"Don't give up the ship!"
Today we're talking about the sign that hangs in our conference room...we're talking about not giving up the ship, and we're focusing on results, you know, results matter because there's only a few things that you can deliver to a client right, that's the results, the relationship, and the cost. Those are the things you give to a client and you for damn sure better make sure that that cost is way outweighed by the: relationship and the results.
That's hard to do, right, that's hard to do when you are representing court appointed indigent folks. Because they don't have the money for an attorney of their choice so they got an attorney that the court selected for them. next up on the wheel.
So it's like rolling up, you know. you got to put your dream team together and it's like in the mind of the client they don't know how deep that bench is, they don't know how they're getting the superstar, they're getting to Michael Jordan or they're getting the pick from the dodge ball team. When they were in fifth grade. the last slowest kid, the clumsiest kid, or are they getting Michael Jordan, they don't know that and that's very hard to be thrown together like that, and then start building that relationship and letting them know that you're going to be their Michael Jordan, you're going to be the superstar, you're not going to be the clumsy kid picked last in the dodgeball game in fifth grade.
You're going to be the superstar, the rock star
You're going to help them steer through this 25 to 99 they got coming at them or is it multiple life sentences coming at them whatever it is, misdemeanor charges come, they got something coming at them and it's gonna work down their hope, it's gonna work down their perseverance.
Let's talk about a client who did not give up hope, and i'll say one advantage for that client was being incarcerated, they had already done 200 days waiting for trial because of covid and some other reasons that allowed that client to be clean and sober, six months clean right, was dealing with his feelings , was not able to turn to depressants like alcohol or stimulants, like methamphetamine, cocaine or other things like that, crack, stimulants that make you feel great until you're coming down. Then you got a depressant, so what eradicates hope and persistence is depression, depressants are going to negate hope and perseverance, so this client, because of the fact that he was incarcerated and clean and sober, was able to maintain hope, was able to persevere.
Now, I won't say that he wasn't having a hard time dealing with his feelings, he was, he was having a very hard time. We had an all-white jury, the only african-american people in the courtroom were my clients and his family sitting behind me, and that's where you can make a difference, in you know where peoples lives matter to you, you have to be their superstar, you got to be their Jordan, you've got to help them deal with the feelings the challenges so they can keep persisting, and those are critical times where you've got to encourage them not to give up hope, and you can be that rock.
Don't give up hope we're going to do this and we're going to do it together we're going to go down swinging we're going to get our at-bat
When a client either chooses to, or is forced to in this situation, forced sobriety could you know, you're in jail you can't get your hands on anything that'll mind numb, substances that'll help deal with these emotions and he was able to stay focused, stay positive, stay encouraged. Then things started happening, because of persistence , you get a little momentum, everybody's been in some scenario even if it's the dodgeball game back in the fifth grade, you've seen that scenario right, we've seen it in in sporting events, we've seen it in in athletic events , we've done it in our own lives even when we were children, you start getting a little momentum and then what happens, you get the big momentum, you get the big push, it becomes a wave, it becomes unstoppable and that unstableness is hope and perseverance and that's what made the difference in that case, that client didn't give up the ship , we gained momentum, we got a little bit then we got the big momentum, got the big wave, and we got a great result for somebody who dealt with their emotions.
They face those challenges one after another after another, not with drugs and alcohol, not without dealing with the hard emotions, and the realities of facing a life sentence or maybe one of five or six that could be stacked. So that means if they're stacked, you have to do all of the first one and then half of the second one before you're eligible for parole. We're talking about, you don't have enough years, that's really what it comes down to, how do you stay hopeful and persevere in that situation.
So that's the focus of this that's the focus of this video series, is so you know that in that situation you have to deal with one challenge after another, you have to do it with sobriety, you cannot deal with these pressures by escaping them through drugs and alcohol, which is a lot of these folks- that's how they got in this spot in the first place.
Thank you so much for being a part of this, questions, comments, I love them! Leave me a comment on any blog or video platform you watch or read! And as always, please like, subscribe and share!
You can view the video series that goes along with this blog here: https://youtu.be/auEa2n1I5-E