By Julia Claire
Special to the Legal
Getting healthy and losing weight are common goals at this time of year. Currently, many lawyers are looking for ways to make their practices, their careers and their lifestyles healthier. Taking any client that walks through the door with a retainer can be the equivalent of a crash diet. The numbers look good initially, but ultimately, this approach results in many hours, headaches and unpaid bills for both lawyer and firm. Like the New Year’s dieter rebounding to a higher weight after an extreme diet and quick weight loss, the lawyer and their practice are worse for their efforts.
Family law particularly suffers from such unsustainable and unhealthy practices. According to Crispino M. Pastore, president of the Main Line Family Law Center, private family law attorneys average the highest number of billable hours in the profession and the lowest collection rate. As a veteran family lawyer who ultimately found the stress and financial toll unsustainable for clients and attorneys, he knows this story well. “The average couple can’t afford a divorce. It’s heartbreaking to see a kid’s college education fund and/or equity in the family home sacrificed to spouses fighting through litigation. All too often, many stressful hours later, attorneys end up with unhappy clients and unpaid bills. It’s discouraging all around.”
As a result, Pastore became involved in divorce mediation, where he found more satisfied clients, a more manageable lifestyle, a 95 percent collection rate and, ultimately, entrepreneurship. He founded the Main Line Family Law Center and created the "Healthy Divorce" Program due to the high volume of demand and referrals he began receiving for mediation and collaborative divorces. It quickly became obvious that this was a solution that many clients preferred, once they knew it was available.
And so do many lawyers. While recruiting attorneys to his practice and speaking with those interested in entering this field, Pastore has found a general consensus amongst these family law attorneys that the hours and lack of client satisfaction are discouraging and stressful while collecting fees is time-consuming and demeaning. Many lawyers want to “take their litigation hats off” to produce better results for their clients. They also want to preserve their own health, sanity and finances. But Pastore warns, “While any divorce matter can be mediated regardless of its particular facts and circumstances, this solution isn’t for all attorneys or clients. Attorneys that take every client that walks through the door won’t be successful. The key is to identify when a non-adversarial solution is right for potential clients and when to refer them to attorneys for a more traditional divorce.”
And whether in dieting or law, there are unique solutions for success across the board. Ask your friends that have ideological stances on the health and weight-loss merits of a vegan or paleo lifestyle, just not at the same time in the same room. Mediation isn’t a panacea for the legal profession or family law. This is just one example of how lawyers are finding success for themselves and better solutions for their clients by casting off an ill-fitting and stressful status quo. With stress increasingly linked to disease, illness and weight gain, solutions that are less stressful for lawyers and clients can also help out with that other New Year’s resolution.
Julia Claire is co-founder of Hire an Esquire, which enables law firms and legal departments to locate, manage and pay local and contract counsel with ease online. In addition to practicing law she has taught legal research and writing as an adjunct in Temple University Beasley School of Law’s International LLM Program and currently sits on the Advisory Board of Shpoonkle.
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