This week, Andrea and I took our staff to lunch to appease them for having to put up with a particularly difficult client. For all types of lawyers, difficult clients are part of the job; for us, though, they sometimes become so difficult that we worry our staff might quit. That's when we take the staff to lunch.
Here's a list of things we frown on in clients: (a) leaving five messages in a single afternoon after being told each time that the lawyer is out of the office at a deposition; (b) having a girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse leave five more messages later in the same afternoon; (c) calling some more in the evening to leave several profanity-laced messages on the answering machine while obviously high on drugs; and (d) meeting the next day with Andrea or me and lying about the facts of the case.
Does it seem like an extreme example? Even though it's a composite drawn from some of our more ornery clients, none of it is exaggerated. Frankly, though Andrea and I love helping ordinary people take on corporations and insurance companies, I can't say we are fond of all our clients. Sometimes, in fact, we fire them after filing a motion to withdraw from the case. This is always our policy, by the way, when clients are obviously lying to us and we can't reform them into telling the truth. (Note to the world: It's very difficult to tell a lie effectively, especially when your own lawyer is cross-examining you.)
There's another thing about difficult clients. It's usually our staff who suffers the brunt of the abuse. Once Andrea or I get on the phone, the difficult client often morphs into someone who is cheerful, considerate, and polite. That's what often happened in the particular case of the client whose rude behavior led to this week's staff luncheon. We considered withdrawing from the case, but the client promised to do better after a stern lecture. There was the additional consideration that we'd done quite a bit of work on the file and the case was almost finished.
For me, the rest of the week was dominated by lots of political conversations with lawyers, which took place in courtrooms after hearings, lawyers' offices after meetings, and bars after work. Is this the way it's going to be for the next six months? I guess it is.
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