In her final lecture to Harvard Law School's Class of 2026, Professor Kristen Eichensehr, amid a deep analysis of geopolitics, institutional instability, global change and the impact of Artificial Intelligence, gave a simple, direct and powerful warning to future lawyers: you must learn to “expect the unexpected.”
The reflection she proposed goes beyond the academic setting and echoes daily legal practice. Over the past few decades, legal professionals have been constantly challenged to deal not only with what is predictable, but also with unexpected situations that arise in business, estate and family settings.
Practising law — especially alongside companies, business families, independent professionals and people going through moments of crisis — teaches us daily that the law does not live only in statutes, legal theories or contracts. The law lives, above all, in the conflict between expectation and reality.
And reality often arrives without asking permission.
When the unexpected materialises
Last week, a ruling handed down by the Court of Appeals of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Tribunal de Justiça do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) demonstrated, quite concretely, Professor Eichensehr's warning.
The case involved the peaceful, uncontested possession of a property for more than 15 years. Even so, the Court upheld an injunction, despite the existence of a pending adverse-possession claim.
In other words, the episode highlights a recurring problem: when legal certainty becomes too scarce, everyone begins to live with a permanent sense of impermanence. In that environment, the unexpected stops being the exception and becomes almost a rule of everyday life.
The importance of legal prevention
Perhaps that is why, at Petereit Advogados, we maintain a constant focus on well-drafted contracts, carefully structured clauses, properly mapped risks and adequately prevented conflicts.
Every month, we draft and review hundreds of contracts of all kinds, from the simplest instruments to the most sophisticated corporate agreements. And experience shows that a poorly written clause today can turn into a lawsuit tomorrow.
In fact, that is exactly what happened recently.
A contract drafted around two years ago, at a time when the parties were aligned and apparently in full agreement, gave rise to an intense conflict over the interpretation of an obligation now due in July 2026.
For nearly a week, what had seemed clear on paper came to be interpreted differently by those involved.
It took explaining, guiding, providing context and, to some extent, mediating the conflict. Interestingly, it was only when one party signalled it would take the matter to court that the other agreed to sit down and negotiate in a way more consistent with the original spirit of the clause.
The instability of relationships and liquid modernity
That is why legal prevention remains so relevant. Not out of an attachment to excessive formalism. Not out of a preference for complexity. But because experience shows that business, estate and family life is far more unstable than people would like to admit.
In this context, the ideas of sociologist Zygmunt Bauman remain extremely relevant.
In describing what he called liquid modernity, Bauman helped us understand an era in which social, romantic, professional, economic and institutional relationships lost some of the stability and rigidity that once seemed natural. Everything became more fluid, more volatile and more fleeting.
If the world has become liquid, perhaps the lawyer's role is precisely to help clients build some margins of safety.
Expecting the unexpected
The warning given to future lawyers at Harvard also applies to business owners, managers, investors and families who need to make important decisions in an increasingly unpredictable environment.
Expecting the unexpected does not mean acting with pessimism. It means recognising that conflicts, disagreements and unforeseen situations are part of reality. It means understanding that legal prevention, planning and the construction of solid strategies remain the most effective tools for facing uncertain scenarios.
Because when the unexpected arrives — and it will, at some point — the difference will lie in having the strategy, preparation and competence to face it.
Ricardo Petereit
Founding Partner of Petereit Advogados Associados
OAB/RJ 133,676 | OAB/SP 545,686
