Boutique Law Firms, Partner Issues, Small Law Firms

In The Attorney-Client Relationship, You Are The Service Professional

Managing clients can be enormously difficult work. But this is a service profession and that’s the job.

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john-balestriereManaging clients can be enormously difficult work. But this is a service profession and that’s the job. 

I was a prosecutor and lucky enough to try many and very tough jury cases. As a prosecutor, I conducted long-term investigations of all kinds against bad guys all around the world. When I entered private practice I thought that that experience would help me be a good civil litigator. In so many ways it has, but, on the other hand, it did not provide with the experience for handling clients. While there were crime victims we had attend to, my client as a prosecutor was the “the People of the State of New York.”

Now, (very thankfully) my colleagues and I have lots of clients, but that does mean a lot of time and energy devoted to client management. This is part of the job that I find is difficult even for bright, hardworking lawyers who want to develop themselves in their craft. As analytical professionals, our job frequently requires us to analyze dispassionately a complicated problem and provide sober counsel about how to proceed. We seem to expect clients to act the same way.

However, clients are not supposed to be dispassionate. If they’re in a litigation, they’re in some kind of mess. And in my experience everyone is emotional—plaintiffs who feel like they’re wronged, defendants who feel like they’re unfairly attacked, parties of all stripes who are appalled at the conduct of the other side, or the other side’s lawyers, or the judges or arbitrators, or the expert witnesses, or who knows who else. Often (but not always), general counsel can proceed somewhat removed from their matters, but I find even they tend to take on the emotional perspective of what they call their clients (their colleagues within the organization that are the actual witnesses or essentially interested parties in the dispute).

My advice to lawyers is to deal with it. Litigation is emotional for litigants. Don’t expect your clients to feel differently. Instead, here is a chance to embrace the reality that we are in a service profession. Serve your clients — they are the clients, you are the lawyer — by acknowledging how emotional it is for them and nonetheless still providing your counsel and advocating for them. I am not at all suggesting you commiserate. I certainly am not saying you stroke your clients’ hair and tell them all will be ok and say “Om” or have them sit on a couch and tell you about their mothers. You’re still their lawyer, not their friend, yoga partner or therapist. You will serve the client — and gain the client’s trust — if you acknowledge their emotional investment and your role as not simply a tactician or fighter, but as a service professional.

We have to be unemotional in our work, but we can’t expect that of our clients. We serve them better when we remember not only our role as advocate and counselor, but theirs as client.

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John Balestriere is an entrepreneurial trial lawyer who founded his firm after working as a prosecutor and litigator at a small firm. He is a partner at trial and investigations law firm Balestriere Fariello in New York, where he and his colleagues represent domestic and international clients in litigation, arbitration, appeals, and investigations. You can reach him by email at john.g.balestriere@balestrierefariello.com.

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