“I need to get a divorce.” “I need to file bankruptcy.” “I need to get a will done.” “I need to sue [whoever] because they [whatever].”
The majority of non-business lawyers get hired for one-and-done client relationships. How many times would or could a lawyer encourage a client to get a divorce, file for bankruptcy, or suffer something worth suing someone else for? Something bad happens to a person; they need to do something about it in response to it; they pick a lawyer from a Google search; and they hope it all works out for the best.
This is kind of like standing amid a hurricane, seeking to save one’s garden while their house is flooding and their roof is blowing away.
LifeCycle lawyers, however, take a different approach to being retained by clients and then reciprocally retaining their clients over the long term. Typically, LifeCycle lawyers take in new clients wherever each client may be in their life and work with them proactively to try their best to keep bad things from happening. They do this by educating clients continuously about almost all the legal issues that may arise in their personal and work spheres and helping them live as practically perfectly as they can regardless of whether bad things happen to their best people.
Nonetheless, sometimes bad things do somehow slip through the fences built by LifeCycle lawyers and their clients and cause problems. Luckily, the client’s LifeCycle lawyer is right there already, with an established relationship, so they can work together quickly either directly to handle the arisen legal issues or to bring on a specialist to work with the LifeCycle lawyer and the client. Together, they both or all can get the issue managed as effectively and efficiently as possible.
And then, their LifeCycle lawyer keeps on helping their clients get on with the rest of their lives. They, both the client and the client’s lawyer, learn from their common experiences and work in a manner similar to a passage written by the Buddhist Nun Pema Chodron. It reads, “Healing comes from letting there be room for all this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”