Look Left, Look Right

As of last Friday, I am an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law.  I am teaching a course on Collaborative Divorce, along with my old friends in the Trenches, Suzy Eckstein and Bruce Avery, as well as a new friend in the Trenches, Professor Jana Singer.  It's a rush to teach folks who haven't learned all the habits of practice those of us already in the Trenches have developed over the years.  Some of the things I've noticed just from the one class:
1.  Students ask better questions than practicing lawyers.  I think it's partly that their environment is conducive to appreciative inquiry; whereas those of us in the Trenches are worried that we'll look like we don't know as much as everyone else if we ask questions.
2.  Students seem better able to be interactive from the get go.  Again, see #1 above.  Practicing lawyers get in the swing of an interactive training, but it takes them longer to get over that initial reluctance.  When we train professionals, the first large group "shout outs" are like pulling teeth.  Not so with our students.
3.  Students are more open to sharing personal information than practicing attorneys.  I shared that I had been divorced, and asked as part of our initial information whether any of them had any experience in divorce, either personally or professionally.  There were a number of students with personal experience, and they weren't afraid to share that; practicing attorneys usually are.

So far, I'm impressed.  I'm thrilled we're teaching new lawyers how to collaborate, rather than teach them only to litigate and negotiate, and then after years of practice, try to retrain them.  It brings us back to our historic role as counselors at law, and that's a good thing.  Here in the Trenches.