Bernadette BoasExecutive Leadership Coach, Trainer and Speaker, Ball of Fire Coaching · Become the Leader Everyone Wants to Follow and No One Can Overlook.

Lawyer's Revelation: Flowers Changed My Career Path Forever!

26 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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1:19

In this reflective monologue, a trial lawyer recounts a pivotal moment that reshaped his career outlook. He describes a week‑and‑a‑half jury trial in 2017 and, a year later, receiving a bouquet of flowers and a heartfelt thank‑you note from a young energy executive client whose career he had helped preserve. The gesture crystallized the lawyer’s realization that, regardless of courtroom setting—trial or appellate—clients ultimately seek resolution. This insight steered him toward embracing mediation as a more efficient means of delivering outcomes, prompting a shift from traditional litigation toward dispute‑resolution work.

Chapters

Over the years, I always thought in the back of my head that at some point in my career I'd transfer out of the courtroom in the trial sector and into the courtroom in the appellate sector, do more writing and more heavy legal thinking. But what I learned is that really no matter what seat you sit in, what clients want is resolution. And one of the ways to provide resolution more efficiently is through mediation. And so I, I'll tell you a short story that really made the pivot point, point. Poignant for me. And that is I had a trial in 2017. It was a week and a half long jury trial. And after it ended a year to the day, so in 2018, on the anniversary of the day the jury came back, I was in my office and a big bouquet of flowers was delivered. And my secretary said, you won't believe who these are from. You need to read the card. And it was from a young energy executive who was one of my clients in that trial a year before. And the card read something along the lines of, a year ago today, you saved my career. Thank you for your effort, something along those lines. And I was, I was, it really dawned on me, right. That for me, I was just another day at the office. For him, it was, it was a big day. It was a, it was a moment that he remembered so clearly that he wanted to celebrate it with me a year later.