Advanced search
Publication Cover
Legal Ethics Volume 10, 2007 - Issue 2
Submit an article Journal homepage
58
Views
1
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

The Act of Lawyering and the Art of Communication: An Essay on Families-in-Crisis, the Adversarial Tradition, and the Social Work Model

Dana E. Prescott Dana E. Prescott is a partner at Prescott, Jamieson, Nelson & Murphy, LLC in Saco, Maine, USA. Mr Prescott is licensed to practise law in Maine and Massachusetts and is a graduate of the Boston College School of Social Work, a Licensed Master of Social Work, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. He may be contacted at [email protected].
, LMSW
Pages 176-192 | Published online: 01 May 2015

  • See L. Mather, C.A. McEwen and R.J. Maiman, Divorce Lawyers at Work: Varieties of Professionalism in Practice (New York, Oxford University Press, 2001); M.S.G. Klein, Law, Courts, and Policy (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1984).
  • See T. Rosenbaum, The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right (New York, Harper Collins, 2004); R. Mnookin (with S. Peppet and A. Tulumello), Beyond Winning: Negotiating to Create Value in Deals and Disputes (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2000); E. Cahn, The Moral Decision: Right and Wrong in the Light of American Law (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1955); M.E.P. Seligan, P.R. Verkuil and T.H. Kang, “Why Lawyers are Unhappy” (2005) 10 Deakin Law Review 49.
  • See R. Murphy, “Is a Turn Toward Collaborative Law a Turn Away From Justice?” (2004) 42(3) Family Court Review 460; R.F. Blomquist, “Law and Spirituality: Some First Thoughts on an Emerging Relation” (2003) 71(3) University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law 583; F.C. Zacharias, “Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Preventative Law: Transforming Legal Practice and Education” (1999) 5(4) Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 909; L.L. Riskin, “The Contemplative Lawyer: On the Potential Benefits of Mindfulness to Law Students, Lawyers, and Their Clients” (2002) 7 Harvard Negotiation Law Review 1; P. Tesler, “Collaborative Law: A New Paradigm for Divorce Lawyers (1999) 5 Psychology, Public Policy and Law 67; R.J. Gilson and R.H. Mnookin, “Disputing Through Agents: Cooperation and Conflict Between Lawyers in Litigation” (1994) 94(2) Columbia Law Review 509.
  • See L.D. Elrod, “Reforming the System to Protect Children in High Conflict Custody Cases” (2001) 28(2) William Mitchell Law Review 495.
  • J.P. Ogilvy and K. Czapansky, “Clinical Legal Education: An Annotated Bibliography” (2005) at http://faculty.cua.edu/ogilvy/Biblo05clr.pdf; S. Ellmann, I. Gunning, A. Shalleck and R. Dinerstein, “Connection, Capacity & Morality in Lawyer-Client Relationships: Dialogues and Commentary” (2004) 10 Clinical Law Review 755; D.A. Binder, P. Bergman and S.C. Price, Lawyers as Counselors: A Client Centered Approach (St Paul, Minn, West Publishing Co, 1991).
  • A. Sarat and W.L.F. Felstiner, “Law and Social Relations: Vocabularies of Motive in Lawyer/Client Interaction” (1988) 22(4) Law & Society Review 737, 742.
  • See nn. 5–6 supra; A. Sarat and W.L.F. Felstiner, Divorce Lawyers and Their Clients: Power and Meaning in the Legal Process (New York, Oxford University Press, 1995); A. Sarat and W.L.F. Felstiner, “Lawyers and Legal Consciousness: Law Talk in the Divorce Lawyer's Office” (1989) 98(8) Yale Law Journal 1663.
  • F.J. Turner, “Social Work Treatment: Interlocking Theoretical Approaches” in F.J. Turner (ed), Social Work Treatment: Interlocking Theoretical Approaches (4th edn) (New York, The Free Press, 1996), 9. In the social work profession, solution-focused or “brief” therapy shares assumptions that could be applied to the lawyer-client relationship. See S.L. Tohn and J.A. Oshlay, Crossing the Bridge: Integrating Solution Focused Therapy into Clinical Practice (Sudbury, MA, Solutions Press, 2000); D. Nylund and V. Corsiglia, “Becoming Solution-Focused in Brief Therapy: Remembering Something Important We Already Knew” (1994) 13(1) Journal of Systemic Therapies 5.
  • Turner, supra n. 8, 10.
  • Ibid.
  • Although beyond the scope of this article, each of these terms may have a different meaning and treatment approach depending upon the theoretical construct used by the clinician. See Turner, supra n. 8; J.R. Brandell (ed), Theory and Practice and Clinical Social Work (New York, The Free Press, 1999); B.J. Sadock and V.A. Sadock (eds), Synopsis of Psychiatry (9th edn) (Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2003); S. deShazer, “Resistance Revisited” (1989) 11(4) Contemporary Family Therapy 227.
  • Turner, supra n. 8, 2.
  • B. Bride, “Prevalence of Secondary Traumatic Stress among Social Workers” (2007) 52(1) Social Work 63; A.P. Levin and M.A. Greisberg, “Vicarious Trauma in Attorneys” (2003) 24 Pace Law Review 245.
  • See supra n. 8.
  • Turner, supra n. 8, 1 (italics in original).
  • B.D. Friedman, “Systems Theory” in J.R. Brandell, supra n. 11, 15.
  • Turner, supra n. 8, 1.
  • L.G. White, “The Policy Analysis as Discourse” (1994) 13(3) Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 506, 507.
  • Ibid.
  • See E.O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (New York, Vantage Books, 1998).
  • White, supra n. 18, 523. These assertions are not intended to blend uncritically the differences between social constructionism and postmodernism, as each has its distinctions—with proponents who argue quite vigorously for those distinctions. See L. McNay, Foucault & Feminism (Cambridge, Polity Press, 1992), 1 (“Currently, many left-wing thinkers, ranging from literary critics to political theorists, appear to be grappling with a basically similar dilemma. This dilemma revolves around the implications of poststructuralist thought—and its most recent mutation into theories of the postmodern—for emancipatory politics”); W.L. Madsen, Collaborative Theory with Multi-Stressed Families: From Old Problems to New Futures (New York, The Guilford Press, 2003), 48 (Weingarten has “concisely summarized the implications of a modernist approach for family therapy: ‘Within family therapy, a modernist approach entails the observation of persons in order to compare their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors against preexisting, normative criteria. The modernist therapist then uses explanations, advice, or planned interventions as a means to bring persons' responses in line with these criteria'”).
  • See B.R. Compton and B. Galaway, Social Work Processes (6th edn) (Pacific Grove, CA, Brooks/Cole Publishing Co, 1999); C. Dunn, “The Importance of Cultural Competence for Social Workers” (2002) 9(2) The New Social Worker 4.
  • See D.S. Hirschhorn, “Postmodern Ethics and Our Theories: Doing Therapy Versus Being Therapist” (1999) 18(4) Journal of Systemic Therapies 18, 19.
  • See supra n. 11 and n. 22.
  • R.R. Sullivan, Political Hermeneutics: The Early Thinking of Hans-George Gadamer (University Park, PA, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1989), 11–12.
  • See Rosenbaum, supra n. 2, 19 (“An individual may fastidiously maintain the ethical requirements of his or her profession and still spend the workday engaged in morally questionable practices”); W. Bachman, Law v Light: What Lawyers are Afraid to Say About the Legal Profession (New York, Four Directions Press, 1995).
  • See generally C.T. Rowan, Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall (New York, Back Bay Books, 1993); S.M. Speiser, Lawyers and the American Dream (New York, M. Evans and Co, 1993); Cahn, supra n. 2; F.R. Bienenfeld, Rediscovery of Justice (New York, Oxford University Press, 1947).
  • See supra n. 27; E.E. Cheatham, A Lawyer When Needed (New York, Columbia University Press, 1963).
  • See supra nn 1, 2 and 3.
  • M. Mitcham-Smith, “High Conflict Divorce Solutions: Parenting Coordination as an Innovative Co-Parenting Intervention” (2007) 15(4) The Family Journal 368; D.E. Prescott, “Chronic Conflict Parents and Group Therapy as a Means of Intervention: A Preliminary Proposal” (2005) 28(1) Social Work with Groups 81; R. Stewart, “The Early Identification and Streaming of Cases of High Conflict Separation and Divorce: A Review“, Family, Children and Youth Sections, Department of Justice Canada, 2001, available at www.spca.org.av/document_library.
  • D. Andreae, “Systems Theory and Social Works Treatment” in Turner, supra n. 8, 606.
  • L.N. Henderson, “Legality and Empathy” in P. Smith (ed), Feminist Jurisprudence (New York, Oxford University Press, 1993), 246. For a review of the social science research, see C. Duan and C.E. Hill, “The Current State of Empathy Research” 1996 43(3) Journal of Counseling Psychology 261.
  • I. Prilleltensky, “Values, Assumptions, and Practices: Assessing the Moral Implications of Psychological Discourse and Action” (1997) 52(5) American Psychologist 8.
  • G.J. Gargiulo, “Recollection, Empathy, and Reverie” in P.R. Breggin, G. Breggin and F.F. Bemak (eds), Dimensions of Empathic Therapy (New York, Springer Publishing Company, Inc, 2002), 138.
  • See F.L. Braver, “Experiences of Family Law Attorneys with Current Issues in Divorce Practice” (2002) 51(4) Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies 325; Mather, McEwen and Maiman, supra n. 1.
  • B.J. Winick, “Client Denial and Resistance in the Advance Directive Context: Reflections on How Attorneys can Identify and Deal with a Psycholegal Soft Spot” (1998) 4(3) Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 901. See generally nn. 1–7 supra.
  • See generally M. Silver (ed), The Affective Assistance of Counsel: Practicing Law as a Healing Profession (Durham, NC, Carolina Academic Press, 2007); S.S. Daicoff, Lawyer, Know Thyself: A Psychological Analysis of Personality Strengths and Weaknesses (Washington, DC, American Psychological Association, 2004).
  • L. Nizer, The Implosion Conspiracy (New York, Doubleday and Co, Inc, 1973), 3.
  • See Rosenbaum, supra n. 2; A. Schepard, “Law Schools and Family Court Reform” (2002) 40(4) Family Court Review 460.
  • Bachman, supra n. 26, 119; Schepard, ibid.
  • M. Lerner, Nine Scorpions in a Bottle (New York, Arcade Publishing, 1994).
  • Andreae, supra n. 32, 605.
  • This phrase is generally accredited to R. Mnookin and L. Kornhauser, “Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: The Case of Divorce” (1979) 88 Yale Law Journal 950.
  • B. Botein, Trial Judge: The Candid Behind-the-Bench Story of Justice Bernard Botein (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1952), 128. The role of the appellate judge is quite different. Although of less importance at the onset of a case, the influence of the “law” as pronounced from above, and the impact of the threat of appeal in the aftermath of trial, should not be ignored. See F.M. Coffin, The Ways of a Judge: Reflections From the Federal Appellate Bench (Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin Co, 1980).
  • Mather, McEwen and Maiman, supra n. 1; Elrod, supra n. 4; R. Hanson, “The Changing Role of a Judge and its Implications” [2002] Court Review 10.
  • See Mather, McEwen and Maiman, supra n. 1.
  • Ibid, 92, quoting Sarat and Felstiner, Divorce Lawyers and Their Clients, supra n. 7.
  • Ibid.
  • Ibid, 97–98.
  • Ibid, 98.
  • Ibid, 93.
  • Ibid, 92.
  • Bachman, supra n. 26, 119.
  • See J. Lebow and K.N. Rekart, “Integrative Family Therapy for High-Conflict Divorce with Disputes Over Child Custody and Visitation“ (2006) 46(1) Family Process 79; V.H. Luftman et al, “Practice Guidelines in Child Custody Evaluations for Licensed Clinical Social Workers” (2005) 33(3) Clinical Social Work Journal 327; M. Friedman, “The So-Called High Conflict Couple: A Closer Look” (2004) 32 American Journal of Family Therapy 101; R. Neff and K. Cooper, “Parental Conflict Resolution: Six-, Twelve-, and Fifteen-Month Follow-ups of a High Conflict Program” (2004) 42(1) Family Court Review 99; R. Rogers, “Ethical Dilemmas in Forensic Evaluations” (1987) 5(2) Behavioral Sciences and the Law 149.
  • See generally R.A. Posner, The Problems of Jurisprudence (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1990); W. Murphy, The Elements of Judicial Strategy (Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press; 1964); J. Frank, Law and the Modern Mind (New York, Coward-McCain, Inc, 1930).
  • See supra nn. 3–6.
  • For the connection between the art of lawyering and literature, see M. Asimow, “Embodiment of Evil: Law Firms in the Movies” (2001) 48 UCLA Law Review 1339. For another version of the same thought, see Cahn, supra n. 2, 11 (the American lawyer “has made it a habit to concentrate on the techniques and processes that culminates in a decision, and a decision is the resolution of some highly specific collision of demands”).
  • L. Wolowitz, “The Changing Face of the Ideal Therapist” in Breggin, Breggin and Bemak, supra n. 35, 13.
  • Ibid.
  • Riskin, supra n. 2, 23. Kant considers the “capacity to judge” as the “capacity to think” or “we can reduce all acts of the understanding to judgments, and the understanding may therefore be represented as a capacity to judge“. B. Longuenesse, Kant and the Capacity to Judge: Sensibility and Discursivity in the Transcendental Analytic of the Critique of Pure Reason (C.T. Wolfe trans) (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1993), 7.
  • Longuenesse, Ibid.
  • Botein, supra n. 45, 173.
  • Ibid, 173–4.
  • See M.K. Kisthardt, “The AAML Model for Parenting Plan” (2005) 19(2) Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers 221.
  • Ibid, 29.
  • C.C. Hartley and C.J. Petrucci, “Justice, Ethics, and Interdisciplinary Teaching and Practice” (2004) 14 Washington University Journal of Law and Policy 133, 143.
  • Turner, supra n. 8, 11.
  • Andreae, supra n. 32, 603.
  • Rosenbaum, supra n. 2, 53.
  • See discussion in the texts at nn. 36–38 supra. See also J.E. Mounteer, “Colorado Lawyers Helping Lawyers: Depression Among Lawyers” 2004 33(1) The Colorado Lawyer 35; W.W. Eaton, J.C. Anthony, W. Mandel and R. Garrison, “Occupations and the Prevalence of Major Depressive Disorder” (1990) 32(11) Journal of Occupational Medicine 1079.
  • The seminal article in this area may be found in L. McCann and L.A. Pearlman, “Vicarious Tramautization: A Framework for Understanding the Psychological Effects of Working with Victims” (1990) 3(1) Journal of Traumatic Stress 131.
  • K. Baird and A.C. Kracen, “Vicarious Traumatization and Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Research Synthesis” (2006) 19(2) Counseling Psychology Quarterly 181.
  • McCann and Pearlman, supra n. 73, 133.
  • S. Keeva, “Problematic Professionals” (2006) 92 ABA Journal 80. See also D. Sweet, “Sacrifice, Atonement, and Legal Ethics” (2003) 113 Yale Law Journal 219, 219 (“Lawyers surely understand sacrifice. The business of representation requires a willingness to subjugate, at least temporarily, one's own priorities, beliefs, and comforts to those of another. Today that willingness is tested and demanded with unprecedented force”).
  • See S.E. Clemans, “Recognizing Vicarious Traumatization: A Single Session Group Model for Trauma Workers” (2005) 27(2/3) Social Work with Groups 55.
  • McCann and Pearlman, supra n. 73, 134.
  • R. Karen, “Shame“, Atlantic Monthly February 1992; C.D. Schneider, Shame, Exposure, and Privacy (New York: W.W. Norton, Inc, 1977): See also nn. 78–79 infra.
  • J.P. Tanguay and R.L. Dearing, Shame and Guilt (New York: The Guilford Press, 2002), 127.
  • J.S. Ashby, R.B. Slanui, W.J. Moran and J.M. Cotter, “Psychologists' Labeling of Affective States of Shame and Guilt” (1997) 34(1) Psychotherapy 58.
  • McCann and Pearlman, supra n. 73, 136.
  • R. Golini, “Interviewing, Counseling, Negotiating: Review of Select Articles” (2004) at http://www.rongolini.com/Interviewing.html (“When the interviewer failed to appreciate the significance of the information imparted in the opening moments, negative consequences ensued, and clients recycled their concerns until acknowledged”).
  • A.O. Burton, “Cultivating Ethical, Socially Responsible Lawyer Judgment: Introducing the Multiple Lawyering Intelligences Paradigm into the Clinical Setting” (2004) 11 Clinical Law Review 15, 15.
  • Ibid, 37.
  • Ibid, 40.
  • Rosenbaum, supra n. 2, 52.
  • Ibid, 50.
  • For example, see P.K. Howard, The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating Americans (New York, Random House, 1994).
  • Klein, supra n. 1, 67. For a different and controversial approach to virtue and morals see J.Q. Wilson, The Moral Sense (New York, The Free Press, 1993).
  • See B.J. Daley, “Learning and Professional Practice: A Study of Four Professions” (2001) 52 Adult Education Quarterly 39; P. Riley, G. Sargent, S. Hartwell and J. Patterson, “Beyond Law and Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Course in Family Law and Family Therapy” (1997) 32(4) Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 461.
  • See Madsen, supra n. 21, 132; B.L. Duncan, M.A. Hubble and G. Rusk, “To Intervene or Not to Intervene? That is Not the Question (1994) 13(4) Journal of Systemic Therapies 22, 22 (“Consulting the literature reveals a large body of evidence demonstrating that the therapeutic alliance, as rated by client, therapist, and outside observers, is the best predictor of psychotherapy outcome”).
  • L. Tzu, Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity in the Way (V.H. Mair trans) (New York: Bantam Books, 1990), 100.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Order Reprints Request Corporate Permissions

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

Request Academic Permissions

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.

Related research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.