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Practice Management

How Active Listening Can Aid Attorney-Client Relationships

Benjamin Reese

Summary

  • Listening to and understanding your client’s concerns is critical. Not only will your client feel heard, but you may learn something that explains your client’s perspective.
  • By genuinely listening, you allow clients to release pent-up emotions, making them more open to your professional advice and clearer thinking.
  • When giving tough news to difficult clients, walk them through your reasoning. Simplify complex legal concepts when necessary and explain the background or purpose of certain legal rules as needed.
How Active Listening Can Aid Attorney-Client Relationships
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At some point in our careers, we will each have a client relationship that becomes difficult. For instance, what do you do when a client insists their trial was invalid because there was a fringe on the courtroom flag? Difficult clients might come to a case with their own ideas about which arguments are best, which discovery materials are necessary to produce, or how you should interact with opposing counsel. The following tips will help you navigate these challenging interactions.

Actively Listen to Your Clients

First, always remember that at the end of the day, the case is the client’s—not yours—and the outcome will significantly affect their life. Listening to and understanding their concerns, even when they seem irrelevant to you, is critical. Not only will your client feel heard, but you may learn something that explains your client’s perspective. For example, their organization might have specific document practices that complicate responses to discovery requests, even if those requests seem straightforward to you.

Listening also has therapeutic value. Just as venting about a tough day to a friend provides relief, clients benefit from sharing their frustrations with their lawyer. By genuinely listening, you allow clients to release pent-up emotions, making them more open to your professional advice and clearer thinking.

Moreover, attentive listening shows clients that you’re on their side. Think about your own frustration when you wait an hour at a doctor’s office, talk to several technicians, and then see the doctor for only a minute. You likely leave feeling misunderstood. Legal clients, especially those from marginalized communities or with prior experience in the justice system, can feel similarly neglected. By showing that they aren’t just another case to you, clients are more likely to trust you and follow your guidance.

Handle Hard Conversations Delicately

Of course, listening will not always be enough. Sometimes, you will need to break bad news to the client—that the case isn’t going their way or that their arguments aren’t the best strategy. While this kind of conversation is never easy, how you communicate this makes a significant difference.

It’s tempting to adopt an authoritarian stance: “I’m the lawyer; I know best, so just follow my advice.” This approach, though, does a disservice to all clients, and with difficult clients, it can ruin the relationship entirely.

When giving tough news to difficult clients, walk them through your reasoning. Simplify complex legal concepts when necessary and explain the background or purpose of certain legal rules as needed. Why do courts often not allow hearsay? Why doesn’t paying back the money make a criminal case disappear? Why doesn’t it matter that “everybody does it?” This will ensure your client gives you the opportunity to be heard and to explain what you can to them.

Always Keep Your Client’s Concerns in Mind

Finally, even if your client’s ideas seem unwise, consider whether you can constructively incorporate their concerns into your advocacy. For instance, can a sovereign citizen client’s concerns about government overreach be adapted into a more palatable argument about statutory overreach? You might say, “I hear you, but we can’t take down the whole system in one case. What if we focused on this one narrow part of it?”

Framing your explanations strategically can also help. Finding common ground before explaining why your approach leads to a better outcome will help your client feel heard while gradually guiding them away from impractical ideas. For example: “Sure, we both agree that the government is out of control, but that argument won’t sway the zoning board. Let’s focus on a more effective angle.”

Similarly, a client refusing to comply with a discovery request might lack a strong legal justification. But once you’ve taken the time to understand your client’s concerns, maybe you can educate opposing counsel (one can hope, right?) or the court about why the client is so reluctant and the discovery is unlikely to help.

Ultimately, your task is to see if you can incorporate your client’s perspective, based on their years of life experience, into an argument that might work in their case. This isn’t always possible, but demonstrating that you’ve considered their point of view can go a long way to persuade clients to accept your advice and adopt your arguments and proposed strategy for their case.

Cooperate, Communicate, Coordinate

A difficult client is not the same thing as an abusive one. No lawyer is required to endure abuse from their clients. Emotions run high in legal matters, and everyone has bad moments. However, if a client is verbally abusive or threatening, you should consult with a supervisor or, if it’s up to you, consider terminating the attorney-client relationship.

For most clients, though—even difficult ones—the real issue is simply wanting to be heard and taken seriously. Given that they often pay significant sums for your expertise, you owe it to them to listen carefully and explain things thoroughly. In many cases, doing so will make even the most difficult clients easier to work with.

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