You are the expert

You Know Your LIFE Better than your Lawyer or Judge Ever Will

I just took a telemarketing call from someone wanting to tell me how to get a “preeminent” rating from their service. I told him that that did not fit with who we are as a firm. Although I could not explain it to him at the time, here is the reason why. The “preeminent” rating is meant to say to clients, future clients and other attorneys that “I am the expert.” (Lawyers are not supposed to say that they are the experts directly but this is a way to say it without saying it.) It says, trust me, do what I say and pay my fees (no matter how outrageous they may be).

Why does that not fit with who we are at Quinn Law & Mediation, LLC? Because we are not the experts, our clients are. Yes, we have a lot of valuable expertise, knowledge and wisdom that can help get the job done. There is no doubt that we know things that our clients don’t. That is why they come to us for guidance. But as mediator Tammy Lenski says, “People are experts in their own experience.”

There is a big difference between telling someone what to do because you are the expert and challenging someone to look at something in a new way. We prefer to take the second route. We respect that people are the experts on their own situations, but we come to the situation with fresh eyes. We can say, “What would happen if you did this?” Or, “What makes you think that?” Or, “Have you thought about this?”

We believe that the people who choose to work with us want to be their very best selves. They might be stuck now, but they want to do better for themselves and their families. When we work together, using what our clients know and what we know, we have the greatest chance of reaching an outcome that will work for everyone and that will give everyone involved the opportunity to become the person they were meant to be.