The Way Out Is Through

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS; comments appreciated.

This is a short essay containing the most important principles of healthy client relationships. In this essay I will use the words lawyer and attorney to mean the same thing: litigator. Litigators are attorneys who routinely try cases. The best part about these principles is that most lawyers already know them, and have already incorporated them into their lives. The most difficult thing about these principles is explaining them to clients, who are the people that need this information the most.

Lawyers practice law daily. That is what makes us lawyers. Clients do not practice law daily. Lawyers look at the court system and see a mildly complex organism that they are an integral part of; clients look at the court system and see an overwhelmingly complicated and labyrinthine structure which is simultaneously completely opaque and absolutely transparent. By this I mean that clients see things pragmatically while the legal system does not operate in pragmatic fashion, so while to a lawyer it is perfectly rational to have to wait in court for three hours to have a five minute conversation with the court and opposing counsel, to a client it is a colossal and irrational waste of time. Like all systems, the legal system has evolved to protect its practitioners while maintaining its essential purpose: to mediate disputes between persons.

In this short essay, I present six maxims that should guide the client in their relationship with their attorney. The attorney should have…