Empathy&Law
There are so many professions that require empathy in their daily practice; psychologists, writers, professors, doctors, nurses, and… LAWYERS!!
This is Law Unplugged, and some of you will turn into lawyers, so we have to focus on empathy and the practice of law. They are so much related; empathy is one of the most important tools for good lawyers. It is essential to the successful practice of law.
As a lawyer, you can’t pretend to build up trust with your client, only by explaining to them the rule of the professional secrecy. This won’t free the client to divulge confidential and embarrassing facts. Your clients, as human beings, will trust you, and feel good talking to you, only if you make them feel you are trustworthy. You can build up this trust through empathy. When lawyers use empathic communication skills they appear to see the problem from the same perspective as the client. Lawyers build trust with empathic communication and clients then become willing to provide more information.
WHY IS EMPATHY USEFUL FOR LAWYERS?
Empathic communication will increase the client’s confidence towards the lawyer, so the communication between them will be easier. When the client feels understood by its lawyer, he is open to sincere, which will build strong bonds of trust. All of this will help the lawyer understand the client’s concerns and needs in a deeper way. As the lawyer is using empathy, he’s really feeling the problem as if he was the client, so he will provide more accurate solutions.
Think of it as a chain:
DON’T WORRY IF YOU EMPATHIZE WITH THE MURDERER, THE THIEF, THE “BAD GUY”... TO EMPATHIZE WITH THE CLIENT DOESN’T MEAN TO APPROVE ITS BEHAVIOR
As lawyers, we will deal with lots of cases in which our client makes us part of situations which we don’t agree with or we don’t support, because it’s against our beliefs or simply because it’s illegal. Does this mean we shouldn’t empathize? Of course not.
Empathy doesn’t imply changing your point of view, nor act in a contrary of our principles. Empathy, as we have already seen at the beginning, is to place ourselves in the place of the speaker, in order to understand the motivation of his behaviour. But we don’t have to believe what he says.
HOW TO USE EMPATHY, TIPS
This are some tip questions that a lawyer can use before a meeting with a client, in order to empathize:
What is my client looking for?
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A solution to its problem
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Advice
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Be listened to
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Be able to talk about its problem
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Understanding of its state of mind
What does my client expect?
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Knowledge and professional experience
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Advice
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Solutions
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Sympathy
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Help
The idea is that, at a lawyer and client meeting, not only he will clarify its doubts and fears about the problem that has made him attend to the lawyer, but also feel interested about its state of mind and demonstrate concerned about him. At the end of the meeting, when the client has left the office, he has to be sure that, firstly, his problem has been solved or will be solved. But also, he has to feel the meeting has cheered him up, feel that he has obtained serenity and security for having analyzed the problem with the lawyer.
All of this demonstrates the utility of empathy towards the practice of law. But on the other hand, studies demonstrate that we have to be empathic up to a point… We can’t let all of our clients problems affect our personal life. You shouldn’t get too involved; you shouldn’t have all the problems all your clients have in your head, even when you aren’t with them or working in their cases. You have to disconnect, remember that it is your job and that it shouldn’t affect your mood.