Thread by @inspiredcat, Why is empathy an element in all the courses I teach to [...]

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?

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.

:d

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

Making Empathy Central to Your Company Culture

Highlight the right behaviors.

https://bit.ly/3syjUEF

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

The Secret to Leading Organizational Change Is Empathy

You’re leading people, after all.

https://bit.ly/3qypZ2n

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

4 Reasons Why Empathy Is Good for Business

How this traditionally soft skill yields hard, bottom-line results for organizations big and small

https://bit.ly/35RTYds

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?

"The study reveals that customer empathy strengthens the positive effect of employee empathy on customer satisfaction, leading to more 'symbiotic interactions.'"

Abstract: https://bit.ly/39BDpDM

On the Role of Empathy in Customer-Employee Interactions - Jan Wieseke, Anja Geigenmüller, Florian...

While the service literature repeatedly emphasizes the role of empathy in service interactions, studies on empathy in customer-employee interactions are nearly ...

https://bit.ly/39BDpDM

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

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.'

And if people don’t believe you care about them, few other values may matter to a client—including an attorney’s intellect or mastery of the law."

- CO AG Phil Weiser, 12/2020

https://bit.ly/35RnQH7

Prepared remarks: Attorney General Phil Weiser discusses leading with empathy with the Colorado Bar...

It is an honor to join you today and to offer my perspective on how we in Colorado can elevate the role of the legal profession and the role of lawyers in our society. In my talk today, I will […]

https://bit.ly/35RnQH7

"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,

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.

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

Is empathy an important skill to teach to professional students?

See "Empathy: The Most Valuable Thing They Teach at HBS"

https://bit.ly/39HQQlK

Empathy: The Most Valuable Thing They Teach at HBS

These probably aren’t words that you were expecting to see in the same sentence — Harvard Business School and empathy. But as I reflect back on my time as a student there, I’ve begun to realize that...

https://bit.ly/39HQQlK

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

"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"

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,

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."

:down

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

https://bit.ly/2LWGW7E

"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.'"

"[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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