Lawyers and law students

[crt360]

1.  Does you do free consultations?

I'm guessing that this is where "consultation" means "work a complex case from beginning to end and be fully available at my every whim for several weeks".

Correct.  That, or they assume you'll take anything on a contingent fee basis.  You will quickly find out that many people think your income is completely unrelated to what you are doing for them.  I've actually asked a client or two where they thought my paycheck came from.  It's like they assume you have a lawyer-moneytree paying the bills, so you are free to devote endless hours to their project without charging them much.

Some act like you're just telling them stuff they already know and they'd take care of it on their own, if their own time wasn't so important.  They don't believe they should pay much, if anything, for your time, advice, skill, experience, or education, especially if it's for solving a problem they don't feel responsible for.

Some clients will understand the value of your work and be very appreciative.  Take care of them, they are increasingly rare.

I wasted a lot of time (and money) in my early years trying to keep clients happy and coming back.  I still do a lot of pro bono and reduced fee work, but I'm no longer afraid of running off potential clients who don't want to pay what I charge.

[The Annoyed Man]

It is funny.  People hear "lawyer" and assume you're rolling in bucks, so you can do a little something for them at no cost.  People assume that because I'm on the bench, I muct make big bucks.  I had a soccer parent guess I was making $150,000.  He still doens't believe that I make half that.

[El Tejon]

Oh, yeah, what was your overhead last quarter?

[The Annoyed Man]

Point taken.  My overhead is limited to malpractice insurance, liscensing fees, association fees, and student loans.  But El T you've got to agree that people expect attorneys to be rolling in cash, so that they can't understand you wanting to actually bill them for a small job.  People can't understand why I drive a 12 year old Dodge INtrepid with 160,000 miles on it.

[El Tejon]

I just wrote fat checks for 2d quarter to the Indiana Department of Revenue, U.S. Treasury, and Indiana Workforce Development all due July 31st.  Now is not the time to talk to me about money.

so that they can't understand you wanting to actually bill them for a small job.

Oh, yes, they do!  We talk money right up front.

[MillCreek]

Interestingly enough, in Washington, members of the Bar are not required to have malpractice insurance.  And our state Bar Association recently defeated a measure that would require you to inform your clients of the lack of malpractice insurance.  The rationale was that it would undermine public confidence in the profession and it would introduce an adversarial element into the attorney-client relationship.  There were many impassioned comments about how having insurance would make you a more attractive target for an errors and omissions claim.  Last time I read the Bar News, California is the same way, I think.

My physicians think this is absolutely hilarious.  Especially the ob/gyns who pay $ 74,000 per year for $ 1 million in coverage.  They don't have the option of going bare.

I have gone to a number of legal malpractice seminars over the years, and the most common claims seem to be docket management in missing deadlines: failing to file on time, missing discovery cut-offs, that sort of thing.