January 2021
The MLO Minute: By, Dennis McAndrews, Esq. —
Sesame Street is known for beginning their shows with a comment that the show is being “sponsored“ by a letter or a number such as “Today’s show is brought to you by the letter Q.“ In that spirit, today’s MLO Minute is brought to you by the letter “P”.
Admittedly, this concept may seem unusual for a law firm’s electronic newsletter, but this article allows me the opportunity to provide our clients, colleagues, and friends with some novel perspectives about our work and our firm culture. I hope you notice how many “Ps“ are discussed in the article below.
On a Professional level, we adhere to the tenets of a negotiating book titled The Power of Nice, and we conduct internal training using this remarkable text by Ron Shapiro. At first blush, such a title might seem that it would offer weak ineffectual negotiating techniques (rather than aggressive, “in your face“ approaches), but this book instead teaches that a successful negotiation must recognize and understand the interests of all parties, while providing clear and highly effective techniques to enhance settlements. These approaches focus on “The Three Ps“—Prepare, Probe, and Propose. To be successful, it is critical that an attorney fully Prepare a case and Probe the interests of the other side, and only then moving ahead to Propose effective solutions to bring the matter to a successful conclusion. This approach greatly enhances successful resolutions, while maintaining civility and allowing the parties to resolve differences without becoming enemies.
On a Personal level, the letter “P” has a somewhat unique meaning for me, because every day I ask for Peace, Patience, Perseverance, and Perspective. These attributes have become facets of our firm culture from its inception some 38 years ago. In our work to meet the needs of our clients in our fields of practice, we endeavor to provide them with Peace of mind and helpful Perspectives concerning whatever issue we address for them. It is always our privilege to work with those we serve and to address their needs with Patience, Perseverance and Proficiency.
