What makes someone a good client?
I would like to think that we give all our clients good representation, but it’s kind of like that old expression about babies. All babies are cute, but some babies are cuter than others. We respect and do our best for all our clients, but some clients we love more than others.
After all, we’re human just like everyone else.
Here are some traits associated with clients we really love:
Honesty. We appreciate those who are straight with us. They share the good and the not so good. Nothing will sour us more quickly on someone than finding that they have withheld information or, worse, given us false information. We must be able to trust the client. If the client doesn’t trust us enough to be honest with us, then he or she should get someone else to take the case.
Courtesy. Be nice to our people. Rudeness to the staff is never okay. In fact, if there is a pattern of nasty interactions, we will fire a client even if it is a decent case.
Patience. This process is not fast. Even when we think a case is moving more quickly than expected, it still seems incredibly slow to most clients. Believe me, we would love to speed things up if for no other reason than we get paid sooner.
Responsive. If we need something from you, please try to get it to us quickly. We don’t like bugging clients. No doubt, clients don’t like being bugged by us.
Listen. By that I mean listen to our advice. We’re working on your behalf. If we recommend a course of action, it’s because we think it’s beneficial.
Forbearance. Guess what? We’re not perfect. Sometimes we make mistakes. We tell clients about mistakes and their consequences. We hope they will be understanding.
Trust. We’re working to get the best outcome we can for the client. Clients sometimes think they need to treat their own lawyers as adversaries. We’re not and that attitude is toxic to the relationship.
All of this can be summed up with that basic rule found in some form or another in most religions: Treat others as you would want to be treated yourself.
Even your lawyer.
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