Master the art of managing client emotions in litigation. Develop essential skills to navigate distress, enhance strategy, and build a resilient practice.
Legal practice is challenging, and managing your client’s stress and expectations makes it even more difficult.
This online program explores the crucial role of lawyers in managing not only the legal aspects of a case but also the emotional dynamics that often come with litigation. Lawyers often focus on strategy, advocacy, and outcomes. But you may also find yourself playing an unexpected role as emotional support for your clients, who may be experiencing stress, anxiety, frustration, or fear during the legal process.
This session is a must for any lawyer who wants to improve their client care and ensure they provide the most effective and compassionate legal service. Participants will learn from other lawyers about how they best manage client stress and expectations. You will also hear from a former-lawyer-turned-psychotherapist to gain a deeper understanding of the psychological impact litigation can have on clients and the skills required to manage these reactions effectively.
Topics will include:
By the end of this program, you will have the tools to not only manage your client relationships more effectively but also to maintain the boundaries and emotional resilience needed to thrive in emotionally demanding legal practice areas.
Toronto Lawyers Association
For more than 135 years, the Toronto Lawyers' Association, located within the Courthouse Library, has represented the interests of lawyers practising in the City of Toronto. The association was founded to support its members in three key areas: Knowledge, Advocacy, and Community. To uphold these pillars, the association offers a year-round mix of online and in-person education programs for lawyers, hosts both free and paid events to foster in-person networking, and submits advocacy pieces on behalf of its members to the Ontario bench and bar, all levels of government, and the broader public.
Attorney at Advocan Law LLP
After getting an LL.M. and planning on becoming a professor, Gabriel spent his early career in a think tank writing legal briefs and academic articles. Somehow, he ended up representing technology companies and suing fraudsters. With a practice that combines transactional and strategic advice with courtroom advocacy, Gabriel has a unique perspective on how to resolve (and more importantly prevent) commercial disputes. Trained in the UK and the US, and admitted in both New York and Ontario, Gabriel regularly consults on cross-border transactions and litigation, and advises Canadian clients looking to expand into international markets.
Psychotherapist and Wellness Educator
Doron Gold is a psychotherapist and former practicing lawyer living and working in Toronto, Canada. He is registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers as well as with the Law Society of Upper Canada. Doron's practice focuses on individual, family, and group therapy related to issues of depression, anxiety, career and family stress, and addiction. Doron works primarily with a diverse client base comprising people from all walks of life. He also specializes in assisting lawyers, law students, judges, as well as other professionals. His personal experience working in the legal profession, coupled with his many years of experience working with lawyers in distress at the Ontario Lawyers' Assistance Program (OLAP), have given him a unique and valuable perspective on the challenges faced by these individuals. Because he understands their lives and their unique challenges, he is able to speak a type of shorthand that allows them to relax and feel seen, heard, and understood while not feeling judged. Doron now offers counselling to all who require assistance and support.
Founder of Keenberg & Co
Called to the bar in 2007, Megan Keenberg cut her teeth in the litigation group of a large national firm, later honing her skills at a leading Bay Street litigation boutique. Prior to founding Keenberg & Co. in 2023, Megan continued her commercial litigation practice while mastering the business of law as a co-founder of a commercial litigation and employment law firm. With the formation of Keenberg & Co., Megan combines exceptional Bay Street pedigree and training with street smarts, business savvy, and a people-first approach to law firm management and client relationships. Megan is a born litigator with an easy, confident advocacy style. She’s a careful thinker, a straight talker, and a natural story-teller. Her clients appreciate her ability to explain complicated legal strategy in plain terms so that they can confidently provide informed instructions about the management of their cases. Megan’s knack for narrative presentation of complex legal argument is compelling, humanizing, and effective, both in the courtroom and in the boardroom. Megan handles all kinds of commercial disputes, in court and in arbitration, for business owners, executives, shareholders, partners, funders, and creditors. Specifically, she handles cases involving breach of contract, breach of fiduciary and statutory duties, professional negligence, fraud, oppression, corporate theft and misappropriation, executive and senior employee departures, and other business claims. Megan is designated by the Law Society of Ontario as a Certified Specialist in Civil Litigation — a designation reserved for those lawyers who have met established standards of experience and knowledge requirements in Civil Litigation and have maintained exemplary standards of professional practice. She has the confidence of her peers as a trusted referral for advisory and representative mandates, having been recognized in the 2024 and 2025 Editions of Best Lawyers in Canada for Corporate and Commercial Litigation, and included on the Refer To Her lists of trusted counsel for Commercial Litigation and Professional Liability claims.
