Zealous Advocate or Raging Bull – Overcoming Anger in the Legal Environment

The practice of law, by its nature, is an adversarial profession. As an attorney, you strive to advocate for your client’s benefit and you seek to obtain the best possible outcome for your client. Often, however, emotions rise, tempers flare, and you find yourself in the middle of an angry outburst – either your own or that of another person.
 
Uncontrolled and unresolved anger rarely, if ever, benefits you, your client, or the legal system. To the contrary, excessive anger undermines effective communication between parties, weakens your credibility, and damages the relationships that are critical to negotiating a satisfactory outcome or winning your case. In addition, anger issues often create challenges beyond your law practice, including strained personal relationships, depression and anxiety, substance abuse, and other physical and mental health issues.
 
This program is about “overcoming” anger, NOT “managing” anger. In other words, it’s about creating a path towards significantly reducing the anger level in your life, instead of simply retaining but trying to “manage” an otherwise unhealthy level of anger. In this presentation you will learn:
 

• What is anger?
• What triggers an angry response?
• The negative effects of anger
• How to recognize when you’re angry, why you’re angry, and how you can shift your thinking to neutralize and     overcome the anger in order to create an appropriate and healthy response instead of an angry reaction

Chair:
Jere Friedman, Weiss Brown