A few months ago, I was listening to an on demand (and free!) CLE sponsored by the financial transaction website for attorneys, LawPay®. The CLE’s presenter, Claude DuCloux repeated something he had said in other CLEs he had hosted. When he spoke about our duties to our clients, he said something to the effect of that we were in the business of giving sound legal advice and being honest with our clients and not in the business of making our clients happy regardless of the truth; or being their hired gun. This is not Burger King®, you can’t have it your way. Recently, I have had to really put my foot down about this proposition.

            What is this about? Why do our clients think and expect us to “make them happy.” Why do they expect to have it their way? I mean, do they truly know NOTHING about the law? And when we break it to them that they just cannot always have it their way, why is there this immediate conclusion drawn that we are not willing to fight for them? Why is there this expectation that we are always going to tell them what they want to hear? Do our clients WANT to be deceived? It just doesn’t work that way.

              I recently had the experience of having to educate a prospective client about the divorce laws in our State. They were flabbergasted that the law was the way it was. They were so astonished that I think they really didn’t believe that the law was as I described it. They started to intimate that they were going to go see another attorney because they just couldn’t believe the law was truly that way and that me saying this to them meant that I wouldn’t “fight” for them. I have had this happen a good portion of times when meeting a prospective client. The fact that I am willing to tell them the truth about the law, which may not be sympathetic to their position, means in their mind that I am not willing to fight for them. So, I guess I am supposed to lie to them and tell them that they have a slam dunk of a case (even though they don’t) and that we would be crazy to settle for anything less than total and complete victory? Yay! I have authorization to charge up hamburger hill? This can’t be the answer.

            How do we cure our clients of this ridiculous bullshit fallacy? Or is this even a possibility? Maybe we can’t and we just need to steer clear of these clients as they are red flags, have inappropriate or unreasonable expectations, and that this is a clue to us that they will consistently second guess our judgment and analysis of the law? Or maybe these clients are just the clients that want to throw money at the problem, fighting the system, rules be damned? I have written about this before, and I know I will again. I think that some other unscrupulous attorneys see these clients as dollar signs. These are the clients that will fork out large sums of money to pay an attorney in the pursuit of a meritless claim. But, don’t the Bar rules tell us that taking their money is unethical? But then I go back to the proposition that doesn’t everyone deserve representation? Perhaps not. But all I know is that I am tired of client’s thinking I won’t fight for them because I tell them the truth about the merit of their current claims. I am a fighter, and a damn good one. But, I am also an honest attorney who wants the best for her clients. And if that means breaking it to them that they don’t have much of a legal leg upon which to stand, then I guess my mantra should be I am not going to tell you what you want to hear. And thank God I am willing to do that.

*Image Credit: 112812688 © Halim Lotososerdtsev | Dreamstime.com