Comments from the Chair
| Author | By Kristine A. Kubes |
| Pages | 4-4 |
THE CONSTRUCTION LAWYER4Winter 2020
COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIR
Kristine A. Kubes
Published in The Construction Lawyer, Volume 40, Number 1 Winter 2020. © 2020 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion
thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
Finding New Meaning in “We the People”
By Kristine A. Kubes
Kristine A. Kubes is a principal and mediator with Kubes
Law Ofce in Minneapolis and chair of the Forum. Connect
with her on LinkedIn, Twitter, kubeslaw.com, and Facebook.
The Forum is known for its
Programs, Publications, and
People. Without exaggeration,
Forum volunteers spend
thousands of hours every
year developing programs and
publications for members and
the wider construction law
community.
This year, we are also
focusing on the people—all
those working in construction
and design—our current
and prospective Forum members, construction lawyers,
consultants, and clients.
The Forum is raising awareness of the importance of
professionalism and civility in our profession so as to stem
the rising tide of incivility in our nation. Construction
lawyers are uniquely skilled to be agents for peaceful and
effective dispute resolution. Some, however, contribute to
hostility between parties and escalate conict, especially in
litigation. The Forum promotes civil and ethical practice,
free of harassment and bullying of any kind, per Model
Rule 8.4(g).
Lack of civility and unnecessary escalation of conict
contribute to lawyer illness—to the point that lawyer well-
being has become a critical professional issue. On a national
level, many colleagues suffer in silence with mental health
issues such as anxiety, depression, suicide, and addiction,
which are often exacerbated by their practice and/or work
environments.
The Forum is leading the charge in normalizing the
dialogue about lawyer mental health and wellness to improve
our practice environment. At its June 2019 retreat, the
Forum Governing Committee adopted the ABA’s Lawyer
Wellbeing Toolkit, which the ABA developed to help lawyers
recognize mental health issues, confront their causes, and
ensure lawyers get the help they need. Our leadership role
may begin at the Forum level, but it does not end here. All
Forum leaders have this toolkit and are sharing this critical
resource with their rms and state/local bars; it is available
free of charge at https://tinyurl.com/yay6dofs.
The Forum is also leading the dialogue on respect for
diversity and the need to create an environment of inclusion
in construction, design, and law. Inclusion and respect are
necessary for healthy environments in the Forum, law rms,
and clients’ workplaces and worksites.
Diversity alone is laudable, but diversity without
inclusion is not effective. Demographics demonstrate that
the workforce is changing and is more diverse than ever. The
issue of retaining skilled talent, however, faces law rms,
construction companies, and design rms alike.
In these times, the critical competency we lawyers need
is inclusive intelligence: the ability to understand ourselves—
including our biases and how to overcome them—and
how to create inclusive environments. Bias gets in the way
of seeing a situation objectively and can lead to hostile,
disrespectful work environments regardless of the trade/
profession. Bias is not just based on race; bias can exist on
the basis of age, gender, ethnicity, education, and wealth.
Lawyers rst need to be aware of their own biases—and
work to interrupt their negative effects. Lawyers who do
this work and adopt inclusive practices themselves will be
better suited to advise their clients on how they can create an
environment of inclusion in their companies and worksites.
Clients today want and need that advice from their legal
counsel.
With its historic Fall Meeting in Philadelphia, the Forum
is leading the dialogue on inclusion and diversity and is
committed to understanding these issues and how to counsel
clients accordingly. We will provide more scholarly writings
on these topics in the months to come.
Working toward inclusion also requires us to become
intentional in our communications. The Forum took steps to
improve our practice environment by passing a resolution to
remove warfare- and combat-related language from Forum
business vocabulary. For instance, we will no longer refer to
“boot camp” or call legal disputes “war.”
The reasons were twofold: (1) concern for lawyers’ mental
health, and (2) respect for our military. If you listen carefully,
rarely do our Forum military colleagues use warfare terms
to describe their law experience—they know what war truly
is and that a legal dispute is not war. Nonmilitary lawyers do
not have the privilege of using war terminology because they
have not put their lives on the line. Please join the Forum in
this effort to remove violent/warfare terminology from your
practice out of respect for our military and to help de-escalate
conict and keep legal matters in better perspective.
I invite you to join in these efforts in your own life and
practice because biases, attitudes, and mindsets are personal
and ingrained. If we each begin with ourselves to make
progress toward civility and inclusion, we will foster them
in the Forum and in our profession. #inclusionstartswithi
#wethepeople
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