President's Perspective: Perception is reality
By Steven R.
Sorenson
"Perception is reality." Each person has individualistic perceptions,
different ways of looking at things, yet each person is able to change
his or her perception and, thus, change reality.
This message was conveyed to me as I listened to an audiotape on my
way to Madison last week. Each time the author mentioned "perception is
reality" and the ability to change perception, I thought about our role
as lawyers. Isn't that what we do; don't we try to change reality?
When we meet with clients, when we negotiate
contracts, when we approach the jury, are we not asking people to move
away from their own perceptions and see things the way we perceive them?
Aren't we frustrated when people don't see things our way?
A law office consultant commented recently that lawyers' biggest
problem is, "Lawyers just don't know when to stop 'lawyering.'" This is
a major factor in the expanding negative image of the legal community.
Our stubbornness, our conviction to our own perception of the facts
blinds us to the perceived reality enjoyed by the rest of society. If
"perception is reality" and if one's perception is based upon one's
training, life experiences, and social relationships, how can we believe
that our perceived legal reality, our view of life, now or in the
future, will ever coincide with society's view?
Think about a legislator's perceptions when the legislator reviews a
bill, such as the recent bill to increase the number of circuit court
judges in Wisconsin. How does the legislator judge the value of the
bill? Does she view it from the perspective of a lawyer who is regularly
in court or as a taxpayer who believes she'll never need the services of
the justice system? The obvious answer is as the taxpayer, or more
likely as the candidate who wants to be reelected by the taxpayer.
Lawyers need to remember that taxpayers view legislation through the
filter provided by media accounts and coffee shop discussions. Conflicts
are generated when people do not recognize others' reality positions. As
lawyers, when we deal with political entities or community groups it
does no good for us to condemn these people or their thoughts by
declaring, "They do not understand." Even when these governmental
officials are looking at the same set of numbers, circumstances, and
explanations, theirs can be a very different conclusion than ours as
lawyers. Each conclusion can be correct; it is just that their differing
realities are formed through different perceptions.
I witnessed conflicting perceived realities when we worked on the
facilities issue for the State Bar this year. At first it seemed
incredible to me that so many members just did not perceive reality as I
did. How could a group of lawyers reviewing the same set of statistics,
listening to the same staff members, interviewing the same consultants,
and viewing the same physical structures, suggest the existence of a
reality that was so different from what I perceived as the undeniable
facts? The truth is each of us had different lenses through which we
viewed the facts. These differing views let individual committee members
see the solution differently. Even differing perceptions would be okay
except, as lawyers, we operated as advocates and to some degree purists.
For many it became "my way is the only way" or "my reality is the true
reality." This type of hard-line stubbornness created mistrust and
animosity. Thankfully, we have moved away from that approach, have
agreed to disagree and to work together so progress could be made.
In many of my previous columns, I have talked about the differences
each of us experiences based upon our own unique law practice. I have
talked about the need for tolerance and understanding, and the need to
appreciate the diversity of our membership. Now I suggest that we, as
representatives of the legal community in Wisconsin, expand and apply
this understanding to the greater community to don others'
perception lenses in order to see what others perceive as reality.
Current membership surveys reinforce the lawyers' belief that they
are being unfairly judged by society as a whole. However, as lawyers we
are too stubborn, too fixed in our own realities to recognize that
before we can tackle this image problem, we need to understand how the
average citizen perceives the practice of law and the justice system. We
cannot expect the general public to perceive judges, witnesses,
prosecutors, defendants or other members of our legal system in the same
way attorneys do. Society will base its view of the justice system on
its limited experiences with the system and on the renditions it finds
in the media.
Given this conclusion, can we expect John or Jane Citizen to
understand the need for more litigation? Can we really expect the local
taxpayer to appreciate the need to tie up courts and tax dollars to
resolve such issues as the President's social life, tobacco abuse, death
penalty delays, Indian fishing rights, or the like? From the public's
vantage point lawyers are costing them money and doing nothing for them
personally except exhausting the resources of government and businesses
for which they work.
It is like the Crandon Mine issue. I have a client who owns several
hundred acres of land in Forest County. This client thinks all of the
environmental lawyers are crooks and "druggies" because they do not
understand the realities of the economics of Forest County. My client is
convinced that if it weren't for lawyers, who really only care about the
money they can make, the Crandon Mine would have been operational by
now, his land would have been purchased, and the economy of Forest
County improved significantly. Then look at the same issue from the
perspective of someone who lives outside the area but who likes to spend
weekends bicycling on the back roads of Forest County and stops to enjoy
the creek that runs through my client's land. This person may perceive
lawyers as despots using legal loopholes, big money, and corrupt
business practices to ravage the landscape and destroy the environment
all in the name of economic growth and development.
Or, consider the difference in attitudes of the mother of a
17-year-old who was just waived into adult court because he flipped his
vehicle after a graduation party, killing his passenger. That mother
probably considers the waiver into adult court a travesty, an injustice,
and an inappropriate legal maneuver by the district attorney simply to
garner more votes in a coming election. But, if you are reading this
story in a newspaper or listening to a conservative editorial advocating
a get-tough-on-juveniles policy, you might wonder why justice takes so
long, why there have to be juvenile court hearings, and why it isn't
automatic that every child with a driver's license be advanced into
adult court for punishment. "It is all a matter of perception."
As representatives of the legal community, it is our responsibility
to take this realization and use it to our advantage. This insight can
help attorneys improve the image of the legal system. As lawyers, we
need to step back and look at ourselves through the perceptions of
others. We need to ask the general public why they perceive lawyers the
way they do. We need to stop debating with the general public, the
Legislature, and other professionals and start listening. We need to
change our perceptions so we as lawyers can change our realities. The
legal community must open up its collective mind so our realities begin
to coincide with the realities of the rest of society. We must do this
with recognition that there will be times when it is important for the
legal community to maintain its reality; then lawyers need to educate
the public, not criticize the public's perspective. Never can we use a
stubborn resistance to change in perception as an excuse for condemning
everyone else in order to validate our own reality.
Just as a law office administrator explains to the partners, "You
have to quit looking at the law firm from a lawyer's perspective and
start looking at it from the client's perspective. Only if you look at
the way you manage and operate your law firm from a client's perspective
can you truly understand where your practice is going." Likewise, only
if lawyers understand that it is society's reality that counts and not
the lawyers' will the image problem be improved.
Remember, it is all a matter of perception and perception can be
changed.
Wisconsin
Lawyer