Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence can be an attorney’s secret weapon—even for litigators, like me, maybe even especially for us.

More and more, EQ (emotional intelligence) is taking centerstage. Why?

Because, at their core, contracts and businesses—and the disputes that follow them—are made up of humans, human relationships, and humans interacting with one another.

Most disputes boil down to one thing: someone—often everyone—wants to be heard.

The contract might be the foundation of the dispute, but what caused it to boil over? Probably many small cuts—miscommunications, unmet expectations, wounded pride, and built up (or pent up) emotions.

Even for the fiercest businessmen and women, it can be personal. It can be about the principle of the thing.

So, knowing the elements of the claims, amount of damages, strategy to employ—the typical litigation things—is not enough.

You must know and be in tune to the human element, the human story.

You must know and be in tune to the human audience, the human fact finders.

The contract terms, rules of civil procedure, case law and statutes are our guides and guardrails, but cases rise and fall on the human experience, the human desire for fairness and justice, and often on humans imperfectly applying it all.

♥️✌🏻🔥