The ABA Journal recently posted a very good article on apology that encompasses all aspects of legal practice: The Last Word: When the Last Thing You Want to do is the First Thing You Ought to do. Many articles have been written about apology as a component of mediated settlements, and I’ve given workshops on how to handle the apology in mediation. This article goes beyond apology in settlements: It talks about how we lawyers ought to incorporate apology into the way we inter-act with other lawyers, and with our clients. Like one of the lawyers interviewed in the article, I had to apologize to another attorney after leaving an angry message in his voicemailbox. I have also had to apologize to mediation parties when I’ve slipped up. It’s embarrassing, but it’s the right thing to do.

It also honors God, so Christians ought to lead the way on how to do this well. But in fact we’re not very good at this, so I appreciate the tools and encouragement from Peacemaker Ministries to help us make sincere apologies/confessions. A very helpful tool is the “Seven A’s of Confession.” Bad apologies can actually make things worse, so the Seven A’s give me a better chance to make a sincere apology that will put things right.