I haven’t talked much in this blog about how to actually answer a potential client phone call (assuming you have figured out how to get the phone to ring). Stated another way: How do you discuss a legal problem with a potential client whom you would like to hire you for your legal services? After all, starting a law firm means you have to get people to hire you to be their lawyer.
First and foremost, you owe the client a duty to be competent to answer their questions in a lawyerly manner. Competency is Rule Number 1 for a reason. Additionally, I hope you know that your discussion is confidential. If, in the middle of the phone call, you realize you can’t give competent legal advice, say so, and refer the person to another attorney or source that may be able to assist them.
Second, you owe a duty to the client to charge a reasonable rate which is determined by the legal market prices in your community and your level of experience. In other words, your quoted billable rate must be reasonable.
Assuming you are competent to handle the matter, you can feel free to listen to the legal problem and give legal advice. The question I often have in my practice is how long I need to listen and to what extent. After all, many people will try and pump you for free legal advice. Starting a successful law firm is not about giving free legal advice.
But, to some extent, you should be willing to give the client time to initially discuss their problem. The ultimate choice about how much time you give them is yours. In my experience, many attorney will do one of two things when a new client calls: (1) not answer the phone at all and simply ask the client to leave a message or have staff talk briefly with them or, (2) answer the phone, but only talk to the client briefly before telling them to schedule an appointment.
I don’t think the approaches listed above are necessarily wrong. In fact, I have done some variation of both at one time or another. However, my policy is to give EVERY caller time to explain their problem. I am not always perfect about it, but this is my goal.
Why is this my goal? Because clients are people and people want somebody to listen to them. People don’t want to schedule an appointment to have somebody listen to their problem. They want somebody to listen and understand right now. That is just human nature.
I have often told people that I feel more like a social worker or a psychiatrist, at times, than a lawyer. Maybe this is because I have taken on quite a few family law clients. If you start a law firm and don’t chose family law as a niche area, perhaps your experience or approach will be different. Still, I have found that clients – whether in the family law field or another legal field – want to talk about their problem. I believe that my initial obligation is to listen.
If you want to start a law firm, you need to know how to get clients to hire you and how to keep them. Doing this often means that you have to be really nice to people. If you can do that, I would bet that you are putting yourself far ahead of many other lawyers. My guess (although subjective and I have no real proof) is that attorneys often don’t treat people with a lot of respect. This is a big mistake.
Starting a law firm, means that you have to have people skills. If you don’t, I wish you luck. Me, I am going to continue to treat the client with the utmost respect, as if they are the boss, and with the belief that I am here to cater to their needs (within reason).