Why is empathy an element in all the courses I teach to law students?

Why is empathy important to run a successful business (especially now, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution *and* as we emerge from a pandemic)?

Why is practicing empathy an important skill for lawyers?
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This thread isn't about my opinion. See below for links to resources that address empathy and its role in business and in legal education.

I conduct research on the role of empathy in legal education and the profession & offer the following for those who may be curious.

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Empathy in the workplace: "Empathic workplaces tend to enjoy stronger collaboration, less stress, and greater morale, and their employees bounce back more quickly from difficult moments such as layoffs."

https://bit.ly/3syjUEF 

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Empathy in leading business change: "Develop and show empathy for everyone involved in your corporate transition, and you’ll lead a team that feels valued, included, and driven to help your initiative succeed."

https://bit.ly/3qypZ2n 

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Why empathy is just good for business: "Our ability to see the world from the perspective of others is one of the most crucial tools in our business toolbox."

https://bit.ly/35RTYds 

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This study looked at the role of empathy both by and for customers in service businesses—empathy as a loop, practiced by both employees and customers.

Some contend that law schools can/should be viewed primarily as a service "business."

Does empathy *by* customers matter?

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Does empathy matter in the "business of law," specifically?

"For lawyers, the relationship with clients may involve a purely intellectual connection or it may also involve an emotional one. The ability to create an emotional connection—fueled by empathy

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and authentic listening—is powerful. This draws on a great lesson that master teachers know well—'no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.'

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"Lawyers orient to fact, not feeling. The message from clients shouts loud and clear that their lawyers’ one-dimensional approach of focusing predominantly on facts needs to change.

When lawyers become more person-centred,

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and not exclusively problem-centred, the lawyer/client relationship can blossom and improve.”

See "Walking in Your Client’s Shoes – Why Empathy is the Next Big Thing in Law"

https://bit.ly/39FlZpZ 
"Both formal and informal studies uniformly show that the quality of the client-lawyer relationship may be at least equal in importance with a lawyer's substantive legal knowledge.

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In fact, the relationship may even surpass the lawyer's legal expertise in the client's mind."

See "Clients, Empathy, and Compassion: Introducing First-Year Students to the "Heart" of Lawyering"

https://bit.ly/3qwzhfk 
"The lawyer who is able to listen with empathy to the client's problems can strengthen the case, increase the client's satisfaction and improve the business aspects of the lawyer's practice."

See "Empathy Training for Lawyers and Law Students"

https://bit.ly/38SIQiB 

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What about in law schools specifically?

"The connections forged by empathy are collaborative as we let students in on our pedagogical choices and respond to their cues."

See "The Power of the Empathetic Classroom"
https://bit.ly/39ILLcD 

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"Both scholarship and anecdotal evidence support the conclusion that an empathic attorney-client relationship benefits client and lawyer at every stage of litigation."

From "Teaching the Power of Empathy in Domestic and Transnational Experiential Public Defender Courses"

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The article finds that "students in these experiential classroom settings displayed a willingness to to take the emotional risks necessary to learn how to relate empathically with their clients, overcoming a common set of obstacles to learning along the way."

And,

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that irrespective of levels of experience, ethnicity, nationality and personality, current & future public defenders share the view that there is value in learning how to put oneself in the shoes of others, most particularly clients, but prosecutors and judges as well."

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See "Teaching the Power of Empathy in Domestic and Transnational Experiential Public Defender Courses"

https://bit.ly/2LWGW7E 

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"Empathy is among the most important lawyering skills that students can learn in a clinic. It has been described as 'the cornerstone of not only professional interpersonal relations, but also any meaningful human relationship.'"

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"[E]mpathetic lawyering requires the lawyer to look at the legal system through the client's eyes. In addition, the lawyer must prepare the client for, and guide the client through, an encounter with that system."
See "Clients Don't Take Sabbaticals: The Indispensable In-House Clinic and the Teaching of Empathy"

https://bit.ly/3nOSd7f 
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