President's Perspective: Perception is reality

By Steven R. Sorenson

"Perception is reality." Each person has individualistic perceptions, different ways of looking at things, yet each person is able to change his or her perception and, thus, change reality.

This message was conveyed to me as I listened to an audiotape on my way to Madison last week. Each time the author mentioned "perception is reality" and the ability to change perception, I thought about our role as lawyers. Isn't that what we do; don't we try to change reality?

When we meet with clients, when we negotiate contracts, when we approach the jury, are we not asking people to move away from their own perceptions and see things the way we perceive them? Aren't we frustrated when people don't see things our way?

A law office consultant commented recently that lawyers' biggest problem is, "Lawyers just don't know when to stop 'lawyering.'" This is a major factor in the expanding negative image of the legal community. Our stubbornness, our conviction to our own perception of the facts blinds us to the perceived reality enjoyed by the rest of society. If "perception is reality" and if one's perception is based upon one's training, life experiences, and social relationships, how can we believe that our perceived legal reality, our view of life, now or in the future, will ever coincide with society's view?

Think about a legislator's perceptions when the legislator reviews a bill, such as the recent bill to increase the number of circuit court judges in Wisconsin. How does the legislator judge the value of the bill? Does she view it from the perspective of a lawyer who is regularly in court or as a taxpayer who believes she'll never need the services of the justice system? The obvious answer is as the taxpayer, or more likely as the candidate who wants to be reelected by the taxpayer. Lawyers need to remember that taxpayers view legislation through the filter provided by media accounts and coffee shop discussions. Conflicts are generated when people do not recognize others' reality positions. As lawyers, when we deal with political entities or community groups it does no good for us to condemn these people or their thoughts by declaring, "They do not understand." Even when these governmental officials are looking at the same set of numbers, circumstances, and explanations, theirs can be a very different conclusion than ours as lawyers. Each conclusion can be correct; it is just that their differing realities are formed through different perceptions.

I witnessed conflicting perceived realities when we worked on the facilities issue for the State Bar this year. At first it seemed incredible to me that so many members just did not perceive reality as I did. How could a group of lawyers reviewing the same set of statistics, listening to the same staff members, interviewing the same consultants, and viewing the same physical structures, suggest the existence of a reality that was so different from what I perceived as the undeniable facts? The truth is each of us had different lenses through which we viewed the facts. These differing views let individual committee members see the solution differently. Even differing perceptions would be okay except, as lawyers, we operated as advocates and to some degree purists. For many it became "my way is the only way" or "my reality is the true reality." This type of hard-line stubbornness created mistrust and animosity. Thankfully, we have moved away from that approach, have agreed to disagree and to work together so progress could be made.

In many of my previous columns, I have talked about the differences each of us experiences based upon our own unique law practice. I have talked about the need for tolerance and understanding, and the need to appreciate the diversity of our membership. Now I suggest that we, as representatives of the legal community in Wisconsin, expand and apply this understanding to the greater community ­ to don others' perception lenses in order to see what others perceive as reality.

Current membership surveys reinforce the lawyers' belief that they are being unfairly judged by society as a whole. However, as lawyers we are too stubborn, too fixed in our own realities to recognize that before we can tackle this image problem, we need to understand how the average citizen perceives the practice of law and the justice system. We cannot expect the general public to perceive judges, witnesses, prosecutors, defendants or other members of our legal system in the same way attorneys do. Society will base its view of the justice system on its limited experiences with the system and on the renditions it finds in the media.

Given this conclusion, can we expect John or Jane Citizen to understand the need for more litigation? Can we really expect the local taxpayer to appreciate the need to tie up courts and tax dollars to resolve such issues as the President's social life, tobacco abuse, death penalty delays, Indian fishing rights, or the like? From the public's vantage point lawyers are costing them money and doing nothing for them personally except exhausting the resources of government and businesses for which they work.

It is like the Crandon Mine issue. I have a client who owns several hundred acres of land in Forest County. This client thinks all of the environmental lawyers are crooks and "druggies" because they do not understand the realities of the economics of Forest County. My client is convinced that if it weren't for lawyers, who really only care about the money they can make, the Crandon Mine would have been operational by now, his land would have been purchased, and the economy of Forest County improved significantly. Then look at the same issue from the perspective of someone who lives outside the area but who likes to spend weekends bicycling on the back roads of Forest County and stops to enjoy the creek that runs through my client's land. This person may perceive lawyers as despots using legal loopholes, big money, and corrupt business practices to ravage the landscape and destroy the environment ­ all in the name of economic growth and development.

Or, consider the difference in attitudes of the mother of a 17-year-old who was just waived into adult court because he flipped his vehicle after a graduation party, killing his passenger. That mother probably considers the waiver into adult court a travesty, an injustice, and an inappropriate legal maneuver by the district attorney simply to garner more votes in a coming election. But, if you are reading this story in a newspaper or listening to a conservative editorial advocating a get-tough-on-juveniles policy, you might wonder why justice takes so long, why there have to be juvenile court hearings, and why it isn't automatic that every child with a driver's license be advanced into adult court for punishment. "It is all a matter of perception."

As representatives of the legal community, it is our responsibility to take this realization and use it to our advantage. This insight can help attorneys improve the image of the legal system. As lawyers, we need to step back and look at ourselves through the perceptions of others. We need to ask the general public why they perceive lawyers the way they do. We need to stop debating with the general public, the Legislature, and other professionals and start listening. We need to change our perceptions so we as lawyers can change our realities. The legal community must open up its collective mind so our realities begin to coincide with the realities of the rest of society. We must do this with recognition that there will be times when it is important for the legal community to maintain its reality; then lawyers need to educate the public, not criticize the public's perspective. Never can we use a stubborn resistance to change in perception as an excuse for condemning everyone else in order to validate our own reality.

Just as a law office administrator explains to the partners, "You have to quit looking at the law firm from a lawyer's perspective and start looking at it from the client's perspective. Only if you look at the way you manage and operate your law firm from a client's perspective can you truly understand where your practice is going." Likewise, only if lawyers understand that it is society's reality that counts and not the lawyers' will the image problem be improved.

Remember, it is all a matter of perception and perception can be changed.

Wisconsin Lawyer