Bench & Bar March/April 2025

PRESIDENT'S PAGE

finding your Motivation

BY RHONDA JENNINGS BLACKBURN KBA PRESIDENT

A ny lawyer who tells you they have a 100% success rate has either never practiced law or is a liar. The practice of law is by its nature adver sarial. There has to be a winner and a loser. One of my favorite song lyrics is from a Mary Chapin Carpenter song which says, “sometimes you’re the windshield, some times you’re the bug.” In my long legal career, I have been the windshield many, many times but I’ve also been the bug more times than I can count. It took me years to be able to process the losses in a healthy way. In the end, I realized that all I can give my clients is my very best effort. If I believe I represented the client to the best of my ability, then I can sleep at night. Having said that, this job is stressful and it’s hard to find the motivation to give your best effort day in and day out know ing you might not succeed. Over the years, I’ve found that motivation is not a one size fits all concept. Much like a lawsuit, it’s very fact specific. I have come to realize that the places I find motivation fall into distinct categories. LOVE. Sometimes you meet a client, and an instant connection is developed. There’s no rhyme or reason why, you just like them. In those cases, the motivation is love. You care so much about the client that you will do anything to try to help them. Unfor tunately, I’ve found that this is the most

stressful client to have. You can’t help but worry more when you have such a relation ship with your client. But it can also be the representation from which you gain the most personal satisfaction. As I write this, I think of my favorite client of all time. My representation of him was over 15 years ago but this sweet gentleman has brought me candy every Christmas since then. He calls it his “retainer.” He has followed me to two subsequent employers and is the sweetest and most humble person I know. I feel such satisfaction knowing I made a difference in his life and am his friend to this day. MONEY. I’m sure there are some who would say that money is an inappropriate motivator, but I disagree. Obviously, you can’t love every client. Sometimes you don’t even like them. But you undertook to rep resent them, and you should do it to the best of your ability. Therefore, you must look for other motivation. Working hard to earn your living is as good as any other motivator. I have never wanted a dollar that I did not feel I earned. If my motivation to do my best work is to earn my pay, the result to the client is the same. PERSONAL INTEGRITY. Whether my client believes it or not, my own personal pride in my work is a huge motivator to work hard. I believe this comes from being the child of educators. Throughout school, it was drilled into me that quitting is not an option and if something is worth doing, it’s

worth doing right. There have been so many times when giving up seemed to be the eas iest option, but my own personal integrity refused to let me give in. When you don’t give up and dig in to work yourself out of a problem, there is no greater feeling of accomplishment. And if none of those motivators work to encourage best efforts… SPITE. We have all been there. The client is impossible to like. They actively put road blocks in your way while you attempt to help them. Or opposing counsel is bellig erent and unpleasant for no good reason. Do not underestimate spite as an excellent motivator. I would rather die than give in. When faced with that situation, I double my efforts to make sure there is no room to argue that I somehow failed to give my best. When opposing counsel tries to bully me, I prepare harder to counteract their practices. Some of my best work has been done out of spite. The end goal is to give the best representa tion possible and the means by which you find your motivation to do that is immate rial. The key is finding the motivating factor to give your best for that particular client in that particular case. I truly believe that every client I have represented has received the best legal work I am capable of and that has to be good enough.

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march/april 2025