Law Firm Consultation
Increase fee value & optimize operations
Mental Mentor
Dr. Sadeh empowers attorneys to unlock potential, interpret conflict, build authentic confidence, and strengthen relationships with clients.
Dr. Sadeh's psycholegal insights empower law firm management to attract and retain talent, and reduce risk from conflict within firm and with clients.
Dr. Shanna Sadeh, PhD, JD, LP
Attorney
Psychologist
PSYLAW Consultant
Attract & Keep Exceptional Attorneys
Recruiting and retaining top-tier attorneys is essential for premiere law firms. Summer Associates and lateral candidates want to know how the firm will invest in developing their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Retaining Dr. Sadeh as talent development expert demonstrates practical commitment to supporting employees personally and professionally. Dr. Sadeh has rare expertise in law and psychology that enables her to teach attorneys how to identify and optimize their internal resources and manage or transform their deficits.
Personalized Talent Development
Successful attorneys have talents that set them apart from their competition. This giftedness, however, does not insulate us from having vulnerabilities and bursts of emotions that interfere with our performance and personal lives. In fact, giftedness comes at a cost, meaning there is some aspect of the psychological profile that is extra sensitive or constrained. This dynamic can be draining and interfere with focus, relationships, and overall performance. Dr. Sadeh discerns what is really going on for attorneys and teaches them to optimize their unique psychological profile so they can advance their careers and better serve their clients.
Strengthen Attorney-Client Relationships
Litigation is a dynamic, adversarial process that can confuse and overwhelm unsophisticated parties. Some clients don’t understand litigation enough to appreciate your performance and work product. With my expertise as a lawyer and psychologist, I guide clients with psychological attunement through the experience so they feel cared for and connected to their legal team. And, if the client is unhappy, I tell you so that we can repair the relationship. We want unhappy clients to talk to you about the problem, not behind your back or only after there is nothing that can be done about it. All relationships have conflict. I’m here to help manage yours.
Mediate Workplace Conflict
Conflict happens frequently in law firms because of the intense pressure on employees, long hours working together, and competitive nature of the business. There is also a culture of "wining and dining" among attorneys and with clients. These social interactions can sometimes result in experiences where someone feels uncomfortable. Maybe someone in power flirted with a subordinate, or a client made a racist comment to a summer associate; there are infinte ways for humans to offend and hurt each other inadvertently and intentionally. Law firms should not pretend it did not happen and hope people will forget about it. Dr. Sadeh is available to process what happened and help the participants recover.
Trial Consultation
Law firms retain Dr. Sadeh as a non-testifying legal expert to assist attorneys in influencing the human elements of litigation.
Confront Witnesses
Every person has vulnerabilities and is designed to protect themselves from shame, humiliation, terror – feelings that overwhelm them. Dr. Sadeh is highly attuned to how people defend themselves under stress and can identify for the questioning attorney how to interact strategically with a witness’s psychological design. Sometimes attorneys need to disarm the witness’s defenses to get helpful testimony. Sometimes attorneys need to apply psychological pressure to reveal what the witness wants to hide – perhaps they are trying to hide their rage, callousness, uncertainty, greed – whatever. Dr. Sadeh can help you get what you need from a witness during cross examination or an investigative interview.
Defend Witnesses
Witness preparation is essential to reduce the risk of unexpected admissions, denials, or distractions during live testimony. Dr. Sadeh is an expert at identifying a person's underlying negative beliefs about themselves (e.g., I am bad, I am unsafe, I should have done something, I can't trust anyone, etc.) that can trigger automatic and potentially very harmful responses like rage, submission, forgetting, minimizing, evading, etc. With practice, witnesses can inhibit their automatic reactions and activate strategic responses. Even expert witnesses who have exceptional credentials and a strong evidentiary basis for their opinions benefit from recognizing and learning to consciously control their emotional urges to surrender/fight on cross-examination. Dr. Sadeh conducts mock cross-examinations to stress witnesses so they can learn to control their emotional responses during live testimony. Dr. Sadeh also helps witnesses connect with their internal resources to sustain attention, feel confident, be genuine, and enhance memory. This combination of controlling defenses and activating resources helps witnesses testify advantageously.
Debrief Witnesses
Dr. Sadeh debriefs witnesses after they testify. Litigation experiences can be psychologically overwhelming, which can make it difficult for witnesses to reenter their "normal life." Dr. Sadeh helps witnesses interpret their experience and activate their internal resources for containing residual distress and if necessary, prepare for the next step in litigation.
Sharpen Case Themes
Dr. Sadeh assists the legal team with understanding and developing the emotional impact of persuasive story telling. The judge or jury is human. Connecting with the humanity of your audience can be profoundly influential.