president’s column


PARTING THOUGHTS


anything else, I want to thank you for letting me serve in this capacity. Over the year we have seen the judicial merit selection issue raise its head, the sunset of the Judicial Selection Commission, a move of the MBA headquarters, a finding by the Department of Justice that big changes were needed at Shelby County Juvenile Court and the implementation of the Esquire Build mentoring program. I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish and frequently found myself sidetracked by issues I didn’t want to face. But it has been an opportunity to serve my fellow lawyers and our system of justice that I will always cherish. As we begin our mentoring program, and we have at the


T


moment five eager new lawyers ready to start their practice of law as solo practitioners, I want to take this last opportunity to mention the importance of emotional intelligence. When we first began this journey, the six core competencies identified by the ABA as being of most importance to attorneys were:


1. Collaboration and negotiation; 2. Project management; 3. Financial literacy; 4. Technological affinity; 5. Time management and 6. Emotional Intelligence.


Previous columns have focused on technological affinity and time management. I didn’t get into the concept of project management but it’s interrelated with the concept of time management. It incorporates the concepts of developing a game plan, or strategy, for solving the client’s problem or taking the client from interview to case closing and how to craft and implement the steps in between. I didn’t get to focus on what I consider to be the most


important skill set for attorneys to develop—collaboration and negotiation. But I have been fortunate to be involved in the development of the Mediator of the Day programs, both at the General Sessions level and through the Divorce Referee’s office, and the creation of the Memphis Collaborative Alliance. I plan to continue working in this area of the law and hope to


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his will be my last column as President of the Memphis Bar Association and more than


encourage the legal system to move to more negotiation and mediation. My final thoughts for this column will be about the


importance of developing emotional intelligence in the practice of law. While emotional intelligence isn’t a skill set like time management or financial literacy, the practice of law is, more than anything else, a people practice. Few lawyers spend their lives ensconced in a library or writing briefs. Most of our time is spent dealing with the very real problems of our clients and trying to find solutions. As problem solvers, our ability to relate to clients is key to our ability to find those solutions. Social and emotional intelligence is recognized as so essential that a decade and a half after Daniel Goleman introduced the concept to the general public,


“… tens of thousands of schools worldwide offer children SEL. In the United States many districts and even entire states currently make SEL curriculum a requirement, mandating that just as students must attain a certain level of competence in math and language, so too should they master these essential skills for living.


…By the late elementary years lessons in empathy should make children able to identify the nonverbal clues to how someone else feels; in junior high they should be able to analyze what creates stress for them or what motivates their best performance. And in high school the SEL skills include listening and talking in ways that resolve conflicts instead of escalating them and negotiating for win-win solutions.”*


It is by developing our abilities to be self aware, to manage our emotions and to understand and recognize the emotions of others, that we will be our most effective.


I encourage you


to work on the development of these skills. It will help you be a better lawyer, and a better human. May God Bless each of you, may your law practice thrive and may the system of justice be one that provides equal access to justice for everyone.


Sincerely, Linda Warren Seely, 2013 MBA President *from the web site of Daniel Goleman.


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