Emotionally and psychologically, it has been a harrowing time — I have risked rejection and ridicule from my peers; disclosure could have destroyed my career prospects. But I am through with pretence : I am a right brain thinker, creative and intuitive; I think outside the box, and I even think in colour!
However did I ever persuade myself that I could think like a conventional lawyer?
I was terrified of being rumbled, so I dressed like a lawyer, and spoke like one, and forced myself to think how I imagined lawyers thought. Dressing up was fun, and speaking in a slightly stilted and formalised way helped me bond with my colleagues. But thinking like a lawyer was a very painful adjustment – a ‘re-education’ a la Maoist China. It was that, I imagined, or failure.
In the process of ‘acquiring’ a logical, linear thought process, I suppressed the creative side of my brain, the right side. There was the occasional embarrassing episode involving differently-coloured highlighter pens, for example, and coloured Post-It dividers organised in a merry Dolly Mixture-print box. Colleagues would titter, or pretend they hadn’t seen. Eventually, though, the complexity of my cases took over. I was overwhelmed by avalanche of facts, and I stopped caring what others thought. In the quiet hours, I started practicing making visual diagrams of my cases. I even acquired software to plot complicated factual scenarios in a creative, colourful, and interesting way.
Then I began to receive compliments on my grasp of complexity; it seemed that logical thinkers were impressed. I applied my newfound skills to analysing authorities — yes, I applied creativity to Pure Law. Why? Because there is a world out there, with colour, with lines that flow in unpredictable and colourful ways, connecting facts to central issues. There is even a science of fact analysis that uses creative pictorial diagrams which far surpass anything available to the conventional thinker.
I was invited to analyse a complicated civil dispute, and create a visual diagram. I was able to produce a pictorial representation of the case within hours. Thereafter, every member of the team could see at a glance what the case was about; there was no requirement for them to spend hours reading into the case. Astounded, the lawyer in charge of the case then had diagrams made of all her cases so that she could keep an eye on them all, without taxing her already-stretched intellect.
When I am required to represent clients in very complicated cases, I simply create a diagram and then locate facts in an intuitive way (think of the iPad screen where you can tap into the factual matrix).
The obvious and enormous benefits of a visual representation of complex factual scenarios are even more rewarding when you have to communicate with non-legal thinkers – e.g. your clients. Present them with a colourful chart of a case, and communication is simple. When communication flows, confidence grows. If there are any errors in understanding, they become obvious and easily corrected.
Make this world a better, more helpful, and brighter place — get creative!
Andrew Henley is a free-lance barrister who lectures on advanced fact management and other creative forms of thinking!