How Lawyers Annoy Their Clients Without Even Trying
Many lawyers, while highly skilled in their particular substantive areas of expertise, can nonetheless be unaware of how they irritate their clients. If you find yourself wondering how to build better relationships with your clients, consider a few things to avoid:
Talking down to clients
It is cringeworthy to hear a lawyer deliver a lecture to their client, when a true dialogue about an issue would have been the better approach. Indeed, in-house attorneys are appalled by outside counsel who speak to them as though they have never practiced law. An in-house client I worked with once recounted how she recoiled when a newly-engaged partner brushed aside her questions with a dismissive: “I’m speaking as a lawyer with twenty years’ experience!” What the in-house attorney wanted to say in reply was: “Yes, and I’m a lawyer too, and one with more experience than you have as counsel to this company.” Instead, she made clear to his firm that she would be looking to other external counsel going forward.
Similarly, in-house clients and business partners can easily write-off a company counsel who lords their legal role over their non-legal colleagues. For example, hammering the business about a legal problem, without seeking input on the potential commercial and operational impacts, and repeatedly insisting the legal issue is paramount, is a recipe for constructing distrust and dislike with clients.
Poor billing practices
For attorneys in law firms, the failure to pay attention to, and send carefully reviewed, bills can be a major sore point with clients. The list is long but some common criticisms from in-house counsel include:
Unauthorized billing for non-working time (e.g., travel);
Inadequate descriptions in time entries (e.g., “read doc” and “check email”, without further details);
Billing for work that could have been done at lower rates and more effectively by a different timekeeper;
Double entries by timekeepers for the same work;
Billing of administrative work that should not be charged; and
Aged time entries from several months before the latest billing cycle.
Most of these issues can be resolved by making sure that the billing attorney (usually the partner in charge) sets the right expectations with timekeepers at the beginning of a new matter, and takes the time to review and revise bills before they are issued. Moreover, while delegating review and editing of bills to the billing department or a junior associate may seem like a time-saver, the responsible billing attorney should always be doing a final review.
The billing attorney should also be vigilant to ensure that there are no surprises in the bills when a client receives them. If the work demanded is going to result in a bill of a larger amount than expected, consult with the client before the fees are incurred, explaining what work may be required and how it will be managed efficiently. Also, be sure to get a sense of what the client’s preferences are for bills beyond the four corners of their company’s billing guidelines document. Learning what the client sees as irritating (e.g., multiple lines of “0.1” entries) can help billing lawyers and their teams to better structure their time entries and billing to reduce pushback on bills.
Not listening to your client
When clients tell you what is important to them, you should listen. For example, if your client wants to use more videoconferencing--for conferences, interviews, meetings, and training--in order to reduce travel expenditures, then be mindful when you insist that in-person work is critical. You may otherwise come off as ignoring the financial constraints that your clients are describing, and appear disinterested in the clients’ business concerns. Instead, hearing and considering what the client is telling you, and then considering alternatives to be proposed if necessary, will garner the appreciation and respect of that client.
Attorneys also disappoint their clients when they look to work around their client’s specific directives or parameters. When a client asks for a short analysis of an issue, summarized in a paragraph or two in an email, but is presented with a ten-page memo, the responsible attorney has affirmatively rejected the client’s instructions. And even if the attorney offers not to charge the client for the work, the impression remaining is that the lawyer went down their own path, rather than respecting the client’s express statements. The client may not have time to read the memo, it may not be useful for sharing with the business, or it might simply not be the client’s preference. But regardless of the reason, the client made their wishes clear and disdaining them is dangerous.
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Working to improve relationships with clients requires an awareness of how your words and actions are landing. You want your clients to see you as someone who engages in a relationship with them and their organization in a productive and respectful way. Putting in the time and effort to meet that goal is worth it, and will help you steer clear of being the lawyer about whom clients roll their eyes and try to avoid.