own selves. Why do we do what we do? Can we find the passion in what we do? Are we doing what we really care about doing?

When passion for what we do is at the core of the professional judgment we are providing, so many things are made easier. Why? Because we believe in what we are doing. We are invested. We are working from a place of meaning and depth. There is passion all about us, and work becomes exciting. This is the reality when we connect with what is real and important to us in our professional life.

This unhurried conversation with ourselves—the purpose of which is to find the passion—becomes the means whereby we step forth and next examine what it means to serve, because as marketers of professional judgment, we serve our clients.

Our goal is to leave the client in a better place as a result of our service. But how do we serve and make our professional judgment meaningful to our client?

Regardless of the client and circumstance, empathy is essential. We must truly understand what motivates our client and resist our tendency to judge. We can discern without judgment and gain knowledge of how to best provide professional judgment.

These basic tools apply to any lawyer in any circumstance in which professional judgment is the product being supplied and consumed. Too often we get consumed by the form we believe we need, the provision we are drafting, the code we are dissecting, or the case law we are analyzing, and we lose sight of the essence of our purpose and function with the client.

When we know ourselves and empathize with the client, we are able to solve the problem better and supply our product more effectively. The client is more satisfied regardless of the end result because the client knows the lawyer cares. This dynamic can then drive the style and manner in which professional judgment is offered and supplied to the consumers of our legal services. And perhaps the hard times become less hard.

Daniel M. Mills, Esq., is manager of the D.C. Bar Practice Management Advisory Service. Reach him at 202-626-1312 or dmills@dcbar.org.