Expert Advice

By Judith Wolff
     
      Practice Management
      Tips on Managing Difficult Clients
      Unwary practitioners can easily become bewildered by how difficult some clients can be, especially those who have a personality disorder or mental illness. Such clients can be intensely demanding and manipulative?and if they aren't managed well, they can undermine the competence of even the most accomplished attorney.
      Here are a few tips that can help smooth over potentially rough spots.
      Hold boundaries firm. Some clients push boundaries with their attorneys, secretaries, and the rest of the office staff. They may question you about your personal life, for example. Some clients may wear revealing clothing to meetings or hearings. Or you may find your home phone ringing at odd hours, with nobody at the other end?or worse, with your client on the other end claiming an "emergency."
      The longer boundary-pushing goes on unchecked in an attorney-client relationship, the uglier the outcome. So cut it off immediately. You might say, for example: "I noticed that you wore a low-cut blouse to our meeting last week. As your attorney, I need to tell you that when you wear that kind of clothing (or say or do such and such), some people will interpret your clothing (or touching, or joking) in a way that will be harmful to your case." Don't make it personal; put everything in terms of the case. And never give out your home phone number to a client?unless you are so savvy a judge of character that you know he or she won't abuse the privilege.
      Keep reality in check. Not uncommonly, a difficult client will express the belief, perhaps repeatedly, that random events are related in conspiracy. If you do not set out your own version of reality each and every time this happens?however tedious this might become?you risk the danger your client will believe that you accept the reality he or she describes. For example, such a client may assert that a small case is worth millions of dollars, and assume you share that belief.
      It is important to respectfully disagree, restate your own belief, and move on. Unless your client is overtly psychotic, don't ignore or pretend you did not hear a paranoid statement; respond with your own more reasonable interpretation of facts.
      An attorney who waits to confront a client with his or her delusional beliefs is asking for trouble. One way to respond early on might be: "I understand that you are upset, but I doubt that your employer has the time or manpower to follow you around trying to get you into trouble."
      Prevent triangulation. A common ploy of difficult clients, triangulation means bringing a third person into an attorney-client relationship to disrupt it?for example, by privately informing a senior attorney that a junior attorney is incompetent. To avoid triangulation, all people involved with the case must be aware of the client's tendencies and stand behind those the client wrongly accuses, particularly when he or she calls their competence or loyalty into question.
      Put their rage to work. Rage is another form of boundary-pushing. A raging client turns his or her anger over a legal problem on his or her attorney, sometimes calling multiple times a day, firing off lengthy letters in the middle of the night listing ways you are committing malpractice, or mentioning that he or she has called another attorney?or the State Bar?to find out if the case is proceeding "normally."
      Although it may be temporarily satisfying to yell back at a raging client, it is not a good idea, as doing so tends to escalate and bring a conflict quickly to a crisis. Interestingly, many clients with borderline or histrionic personalities share a love of detail and embellishment. Instead of listing the ways such a client misunderstands what a terrific job you are doing, put him or her to work on the case?writing questions for an upcoming deposition, drafting interrogatories, making a list of possible defenses?so that the client feels valued and heard, and most important, stays out of your office.
      Prepare thoroughly for depositions. It is a good idea to prepare difficult clients for their depositions over several days, or even several weeks, in multiple sessions.
      Given that histrionic personality types are especially prone to exaggerating, warn them of the dangers of giving embellished, nonspecific testimony. Instead of talking about its impact on you personally, which is likely to make the difficult client feel threatened and then lash out, you could talk about the impact such testimony will have on a jury. Say something like: "When I hear you say he touched you 100 times a day, I'm wondering how a jury will react to that." Such a response may make the exaggerating client stop and pay attention to precise factual detail.
     
      Judith Wolff (judith@wolffandassociates.com) is a principal with Wolff & Associates in Berkeley, where she conducts neutral workplace evaluations and mediates workplace disputes.
     

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