Earning Clients' Trust
Hiring a lawyer can be hard because doing so requires that a client place her trust in someone she may not know very well. Lawyers have a reputation for being dishonest, and many people do not have close friendships with them. And so they turn to a stranger in a time of panic and a sensitive situation, and one of the first things the strange lawyer may do is ask for money - and they may not even say how much. No wonder that many people do not enjoy working with lawyers and struggle to trust them sufficiently to enable them to do their job.
I have had to deal with this issue, and so I share some thoughts.
Why should you read this post about earning trust?
The litigation process is already difficult, and the anxiety that comes from working with someone you don't trust will make it much worse.
You’re skeptical that anyone trusts lawyers.
You want to learn my techniques for building trust so you can use them for evil.
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It is Important to Find a Litigator You Trust
Unlike some kinds of law, litigation is one in which the lawyer has a lot of authority to act on behalf of a client. Without asking for permission, a litigator can sign agreements that bind a client, she can dismiss claims, change deadlines, and make strategic decisions. And so a client must find a lawyer that she is comfortable delegating that kind of authority to.
A lot of clients pick someone because they need to find a lawyer, but then don’t actually trust the lawyer. This manifests in a few ways. The client may hold important facts back from the lawyer because they are afraid that, if the lawyer knew the truth, she would do something the client doesn’t want. Or the client may not follow the lawyer’s advice because the client believes the lawyer doesn’t share the same values or has her best interests at heart. Or the client may spend a lot of time looking for a new lawyer as the case goes on, which is time consuming and could lead to conflicting advice.
These are all bad for the client: lawyers are always in a better position to help a client if they know all the facts - especially the bad ones. Clients that hold information back from me make my job harder because then I don’t have the time to develop the best response to a bad fact, or I give the client advice I would not have given if I knew the whole truth.
Also, if a client hires a lawyer, she should listen to the advice she gets from the lawyer. That does not mean just blindly doing everything the lawyer proposes, but it does mean taking the advice seriously, especially on matters where the lawyer has technical expertise. And while clients should always be open to seeking new perspectives, lawyers trying to take a client’s business may be inclined to criticize a client’s existing strategy, which may disrupt the existing strategy and sow discord, even if the existing strategy is fine.
Ways to Build Trust
In an earlier time, clients spent time in the lawyer’s office, getting to know their advocate face to face. But I do a lot of my work in my office, far away from my clients. The bulk of my work takes place over email, by phone, and behind the scenes, away from client view. So how can clients come to trust me?
One way is through Zoom meetings. I believe that people can build a rapport with me when they see my face rather than just my emails or hearing my disembodied voice. This isn’t because I am particularly handsome, but instead a psychological thing where people feel they know you better if they can put a face to your name.
Another way is through me explaining my thought process. I spend extra time telling clients not just what I think, but why I think it. And I tell them about the alternatives and why I disagree with them. And I try to offer examples of times my observations worked out and I am candid about the alternatives. I am always afraid this may bore clients that may not want to get a long speech about the legal process, but my hope is that my advice and opinion may feel safer if it is less of a mystery and more of a process the client understands.
Similar to this, I try to also let clients know that I understand what they are going through. It may make a lawyer easer to trust if they recognize the emotional challenges that client may be going through because that may mean they have more emotional intelligence, or at least experience with similar issues.
A third way is by telling the client what to expect. For many clients, any legal process is a brand new situation. Many have not been in a lawsuit or legal proceeding before, and so I find that by telling them what will happen, they may trust me more when my predictions come true. But one problem with this is that litigation is, for lack of a better blog name, unpredictable. Accordingly, I can’t tell clients for sure what will happen, I need to caveat a lot of what I say with the possibility that my predictions will be wrong, and sometimes surprises happen. But to the extent I can give them a view of what to expect, I believe people learn over time that I can be trusted to know what is going on.
Another way people build trust is through reputation. Some lawyers are well known for being smart, capable, and honest. Other lawyers may not know the client directly, but come recommended by someone the client already knows and trusts. And some have a lot of online reviews, which enhances their credibility. Personally, I am not a famous lawyer, nor do I practice the kind of law where online reviews are typical (high volume businesses with general consumer audiences, such as personal injury law or trusts and estates law). As a result, I just do my best to be a good lawyer and hope that I build a reputation that way. Also I have this blog, so clients may see that I am the kind of lawyer who knows enough about the law and cares enough about it to have written about it every week for over five years.
Finally, many lawyers take cases on contingency, not just to expand the base of clients to those without big litigation budgets and to possibly share in large payouts, but to earn the trust of a client by telling them that they, too, have skin in the game and a strong personal motivation to get a great result.
Handling a Lack of Trust
Even with the work a lawyer may do to maintain a client’s trust, lawyers and clients are people and that means that relationships of trust naturally falter and break down sometimes.
First, lawyers frequently put things in writing. This way, if there is ever a dispute about what the lawyer said, the lawyer has a record to establish it. This comes up a lot in fee estimates; clients are often upset by how much litigation costs, and so letting the client know in writing what to expect makes it easier to clarify what expectations are later on.
Second, lawyers should try to be sensitive to a lack of trust. Instead of waiting for it to cause a complete breakdown of a relationship, lawyers should listen for it in the client’s voice and address it. They can ask the client how she feels in an effort to identify the root cause of the issue. And they can bring in other lawyers to give the client other perspectives and opinions so the client can be comfortable that the advice she is getting is not just the misguided view of one crank, but either a consensus view or she can feel comfortable choosing a different path proposed by another lawyer.
And third, if the client really no longer trusts a lawyer, it is better to end the relationship on good terms and help the client find someone that can serve her well, rather than wait too long when the client becomes very unhappy and a higher stakes dispute can arise because of choices the lawyer or client made.