Vet Your Lawyer

How much hand holding do you need?

It can be quite reassuring to be able to talk to your lawyer at any time about anything, but it also takes up a lot of lawyer time and can make things more expensive. We usually think of this issue in terms of highly personal areas like family law or criminal defense, but the truth is it happens all the time in all contexts depending on the emotional needs of the client – needs of which the client himself may not be aware.

In business, these needs can be masked by angry demands to micromanage and get constant updates ‘because I’m paying for this’! Yes, and you’re running up your bill, too. On the other hand, the needs may not be masked at all. If a critical process is at stake in a patent case, needed cash at stake, or the continued operation of the business itself at stake, the stress is likely to be close to the surface.

Lawyers often lose clients precisely because of these issues, even though, in fact, the legal matter is being handled quite capably. These kinds of interpersonal skills just aren’t taught much, if at all, so attorneys have to learn these skills on the job. And if the lawyer has his or her own emotional issues, or isn’t tuned in to the client’s emotional state, it can cause more problems than a poor legal position.

The very term ‘handholding’ may seem insensitive, but it is one attorney’s still use, moreso than bedside manner. So the question remains: how much personal attention do you need? Can the attorney be sufficiently attentive to those needs? If a paralegal, junior associate, or secretary is assigned to you for this purpose – even though they won’t actually say that to you – is that okay? It is something to think about honestly, and address early in the attorney client relationship.