During my travels over the years I have had numerous opportunities to watch attorneys and law firm staff interact with clients. I am surprised at the number of times that I have observed an unprofessional interaction with a client where the attorney or staff person failed to appreciate the significance of the misstep.
Let me provide an example. An attorney works in a small community and is viewed as a community leader. He has had long-lasting attorney/client relationships with a number of individuals in the community. These long-term relationships have resulted in a certain camaraderie and casual way of behaving with those clients. Now, imagine that a potential new client is sitting in the reception area, and one of the established clients steps into the reception area unannounced to ask a brief question. The attorney sees the established client enter. He walks right up to the client. With a warm "Hello!" and a pat on the back, he begins discussing the established client’s legal matter -- right in the middle of the reception area. The attorney does this because he knows the established client is comfortable with such a public discussion.
Do you see the potential professionalism concerns with the described scenario? I believe there are at least two areas of concern. Certainly I am concerned about the potential breach of confidentiality, or at least an extreme casualness with client confidences. However, I would like to focus on something else.
The potential new client worries me. I have watched similar scenarios on several occasions, and every time the new client has a concerned look on his or her face. Why? It seems that everyone knows that attorneys can be relied upon to keep everything confidential. It is a pillar of our profession. Yet, the prospective client just watched an attorney act in complete disregard of the established client’s confidences. It really doesn’t matter whether the conversation was confidential. The potential new client cannot easily discern what is confidential, and is likely to assume that everything should be confidential. The end result is that you have no idea that your new client may have doubts about your professionalism. The client’s concern about your professionalism can become a concern about your competence. These concerns make the client more likely to file a disciplinary complaint or malpractice claim.
Email is another place where being casual can be dangerous. You must check your spelling and your grammar, and make sure your e-mail actually has a signature block at the end.
Imagine a client for whom you are acting as divorce counsel. In all likelihood, given the nature of divorce proceedings, this client will reach the end of your professional relationship feeling emotionally beaten. If during your representation this client received emails that were poorly written and rather cryptic. This client will tend toward what all clients do when their case doesn’t end quite as expected. The client simply will try to put everything in perspective. It may be natural for this client to ask himself, "What went wrong?" Unfortunately, the client received your unprofessional emails, and now is thinking, "Why didn’t I see this before? My own 5th grader can write better than my attorney. She’s incompetent and my loss is her fault!" Again, unprofessional behavior leads to the client questioning your competence.
Finally, you should consider the effect created by poor housekeeping. Some of us in the legal profession view a messy and cluttered office almost as a badge of honor, to be worn proudly. These messy attorneys seem to believe that clients view the stacks of files as reflecting the attorney’s workload, which implies the attorney is in demand. The reasoning extends to the desired conclusion that the client was lucky to have this particularly busy attorney agree to handle the client’s matter. While this may not be true, what is the client’s likely response when the matter takes an unexpected turn for the worse? The client is likely to conclude that the unexpected turn resulted from the attorney not devoting adequate time to representing the client. The attorney’s messy office only serves to confirm the belief.
Certainly, it will take extra effort to keep offices clean, to enforce a rule in regard to appropriate dress, to continue emphasizing the importance of confidentiality, and to insist upon courteous and civil behavior from everyone in the office at all times. In short, it takes a real effort to emphasize professional behaviors and attitudes on a daily basis. But I want to strongly suggest that the effort is worth it. Professionalism really is about making an implied statement about your competence. In short, professionalism reflects competence. The two necessarily go hand in hand.
Previous ALPS Risk Management Articles:
ALPS Application for Professional Liability Insurance
Subscribers Only
