The different roles lawyers have working in the Collaborative Practice Process compared to the traditional Court system.
Collaborative Practice
Act as Communication Coach
Receives each client as a fresh story with an unknown potential outcome
Active listening - open-ended questions for clear understanding of what is important to client: history, goals, priorities, fears
Views emotions and feelings as important elements of the Collaborative Process that need to be acknowledged and appropriately managed so client functions at best
Counsels and challenges client to transform understanding of what is real, what is possible and what is useful - letting go of attachment to positions
Aims to foster client taking personal responsibility for own life
Sees client's low self-esteem as possible cause of conflict and possibility of change
Understands difference between aggression and assertion
Encourages compassion and enlightened self-interest
Candor, within bounds of lawyer-client privilege
Attaches importance to ongoing trust relationship between lawyers
Court
Give Legal Advice
The law is for lawyers
Tells client what the game plan is
Focus on legal analysis: fact, law, cases
Limited time for client; emphasis on getting the legal work done
Asks closed questions of client for efficient retrieval of essential elements of the case
Categorizes client by problems presented
Clients come to lawyers to shift responsibility for resolving conflict from client to lawyer. Professionals may support client's shifting of responsibility for actions towards others
Lawyer's fault if case is going poorly. "Leave everything to me"
May foster unrealistic goals
Unequal power-based relationship
Views emotions and feelings as distractions from the "real work"
