at your law firm billing out at $300 to $600 an hour and you've just spent 20 minutes on the phone with a client. While you've done a good job with the other three core concepts, you get done and say, “Thanks, I'll get back to you.” From the client's perspective, this is what they are thinking:
1 I just spent $100 to $200 and got nothing. Not even a morsel of an answer?
2 Did they hear what I was telling them?
3 Why am I paying for someone who doesn't know anything and then will have to go the partner and double bill me?
4 Why can't I get a more experienced lawyer who can help me?
These are all bad thoughts to have as a client. We've been clients as well and have had them. Patience only goes so far with today's billing rates and salaries. The problem is that you really don't know what you are doing and may be scared to react. What should you do?
We've found that there is a relatively simple technique that can make the client feel good about the conversation, make you look smart, and preserve your options to change your mind later once you get up to speed on the subject matter. That technique: give advice in the form of a question (at this point, we should all take a moment of silence for Alex Trebek).
Here is how it works: Once the discussion around the scenario has ended and you have asked your relevant questions, ask the client, “In a perfect world, how would you like to see this issue resolved?” This simple question will give you a ton of data, not only about the issue, but about the client themselves. When they answer you'll know how reasonable they are, if they are emotional about the issue, and what their optimal solution is, which is a great starting point for your research.
When we've asked this question as junior lawyers, here are some actual quotes from clients:
“I don't want to pay any taxes on this transaction.”
“I want a younger workforce and want to fire older and slower workers.”
“I don't want my spouse to know about this.”
“I want to threaten a lawsuit to make this company accept my acquisition offer.”
“I don't want to turn over documents to the other side.”
“I want person X to do Y or I'm going to the police.”
Each of these quotes should raise red flags. Whether the client's goals are allowable is an easy legal answer regardless of the actual fact patterns (which we assure you were somewhat complicated). Regardless of your knowledge of litigation, criminal, employment, mergers, business, or family law, the hairs on the back of your neck should be saying, “Uh, you can't do that.”
Despite you potentially not knowing the actual laws in any of these areas, you still can provide advice. You can still help solve the problem, which is what the client wants. Before you think that these are implausible scenarios, they aren't. You learned some things in law school and those who didn't go to law school don't have that background. While these are more extreme cases, the point is that by asking what the goals are and using your intuitive brain, you may be able to give advice while buying yourself some time. In these cases, perhaps your answers could be the following:
“I don't want to pay any taxes on this transaction.”
Answer: “I understand your goals and I will do everything to minimize the tax impact on you.”
“I want a younger workforce and want to fire older and slower workers.”
Answer: “I hear your frustration, but employment discrimination is illegal, and I don't want you to get in trouble. Let me work out an employee performance plan that you can use to evaluate everyone on a case-by-case basis.”
“I don't want my spouse to know about this.”
Answer: “I understand, and I want to assure you that my fiduciary responsibility is to you, but there are nuances here that I want to make sure we abide by. I'll get back to you shortly.”
“I want to threaten a lawsuit to make this company accept my acquisition offer.”
Answer: “I understand how important this transaction is to you. I would consider whether suing them would make for a healthy combined company after the sale. We also need to be careful of ethics laws. Let me do a bit of work and get back to you.”
“I don't want to turn over documents to the other side.”
Answer: “I understand the sensitivity of these documents. As you probably know, there are a lot of laws around when we can and cannot withhold documents. I want to give you all the nuances regarding these and will send you an email that you can read and we can discuss.”
“I want to person X to do Y or I'm going to the police.”
Answer: “Involving the police is a serious step. We need to be thoughtful about this and I want to talk to our contacts at the firm before we take any action.”
Each of these scenarios is steeped in dense case law. And by no means is the complete answer our one-sentence response. You likely will have little or no knowledge of the particular law and cases but use your law school intuition. Common sense goes a long way, and if you can show that you are “on the case,” recognize the issue, and can provide a little off-the-cuff guidance, you'll quickly earn the trust and respect of your client. They key is not just giving up and saying, “I'll get back to you.” If you can, give the client a nugget to chew on while you are getting up to speed. The issue is when you get overwhelmed in the fact pattern and give up until you can start your research. In each of these cases, you can ask the client their goals, and in many cases, know if they are on the right track or not.
The title of this section is “Always (Usually) Give Advice.” If you are totally stuck and overwhelmed, err on the side of caution and don't give advice. That is why we put the word “usually” in the title. We've found that many junior lawyers separate themselves from others who are good at this last concept early in their careers.
For those of you who will bill hours, note that being good at these four concepts makes your billing rates more justifiable to your clients. You'll find much less pushback (and maybe even none) if your clients feel good about their interactions with you.
As we've wrapped this section up, we invite you to read the rest of the book with these concepts as filters for the rest of the material. But more importantly, if you are still in school, how do you apply these concepts to your coursework? What can you take away from your particular classes that will allow you to succeed on the soft skills side of being a lawyer? We advise you not just to think about fact patterns and the application of laws but also to take the time to think about how you would empathize, listen, and ask questions of the parties involved. Then you'll be ready to really solve the problem and give advice.
In the next two chapters we are going to dig into what you might get out of particular classes that will help you in the real world.
CHAPTER 3 Understanding the Importance
