Some people seek calm by avoiding conflict. I seek to use calmness to harmonize conflict to the advantage of me and my client. By applying the principles of t’ai chi to my practice as a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I do my best neither to chase an opponent’s power nor to hide from it, but to use my opponent’s power and energy to the best of my advantage, by doing my best to anticipate the opponent’s strategy and attack, to give the opponent nothing to push against, to find the opponent’s weaknesses, and to neutralize the opponent.

Related to this approach of neither chasing nor hiding from an opponent, t’ai chi master Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo once said: “Normally we think that if [our opponent] has 100 pounds of force or power, I better have 150. But then if I get 150 pounds of force, he may have accumulated more himself. Or there’ll be somebody else with more… I need to take my own power down to 0.” A student of Sun Tzu reaches the same destination by taking the following path: “Sun Tzu’s ideal military leader is calm in the midst of chaos, being able to even appear chaotic to deceive his enemy. The ultimate skill is separating oneself from the stresses of everyday life.”

Fortunately, like myself, plenty of other lawyers seek calmness not out of any new age, bead-wearing philosophy of life, but out of a realization that this is the only sensible path. One lawyer who has inspired me with his holistic approach to law practice is Michael Dolich. He is a fellow attendee of the Trial Lawyers College, and I became intrigued to follow his spiritual travels on the TLC’s listserv, and to talk with him about his approach to life. Ultimately, Michael left the law and found a way to incorporate his holistic approach to his new path of baking professionally. As Michael tells it, “I still shake inside a bit when I say ‘used to be’ before that word ‘lawyer;’ but I am much more comfortable with that concept now…” For me, I use my hands and feet literally when practicing t’ai chi every day, and figuratively, by  the t’ai chi principles and practices involved in pushing hands, protective kicking, and sparring, into my law practice.

Robert W. Smith — who studied with Cheng Man-ching (the teacher of my teacher) — talked of Professor Cheng being the softest of the soft who directed his chi through the concrete, to make pushing the Professor little different than pushing concrete, that is, if a person were able to find anything to push in the first place when sparring with Professor Cheng, rather than feeling no differently than pushing a ghost.

Some people do sitting meditation to achieve calm. I prefer the meditation involved in the internal martial art movements of t’ai chi. As Cheng Man-ching once said, doing yoga might relax a person, but it is t’ai chi that makes a person ready to neutralize the opponent at any time, and it helps me be calm in the eye of the storm.

Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz pursues your best defense against Virginia DUI, felony and misdemeanor prosecutions. Choosing your right attorney can make all the difference for your case outcome. Call Jon Katz’s staff at 703-383-1100 to schedule your free initial in-person confidential consultation about your court-pending case.