YEARS AGO, WHEN I PRACTICED LAW—before I began coaching and consulting with lawyers—I was very involved with the State Bar of California’s campaign to raise the image of lawyers. I believed this was a losing battle, because 50 percent of the parties in litigation lose their lawsuit and will likely think that the opposing side’s attorney was mean spirited, unethical, and unprofessional. To my surprise, focus groups that the State Bar conducted proved me wrong. The focus group
participants almost unanimously agreed that their attorney—not the opposing side’s lawyer—created problems. They complained about poor service, failure to return phone calls, inaccurate arithmetic on billing statements, and on and on and on.

I firmly believe that running a law firm in a businesslike way improves the professionalism of the practice of law. A law firm run as a business will approach client service more efficiently, including returning phone calls promptly, creating and adhering to a budget, and providing sufficient detail on clients’ invoices. You cannot truly be a professional service business until you understand the practice of law as a business.

The “conspiracy” between law schools and bar associations continues to demonstrate the archaic attitude that management and customer/client care issues are irrelevant. We do not require any type of client relations, business management, or quality improvement training in our law schools. In fact, educators have told me that their view of law as a profession means that programs about effective client communication or service improvement are trade-oriented and therefore
inappropriate for law school curricula. Is it any wonder that our bar associations do not require law practice management programs as part of the MCLE requirements? And then we wonder why lawyers get a bad rap, why clients are angry and rightfully believe they have no recourse to redress the management wrongs committed by lawyers.

A Firmwide Commitment

It is important to note that the problem is not limited to lawyers alone. Everyone in a law firm—staff and support personnel—should be committed to client service. The success and satisfaction of any lawyer, even solos who frequently think of themselves as lone rangers.

Bar associations do not give practice management training enough respect. Some, in fact, reject MCLE credit altogether for programs dealing with practice management. The real message is that lawyers need not be concerned with what clients think about the way they conduct their business—that, in fact, lawyers need not answer to their clients. Yet, when more than 60 percent of California’s discipline complaints involve client service (and 80 percent of our State Bar dues support the disciplinary system), practice management should be the major focus of the State Bar’s education requirements. Why is it that most other professions require significantly more continuing education than the State Bar does?

Technology has conspired with traditional attitudes to make many solo practitioners believe they truly can get away with an “I can manage 100 cases by myself because I always know what needs to get done” mentality. Thinking you can do it all yourself leads to an overwhelmed practice that is either headed into the hands of the State Bar disciplinary system or into insolvency.

In the larger picture, building a team is inseparable from teaching everyone in your office, including staff and associates, the skills to provide better service and enhanced performance to your clients.

Everyone in your office should be taking hours of client service education programs each year. When you are out with clients, the last thing you want to worry about is what someone back at the office might be saying to another client on the telephone. communication. A recent study reported that doctors talk three minutes longer with their patients/clients than other professionals and that doctors are sued less than lawyers. The study called this extra communication a “marketing” tactic that lowered the risk of malpractice. The conclusion is undoubtedly farfetched, but it is true that the focus of the conversation between a professional and a client/patient/ customer must be to understand the intent and desires and wants of the client. If the professional and the client are in harmony and the client understands what to expect from the professional, there is little likelihood of a malpractice claim.

Lawyers help improve people’s lives. And we need to let our clients know that. When that happens, fees are not an issue, and client complaints are not a problem. When that does not happen, lawyers are at best seen as a burdensome cost and a necessary evil. Without our clients we have no reason to exist as lawyers. We must find out not only what our clients need but also what they want. We must communicate with them at their level of understanding, learn what they need, and provide it to them in a way they can understand.

What can you do to change the way clients and prospective clients perceive you? How can you communicate the ways that you help improve their lives? The future of your practice may depend on your answers.



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