Every Unhappy Client Should Be A Learning Experience

The best way to deal is to review the situation from the client’s point of view.

I’ve learned that you cannot please every client who you work with. In most cases, they will be unhappy with an adverse outcome but will respect (in varying levels) that you did your best. But there will be a few clients who will be unhappy with you. They will think you are incompetent, weak, uncaring, a liar, or all of the above.

After they slam your office door on their way out, or after receiving an angry termination email, it may seem simple to write off this ungrateful headache of a client and move on. But when an attorney-client relationship ends in a sour note, the situation should be examined as closely as possible. After all, clients are unhappy for a reason, and sometimes for a good one.

The best way to do this is to review the situation from the client’s point of view. Every conflict you had with your client should be viewed in the light most favorable to them. If you have a “I’m right and the client is a moron” attitude, your closed-mindedness will likely result in you not learning anything. By looking at the situation from the client’s perspective, even if it seems unreasonable, you could discover inefficiencies in your practice that you didn’t know about.

For example, a client becomes very unhappy because the case is not progressing the way they were told in the beginning. A case you thought would last six months has lasted at least two years. Or once their case has concluded, the client may not be happy with the settlement or the verdict. They probably think they could have got the same result on their own. Or they may have received a similar settlement offer before they came to you.

So let’s look at this from the client’s perspective as they first met you. Just before signing up the client, you likely gave them your thoughts on the case and you propose a strategy and timeline for resolution. While you say that you give no guarantees, is it possible that you might have given the client strong hints that their case will be a slam-dunk in their favor? In the future, you may want to be clearer about managing expectations.

Many professional responsibility and ethics treatises say that you have a professional duty to be very clear to the client about risks, not give the potential client false hopes and don’t give any guarantees. The problem is that in the real world, being a Debbie Downer or someone who seems more interested in covering their butts by stating all kinds of disclaimers isn’t going to inspire confidence from potential clients.

There are ways to successfully convince clients of the advantages of lawyering up while reminding them that things may not turn out the way that was initially discussed. This requires you to mentally size up the client’s personality before and during the representation.

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Clients are also unhappy because they believe the lawyer did not communicate as often as they should. Again, let’s look at this from the client’s perspective. The client has a problem. He is not in the best of moods, and likely upset that he spent thousands of dollars that could have been used for a vacation or their kids’ braces. They want to get results as soon as possible because the stress is affecting their family life and their health. They need to hear from you because their major decisions will depend on what you tell them. The client doesn’t give a damn about your kid’s soccer game, your 200 other clients, or your chronic depression.

If you retaliate by sending a bill a few days later with a bill for every call you made or email you sent, chances are they won’t continue to be a paying client for much longer.

You’ll have to find a way to have the client understand that talking to you every day is not going to improve the outcome of the case. But be sure to enter the conversation calm and collected.

And then there is the issue of client billing, or more specifically, the client’s refusal or inability to pay. Most clients are genuine about their financial hardship. Or they may not pay because you have not regularly billed them which means you need to be routine and prompt when it comes to billing.

On the other hand, not paying is probably their only means of protest that will immediately get the lawyer’s attention.

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So if a client is delinquent on their bills, you should remind them that they have a duty to pay you as agreed. Inform them that you accepted a payment plan based on their honor and if the delinquency continues, you will have to ask for a deposit up-front. But you may want to ask if they are satisfied as to how the case is progressing. If they are, that is one more reason they should make payment.

Of course, the above are just a few examples of how clients become unhappy with your work. Sometimes clients have unreasonable expectations, but looking at the case from the client’s perspective could help you find ways to improve your practice and thus prevent the creation of another unhappy client.


Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at sachimalbe@excite.com and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.