Untangling Fear in Lawyering to Lift Up New Leaders

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Session Type: Lightning Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: N/A

Room: Union Square 22

Floor: Fourth Floor

This session addresses the reality of fear in lawyering: in our students, our practitioners, and our clients. Society offers conflicting messages about fear, especially in professions like ours characterized by bravado, competition, and conflict. On one hand, individuals who are lucky enough not to experience fear often quip, “Just face your fears!” or “Fake it till you make it!” On the other hand, well-meaning but often misguided mentors couch fear as “the world’s greatest motivator,” with slogans like, “If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough!” or “If you’re not afraid, you don’t care enough!” This session offers a different approach to helping our law students address the reality of fear in lawyering; instead of ignoring, repressing, or dismissing the impact of fear on our minds and bodies, let’s teach our next generation of lawyers how to untangle fear. Let’s analyze its drivers, distinguish its potential constructive components from destructive ones, and then adopt new mental and physical strategies for stepping into performance-based lawyering activities with enhanced and authentic fortitude. By helping to untangle fear, we can lift up new leaders.
This session will identify the very real fears toward lawyering that many students face; explore the science of fear and how it affects our minds and bodies, blocking learning and performance; draw upon examples of how other industries and professions are directly addressing fear (and mistake-making) in their educational environments; and offer a four-step approach for law professors to help students untangle fear. The presenter is Professor Heidi K. Brown of Brooklyn Law School, author of the new book, Untangling Fear in Lawyering (ABA 2019).