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Pamela DeNeuve

Lawyer & Law Firm Peak Performance Strategist

5 Reasons Lawyers Like to Win

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Lawyers like to win.  These men and women are skilled professionals who have been trained to be fearless, critical thinkers and who always prepare for the unexpected. Lawyers have been trained to win.

Let’s face it, chefs are trained to cook, doctors are trained to save lives and attorneys are trained to win for their firms and clients. Is there a downside for lawyers who have been schooled for victory?

Meet Barnaby Who Loves to Win

Barnaby laughed, “I know my wife and friends want to strangle me. I find myself arguing with my wife and friends more often than I care to admit. I split hairs in order to win every argument.   It’s like I can’t help myself. I just have to win.”

It starts off in law school. It’s like a boot camp where aspiring lawyers learn this skill. The stress and the tension of arguments can be exhilarating. But this kind of fearlessness can certainly take a toll on business and personal relationships.

I have heard lawyers admit what Barnaby just blurted out to me. Lawyers are skilled at duels. Unlike combative weapons used in gunfights, swordfights or physical battles, lawyers become masters of duels using the ability of their minds, researching precedents, discovery and interpreting the law and using their strategic use of words.

Barnaby tells on himself, “I even argue points for the sake of arguing them, even if I don’t believe in their truth. When I am bored or in a disagreeable mood, beware. I begin to look at everything as if it were a lawsuit, examining the “What If’s”,   “Playing the “Devil’s Advocate” and looking at everything from different angles.

What many would consider a stressful conversation is for these gladiators for the law is just a normal way of conversing with others.   In law school not only did students have to master being accustomed to surviving in stressful environments they needed to be able to defend a particular point of view at a moments notice.

It is natural that lawyers want to win. Barnaby tells us five reasons he loves to win. And then, he honestly tells us the cost of always winning.

5 Reasons Lawyers Like to Win

  1. An attorney’s livelihood depends on upon winning. Many lawyers can make substantially more income by winning cases.
  2. Many times winning a lawsuit or dispute can mean a skillful resolution without going to trial. This is also considered winning.
  3. Winning improves a lawyer’s reputation in the legal community.
  4. An attorney’s standing in the law firm increases by repeated wins.
  5. A winner gets better caseloads and more desirable clients.

There are, however, upsides and then, of course, there are downsides.  Loss of marriages, friends, secretaries, paralegals can make winning miserable.

 Personal Costs for Lawyers Always Wanting to Win

  1. Your romantic life suffers because every little conversation ends up in an argument.
  2. A lot of wasted energy is spent going over minute details that are not important.
  3. Strained relationships with family, friends and parents because of becoming known as the individual who is not easy to get along with.
  4. Time spent at the office trying to make sure to get every detail right. It is common to redo completed work over and over again because of second-guessing oneself.
  5. Spending way too much time on each case because of trying to guarantee a win.

Barnaby admits, “The basic precepts of my learned adversarial process to survive, and my ability to think “objectively” can make me a difficult person at work. I can be short-tempered and forget the niceties that keep employees happy. This spills over to my family too. Many times I am short-tempered, impatient and at times can be a bit pompous as if I were in the heat of the battle. My wife often nags me, “Lighten up Barns, please lighten up!”

5 Quick Tips to Remember About Your Desire to Win:

  1. Remember that your job is important but it is not heart surgery keep your perspective.
  2. Value your personal relationships above all else. No one ever dies and says they wish they had won more legal cases.
  3. Consider what is a kind and agreeable thing to reply instead of gruff, impersonal retorts or going into a lawyerly mode.
  4. Treat everyone you meet as if they were a person value. This goes a long way.
  5. Remember big people make others feel big and small people have a need to make others around them to feel small.

 Law Firms Always Want to Win 

Law firms can get caught up in winning also, especially the Am 100, the AM 200 law firms and any firm in the top 400. Each year there is a ranking. Where a law firm stands, whether or not their organization moves up the list or down the list is of utmost important to the firm’s stature.

In the battle to remain at the top of their game, firms may lose their perspective regarding their most valuable asset, their lawyers and support staff.

Law firms don’t have time for retention issues, making changes for the influx of Millennials and reducing attrition.

5 Advantages for Law Firms to Focus on Employees

  1. Happy employees are more loyal and go above and beyond for the firm.
  2. A pleasant work environment makes long days at the office an opportunity instead of a predicament.
  3. Work goes better when there are pods “teams” where more work gets accomplished faster.
  4. Lawyers are engaged and happy to go the extra mile.
  5. More Satisfied employees help the firms ranking to continue to rise and profits to increase.

Investing in resources to solve these problems will not only improve the firms ranking, but it will also make a law firm an excellent place to work.

Law firms must begin to value employee engagement and loyalty more than they value ranking because employees from the seemingly most valuable litigator to the paralegals, secretaries, and even the individuals that work in the mailroom all contribute to the increased ranking of the firm.

Words to Remember

Taking a few extra seconds to make others around you feel important and valued rather than caving in to the lawyer-training-and-conditioning-desire-to-win will increase loyalty, enjoyment, and contentment at the office and at home. A happier lawyer can be a more successful lawyer.

If your law firm is trapped in habits that cause your associates to leave much too soon, send me an email at    pamela@pameladeneuve.com and we can set up a time to chat.

Pamela DeNeuve, Law Firm Strategists for Retention

Email:  pamela@pameladeneuve.com

Website: https://pameladeneuve.com

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/pameladeneuve  

Call Pamela:  (904) 607-1211

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