August 08 National Newsletter   What (Some) Clients Think About Their Lawyers John Chisholm, John Chisholm Consulting   Meet John

 

 

 

A couple of years ago, I spoke to about 30 CPA's who were management accountants in organisations of varying sizes ranging from multinationals to SME's. The topic (chosen for me I might add) was entitled "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Lawyers But It Was Too Expensive To Ask!!!" Yep. I guess I should have realised I was being set up - or setting myself up.

 

I opened the discussion by asking them to tell me of their own experiences with lawyers and the law generally.

 

Needless to say the room was not entirely filled with warm and fuzzy feelings of love, care and understanding for their legal advisors. I did the best I could trying to explain, justify and defend the actions (or inactions) of some of the experiences they had with their lawyers but I had to concede that sometimes it is just really, really hard to defend the indefensible.

 

Perhaps this is best illustrated if I relate some of the attendees opening volleys to me on their experiences. For example:

 

1. Fees. “Why do you lawyers charge for everything?” “Why are you so expensive? I am often charged for names of people I have never met?” “They told me it was going to cost $5000 and it ended up costing my company $50000!” “He told me he was going to charge me $300 per hour but didn’t tell me how many hours nor how many people would be working on my file!” “As for disbursements - they have the cheek to send me a bill for $15000 plus they want me to pay for their own printing, copying, courier and phone calls!!!” “The solicitor told me about his fees - but didn’t tell me that the barristers fees would be triple the solicitors fees!!!

 

2. Language. “Why cant you guys speak a language I understand?” “You use all these words that mean nothing to me and then you charge me more money for you to interpret what you have written to me.” “What is wrong with some plain English?”

 

3. Communication. “They never tell me what is happening - except at the last moment and then I am expected to drop everything and be at a conference with a barrister - or worse still at Court the next morning!” “Sometimes I wonder whether it is better they don’t communicate with me and tell me what is going on for every time they do they charge me for it!” “Why won’t they return my phone calls within a reasonable time? Is there something in Lawyers handbooks that say you are never to return phone calls inside a week unless a client is threatening to sue you ,set up an embassy outside your home or is about to be cremated?” “When my solicitor does return my phone call I don’t want to hear how busy he has been on every other clients file - I want to know how busy he has been on my file!” “Response time is hopeless. I often need an answer quickly, not in 2 weeks time when it is too late!”

 

4. “They never commit themselves. They always sit on the fence and want us to make the decision! I am paying them to make decisions!” “They are always pretty gung ho at the start of litigation but every time we get to door of court and have a meeting with a barrister I am told "because of the uncertainties of litigation it is commercially desirable to settle and not go to hearing"! Pity they didn’t advise me of that before I spent $50,000 on legal fees!”

 

5. “Sometimes I get the feeling that my solicitor doesn’t really want us as a client but when I ask him he says "of course we do". Why then does he treat us with such indifference most of the time? He only really shows interest when I threaten to leave or won't pay a bill!”

6. “Why do I stay with our current solicitors if I am unhappy? I have changed legal firms before and there isn’t much difference. They are all the same. I am not saying he is incompetent and I like him personally and it is such a hassle to have to change and go through a learning curve again with a new solicitor. He probably knows that too so he knows he can get away with it”.

 

7. “My law firm says on their website that they "...understand our clients business and the industry they operate in..." That is rubbish! I would love them to come and visit me at my business just once and see just how hard it is, just how tight my margins are and how competitive my industry is!” “When I do take the time to explain to a lawyer about our business and our industry - which I am charged for I might add - next time I deal with them I find I am dealing with a totally different person who knows nothing about us and clearly has not been briefed by anyone about our business.”

 

8. “I am so fed up with our company's lawyers that I only ever go to them as a last resort. I know I am doing things that I should really have "legalled" but frankly I am willing to take the risk in most cases just so I don’t have to deal with them. It only adds both cost and time to the transaction!”

 

9. “Why don’t I complain? Who do I complain to? Once I asked to speak to the Managing Partner - and I am still waiting for him to return my call!” “I was asked to put my complaint in writing to a "Complaints Committee"...I just didn’t have the time to go through all that. All I wanted was action on the file”. “I once complained to the Law Society (sic) but they made me feel like I was on trial. It just wasn’t worth it in the end.” “I didn’t want to get my lawyer into trouble - I just wanted someone to look at my file and tell me what is going on”.

 

Hmm? There were of course the odd good stories but the experience did seem to prove the old adage that if you do something well that person may tell 2 or 3 people…but do something not so well and they will tell 10!

 

Now to be fair, not all of these accountants had direct contact with lawyers. Some of them were merely paying or approving the law firms bill's. A couple of them were angry that on occasions they had been told to budget for a certain amount of legal fees by the manager instructing the law firm only to have the manager sheepishly appear with an account (now 3 months old) that he has been sitting on which was far in excess of the original budget and then the financial controller has to try and work out how they are going to find the cash to pay for it!

 

Some of them clearly only saw the financial ramifications and not all the good things the lawyer does for his/her company.

 

But even taking all the above comments with a grain of salt, unless I was just so unlucky to pick a group that all had a bone to pick with lawyers (had they all been through a bitter divorce?) and whilst clearly the customer is not always right, have we still got a way to go with customer service?

 

Not one of the attendees complained about the lawyer's lack of technical skills (not that they would necessarily know anyway whether their lawyer was or was not technically good) but about really basic service delivery - lack of common courtesies or bedside manners. To think, in the 21st Century, clients still complain about the most basic things - like returning phone calls!!!

 

Is business so good, are our profits so high, are our clients so difficult - always wrong and so demanding - that we can continue what to some clients at least seems to be inexcusable arrogant behaviour? I guess we can - especially if all our competitors are much the same!

 

But what if by some miracle one or two of our competitors (who may be no better technically than what we are) actually started getting this customer service stuff right? Worse still, what if one of our major clients found out that all law firms are not the same and decided to give someone else a go?

 

I did spend a great deal of time informing the group the ways of finding a lawyer that may suit them; how to properly engage their lawyer so as to minimise any "miscommunication issues"; what a law firm’s Terms of Engagement should contain (one attendee did comment that they needed to consult another lawyer just to interpret their own law firms terms of engagement???); a client's "rights" against lawyers; how to complain and to whom; how fees are sometimes calculated; how they could potentially "save" some costs; what solicitor/client confidentiality may mean; what a Trust Account is really for; when conflicts of interest may arise; what Professional Indemnity and Fidelity Insurance is for; - and I directed them to the Law Institute of Victoria’s very informative website.

 

Did I convince them to be more accepting, understanding and more caring to their lawyers?

 

Yeah maybe - at least until there appears that mythical law firm that really truly focuses on client service from the client’s perspective.

John Chisholm
B.Juris.LLB

E john@chisconsult.com
M +61 0 419 763 391
B +61 3 9578 3500
W www.chisconsult.com