Marloes combines a legal background with a passion for psychology. She trains and mentors young lawyers in communication, negotiation, and ethics, teaches at the Law Firm School, and supports legal professionals as an external confidential adviser. With her book The Lawyer’s Brain (2023), she brings behavioral science into the legal world—making lawyers more aware of how they think, decide, and interact.

Are there any myths or misconceptions about the topic you will talk about at Lexpo’25 that you would like to debunk?

People place a lot of importance on conscious and controlled thought processes and often fail to realize how much unconscious and uncontrollable thought processes influence behavior and performance. Functioning and performing is far less about controlling behavior than it is about creating the right environment in which the behavior must take place.

If attendees are interested in learning more about your work, what’s the best way to get started?

Unfortunately, my book is only available in Dutch. However, when writing it, I drew a lot of inspiration from books by English authors such as Adam Grant, Daniel Pink, Dan Ariely, Johann Hari, Daniel Kahneman, Robert Cialdini, Jonathan Haidt, Simon Sinek, James Clear and Charles Duhigg. I highly recommend all the books by these authors.

Can you describe a specific success story where your advice or ideas made a tangible impact?

Stop investing fortunes in nonscientific tools such as the DISC Personality Profile, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Educate yourself with scientifically proven knowledge. Stop sending everyone to extern coaches en start talking and listening to each other as committed and caring colleagues.