When an Attorney should Terminate the Relationship with a Client 

Last Tuesday I was invited at a Hellenic American Bankers Association event in Manhattan at which the distinguished and talented Chairman & CEO of New York Life Ted Mathas gave a remarkable speech about insurances and general entrepreneurial and management issues. I got great pleasure from his speech and leaving the event, his following words were stuck in my mind. During his speech, Mr. Mathas pointed out the three characteristics of building trust between business owners and clients. According to his wise words, building trust with the clients requires: a) not to cheat, b) it’s always personal, and c) every professional should admit his mistakes and fix them.

On my way back home I meditated that all the attorneys are business owners of their reputation either if they are employees of a law firm/office or not; they oversee other people’s lives by striving to unearth ways to protect their clients’ interests and at the same time they struggle to defend their own name and reputation. I take for granted that a professional attorney does not cheat or commit any criminal or fraudulent act. I also concur that it’s always personal to build trust with your clients and it’s not just business. Besides these two meaningful attributes, I underscore at the most the importance of admitting our mistakes as professionals and fix them.

One of the most frequent mistakes of attorneys is when they take on every client who comes calling. This is not the greatest option and most of the times this concludes to challenging attorney - client relationships. Understanding a prospective bad client is a very demanding task and entails many years of experience, so that you can avoid him in advance. It’s not something that the law school teaches us; we learn these things on our own through our experiences and other colleagues’ advice and we keep on educating ourselves day by day.

As attorneys we have to encounter public and this is extremely intricate in our profession because on one hand we cannot predict other people’s thoughts, feelings, and reactions and on the other hand we have to face diverse people and characters. However, all these troubles that we tackle every day of our lives and career give superior importance to us, as administrators of justice, and to our profession. But, how can we avoid a difficult client before starting his representation?

When I was instructor of legal courses, I was always advising my students to say no to a prospective or existing client when the latter didn't fit within their business models. It’s not honest and smart to just only consider how rewarding a case can be. You have to reason if your client is trustworthy and you can cooperate and communicate with him from the beginning of the case until the completion. Not only shall we obey our bar’s professional conduct rules, but also our ethics and integrity should pilot us to the right decision. As your clientele rockets, you should get ready to handle more tricky situations. This is not my rule. It’s the rule of probabilities.

Clients with particular manners and beliefs can lead an attorney’s life to a bad dream if the latter makes the mistake to take them on as clients. My experiences have taught me that every attorney should dismiss clients who a) do not listen attorney’s advice, b) do not collaborate and communicate with the attorney, c) breach the confidentiality, privileges, or any other agreement, d) do not pay the bills and are disloyal e) tell lies or hide the truth from the attorney, f) commit criminal or fraudulent acts, g) are furious and revengeful and solely aim to make other people depressed by hiring an attorney, h) have impractical expectancies and i) have offensive, unacceptable, and abusive demeanor.

My point of view and according to Mr. Mathas’ remarks, as professionals we have to acknowledge our mistakes and resolve them. If you didn’t take a thorough look and consideration before commencing a client’s relationship and representation, which can trigger problems, costs, or waste of time, there is always the point to fire this challenging client in a proper way and concentrate on the clients who respect you and what you have to suggest, and will recognize the value of it. Thus, under these circumstances as an attorney you shall withdraw from representation of a bad client without causing damaging impact on his interests.

One of the best tactics to sustain good relationships with clients is to stay away from the bad clients in the first place. This doesn't unavoidably signify declining cases where the lawyer condemns what the client did. The system of law repeatedly encompasses representing people who have done actually unscrupulous things, and some of those people can truly be excellent clients. As attorneys and business owners of our status, we should weigh the relationships with clients ahead of time and if we are not so confident of how we should deal with a client, we should get the helpful guidance of our mentors and colleagues with many more years of experience than us.