Yvonne Divita is a great blogger and a great person. I met her in person at the first LexThink conference and learned a lot from talking to her about her area of expertise: marketing to women. But I had long admired her blog before we met.
Today, she mentioned me and my blog by saying about me: “Dennis Kennedy: lawyer extraordinaire — mainly because he’s human; sorry, Dennis, we had to say it.” Let me say that I was triply flattered. First, just by being mentioned by Yvonne on her blog. Second, for being mentioned on a list with some of the bloggers I admire most in the whole darn blogosphere. Third, for the nice comment Yvonne made about me.
Sure ’nuff, though, someone had to ask whether I thought the comment hurt or helped me as a lawyer. I assume the question addresses the “human” comment, not the “lawyer extraordinaire” part.
Now, I have gotten this comment from time to time in my legal career or the common variations: “you’re not like other lawyers” or “you’re too nice to be a lawyer.”
When I ask people what they mean, they’ll say things like I’m helpful, or that I care about people, or that I take the time to explain things so they can understand them, or that I’m, well, human.
Damn, what have the rest of the lawyers been out there doing?
As for the question, I’m still naive enough to believe that being considered “human” has to help my reputation. I’m not ready to believe that we live in a world where it hurts it.
So, Yvonne/Jane, no need to apologize. Your comment made my day.
For those interested in a cool effort to humanize lawyers, take a look at the group blog I’m part of called Between Lawyers. I think that Jane might like that blog too.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
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