"I'm an attorney, empathy is not for me"
Eve Vlemincx
Strategic (Law Firm) Advisor | Lawyer | Stanford GSB Facilitator | Harvard Business Review Advisor | Women in Law 2024 & 2025 | Leadership - Innovation | 50 < 50 NYJ'23 | Speaker
“I’m an attorney, empathy is not for me.”
In as little as 14 days at least 5 attorneys told me something to that extent. I beg to differ…being a good attorney requires empathy.
What is empathy?
Empathy is the ability to sense and to understand another person’s emotions, perspective and experience.?It differs from sympathy in that sympathy is when you feel sorry for another person.?
Empathy provides insight in how people think, feel and it helps to make informed decisions.??It is that inter-relational ingredient to build trust and to connect with the human elements involved.
Empathy starts with being humble and listening with the open mindset.
Empathy is needed within the firm.
To make a team connect, several teambuilding activities and free food and drinks are brought in the mix, but creating a teamspirit requires human needs to be met on a much deeper level.
Research indicates that one of the deepest struggles attorneys express about their law firms is that they don’t feel they can truly be authentically themselves.?In order to ‘fit in’ one can under no condition stand out. ?The value of diversity of perspectives gets lost while compromising to fit in.?With the intention of encouraging people to grow, they are nevertheless kept small.
When the culture is not fit for empathy, people keep their guards up and act in their self-interest.?
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The lack of empathy is determining for the organisational culture and performance of the organisation as such.?
According to the Harvard Business Review, businesses that put empathy and emotional intelligence ahead of everything else out perform other businesses by at least 20%.
With cultures of empathy, diverse attorneys can feel seen, heard and valued for who they are and their uniques perspectives.?
Understandig the powerful impact of empathy is key to increasing wellbeing, jobsatisfaction and performance of an organisation and its people.
Empathy for the clients.
When a firm’s culture is empathic, its attorney’s will not only build a better culture inside, but also provide a better client service.?Client centricity remains an empty slogan by lack of empathy and?might result in an arrogant position of believing to know the answers before all the information is on the table.
Professor Carrie Menkel-Meadow asserts that empathy is an essential part of the client-attorney relationship.
However empathy does not imply complete identification with the client.?Effective lawyers must be able to step back in ways that clients often cannot in order to provide the critical eye and assessment that are part of the attorney’s obligation.
Empathic attorneys anticipate on clients needs, concerns and frustration.?They serve clients on a deeper level, which results in higher client satisfaction and retention.
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Attorneys don’t need empathy???Maybe empathy is one of the answers to the current need for change in the legal industry.?
I coach, train, consult and speak on driving results by improving and building relationships through more empathetic communication and collaboration. Also an award-winning, best-selling author, Founder/CEO with 1 exit
3 年Excellent article, Eve. You make some great points on the need for empathy in and out of the courtroom as well as the law office. My work as a leader in the consumer insights space has taught me that empathy is best used as a tool; leaders can use empathy to better relate to and help their teams grow, and just like a marketer building empathy with a consumer, a lawyer focusing on empathy with clients helps to truly understand their needs and forge a stronger connection with them.? I have found that people confuse the 2 types of empathy: cognitive and emotional, and that by having empathy they have to give up their own beliefs. By focusing on cognitive empathy - seeing the perspective of another - you can still maintain objectivity, you also have a better understanding of the client (or whomever you are having empathy with).
Vice President and General Counsel?? Education ?? Strategic Business Partner ?? Problem-Solver & Turnaround Expert??Author??Speaker??Veteran??Former Adjunct Professor
3 年Absolutely agree, Eve Vlemincx! You were spot on when you observed that “effective lawyers must be able to step back in ways that clients often cannot in order to provide the critical eye and assessment that are part of the attorney’s obligation.” As a General Counsel, I need my outside counsel (and in-house lawyers) to be capable of empathy. Non-empathetic lawyers need not apply!
Strategic Anticipation | Advisory Board Member
3 年As a former attorney, I can only agree and stress the importance of empathy.
Coach & Advisor to Thoughtful Executives | Former Private Equity CEO & F500 CMO | Themyllc.com
3 年YES! Empathy is for all of us -- every profession.