June 1999

There Were So Many Red Flags, I Couldn't Shut My Door

by Jeff Tolman
Guest Editor

Perhaps the biggest determining factor of how satisfying a lawyer's practice is, and will continue to be, is the lawyer's ability to see the warning signs of impending failure. Can the client in front of you be satisfied by any result or by any quality or quantity of your work? If the answer to any of these questions is "no," the client will be a problem and your life will be miserable. Let her be someone else's problem, not yours.

Below is a partial list of red flags or warning signs. Any clients with five points or more should not be taken unless they have the entire anticipated cost of the litigation to pay in cash, up front. Clients with three or four points should be treated with caution. Have your Notice of Intent to Withdraw ready; you will probably need it. A client with one or two points is a normal client: traumatized and looking for help from family, friends and you.

• More than two lawyers have already represented the potential client in the matter she is seeing you about. There are already too many bad experiences for you to succeed.
• More than one family member attends the initial interview with your potential client. Everything will be done by committee. Every word you utter will be interpreted by committee members. Confusion, indecision and, in the end, a breakdown of communication will occur.
• A new spouse or significant other attends the consultation and speaks more than your potential client.
• The first thing your potential client tells you is that he has no money. Although his honesty will get him into heaven, his poverty will be contagious.

• Your client brings in a list of questions (which is good), but the questions are in several different handwritings. He's already gotten votes on how the matter should proceed. Your advice will count as only one vote — the same as the guy your client met yesterday at Happy Hour.
• Internet printout accompanies your client. Her chat room will be evaluating your advice and progress nightly.
• When you greet the client in the lobby, she says, "You're two minutes late. My time is just as valuable as yours." While her time is valuable, and while you should be on time, an adversarial relationship has already been formed by your client.
• A stopwatch has been brought in by your potential client or the client watches the second hand of his watch with greater intensity than he listens to your advice. This client will never see the bigger picture and will get stuck in every detail. Justice is painted with a big brush, not individual, tiny strokes.
• Your client argues with your advice. The fact that you have represented clients in 300 divorce cases and this is his first divorce is meaningless to him. He will argue with you about his case now, and will argue with you about his bill later.
• Your client complains that you are not returning her call soon enough, no matter how quickly you call her back.
• Your client wants you to be mean, no matter what the cost or ramifications. This client's hostility can, and often will, be directed as easily against you as the current opponent.

• The client wants you to meet him in the evenings or on weekends, always. Occasionally this is fine, but it shouldn't become the norm.
• When you mention to your client that she hasn't made a payment in two months, she shrugs it off and doesn't respond. There are many good reasons why payments aren't made. If your client can't think of one, there isn't one.
• Your client says, "I don't care what this costs, it's the principle of the thing," more than once in your initial meeting, and then has you bill him for the consultation.

• The client wants you to be a counselor rather than a lawyer. You aren't trained for that role and can, unwittingly, do great damage.
• You find the client wants you to tell him what to do. "Just tell me..." he starts his dialogues. You need to share his burdens, but must have a give-and-take relationship. You are not Geppetto and he is not Pinocchio.

Recently, a wonderful young lawyer called me, quite distraught over receiving his first bar complaint from a dissatisfied client. After he explained the facts of the case, I asked him why he had taken the case. He gave me the unfortunate real answer: "He had a couple of hundred dollars and I needed the money." I asked him if he saw any warning signs when initially meeting with the client. He said, "There were so many red flags, I couldn't shut my door." Now he knows the answer to the problem of a client with little money and big issues. In the long run, it is better to have interviewed a client and said "no" to representing her, than to ignore the messages of predestined failure being screamed at you.

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