Looking for a class to fill a college graduation requirement, I thought I discovered the perfect blow-off class when I signed up for Art Appreciation. Imagine my surprise, and disappointment, when the teacher presented a ridiculously difficult syllabus. To this day, the thought of it makes me shudder. Surprisingly, however, all these years later, many of the things I tried to avoid learning in that class have stuck with me. One such thing I still think about is negative space. Negative space is the space around the art. Think of Stonehenge. Imagine yourself inside the circle of stones. You are the negative space.
If my introduction didn’t scare you away and you are still reading, you may be wondering why an estate and trust attorney thinks about negative space. In my world, negative space is akin to what we have left over when we strip away the planning documents.
A client who comes to me after a death generally will bring with them a will and possibly trust of the deceased. These documents give us touch points. They are the positive space, the art itself. The items not covered in these documents, the results of how we interpret these documents, that is the negative space. We live in that space surrounded by the documentation. When documents are well drafted, being in the negative space is not negative at all. In fact, it is more of a protected harbor than a space. We know what to do, we know how to do it, we know what the assets are, who the beneficiaries are, what the intentions are, and who is in charge. Being in this space is comforting in a time of loss.
When a family comes with no estate documents, the result is significantly different. The estate is governed by statutes that are drafted without reference to that person. The items that are not covered by statute, well, those we interpret, stew over, argue about, and litigate. The negative space is redolent with costs and time. At best, the negative space is a potentially expensive portal to the right result; at worst, it is fraught with problems.
I took the art appreciation class with absolutely no thought of being an artist. After some 30 years of practice, I think more and more of what I do is a form of art. Maybe that’s why it’s called the practice of law. I know I won’t come close to perfection and while I’m proud of what I do, the wills and trusts I create are not legal masterpieces, but, they are good and there is art to those written words. In between the legalese, wrapped around the “now wherefores” and lurking within all the appropriate punctuation, art lives.
In the negative space of where the documents end and where people live after the loss of a family member, we draft hoping to capture the essence of their wishes, the flavor of a life. I recently met with a client to sign her estate plan. I represented her previously in the administration of an estate plan that was poorly drafted by a different attorney. We worked together in and out of court with siblings who were at odds. It was not a pretty site. As my client signed her papers with me, I assume she knew she was in a law firm office, not an art museum. But for me, my creation was on display. I hope that I created a beautiful map for her and her family and her friends. I’ll invite them all to my gallery opening one day.