Lawyers are skilled charmers. They have to be persuasive and diplomatic to get clients, make legal arguments effectively, and network in the community and so on. Whether the face that a lawyer presents outside the office is a genuine expression of true self or a façade developed for business advantage is largely dependent on the individual's personality.
Sometimes when the charming lawyer returns to the office, the ogre comes out. All the negative feelings about the case, the file, the client, and the world are expressed to the closest legal secretary or assistant. Dr. Jekyl, the charming rainmaker becomes Mr. Hyde, the grump and doomsayer.
Unfortunately, when a client phones the office to speak to Dr. Jekyl, he may be connected to the legal secretary whose office role model is Mr. Hyde.
Like the "Good Cop/Bad Cop" routine in the police precinct, this split-personality team is tolerated in the law firm. When consultants assess the situation, they suggest client-service or inter-personal communications training for the support staff. No harm can come from that and I think it should be a routine feature of staff training.
But how long can the newly learned behaviors survive when the assistant is still subjected to repeated performances by Mr. Hyde?
The trite warning, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, is apparently lost on lawyers. They cannot understand why their secretaries or assistants are SO NEGATIVE, why they COMPLAIN so much, why they harbor RESENTMENT. Well, another trite phrase applies: It's payback time.
Lawyers should consider the atmosphere they create by unburdening themselves in the law office environment as if there were no consequences to negativism. There are times when the horrendous impact of the lawyer's personality are impossible to ignore: a continuous turn-over in secretaries, associates who will do anything to avoid working with the lawyer, partners who shun the lawyer.
But at other times, the more usual situation, a very nice person who happens to be a lawyer will allow himself or herself to use their support staff as virtual punching bags - assaulting with words, evil looks and tirades. These lawyers may fool their clients to believing that the secretary is the one in the office who is lacking in interpersonal skills - but nobody else is fooled.
And the good-guy side of the act will become increasingly difficult to perform, while the grumpy-old-man character will take over. Eventually there will be no new clients coming in the door from this former rainmaker.
So, what to do? Do continue the client-service training for all levels of staff. Do provide training in inter-personal communication skills to everyone. And investigate outlets for the expression of negativism, which are not destructive of the working environment. Do you provide avenues for the expression of healthy humor? Does the lawyer need a mentor or coach to help redirect the anger and frustration into healthy results?
Do any of your partners need interventions: referrals to therapy or addiction services like AAA? Are you caring for your lawyers' personal well being as you purport to care for your client's legal interests?
Investigate what programs are available in your legal community for these types of assistance to lawyers. In British Columbia, the Lawyers Assistance Program offers Healthy Living Workshops and peer counselling. Call LAP Executive Director Derek LaCroix at 685-2171. For more immediate problems, contact Interlock, whose counseling services are funded by the Law Society, at 604-431-8200 or 1-800-663-9099.
