We all (attorneys) started in law for a reason, often in the hopes of making the world a better place in some way. Remembering those reasons and stepping out of the box is a healthy step for us all.

~ Mark
@condolaw on twitter

Angela, it sounds as if your experience working with family conflict has shown you the areas for improvement in the practice of family law. I think myself that one place to begin to reshape legal thinking and legal approaches to problem solving and dispute resolution is in law school. Suffolk University law professor David Yamada, an authority on healthy workplaces, has some interesting thoughts at his blog about the role of legal education in changing attitudes among attorneys about approaches to dispute resolution.

The very unfortunate part of this is, the lawyers who do care about a good resolution seem to blend into the wood work. No one says (to everyone they meet) “Hey, my lawyer was great I felt we ended up with a resolution that worked for everyone.” When people are vocal about their attorney, it’s usually because they are unhappy.

I also don’t necessarily think every attorney approaches these situations with total disregard for the situation as a whole, but some very likely take their obligation to act solely in their clients best interests very much to heart (as they should), but as we know, sometimes what’s in the parents best interests and what’s in the child’s best interests are not always the same. How does the lawyer with a heart reconcile their obligation to protect their client with (maybe) a personal conviction to work towards the greater good???