Plan for War and Find Peace

I was fired by a client this week.  ( I know - again?)  Did I do anything wrong?  Not what you think.  What was wrong was the connection between her perception and my reality.  Let me explain.  If you read this blog with any regularity, you know I am a strong believer in parties settling their differences, preferably themselves, and almost always with a lot of help, advice and support from those of us in the Trenches.  I firmly believe that a durable settlement is not possible by judicial intervention.  There, I said it.  That does not mean that I don't believe that there are times a case has to be litigated or that I can't litigate vigorously (and with very positive results).  Yet, many clients think that collaborative and mediation mindset precludes the litigation one.  That was this client.  She was happy with my services, her second opinion told her I was doing a really good job for her, but although she said she "wanted" to settle (not!), she was afraid that because of my collaborative philosophy, I wouldn't represent her with the zeal she needed.  If you read this blog with any regularity, you know her fears are not justified in fact, but they are real to her, and I wish her well with her new counsel.  I hope they are a better fit.

           Obviously, this client does not share my philosophy of the practice of law and has never read Sun Tzu, The Art of War.  Here are just a few of my favorite quotations:

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” 

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”

"For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."

"To have peace you must be ready for War !"

Sun Tzu felt that finding victory while avoiding war was the ultimate goal of a warrior.  The warrior's preparation of his body, his mind and his soul came first.  Then came the preparation of his men, and the assessment of the enemy's strengths and weaknesses, all in preparation for a strategy of war.  The victory was had in the preparation and the groundwork; the battle itself was anticlimax.  So it is here in the Trenches.  We prepare ourselves and our clients fully, we learn to know our opponent as well as we do our own client, and then we form a strategy that helps our clients achieve their goals in a way that is also acceptable to the other side.  We win without the war of litigation.  We do not fear it, we plan for it in hopes we can avoid it, but if not we are ready to fight - here in the Trenches.