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Thompson Hine LLP, a full-service business law firm with approximately 400 lawyers in 11 offices, was ranked number 1 in the category “Most innovative North American law firms: New working models” by The Financial Times and was 1 of 7 firms shortlisted for The American Lawyer’s inaugural Legal Services Innovation Award. The firm has been recognized by the National Law Journal as a Legal Technology Trailblazer and featured by Bloomberg for its innovative service delivery models, which drive accuracy and predictability. The firm’s commitment to innovation is embodied in Thompson Hine SmartPaTHTM – a smarter way to work – predictable, efficient and aligned with client goals. For more information, please visit ThompsonHine.com and ThompsonHine.com/SmartPaTH.

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<img style="max-width: 100%;height: auto;max-width: 100%;height: auto" loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2162" src="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/754/2015/11/Thankfulness-300x200.jpg" alt="Thankfulness" width="300" height="200">Last year at this time, we published this post on gratitude, and it resonated with a lot of lawyers.&nbsp; Here it is again, slightly revised.&nbsp; Have a grateful Thanksgiving holiday.
Looking at the roiling current of world events, many of them dark and discouraging, can&nbsp;justifiably make us anxious and depressed.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our times seem indelibly marked by&nbsp;war, political turmoil,&nbsp;terrorism, desperate migration, environmental degradation,&nbsp;siege.&nbsp;&nbsp;But&nbsp;here in the U.S., we will nonetheless sit down on Thanksgiving&nbsp; Day with family and friends for a shared meal that&nbsp;is the proper antithesis &mdash; perhaps the strongest one&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;to hate, death and destruction.
And while you&nbsp;are&nbsp;feeling generally grateful, you should also think about your life in the law, in particular.&nbsp;&nbsp;Academic legal&nbsp;scholars have examined the trait of gratitude and how it is&nbsp;and can be expressed in our&nbsp;chosen profession.
In&nbsp;her excellent 2012 <a href="http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndjlepp/vol20/iss1/7/?utm_source=scholarship.law.nd.edu%2Fndjlepp%2Fvol20%2Fiss1%2F7&amp;utm_medium=PDF&amp;utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages">article</a>,&nbsp;which appeared in the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics &amp; Public Policy, author&nbsp;Reed Elizabeth Loder says that &ldquo;Gratitude might be a curious topic at a time that the public maligns, even demonizes lawyers.&nbsp; Asking lawyers to endure social scorn and yet feel thankful seems a double insult.&nbsp; Yet ... every lawyer should cultivate, feel, and act upon a special type of gratitude &mdash; call it legal gratitude.&rdquo;
Cultivating this attitude, says Loder, can be a &ldquo;sustaining source of ethical inspiration to lawyers.&rdquo;&nbsp; Having that inspiration&nbsp;can provide us with the outlook we need if we are to&nbsp;survive in our challenging profession with our inmost beings intact.
So here are five reasons to specifically be thankful for&nbsp;being a lawyer.
<ul>
<li>Our knowledge, skill and training are gifts.&nbsp; Whether a GC of a Fortune 500, or a contract lawyer doing document review, we&nbsp;should recognize that&nbsp;we have&nbsp;achieved a privileged status in society that has&nbsp;improved our own lives, and created personal&nbsp;opportunities.&nbsp; Even if we have earned our professional status by our own hard work, we have to acknowledge that we have &ldquo;social and personal privileges&rdquo; by virtue of&nbsp;the&nbsp;generally just society that permitted us to acquire&nbsp;our status, Loder writes.&nbsp; &ldquo;Whereas citizens owe gratitude to their government for general belonging and public benefits, the lawyer owes special gratitude for a legal heritage that bestows greater than normal benefits.&nbsp; For this aura surrounding a life in the law, the lawyer should feel grateful.&rdquo;</li>
<li>Our work has purpose.&nbsp;&nbsp;More important than the concrete social advantages that being a lawyer brings to us, &ldquo;are the possibilities a lawyer acquires for a meaningful professional and personal life.&nbsp; The law is a worthy profession because it serves the intrinsic good of justice ... Unlike many forms of work, legal work has an overarching purpose as its measure.&rdquo;&nbsp; Even when we struggle to find that purpose in the face of moral and practical uncertainty, &ldquo;it is a privilege to have some standard of goodness&rdquo; by which we calibrate our professional integrity.</li>
<li>We have the ability to change society.&nbsp; &ldquo;Because law is so central in a contemporary society that has few other shared cultural moorings, the lawyer is privileged to effectuate social changes that few have the power even to touch.&nbsp; ... Lawyers can influence, to small or large extent, legal reform and justice in particular cases.&rdquo;</li>
<li>We have the opportunity to help.&nbsp; As Loder says, &ldquo;there is never a shortage of satisfying work for those lawyers who can make time to donate their expertise to represent otherwise voiceless clients or causes.&rdquo;</li>
<li>We have the opportunity to grow personally.&nbsp; Whatever you call your inner being &mdash; your soul, your psyche, your character &mdash; being a lawyer presents an&nbsp;incredible opportunity to refine and perfect it.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This concept&nbsp;may get lost in the hurly burly of daily practice, with its competitiveness and all the ordinary encounters we have that can diminish and dispirit us.&nbsp; But at bottom, as Loder puts it, &ldquo;the legal experiences that spur lawyers to perfect their craft and cultivate personal traits like patience and fortitude are the sources of gratitude.&rdquo;</li>
</ul>
Our privileged position in society, the chance to&nbsp;do good work and serve a just system, the opportunity to&nbsp;serve others &mdash; all these build our own capacity for generosity and caring, and bring meaning to our own lives.
For these things, we should be grateful.

core/freeform

Ethics

Legal Ethics, Professional Responsibility and the Business of Law

Five reasons why lawyers should be thankful