This program cuts through the generic wellness advice to reveal what actually works when dealing with difficult people. Using psychological frameworks from executive coaching and real-world experience managing panic attacks and ADHD in legal practice, you'll learn how to protect your mental health while maintaining professional relationships. No theory — just practical tools you can use Monday morning.
Core Learning Objectives:
- Identify the mental health warning signs triggered by difficult professional relationships
- Apply the EASE framework for managing challenging interactions without losing yourself
- Understand why difficult people trigger your specific stress responses (and what to do about it)
- Build boundary-setting skills that actually work in law firm culture
- Develop your personal mental health action plan for relationship-induced stress
- Why Difficult People Break Good Lawyers
- Doug's panic attack during negotiation and the late ADHD diagnosis
- The mental health crisis hiding in plain sight in legal practice
- How difficult relationships trigger your nervous system before you realize what's happening
- The Stress Response You're Not Managing
- What happens in your brain during conflict (fight/flight/freeze)
- The self-medication spectrum: overwork, perfectionism, people-pleasing, control
- What ADHD, anxiety, and depression look like when hiding behind success
- Why logical solutions don't work when emotions are hijacked
- The EASE Framework for Managing Difficult Interactions
- Empathize with emotional drivers without becoming their therapist
- Actively listen using five specific techniques that actually work
- Simplify what you need them to understand
- Evaluate next steps together (even when they're resistant)
- When Standard Techniques Fail
- Understanding style and generational differences that reduce friction
- "Yes, And..." principle from improv for defusing tension
- When to disengage for mental health protection (and how to do it professionally)
- Scripts that work: boundary-setting in law firm culture
- Building Your Resilience System
- Energy vampires vs. boosters: who drains you and who restores you
- After Action Review: learning from difficult interactions without self-blame
- When to seek professional support and what resources actually help
- Your personal mental health action plan
- Q&A (As Time Permits)
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* CLE credit is only available to Justia Connect Pro members.
Summit Success
Doug Brown, JD is The Law Firm Leadership Coach and Chief Learning Officer at Summit Success, LLC. As an executive coach and law practice consultant, he shares practical strategies for sustainable legal practice and attorney well-being. After experiencing panic attacks during high-stakes negotiations and receiving an ADHD diagnosis in his early 50s, Doug developed frameworks that work with your wiring, not against it. His experience includes private and in-house legal practice, serving as chief executive of the Connecticut Bar Association, and designing MBA leadership programs for experienced executives. Doug's approach: practical strategies from someone who's been there, not theory from someone who hasn't practiced law. Read More ›
*CLE credit is only available to Justia Connect Pros. Not a Pro? Upgrade today>>
Status: Approved
Credits: 1.00 Wellness Competence
Status: Approved
Credits: 1.00 Professional Responsibility - Mental Health & Substance Abuse
Status: Approved
Credits: 1.20 Ethics/Professionalism
Status: Approved
Credits: 1.00 Professional Well-Being
Status: Approved
Credits: 1.00 Attorney Professional Conduct
Status: Approved
Credits: 1.00 Ethics, Professionalism, or Substance Abuse
Status: Approved
Credits: 1.00 Substance Abuse/Mental Health
Difficulty: All Levels
Status: Approved
Credits: 1.00 Legal Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Status: Approved
Credits: 1.20 Legal Ethics, etc.
This presentation is approved for one hour of Wellness Competence CLE credit in California, one hour of Professional Responsibility - Mental Health & Substance Abuse CLE credit in Illinois, one hour of Professional Well-Being CLE credit in North Carolina, one hour of Attorney Professional Conduct CLE credit in Ohio, one hour of Ethics, Professionalism, or Substance Abuse CLE credit in Pennsylvania, one hour of Substance Abuse/Mental Health CLE credit in South Carolina (all levels), and one hour of Legal Ethics, etc. CLE credit in West Virginia. This program has been approved by the Board on Continuing Legal Education of the Supreme Court of New Jersey for 1.20 hours of total CLE credit. Of these, 1.20 qualify as total hours of credit for Ethics/Professionalism. This course has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of Texas Committee on MCLE in the amount of 1.00 credit hours, of which 1.00 credit hours will apply to Legal Ethics/Professional Responsibility credit.
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Note that CLE credit, including partial credit, cannot be earned outside of the relevant accreditation period. To earn credit for a course, a lawyer must watch the entire course within the relevant accreditation period. Lawyers who have viewed a presentation multiple times may not be able to claim credit in their jurisdiction more than once. Justia reserves the right, at its discretion, to grant an attendee partial or no credit, in accordance with viewing duration and other methods of verifying course completion.
At this time, Justia only offers CLE courses officially accredited in certain states. Lawyers may generate a generic attendance certificate to self-submit credit in their own jurisdiction, but Justia does not guarantee that lawyers will receive their desired CLE credit through the self-submission or reciprocity process.