WEEK 193 The Contestant

It’s a little ironic that after working for horrible Howard, I landed on my feet working for an employment lawyer.

My firm is corporate – in that we represent more corporate employers than we do individual employees. As you’ll appreciate, when we do act for employees, I go out of my way to offer what small support I can.

I may have gone a little far.

During a phone call to my boss a couple of weeks ago, one of our employee clients began waxing lyrical about how wonderful I was. Later, scratching his head in confusion, my boss repeated her comments. It seemed strange to him that I was, at least for this client, I was a secretarial shoulder to cry on.

Then, when the client came in for a meeting and a female solicitor said hello, she jumped up in front of my boss and said “Are you Eva? I was hoping to meet you!” “No” explained the female solicitor, bemused.

“She’s a tower of strength!” she announced to my colleagues.

I couldn’t help smiling when they told me later. They now refer to her as my ‘best friend’. And now more employees are being called my ‘best friend’ – even when they’re on the other side of the litigation. You see, when they’re representing themselves, we have to contact them direct. “You can phone him,” I’m instructed. “He’s best friends with you”.

It’s not that I’m over friendly – which is why my boss can’t work out why I’m so popular sometimes. It’s just that I’ve been there myself. I know what they’re going through. How a party to litigation feels about their legal position is irrelevant to most lawyers. But I wonder now whether this is simply a lack of understanding about how scared and anxious their individual clients often are. It’s true that nothing compares with first-hand experience. As Professor Zimbardo wrote in The Lucifer Effect:-

“It is the difference between being an audience member at a game show and being the contestant on stage.”

I may not be on stage anymore, but I’m certainly seeing everything from the front row.

Best wishes

BBTB x