The Paradox of Client Service
There are a number of blogs like Dan Hull's What About Clients? and In Search of Perfect Client Service that provide excellent advice on how to serve clients. At the same time, for some lawyers, particularly new solos, serving clients isn't as much of a problem as figuring out how to avoid falling into what I have termed "the paradox of client service," the fact that we serve clients, but they are not our masters. In the early years of my practice, I felt this tension between feeling like I'm a slave to my client while trying to stay in charge. Originally, I chalked it up to a my personality, but now I wonder whether many new lawyers are predisposed to becoming slaves to clients because that's the role we play in law school (performing on command to the Socratic method) and at firms. Anyway, here are my thoughts below:
Perhaps the most difficult transition from working for others to working for yourself involves figuring out how to deal with the ??paradox of the client.? At a job, clear rules of hierarchy apply: you take your marching orders from your boss or superior, be it a senior partner at a firm or a deputy general counsel at a government agency or corporation. As for dealing with clients, they??re just another task on your to-do list, along with researching memos or keeping time sheets or taking CLE courses (continuing legal education).
Starting your own firm upsets this orderly chain of command. In solo practice, dealing with clients is no longer someone else??s responsibility. Clients comprise the heart of your business, your firm??s raison d??etre. Your livelihood depends upon your ability to serve your clients, because without them, you won??t have a law firm. At the same time, serving clients does not make them your boss. The partner at the law firm could force you to work round the clock or to raise a specious argument in a brief against your better judgment, but clients do not control the way you run your practice. As we discuss, clients have important rights that you must respect as part of your service to them, but those rights do not include things like keeping you at their beck and call round the clock or ordering you to discount your services or forcing you to take a position that violates ethics rules.
That is the paradox of the client: you serve clients, but they are not your master. If you don??t serve well, you may lose your clients, but if you subordinate your judgment and business practices to your clients?? demands, (e.g, working for discounted rates or taking unethical positions), you may also find yourself the subject of a bar complaint or out of business. All lawyers struggle with the paradox of the clients. But the paradox poses a particularly difficult problem for new solos: emerging from the cocoon of the ??boss-employee? relationship, many new or young solos are more preconditioned to fall into a subordinate role with clients...
What are your thoughts? Is this a problem for new solos (as I wrote here, becoming a slave to a client can happen even when more experienced lawyers let friendship cloud their judgment) - and if so, what can we do, in law school and in law firm training to address it?
Carolyn: This is a really hard but great subject. You've really hit on something. Client service is as difficult a part of law practice as anything--and the line between really serving clients and being overly-managed by them is even harder. And the smaller your firm, the harder it is, because every client colors your practice when you are small. Personally, I am very eager to please any client and, at the same time, need to be a good lawyer. My starting point for the whole issue is choosing clients very carefully. We must like them. While nearly all of our clients are companies with GCs or fairly sophisticated point people, ALL of them mirror distinct "company personalities" or "cultures". In almost every case, the client rep's personality with--and attitude towards--my firm does NOT reflect the personality of the individual client rep. Instead the rep reflects the client company line on virtually everything: brash, analytical, smart, semi-smart, green, careful, irresponsible, humanitarian, brutish, fun, not fun, whatever. The point for my firm is to carefully choose clients, and represent only clients we "like". That means people finding clients "like us", and who share certain values with us, i.e., be very aggressive, but plan first, and communicate with the client constantly (just as we at my firm tend to over-communicate with each other about everything). If the client is "like you", or has the same values, it won't even try to control you out of respect and understanding of the way you work. And, hey, it's always okay to fire clients. We've done it a lot. Just don't wait too long. Dan
I think I definately suffered from this problem early on out of law school...I'm now in my 4th year of practice and 1.5 of those as a sole practitioner. I would suggest two or three common problems. First, I'd mention simple confidence as an issue. Without a great deal of experience, I never thought I knew enough to question clients or give great advice for that matter. Second, I think there was a hesitancy to disagree too strongly with clients just because I was worried about keeping clients and not offending them. I think these two items have sort of taken care of themselves as I've gotten more competent and experienced. Lastly, I think a lawyer needs to be a bit almost selfish in his/her perspective. What's more important: some intransigent and wrong-headed client or the success of my business and my families economic well-being?