Course · Interpersonal Skills
Delivering Bad News and Difficult Conversations
Say the hard thing soon, plainly and humanely, and stay steady when the reaction comes: to clients, families, supervisors, juniors and in your own mistakes.
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Sooner or later every lawyer must say something that the listener does not want to hear. A case is lost, a plan cannot be done, a bill is bigger than quoted, a colleague’s work is not good enough, a job is ending, or the mistake is the lawyer’s own. Few lawyers are taught how, and many learn by example, some of it poor. The usual failure is not cruelty but avoidance: the call put off, the news wrapped in so much qualification that it is missed, the unpleasant task handed to a junior, the email sent in the hope of avoiding a reply. This course teaches the work. It begins with why bad news is hard and why lawyers cannot avoid it; shows how to prepare, including the choice of channel, timing and setting; gives a structure for the conversation and the plain words that serve it; teaches how to respond to shock, tears, anger, blame and demands that cannot be met, and when to pause or end; adapts the method to clients and families in different situations, from a lost case to a bereavement; deals with bad news inside the firm, upwards, downwards and sideways, including ending employment with respect; and ends with the hardest case, your own mistake, with the order of steps and the questions of apology, conflict, insurance and reporting. A capstone puts you in the middle of one difficult week. It builds on The Client Conversation and Cooling the Room, and every person and matter is invented.
The Curriculum
Why bad news is hard to give, and why lawyers cannot avoid it→
The duty to tell, why we delay and soften, kinds of bad news, what the listener needs and four principles. Practice: Why We Avoid It, Sort the News and Spot the Avoidance.
Preparing the conversation: facts, goals, channel, timing, setting and yourself→
Facts, goals, the listener, channel and timing, setting, who attends, rehearsal and preparing yourself. Practice: Channel and Timing Planner, Choose the Channel and Spot the Poor Preparation.
Saying it: structure, words, silence and what not to say→
A structure for the conversation, plain words, silence, apology, false reassurance and writing bad news. Practice: Bad-News Message Check, Put It in Order and Rewrite the Line.
Reactions and what comes next: shock, anger, tears, denial, blame and staying steady→
Shock, tears, anger, denial, blame, withdrawal, impossible demands, pausing and ending, safety and follow-up. Practice: Respond to the Reaction, Stay or Stop and Spot the Misstep.
Bad news to clients, families and others: lost cases, cost, no, bereavement and crisis→
Lost cases, telling a client no, cost and delay, bereavement, family and criminal outcomes, crisis, groups and opponents. Practice: Pick the Approach, Tell or Wait and Spot the Mistake.
Bad news up, down and sideways: to supervisors, to juniors, to colleagues and in the open→
Telling a supervisor early, raising problems upwards, bad news to juniors, ending employment with respect, colleagues and a culture where problems surface. Practice: Say It Upwards, Say It Downwards and Spot the Culture.
Your own mistakes: disclosure, apology, conflict, insurance and recovery→
The order of steps, telling the right people, the client, apology and admission, conflict, insurance, reporting, review and recovery. Practice: Mistake Disclosure Planner, Who First? and Spot the Cover-Up.
Capstone: Capstone: the Thornfield Dairy claim→
A claim is struck out after a late filing. Plan the channel, check the message, handle the reaction, disclose the mistake, tell a junior and write what the firm will change.
What It Covers
“You will be able to say the hard thing soon, plainly and kindly, stay steady in what follows and tell the truth about your own mistakes.”
- Seven modules and a capstone that follow a difficult conversation from the decision to have it, through preparation, words and reaction, to follow-up, across clients, families, the firm itself and your own errors.
- Three working tools with invented data: a Channel and Timing Planner that recommends how, when and where to give news of different weights, a Bad-News Message Check that finds fog, buried news, blame, false reassurance and jargon in a draft, and a Mistake Disclosure Planner that puts the steps after an error in order.
- Firm on honesty: the course treats prompt, plain disclosure, including of your own mistakes, as both a professional duty and the best practical course.
- Jurisdiction-neutral: it applies no country’s rules on disclosure, insurance, reporting or employment, and says what to check where you work.
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Or give this as a giftOther Scrolls in This Chamber
Across the Table$15 →Interests, walk-away numbers, offers, trades, pressure tactics and professional limits, with practice rooms and calculators.
Cooling the Room$15 →How conflict escalates, mapping a dispute, de-escalation, hard conversations, choosing a process, mediation, power, culture and ethics, with practice mediations.The Client Conversation$15 →Trust, the first meeting, fees and scope, updates in plain words, advice and decisions, bad news, boundaries and ethics, with practice meetings.Module 1 is free to try. Sign in, pass each module quiz and the course average, and your Certificate of Completion is emailed to you automatically. This course teaches method and technique with invented people and figures; it is general education, not legal advice, and professional rules differ from country to country.
Common questions
- Is it only about clients?
- No. It covers bad news to clients and families, to supervisors and partners, to juniors and colleagues, and to others such as opponents and witnesses. The method is the same, and the course shows what changes.
- Does it teach me to soften bad news?
- No, the opposite. It teaches you to say the news plainly and first, and to be humane in how you say it. Softening that hides the news is one of the failures it warns against.
- Does it tell me what the rules are on disclosing my own mistakes?
- It explains the order of steps that sound practice shares, and why each is there. Rules on reporting, insurance and admissions differ between countries and professions, and the course tells you to check them and to take advice. It never treats concealment as an option.
- Does it cover dismissing someone?
- It covers how to treat the person with dignity, and what to prepare. Employment law differs greatly, so it tells you to follow your organisation’s policy and take advice on the legal requirements.
- Are the tools real data?
- No. All people, firms, messages and cases are invented. The tools give a starting point and not a rule, and run in your browser without sending anything anywhere.
- How do I get the Certificate of Completion?
- Sign in, pass each module quiz and keep a course average of at least 75. The certificate is then issued and emailed to you automatically.
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