The Good Lawyer

Douglas O. Linder is the Elmer N. Powell Peer Professor of Law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and the co-author of The Happy Lawyer. Nancy Levit, the Curators' and Edward D. Ellison Professor of Law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, is the co-author of The Happy Lawyer and the author of The Gender Line: Men, Women, and the Law.

PREFACE ; The Wolf at Lost Lake ; Obsessed with Quality ; INTRODUCTORY NOTE ; Chapter 1: THE GOOD LAWYER IS EMPATHETIC ; Feeling Clients' Pain on Thunderhead Ranch ; The Importance of Being Empathetic ; Using Empathy to Tell Better Stories ; The Origins and Science of Empathy ; Can Lawyers Learn to Be More Empathetic? ; The Challenge of Developing Empathy in Law Schools ; Is More Empathy Always Better? ; The Empathy Debate ; Do We Want Judges to Be Empathetic? ; Empathy and Moral Action ; Chapter 2: THE GOOD LAWYER IS COURAGEOUS ; A Profile in Courage ; Physical Courage ; Moral Courage ; Psychological Courage ; Can We Learn Courage? ; Courage in Law Schools ; Codes and Courage: Two Stories ; Courage and Justice ; Chapter 3: THE GOOD LAWYER PURSUES JUSTICE WITH INTEGRITY ; A Framed Corduroy Jacket ; Seeking Justice for People ; Chattanooga Revisited: One Lawyer's Sense of Justice ; Is the Pursuit of Justice Nothing More Than Helping Your Clients? ; 'Big Picture' Justice ; When It Is Your Job to Do Justice ; The Evolutionary Roots of Our Passion for Justice ; Emotions, Reason, and Our Sense of Justice ; Pursuing Justice, But with Integrity ; The Importance of Honesty ; Can Lawyers Be Honest All the Time? ; Honesty in the Practice ; 'Let Justice Be Done Though the Heavens May Fall' ; Pursuing Justice with Passion ; Chapter 4: THE GOOD LAWYER VALUES OTHERS IN THE LEGAL COMMUNITY ; A Humble (But Very Famous) Attorney ; Remembering What Matters ; The Power of Humility: One Lawyer's Approach to Negotiations ; Mellow Beats Bellow ; What to Do About Incivility ; The Idea of Political Fraternity ; Our Political Differences: Whose Side Are You On? ; Can Liberals and Conservatives Be Friends? ; Roots of Our Political Differences ; The Six Foundations for Moral Judgments ; 'Follow the Sacredness' and Seek Diversity ; Chapter 5: THE GOOD LAWYER USES BOTH INTUTION AND DELIBERATIVE THINKING ; The Medical Instrument That Wasn't ; Expert Intuition Is Simply Good Pattern Recognition ; The Costs and Benefits of Intuition ; Confirmation Bias ; Mental Blind Spots ; All We See Is All There Is ; Anchoring ; Too Narrow Framing ; Negative Implicit Attitudes ; It's Hard to Keep an Open Mind ; Chapter 6: THE GOOD LAWYER THINKS REALISTICALLY ; ABOUT THE FUTURE ; What Research Reveals About the Predictive Abilities of Lawyers ; We Want to Believe the World Is More Predictable Than It Is ; Here Come the Computers ; Being Smart About Probability ; Decision Trees, Game Theory and the Hope of a Better Settlement Process ; Imagining the Future (An Amazing Human Trick) ; The Future Is Hard to See ; Promise Keeping ; A Balance Between Knowing and Doubting ; Chapter 7: THE GOOD LAWYER SERVES THE TRUE INTERESTS OF CLIENTS ; A Story of a Wise Lawyer ; Being Clear About Aims ; Advocates and Counselors ; The Four Possible Aims of Lawyers ; What's Wrong with 'Winning Is Everything"? ; Lawyers as Hired Guns: What's Wrong With Maximizing Client Autonomy? ; Guru Lawyers: What's Wrong with Simply Doing Right as the Lawyer Sees It? ; Lawyers as Friends: Aiming for Client Goodness ; Establishing Trust ; Involving the Client in the Process ; Categorizing and Framing the Issues ; Identifying and Serving the Client's True Interests ; Thinking Like a Judge, Not a Lawyer ; Chapter 8: THE GOOD LAWYER HAS AMPLE WILLPOWER ; One Persistent Lawyer ; Willpower in a Stress-Filled Profession ; The Importance of Willpower ; Mindsets and Willpower ; Willpower Lessons ; Our Finite Supply of Willpower ; Can Willpower Be Strengthened? ; Emotional Traps that Drain Willpower and Harm Decision-Making ; Making the Future Bigger ; Chapter 9: THE GOOD LAWYER IS PERSUASIVE ; Being Honest and Courageous ; Being Empathetic ; Appealing to Moral Intuitions ; Using Words and Sounds That Stick ; Anchoring and Framing ; Respecting Opponents and Making Strategic Concessions ; Preparing Thoroughly ; Chapter 10: SEEKING QUALITY ; The Trajectory of Careers ; The Nature of Practice and What It Means for Quality ; Creating Environments Where Good Lawyers Can Flourish ; The Scourge of Billable Hours ; What a Good Lawyer Does ; Finding Work that Fits Your Strengths ; If You Are a Good Lawyer, Who Will Know? ; At Career's End: Remembrance of Things Past