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Abstract

This paper presents a model for lawyer-client interaction in the opening moments of an initial encounter. The model is derived from empirical data- videotaped and transcribed law student-client and attorney-client first interviews- which demonstrate that clients reveal critical self-information in their opening words, regardless of when those words occur and regardless of the legal interviewer's role in eliciting them. This information usually is not acknowledged by legal interviewers, with negative consequences. Failure to hear and see affects the legal interviewer's ability to form a relationship with a client, to comprehend the full range of information the client needs to share, and to collaborate with the client to tell a story in legally and emotionally effective language. As a shorthand, it may be useful to think of the information clients reveal as stress, and the legal interviewer's failure to respond as a failure of empathy. It can be expected that clients from all demographic groups may experience some degree of stress when they see a lawyer. Low-income clients- those most likely to be served by a law-school clinic- are in situations of stress almost by definition. They are being evicted, they are caught up in the criminal or juvenile justice system, they are disabled and unable to work, they have been cut off from food stamps or some other public benefit central to their survival, they are in the midst of divorce. These stressful challenges occur within a life-world with its unique set of concerns and values and its complex social context. Too often, legal professionals troll for "facts," ignoring that their clients do not present "facts" in isolation from the context of their lives. Emotional expression is a recurrent event that should be expected, and lawyers should be prepared to respond. Seen in that light, the model I suggest adds to the work of those who explore empathy, its boundaries, and the possibilities of teaching empathy.

Publication Title

Clinical Law Review

Volume

4

Issue

2

First Page

321

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