Why Does My Lawyer Act The Way He Does?
1. I am going to post to my FB professional page an e-mail thread of a discussion of my Linked In A.B.A. “Family Law Marketing” group. The discussion actually began “off topic” when someone repeated the question of a client, “How can I get my lawyer to call me back?”
2. What followed, I believe, is a fascinating discussion by the people “in the trenches” representing conflicted family members explaining how they deal with their clients, manage the fees, and maintain a decent relationship.
3. Out of nowhere came a smug critique by a person I instantly knew is not a family lawyer. Turns out he is a Ph.D. psychologist, apparently who believes he must look like Freud, who accused some members of the discussion of “punitive billing” and criticized us for not being more like him!
4. I waited 12 hours before responding. I am sitting without power, but as of this morning, he has not replied, but a like-minded lawyer supplemented my response and told it from our point of view. Anyone who has a lawyer, has a legal matter brewing, or was unhappy with your lawyer in your last case, should consider reading the entire thread.
5. Those of us who are good at what we do care deeply about our clients and, especially, their children, but we maintain priorities of getting the job done efficiently and economically, and holding a client’s hand 24/7 is not consistent with those worthy goals. I will be interested in knowing how a lay person will judge the diversity in views of a dozen experienced family law lawyers and one judgmental psychologist.
This post was written by Burton Hunter