Stop Training Lawyers to Be Jerks

Jenna Cho, Photo via JC Law Group

Attorney Jeena Cho wants you to stop training lawyers to be jerks. Writing for the Huffington Post, Cho talks about the advice she received early in her legal career from a mentor: “to be the most aggressive man in the room, to be the most boisterous and to never give an inch.”

Cho has just three pieces of (contrary) advice:

1. Lead with kindness.

2. Don’t wear other people’s suits.

3. Be a good human.

I find myself giving versions of this advice to students with some frequency. But it’s a message that bears repeating often and with emphasis. After all, lawyers on TV are rarely nice and, let’s be honest here, TV inspires many of our students to go to law school. But there’s absolutely no reason why lawyers in the real world can’t aspire to something better.

And now for some fun facts about Jenna Cho. She’s not only a bankruptcy lawyer in San Francisco, she’s also an immigrant from South Korea. And her “about me” page is one of the best I’ve seen in ages.

-KitJ