“Thank you so much for all you have done for me.  For your kindness, skill, compassion, generosity…but mostly, for believing in me…I am truly thankful.  Blessings, C.L.”

“Thank you for your excellent services.  My wife and I appreciate your careful attention to our family’s legal matters.  B.J.”

“It’s been a long journey with a Happy Ending!  We could not have done it without your help and your professionalism.  We appreciate how nice and considerate you have been with us.  Thank you very much!!  The G. Family”

“A little thank you for your kindness, patience, and understanding.  I felt a bridge to friendship and caring in you.  I think you are special.  B. S.”

“Things have finally settled down from my parent’s illnesses and my father’s passing.  I can’t thank you enough for pushing us to get our ducks in a row when we visited you.  For months, I walked around with the Financial Power of Attorney and Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care in my purse (both parents).  Can’t imagine how much harder life would have been without them. E. S.”

“Thank you so very much for your help.  You gave me the confidence to go through the process for my son.  He is going to be so much happier…thanks again.” D.F.

“I wanted to let you know how thankful I am that I met you and that you represented me during my divorce.  Not only are you a fabulous attorney, but you are a fantastic person!  My life is good and the girls are doing great.  I owe so much to you for helping me during my tough divorce.  I look forward to being friends with you now that the worst is over for me.  I feel blessed that you came into my life.”  J.M.

“Thank you so much, for everything!  Having you as our lawyer was a big blessing!  We love the photos you sent us and loved being able to share them with our friends, who have been praying for us.  Thank you also, for all your hard work and dedication!  :)”  C.K.

“Thank you so much, Karen.  I can’t imagine having a better attorney.  You not only encouraged me, but even put me in my place a few times!  I needed it though.  Lauri, thanks again for your attentiveness, promptness, and professionalism.  You two are a great team.  I hope I never have to recommend a divorce attorney, but I would gladly send anyone your way.”  J.D.

“I just wanted to thank you once again for the fantastic job you did in our bitter sweet experience yesterday.  It meant everything to my family….”  T.M.

“Thank you for your encouragement and support.  Those are things that cannot be paid for and is only given by a good person that cares.”

“I am grateful for all your help this past year.  Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!” J.D.

“Thank you so much for the time and care you took to help my son through his difficult journey.  It means a great deal to me.” T.S.

“Thank you for your excellent help and advice.”  A.S.

“Hi, Karen, I just want to really say thank you for everything.  You’ve made this whole ordeal actually positive since it is a subject that most don’t like to face.  Both you and Lauri are the best.  We will keep in touch and hopefully not have to revisit this issue again.”  C.D.

“I really enjoyed talking with you last week.  Feeling hopeful for the first time in ages.”  D.

“Karen, Thank you for all your help.  You are wonderful.  Thank you, C.”

“Dear Karen: Thank  you so much for helping us with our Wills.  We so appreciate all your time. We feel so blessed to have had your help…” D.R.

No lawyer can promise you a specific outcome or result.  No lawyer can promise you that the legal strategies employed will be perfect.  But we can promise to care about you and your legal matter,  and we can promise to do our very best for each and every client.

Thank you for being great clients, and thank you for your feedback!  Love our clients!

Karen S. Hindson, Hindson & Melton LLC, 2016

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• STEPPARENT ADOPTION GEORGIA LAW
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• ATTORNEYS FEES GEORGIA DIVORCE

Among the lecture titles:  Making High-Stakes Decisions, Cognitive Biases, Avoiding Decision-Making Traps, Intuition-Recognizing Patterns, Reasoning by Analogy, Deciding How to Decide, Achieving Closure through Small Wins, and Asking the Right Questions.   The value of this information to attorneys desiring to become better advocates and advisors is apparent.   While every lawyer should be a student of human behavior, optimally the lawyer and client work together to think critically about the client’s cause and objectives.   Increased awareness of cognitive biases will result in more effective representation and a better attorney-client relationship.

Some quotes from the outline that may be particularly relevant in the family law context:

• Emotions can either motivate us or at times paralyze us when we make important decisions.
• Strategic decisions often evolve over time and proceed through an iterative process of choice and action.  We often take some actions, make sense of those actions, and then make some decisions about how we want to move forward.
• Our intuition can be very powerful, but at times, we make mistakes as we match what we are seeing to patterns from our past.
• Most decisions involve a series of events and interactions that unfold over time.
• When confronted with a tough issue, we focus on the question, what decision should I make?  We should first ask, how should I go about making this decision?
• Human beings tend to make certain types of classic mistakes when making decisions because we are not perfectly rational human beings – these systematic mistakes are described as cognitive biases.   Think of them as decision-making traps.  These biases affect experts as well as novices.
• “Overconfidence bias” is that human beings are systematically overconfident in our judgments.
• “Sunk-cost effect” refers to the tendency for people to escalate commitment to a course of action in which they have made substantial prior investments of time, money, or other resources.  In the face of high sunk costs, people become overly committed to certain activities even if the results are quite poor.  They ‘throw good money after bad’ and the situation continues to escalate.
• The “recency effect” is placing too much emphasis on recent events.  The availability bias is placing too much emphasis on the information and evidence most readily available to us when we are making a decision.
• “Confirmation bias” refers to our tendency to gather and rely on information that confirms our existing views and to avoid or downplay information that disconfirms our preexisting hypotheses.  We assimilate data in a biased manner and do not seek disconfirming data.
• The “anchoring bias” refers to the notion that we sometimes allow an initial reference point to distort our estimates.  We begin at the reference point and then adjust from there, even if the initial reference point is completely arbitrary.
• “Illusory correlation” refers to the fact that we sometimes jump to conclusions about the relationship between two variables when no relationship exists.
• “Hindsight bias” refers to the fact that we look back at past events and judge them as easily predictable when they clearly were not as easily foreseen.
• “Egocentrism” is when we attribute more credit to ourselves for a particular collective outcome than an outside party would attribute.
• Framing matters.  If we frame a situation in terms of a potential gain, we act differently than if we frame it in terms of a potential loss.  Threats are perceived differently from opportunities.  We should consider adopting multiple frames when we examine any particular situation.  We need to surface our implicit assumptions, and then probe and test those presumptions very carefully.  Reframing requires asking curious, nonthreatening questions.

How can we combat cognitive biases in our decision making?  By becoming more aware of these biases and making others with whom we work and collaborate more aware of them.  We can review our past work to determine if we have been particularly vulnerable to some of these biases.  Engaging in candid dialogue and vigorous debate may result in a decision less influenced by cognitive bias.

A family law case is comprised of a series of decisions that determine not only the course of the case, but the client’s future.  Critical thought about cognitive biases that may be operating in either the lawyer or the client will be helpful.  Intentional reframing of threats as opportunities will lead to more flexible and adaptive reactions.

Professor Roberto differentiates two forms of conflict:

• cognitive conflict which is task oriented, a debate about issues and ideas.
• affective conflict which is emotional and personal in nature, about personality clashes, anger, and personal friction.

To the extent that the lawyer and client collaborate to stimulate cognitive conflict and minimize affective conflict, the client and cause are well-served.

Another effective skill for the family law case is to seek agreement on small points amid larger disagreements.  In such a fashion you get to closure through a step-by-step process.  Looking for areas of common ground helps build momentum toward closure.  Small wins may be process-oriented or outcome-oriented.

The final lecture in Professor Roberto’s outline is Asking the Right Questions.  We must discard the notion that we have all the answers, and place more emphasis on finding the right question than the right answer.

Each of us, whether lawyer or client, can benefit from thoughtful analysis of the cognitive biases affecting our case.  We can intentionally take a step back to consider whether reframing an issue or seeking agreement on small points might help move the case towards resolution.  Sometimes, choosing to engage in the iterative process of choice and action rather than a rush to closure is all that is required to improve our effectiveness.

The lawyers of Hindson & Melton LLC will partner with you to develop and pursue your family law case objectives in a thoughtful and client-centered relationship.

Karen Hindson, Hindson & Melton LLC, February 24, 2013