Gini Nelson's Engaging Conflicts

Stephanie West Allen at Idealawg and Julie Fleming Brown at Life at the Bar announced their 2d Annual Lawyers Appreciate meme yesterday, asking tagged attorney bloggers to post on professional appreciation. Stephanie tagged me and Vickie Pynchon of Settle It Now Negotiation Blog and Diane Levin of Online Guide to Mediation. I am tagging Tom Kosakowski of The Ombuds Blog, Sheryl Sisk Schelin of The Inspired Solo, and Vonda Vandaveer of the U.S. Business and Immigration Law blog.

Lawyers Appreciate Justice

Justice is formally defined and its applications debated but equally important it is personally lived (albeit in important ways unconsciously). Life keeps lawyers as busy as it keeps most people. To me, this means lawyers like most people often are not mindful of what they are doing and its impact on others. Lawyers are “people” first (lawyer jokes notwithstanding) and, as such, subject to all human blind spots and biases. Their individual actions, like those of all people, can be unjust and have unjust consequences.

But lawyers chose and worked hard to become lawyers, which means understanding and working with the law and serving their clients. I believe most lawyers appreciate justice. At any moment there are individual lawyers who are cynical and corrupt but most, I believe, are simply doing their best as they understand it.

Some say “power corrupts” but I think it more accurate to say “power reveals”. Lawyers like everyone else reveal their human blind spots and biases in their professions and their lives. Engaging Conflicts includes mindful examination of ethics and spirit to give lawyers a time away from their routine, unconscious thought and time in which to pause and consider something they appreciate, something they had in mind when they committed to practicing law, justice.

12/23 Update: here’s Sheryl’s post at The Inspired Solo, Lawyers Appreciate … Their Friends.

12/24 Update: here’s Vickie’s post at Settle It Now Negotiation Blog, Lawyers Appreciate Year-End Appreciation Memes.

12/29 Update: here’s Diane’s post at Online Guide to Mediation, Lawyers Appreciate Democracy.