Whatever the reason for the problem, if you are not getting paid what you should and when you should, address your and your clients’ concerns right away.
I discussed last week the frequent need for litigators like my colleagues at my firm to be aggressive or assertive with clerks or witnesses or adversaries. Sometimes you need to be aggressive—if always respectful and understanding—with clients who are not paying you timely.
When it comes to money matters, lawyers, like many, can be particularly shy or feel uncomfortable. If you have a good matter, with a client you like, you frequently can find some reason not to follow up with that client who did not pay when she said she would, or did not replenish a retainer with the amount you requested. You’re just too busy to reach out today, you may say. Maybe, you think, the client will just catch up so you can keep focusing on the work you really do, and not being a collections agent.
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Do not do this. Do not let concerns about client payment fester. Your relationships with your clients are amongst your absolute most important professional assets. And if you do not address invoice and billing concerns head on, you will have bad relationships with your clients. It really is that simple.
Very obviously, any private lawyer needs to get paid since, without money, there is no private law practice. As I’ve written, we are not ordinary businesspeople. But private attorneys are businesspeople in that they have offices to run, which requires earning money and receiving that money in most cases (unless your practice solely earns contingency fees) from clients on an ongoing basis.
I do not write about that obvious concern here. Instead, I write about the less obvious, even insidious relationship problem created when a lawyer does not ensure that clients maintain their payment obligations. When clients do not pay when and what they say they will, it harms the attorney-client relationship. Lawyers can feel unappreciated and, while ethical and professional obligations should be paramount, people are people: if a lawyer does not think that he is valued by a client, then that could affect that lawyer’s judgment in the client’s matters, or willingness to work hard for the client.
And lack of payment really can be a sign of a low opinion of the lawyer’s value. With respect, many litigation clients are litigation clients because they did not take their lawyer’s advice months or years before any litigation began (thus creating the mess in court or arbitration in which they find themselves). They may be in litigation, but hate that they are, not want to pay their bills, and in turn not adequately value the services their lawyers are providing. Putting aside how this affects a lawyer’s ego (which is a human problem, as I just wrote), if the client doesn’t value the lawyer, he won’t value the lawyer’s judgment or advice. The relationship gets strained and the lawyer cannot serve the client as well since clients will not take the advice of their lawyers if they do not value their lawyers.
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And these problems just about never get better on their own. When I lecture on my primary work of representing clients in complicated, messy business disputes, I’ve been asked how many of those disputes involve an emotional element. My response is about 99%, maybe a bit higher. I would say the same in response to the question of how frequently invoice and billing problems get worse over time.
Be respectful. Don’t be a harassing jerk. But do not let these concerns go. If you think you should raise the issue with the client today, but are considering giving it a few days, raise the issue today. The worst that can happen is that the client tells you she already sent you a check. Even then, you may impress the client: if you’re this on top of billing, you’re also on top of the work you’re handling for that client. Do get on the payment problem as soon as you realize that there is a problem.
When we’re private lawyers who are paid by our clients we need to get paid timely—not just so we can pay for our employees and for the printer toner, but to make sure we have healthy attorney-client relationships.
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 [email protected].