Wellness Wednesday: on ponds, puffery & paltering.

It’s Wellness Wednesday!

Remember – wellness is about much more than the staggering rates at which lawyers are afflicted with behavioral health problems.  Wellness is also about taking action to be well.  For instance, making time for what matters, taking 6-minutes a day for yourself, and making wellness a habit.

Last week, I debuted “Wellness Wednesday” with this post congratulating the lawyers who ran in the Island Vines 10K. This week: some thoughts on the ethics of puffery & paltering, but only after a big thank you to Jennifer Emens-Butler!

Jennifer is the VBA’s Director of Communication and Education. She’s a staunch ally in the quest to encourage lawyers to be well.  Among other things, Jennifer pens Pursuits of Happiness, a regular column in the VBA Journal, and she is commited to including wellness components at the VBA’s conferences & meetings.

For example, at last weeks’ annual meeting in Manchester, Jennifer organized an early morning walk on the trails at the Equinox Preserve.  Not even a little rain could keep Jennifer & me from starting the day with wellness!

Now, the ethics part of this post: paltering.

The night before the morning walk, I had the privilege of joining Andrew Manitsky and Tad Powers on a CLE panel.  Our topic was puffery and the ethics of negotiation.

One of my favorite parts of the program (we’ve presented it before) is a piece that Andrew does on “paltering.”  A person palters by actively using the truth to deceive.  As this piece in the Washington Post points out, many consider “the behavior of someone who paltered in a negotiation as being just as unethical or untrustworthy as the person who outright lied with a known falsehood.”

Remember: when representing a client, Rule 4.1 prohibits misrepresentations of fact or law to a third person.  Per Comment [1], “[m]isrepresentations can also occur by  partially true or misleading statements or omissions that are the equivalent of affirmative false statements.”

So, what’s this got to do with Wellness Wednesday? I’m glad you asked.

On our walk, Jennifer & I set out on the Pond Trail.  We never found the pond.  Either it evaporated or it’s so small as to be indistinguishable from the rain puddles we encountered on the trail.

Later, throughout the morning at the conference, several people asked if I’d hiked to the pond.  Normally I proudly display my Chittenden County roots. However, not wanting to admit that a kid born & raised by the airport couldn’t find a damn pond in Southern Vermont – even while hiking on “the pond trail” – I replied:

“we took the Pond Trail. It was terrific.”

True statements indeed.  But, I paltered.

Enjoy Wellness Wednesday! Do something for yourself, even if it’s only for 6 minutes!