Legal Brief: Conflict Resolution

April 19, 2023
Security Business Magazine

Types : Bylined Articles

Last summer, my wife and I participated in a game show on a cruise ship in front of 1,200 people in a large theatre. The “Love and Marriage Show” was fun, but also a little embarrassing. My wife and I competed against two other couples and won. The show was recorded and broadcast in the days that followed on the ship’s television channel; so, we were “ship famous” for the rest of the cruise. Everyone seemed to know a lot more about us than we knew about them.

When I was first introduced to the crowd, the host asked me what I do for a living. “I am a lawyer,” I responded. This seemingly innocuous disclosure was greeted with boos from some in the crowd. Ouch. Perhaps I should have anticipated this occupational hazard. Not everyone likes lawyers. Perhaps I simply should have said, “I engage in conflict resolution”. Yes, that could have worked. That is both accurate and sufficiently ambiguous to avoid being booed. Oh well. Maybe next cruise.

Conflict resolution in this context simply means problem solving. I am a problem solver.