21 December 2021, by Raymond Thurston David, Advocate & Solicitor
People shy away from certain areas but the truth is no matter how much you research on the internet, there is really no substitute for experience when it comes to dealing with clients. And without them, who can we bill eh!
Kipling always comes to mind when I encounter hard to please clients.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
There is more but you can indulge yourself in your time.
When I was asked to do an article, I pondered for a while and reflected back to 1998 where I began my legal journey at the law firm of Messrs Wellers in leafy Bromley, as a trainee solicitor and how difficult it was to understand different types of clients as I actually took the Clapham omnibus!
All lawyers have their strengths and styles on this and the Bar Council has done an admirable job in administering and managing as best they can to adherence to the Legal Profession Act, the Disciplinary Body and other avenues available to the client and or aggrieved lawyers to highlight their issues to.
I did not refer to clients as being difficult because I do not think that way as we should always treat them with respect and find a way to win their minds and their wallets but it can be challenging at times and maturity plays a large part in that.
Clients like almost every person that I encounter or deal with, want respect.
They will not accept that were wrong nor will they easily accept that they could be wrong and in this era of instant gratification, everything they want is now and if you do not deliver, you are not good enough or they will use that as an excuse to seek a reduction on the fees charged.
I am rather less fortunate then most because I rely on friends to pass me work and by word of mouth and my friends who turn out to be clients have a certain disdain about lawyers. Not sure why but they feel that commercial agreements are templatized so lawyers like me should not charge what we like although we all follow a set of guidelines set by the Solicitors Remuneration Order.
I have no doubt that any junior associates having read this far can relate to the pressures that come from their senior colleagues always wanting to be ahead of others and pushing them or rather encouraging them incessantly to work on deliverables at any given time, may have changed but it was in my days as a junior.
In my view, there is no one size fits all when dealing with clients but try these as a mental checklist and chances are you will not only display maturity but possibly retain the client and get more referrals:
- Listen, listen, listen. (Yes, Madame Speaker!!!!!)
- Let them finish what they want and try not to interject too soon. Digest the areas that you think they are asking for example, licensing, company law, land matters, banking, international transactions, contentious matters, winding up matters.
- Ask them what is it that they wish to accomplish. Delay, frustrate, reorganize, settle, litigate, amend etc.
- Are they open to mediation, a solution or adamant that they want their day in court? Litigation is not as easy for some and I did see a future there but if I can’t even win an argument with my wife, what good am I eh!
- Learn to buy yourself some time with the queries, do not presume you know everything because you can ask 10 lawyers a question and you may get 10 different answers.
- Maturity comes from understanding and for the most part, experiencing it yourself and as Kipling says at the end of his poem, “then you shall be a man indeed…”
The reference can be applied equally to females and I hope readers will appreciate it.
I may not always get the above right, but we need to maintain the integrity of our profession and be a role model to others. We also need to preserve the confidentiality of the client and refrain from going out with our juniors and being tempted to highlight the negatives by saying, I am giving you this brief and the guy is an utter and thinks he knows everything because, that shows immaturity and we need to develop and instill in our young lawyers a sense of calmness, educate them on our experiences and enlighten them so they do not sit with their friends and say when you approach them, “Oh no run for the hills, here he comes, I wonder what grandfather story he is going to tell now!”
Ask a person who has to care for a loved one who has Alzheimer’s, you can learn the value of patience, ask a person who does not have a parent and you will understand the value of a hug and reassurance.
So next time, you encounter a client who asks for the almost impossible, just dig deep, listen, buy some time if you do not know the answer but treat him or her with respect and you never know the rewards that will flow.
A final story from my experience which has stayed with me from my articles (in UK they called training this) from one of the partners named Paul (who is still there), who whilst walking along St James Park to meet a client, shared a story of a wills clerk who was so kind to an elderly lady who wanted to do her will and she was so taken in by the young man’s attentiveness and non-judgmental approach to her appearance that she passed him a brief of her husband who she said owned some burger joints in the US, that elderly lady’s name was Mrs McDonalds and the firm went on to represent the man himself and I never checked if that was true but I got what Paul was trying to say just as I hope you understood a little of what I was trying to say on dealing with clients.