Someone once said, “Do one thing, and do it well.” Despite the murky origin of the saying, one thing is clear to the people who know attorney Patricia Best Vital: she lives out the dictate with fierce precision.
The words on the door of her office say it all: “Vital Dispute Resolution Services.”
The key words are “dispute” and “resolution.” Whether Vital is litigating on behalf of a client, acting as a Rule 31 mediator, or serving as an arbitrator, she’s focused on resolving a dispute. Through these three separate branches of her business, she helps people bring closure to a contentious situation and then move on.
Vital says her proclivity for resolving disputes took shape as she worked as a hospital administrator in the years before she became an attorney. “When you work in the health care industry, you see people at their worst, and you become focused on helping them through the pain of the moment to a better tomorrow.”
Vital is presently focusing her law practice on family issues. The same is true of her work as a mediator, although she also helps to reconcile matters involving the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. As an arbitrator, Vital concentrates on securities issues.
Her work as a mediator has allowed her to manage many interesting matters. On one occasion, she handled an ADA mediation involving a decorated military veteran who had issues with the accessibility of a golf course; on another, she administered discussions centered on medical access for a hearing impaired elderly Korean couple, neither of whom spoke English. “I brought in a co-mediator from Atlanta who spoke Korean. That was a ten-hour mediation,” Vital says.
The diversity of Vital’s business and her reputation for doing solid work regularly opens doors of opportunity. For example, an upcoming ADA mediation will take her, telephonically, to Maryland, where she’ll act as the go-between for the parties engaged in a dispute involving access at a restaurant in Maryland. “It might involve the restrooms, the width of the doors, the parking – a plethora of issues that would have to do with getting into or leaving the restaurant, or enjoying the restaurant,” she says.
While Vital will go with a client to court, she favors mediation and arbitration. She pulls an analogy out of her medical days to explain why: “Litigation is surgery. Things have gone so badly, a judge is going to have to use his scalpel to cut things out of you and then patch you up. Dispute resolution is analogous to internal medicine. A mediator or arbitrator provides healing without going to the extreme of cutting.”
Vital believes parties in a disagreement prefer dispute resolution, too, because they’re able to have a hand in crafting the outcome. “They probably won’t get everything they want, but neither will the other side, and hopefully, you’ll be able to live with the outcome. Going to court will be costlier and more time consuming, and someone else is going to decide the outcome,” she says. “I support the court system and believe it’s an integral part of our society, but at the same time, I’m thankful we have other processes.”
One of the challenges of dispute resolution for Vital is striking a balance between being objective and also identifying with the clients enough to make a good decision. “You have to remain objective and not identify too closely with the disputants because you don’t want to lose your neutrality, but we are holistic human beings, and we can do only so much compartmentalization. You need to take your life experiences and ask how they inform you in ways that can help others,” she says.
If Vital used her dispute resolution skills only to earn money, one might be able to accuse her of being more of an entrepreneur than a true believer. But the countless volunteer hours she’s poured into doing the same thing she does for a paycheck have deprived would-be critics of any opportunity to levy this charge. Most significant are the eight years Vital served as the chair of the dispute arbitration panel of the Chattanooga Bar Association. The Bar has given Vital multiple awards in recognition of her service, something she says both humbles her and makes her proud.
To Vital, the law, for which she clearly has deep respect, is all about helping people. “It’s a powerful tool for both the individual and society as a whole. It can be a positive force for responsibility and accountability, and for providing structure for a community. That’s how I endeavor to use it in my practice,” she says.
Journey to the law
A Greensboro, N.C., native, Vital moved with her family to Chattanooga in the ’80s. Her dad was a medical photographer and her mom was a registered nurse, so Vital naturally gravitated to the health care industry. She worked in hospital administration and as a medical staff coordinator in North Georgia for ten years, then decided to switch to law.
“I was interested in medicine and the law in high school. My interest in the law crystallized when I was working in hospital administration. One of my responsibilities was to conduct peer review and credentialing processes involving doctors. At times, the hospital would deny requests by doctors to join the staff or to have specific clinical privileges, and the doctors had the right to appeal the decision. My job as medical staff coordinator was to coordinate those appeals,” she says.
As Vital worked closely with the hospital attorney, her thoughts turned toward the law. While still working full-time in the medical field, she earned an English degree at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, graduating magna cum laude. To acquire her Doctor of Jurisprudence, Vital attended UT Knoxville as a recipient of the Chattanooga Community Foundation Judge Frank Wilson Scholarship. She says she’s still grateful for being selected. Next April will mark her 20th year of practice.
Although the owner of an active practice, Vital’s law career nearly took a hard right turn this year.
Running for General Sessions
When Judge Robert L. Moon passed away in January, he created a vacancy in the General Sessions Court. Vital threw her hat into the ring. “Since my law school days, my colleagues have told me I have a judicial temperament,” she says.
However, going into the race, Vital did not know that most the cases in General Sessions Court are criminal in nature. Since she’s chosen to not practice criminal law, and has no desire to do so, this put her at a disadvantage.
No matter. She’s glad voters chose someone else. “I feel like I dodged a bullet,” she says.
Life outside of work
In addition to serving her clients, Vital has a slew of personal responsibilities. For starters, her husband of 27 years, Leo, has been living in assisted care for ten years. She says the ordeal has been a learning experience. “I’m a detail-oriented person. And I’ve been through all of the emotions – the anger, the frustration and my expectations for the standards of care for my husband not being met. I still have those standards, but I’m more realistic about what people can do. I’ve learned to temper my perfectionistic personality with reality,” she says.
Vital participates in the care of her husband while also running her business. To the casual observer, these combined tasks might seem like a staggering burden, but Vital handles them with poise. “I’ve mastered juggling,” she says.
Vital clearly thinks highly of her husband. She seems especially thankful for the memories she has of him supporting her endeavor to become a lawyer. “He was working in Chattanooga, so I lived alone in married student housing in Knoxville. He’d drive up to see me and take me out to eat, and bless his heart, I’d pull out my big, heavy law books,” she says.
Vital and her husband don’t have children together, but Leo does have three kids from a previous marriage, one of which has made him a grandfather four times over. Vital smiles as she talks about what her grandchildren are doing, but curiously says they call her by her first name. “I’m just ‘Pat,’” she says, smiling briskly and nodding.
In addition to taking care of her husband, Vital continues to serve her community as chair of the advisory board of a private for-profit company that provides services to disabled adults. She has been a member of the board for 12 years.
Vital gives a distinct first impression. From her wrinkle-free clothes, to her tightly controlled hairstyle, to her impeccable posture, to her curt, articulate manner of speaking, to her impressive vocabulary, she appears to be the embodiment of the term “button-down.” The only thing that seems out of place is the explosion of yellow post-it notes on her work desk. But Vital has a playful side. She raises beautiful Siberian huskies, and the word “kickboxing” appears at the bottom of her resume under “Personal Interests.”
“I don’t get to kick box much anymore, but I’m still focused on fitness. If you don’t take care of the house in which you live, you can’t be as productive as you could be,” she says.
Above all, Vital must remain capable of being productive, as she carries a considerable amount of weight on her shoulders. From caring for her husband, to managing a business, to maintaining a thriving law and dispute resolution practice, her days, and surely her thoughts, are full. Her ability to handle these diverse responsibilities with grace is a testament to her strength of body, mind and character.
While the maxim “Do one thing, and do it well” would apply to Vital’s work, it would also apply to other aspects of her life. Perhaps the saying, “Whatever you do, do it with all of your might,” would be more fitting.