Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

I wish you all a safe & meaningful Memorial Day. After reading these words, does this change your perspective on any pending battle you’re currently fighting in your life?

Filed under: Set Clear Goals, What a Client Should Expect ]]> http://legalsanity.com/2012/05/28/client-goals-5-memorial-day-lincolns-gettysburg-address-and-developing-a-transcendent-purpose/feed/ 0 legalsanity The Lincoln Memorial http://legalsanity.com/2012/05/15/client-goals-4-how-to-choose-a-meaningful-goal/ http://legalsanity.com/2012/05/15/client-goals-4-how-to-choose-a-meaningful-goal/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 14:22:47 +0000 Arnie Herz http://legalsanity.com/?p=989 Read more]]> In Client Goals 1: How to Avoid Aimless Drifting, I spoke of the need for having a clear goal in all your legal endeavors. In this blog post, I will focus on the need for having a clear and meaningful goal that is worthy of your time and energy – that supports your life/business. Too often clients and their lawyers lose sight of the big picture and end up wasting a tremendous amount of time and money.

I just returned from a conference in Washington DC that gave me a few days to think about what really matters in life.  The conference focused in large part on Iranian efforts to develop a nuclear weapon and global efforts to prevent that from happening. During the plenary session, I was heartened to hear the Foreign Ministers of Canada, Germany, Cyprus and Greece as well as the White House Chief of Staff and Prime Minister of Israel speak on the topic; they were all committed to preventing this
“game changer” for the world.  I was impressed to see how many people dedicate a good portion of their days focusing on truly making a difference in the world.

Although Washington DC is often maligned, I find it incredibly inspiring and uplifting to visit our nation’s capital.  The various memorials attest to the grand vision and immense sacrifice of so many to secure the blessings of liberty that most people in this world do not get to experience.

Immediately after the conference ended, I walked to the Jefferson Memorial and read his inspiring words as follows:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men.  We . . . solemnly publish and declare, that these colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states. . . And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Jefferson and the other founders of our Nation, were able to bring forth their vision because they took the time to reflect on their greater purpose and aligned their actions with that purpose.  Similarly, it is important to take a break every now and then to align our business and legal objectives with our own greater perspective on what really matters to us.

When you find yourself enmeshed or about to get enmeshed in a litigation, or you are about to buy or sell a business, take a step back: Ask yourself if what you are about to do will enhance your life.  If you realize it will not, explore the most efficient way of extricating yourself from the situation.

Taking advantage of this public information are a number of unscrupulous companies. These companies send the applicant directly, via email and/or mail, extremely official looking notices, warnings, and invoices for sham services or legitimate services that the applicant often does not need.  Virtually every applicant and/or trademark registrant will receive one or more of such solicitations. The unwitting applicant completes the form and pays the fee thinking it is required by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) or foreign trademark office. The USPTO provides this warning on their website.  As of a few weeks ago, the USPTO now sends this notice attached with all Trademark Registration Certificates.

Definitely inform your lawyer before your pay any fee or complete any form.  If you filed without legal counsel, I suggest you carefully review the notice and/or invoice before completing and check with the USPTO before submitting.

In the other scenario, I have seen clients on tight legal budgets delegate too much to their lawyer and pay much more than they needed to for work they could easily do on their own. For example, a prolific artist paid a lawyer $12,500 to have 100 paintings copyrighted.  However, this client could have easily filed the copyrights on their own at the United States Registrar of Copyrights at www.Copyright.gov for a filing fee of $35 for each work of art.  That same client hired me to help her understand the copyright form, to ensure the right information was entered on the form, and to show her how to file on her own.  My client then filed her next 100 copyrights for $3,500 in filing fees plus $500 for my services for a total of $4,000.  The difference was $8500!

If the client is a very busy executive with tons of resources, then paying the extra $8500 is no big deal. However, if they are on a tight budget, or if the client has an assistant who can do most of the work, the client likely would choose to do it on their own.

In my opinion, this is a business decision the client can only make if they know what the total effort entails.  By empowering my clients and letting them know they could do certain work on their own, I’ve enabled my clients to make a business decision: Is it worth an extra $8500 to have the lawyer handle the matter?

In both ways, we both win. By empowering my client, she is grateful that I saved her a ton money and knows that I have her best interests in mind.  This sets a foundation for a long term legal relationship.

Have you had a time when you would’ve wanted your lawyer to explain to you the full heft of what you’re asking to be done? What would you have done differently?

Unfortunately, I did not have a car and the hotel did not sell bug repellent. So I was stuck in Paradise, indoors. Had someone been honest with me and WARNED me about the mosquitoes, I would have been fully prepared with mosquito repellent and enjoyed my time immensely.

Well, during that conference, there was a panel discussion with 3 hugely successful business owners. The business owners were speaking to us lawyers on what they look for and expect from their lawyers. The following quote continues to resonate to this day.

“I demand my lawyer tell me what I need to know, not what I want to hear.”

Wow! So there it is. Smart successful clients want lawyers to give them the bad news. “Tell it straight. Tell me up front.  Tell me what I need to know.”

If you are the client, make sure you tell this to your lawyer up front. It will save you a tremendous amount of wasted time and money and will help you avoid bad results. If you are the lawyer, tell your client up front that this is your approach. If they don’t like it, get rid of them as a client. In then end, when their fantasy expectations come crashing down, they’ll blame you. Then what?

On a closing note, if you visit the beautiful Amelia Island Resort in May (or any month to be safe), make sure you bring insect repellent!

When I serve as a mediator, it strikes me how two parties can look at the same dispute and come to opposite conclusions as to their chances of prevailing in court.  Recently, I mediated a complex insurance dispute with sophisticated parties and experienced legal counsel. Each party and their lawyers seemed to truly believe they had a 90% chance of winning. How is this possible?

Were the lawyers building up the case and telling their clients what they thought their clients each wanted to hear?  It is possible. However, in this situation, as I met each side separately, I experienced how that lawyer only focused on facts that supported their position. When I pointed out other provisions in the contract that went against their position, I could see lightbulbs going on. It was as though they had never even noticed those adverse provisions.

Whether or not the lawyers were telling their clients what they thought their clients wanted to hear or not, is a subject for a future blog post. The point I want to make in this post is that it is critical that both lawyer and client fully understand and appreciate all the factors that go against your position so you can effectively size up the strength or weakness of your position. If you go into a battle believing you have the firepower to prevail and it turns out you don’t, then the results will be disastrous.  

Once parties get realistic, resolution is easy.  In the complex insurance dispute discussed above, they had been fighting for 2 years. After they realized their chances were in fact 50/50, the parties settled after only 4 hours of mediation.

In the next blog post, I’ll delve into what you as a client need to do to make sure you are getting a realistic perspective from your lawyer.

Unfortunately, when it comes to legal matters, too often clients and their lawyers manage deals and disputes in quite the same way. There is a lot of drifting and lack of skill, and it ends up not being a laughing matter.

In dealing with any legal matter, having a crystal clear goal and destination is essential. Anyone who has been embroiled in a legal dispute or contentious transaction knows that emotions are ramped up. When emotions are ramped up, there is a strong tendency to be reactive and  impulsive. This type of behavior rarely suits your ultimate goal.

Think of a past or present dispute or transaction and ask yourself, “Is my goal crystal clear?  Does my immediate goal support my long term goals?  If I achieve my goal, how will it benefit me? Is this the best goal possible for me or my business? Am I acting on my intelligence (as I should be) or my emotions?”

By asking yourself these questions, you will be able to set a clear destination for your legal matter and avoid unproductive and costly drifting.

Therefore, through Legal Sanity blog and Legal Sanity Learning Programs, I set out to educate and train lawyers on how to optimize the Attorney-Client relationship and better the business of law.  After eight years and 400+ blog posts and 125 programs delivered to thousands of lawyers, I feel like I have fully explored the subject matter.  It is now time for me to speak primarily to a different audience — the other side of the coin — clients.

The more sophisticated, educated and confident the client, the more readily the client will take charge of their legal affairs and find the right lawyer.

Through the blog posts over the coming months, clients will become empowered. They will learn how to harness emotion, set clear goals, evaluate and maximize leverage, develop negotiation tips and learn how to communicate with lawyers effectively.  This is the new focus of Legal Sanity. If you are a client, feel free to reach out to me with your questions and challenges in regards to the Attorney-Client relationship.

For all my lawyer readers, the renewed focus will also benefit you.  You’ll see the Attorney-Client Relationship framed from the perspective of the client and this will help you refine your practice. If you feel you already practice in an effective client-centric manner, or you know someone else who does, please reach out to me. I will be highlighting lawyers and firms who get it and who are practicing the Legal Sanity way.

Little did I realize that I was in tune.  An email arrived two days ago from my friends Ari Kaplan and Larry Bodine announcing a webinar on social networking for lawyers.  Back in June 2004, when Legal Sanity launched, I was at the cutting edge of social networking.  Reading the text of the email, I realized that I was a dinosaur when it came to Social Media.  I signed up for the webinar.

It opened with advice that we ”stop talking and start listening” because it’s not “how many people you reach but how many personal relationships you develop” that is the key to developing business.

I started getting intimidated when the advice “get video on your website now” was given.  I had no clue how to do it right. Well, 10 minutes later, I had all i needed to do it and learned that not only does it not need to be perfect, but that this is the time of  ”perfect imperfection” because that “creates authentic connections with your audience.”

The webinar went on to provide the 4 key social networking sites and how to optimize your use of those sites and offer tons of other useful information.

If you are not at the cutting edge of Social Media, I recommend that you register here.

As my mind wandered to my long todo list, I started losing patience and getting annoyed with the caller and the person who had made the introduction. I decided to cut the conversation short by thanking the caller and extending an invitation to a fundraiser I was hosting to support relief efforts in Haiti. 

Suddenly, everything changed. 

The caller, Jefferson Crowther, responded to the invitation by telling me about his life commitment to The Welles Remy Crowther Charitable Trust, which he formed in memory of his son, who was his “closest friend in the world.”  For the next 30 minutes, I listened with rapt attention as Jefferson shared the story of Welles’ extraordinary heroism on September 11, 2001.  

A 24-year-old equity trader, Welles was working at the World Trade Center as the horrific events of the day started to unfold. Instead of fleeing the building, he spent the last hour of his life saving others. As chronicled in the New York Times, his courageous acts were characteristic of a man dedicated to being the best person he could be and helping others do the same. 

I’m sharing this with you for two reasons.

First, it’s just one more reminder of the importance of truly getting to know people. Because of my own busy-ness and impatience (among other not-so-good qualities), I had quickly sized up Jefferson as someone who was irrelevant to me and my work in the law. Of course, he proved to be an immense inspiration. But, beyond that, he helped me reconnect with myself as a human being and a lawyer who wants to serve people in meaningful ways. 

Second, I’m sharing this because the Red Bandanna Skate, an annual hockey fundraiser held in Welles’ memory, is coming up on March 20, 2010. It runs from 5-7 pm at Sport-O-Rama Ice Rinks in Monsey, NY. Proceeds from this event go to wonderful causes. Your contributions will mean a lot to Jefferson and the many people who will benefit from your generosity.