Client Service

Lawyers have been talking about and wrestling with “alternative billing methods” or “alternative fee agreements” for a decade or more. Recently, however, the conversation has shifted to “value billing.” Well, that’s a concept we can get ...

Here in the Midwest, autumn calls for heavy-duty yard cleanup time. Predictably, of course, the leaf blower broke just as the first round of oak leaves hit our lawn. The chainsaw and the hedge trimmer died next. Okay, no big deal. We simply ...

Recently, New York became the first state to require that law students perform 50 hours of pro bono work before they can be admitted to the bar. Plenty of bloggers have already chimed in on whether this is a good or bad idea. There’s little that ...

Here’s something I don’t understand: clients who are late for meetings. They set up the meeting based on their availability, and even confirm it the day before—yet sometimes I find myself sitting in a conference room waiting for them after the ...

Lawyers have been talking about and wrestling with “alternative billing methods” or "alternative fee agreements" for a decade or more. Recently, however, the conversation has shifted to “value billing.” Well, that’s a concept we can get ...

When was the last time you bought an entire album of music from a single artist? Most of us create playlists with tracks purchased on Apple iTunes from multiple artists and albums. We create exactly what we want to jive with our moods and ...

Let me guess—you don't have time to think about your reputation in your community, much less devote extra hours to volunteer activities. After all, you're already doing a lot for your community by doing what you do best—providing reliable legal ...

I learned everything I ever need to know about client service the first time I closed a deal on my own. I was a young client, anxiously micro-managing a negotiation that my outside counsel (whom I’ll call Steve) could have mastered in his sleep. ...

When it gets right down to it, what lawyers do is all about clients. Those wonderful, awful, charming, annoying, challenging and gratifying people who actually pay you to do your work. So we are declaring it "This Business of Clients" ...