President’s Message

WHY?

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By: Loretta G. Cravens

Cravens Legal

Happy February! I hope 2023 is off to a great start and that, if you made any resolutions, you have managed to stick to those that matter most to you. I myself refused to engage in any delusional thinking and made no resolutions this year, knowing I am not likely to keep them. Why should this year be any different that all those that preceded it? That was my reasoning…and it made me think about change.

Why am I so resistant to change? Why does it make me uncomfortable? Why am I always looking back to some motion or form I created or obtained in the past when I am addressing a similar issue? Or analyzing an issue based on how it has been analyzed in the past? Much of this was trained into me by law school – always look at the precedent. Much of it was trained into me by the practice of law – do not recreate the wheel if you do not have to. Much of it is because I am personally risk averse. Most of it is probably just habit. None of these things are necessarily negatives, but are they positives?

I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve as an adjunct professor for a number of years and to work with many lawyers who are early in their careers, the challenges they face, the barriers to entry they encounter, the new ideas they have and the change they want to make. Once upon a time, I was that lawyer. Bright eyed and excited, ready to take on the world one courtroom at a time! Ready to be the change! I still try to be, but the reality is sometimes, even most of the time, I am not. I have become used to the norm, the customary, the comfortable, the things I know how to do.

Most of us operate in that space. We march through the practice of law doing things too the way they have always, in our experience, been done, and do not look deeper into the why or exercise creativity in approaching issues and seeking solutions in our work.

If we are not forced to seek change we don’t.

The legal profession is often, in my experience, resistant to change. Lawyers like the known, the comfortable, the efficient (at least we think) means to achieve a desired outcome. Let us consider whether the known, the comfortable, the usual course actually best serves our clients or our profession.

I was recently listening to a podcast where the subject of the interview said something to the effect of the most dangerous phrase in language is “We’ve always done it this way.” I cannot recall which podcast or the identify of the interviewee, but it stuck with me. It troubled me. Partially, because I have both received and given a similar answer. “That’s just how its done.”

I ruminated on it and ultimately succumbed to the temptation to give in to my lawyer brain and do some research. I typed “We’ve always done it this way” into Google, and I was surprised at the number of results. This concept, I learned, has been addressed in business, education, social media, by business coaches, and therapists. I even found an article in Forbes. Maybe the next time you are looking for a distraction you will repeat my Google search and do some light reading. I won’t regurgitate all I learned here, but I do want to share a little something that can help us all evaluate whether we are operating in default mode and identify when change is needed.

Be conscious in your work. By conscious, I mean present. Really present. Not mentally ticking off the task list of things that need to be done in X, Y, Z legal matter, but taking a moment to consider the why of each task. The why in each case. The why for each client. Maybe even the why in each conversation or email. If there is a strong why behind it, great! But if you find yourself thinking something to the effect of because that is the way its done or it is always that way, change is probably warranted.

If someone brings an issue, question, or task to you, and your immediate reaction is “that will never work” or “that’s impossible,” stop. That very thought, alone, justifies a pause. Evaluate why. Given a moment to really evaluate it, you might reach a different conclusion. You might identify a change that can be made and the courage to make it.

The Knoxville Bar Association has always been forward-looking to the needs of its members. Always looking for change and preparing for it, so that when one of us reaches out, the KBA has resources to assist. If you find yourself needing resources to create change, I encourage you to lean in to the KBA. Chances are the resources are there waiting to be found, and if they aren’t we all know the KBA will try to find them.

We can do more, and we should. We should all challenge ourselves to be considered and creative the next time we are facing a familiar issue or task. Creative and considered change is a good thing: good for the lawyers, good for our clients, good for our system of laws, and good for business. I feel the winds of change, and our profession should embrace them.