5 Strategies to Handle Difficult Attorney-Clients

This week I'm going to provide you with some strategies on how to handle difficult clients. So if you've chosen working with attorneys as your specialty or niche, you're going to find out that rather quickly that you're gonna run into some clients that may be difficult. You may find that you'll get a client or 2 that doesn't appreciate the value that you provide, that looks at you just as an overhead. Item. So more of an annoyance, especially if you have to ask them questions or about details in their file. So this is where workflow really comes into play. As a bookkeeper, remember, you are the financial backbone for many of your clients, especially the attorney clients. If you have attorney clients. While most attorney-client relationships are really smooth sailing, we have— most of ours are just wonderful. There's occasions where you might encounter a complex or a demanding client in this niche. It's just, just the nature of the beast. A lot of times it may be that the client is stressed out. It could be that you're stressed out. So sometimes it may be the perception of how it lands on your, on your shoulders. Handling these attorney clients requires finesse, but always professionalism. Remember, we're working in a, in an industry that is very highly professional. So we want to reflect back that professionalism. So I'm gonna give you some 5 effective strategies that I find over the years have been really beneficial with working with my clients. The number one thing, though, to remember is that communication is vital. So having an open line of dialogue with your client, and then taking the moment— and I always reflect this, this is something my mother always taught me. Taking a moment to put yourself in their place. How is their day? Are they a family attorney, and they're just slammed with a lot of information and emotions at their job? Or, you know, is it an attorney that maybe is dealing with estate planning? Maybe there's a death of a client, of one of their clients. So they have to deal with that kind of a sadness. So understanding from their perspective how it's being interpreted. And how you're conveying the messaging to them is important. So messaging with them, especially if it comes to texting or using a Slack channel or using Licio or using an email, you want to make sure that you keep that line of communication open and clear. And I have to say that sometimes attorneys are not the greatest communicators as far as they're very big in their world is communication. Sometimes they're very short. It's easy to take a comment to heart when it's maybe not be intended that way. Maybe they are a defense attorney and they're a litigator and they're used to living in a world of being quite sharp, quite direct. Know that you should provide empathy in, and that's an important thing to convey, is some empathy in understanding the significance of documenting all your transactions and interactions with them. It's really important. Make sure you document, make sure you put copious notes. Make sure you, you've got a good amount of information down so that if you are forced to explain something with a lawyer, a lot of times they'll— I have one in particular. You know, she'll send me a message, and then 4 months down the road, it's like, why did you do this? Why is this here? And I've instructed my staff to, like, take a snippet of the document and of the email or the message we communicate in Lycio. Take that message and stick that right in the transaction. You don't know how often that has been really helpful to me to be able to pull that transaction up that happened a long time ago and be able to find out why it was done that way. And a lot of time it runs right back to something she has directed me to do. So I don't throw that back in her face. I just gently remind her, gentle reminder that you use the word gentle reminder that you instructed me to do this back in that date and give her the details. Give her a picture of the picture that you put in there. That's going to be an important way to be able to convey that message back. Don't make it accusatory. I learned this from Sarah. Don't use the word you. You is very much puts the wall up. We don't want the wall. So you want to understand where they're coming from, and, and they may have forgotten that they instructed you to do that. So do that for sure. You need to understand when you work with attorney clients, there's some particular characteristics that you're going to run into. When dealing with a difficult attorney-client. And having that deep understanding of these characteristics is going to help you immensely as you work with them on a day-to-day basis. A lot of times they're under immense pressure. They face— sometimes they're facing— they're under a lot of stress. They may be deadline-driven and they're approaching a big deadline. Maybe they're a personal injury attorney approaching a big deadline and they're really consumed. And by you asking for a bank statement, that might just set them off. So kind of understand where that's coming from. So the first step or first tip I'm gonna give you, this first strategy, is to set expectations from the start. The moment you start working with a new client is the best time to start to put the bumper guards around the lines of communication and how you're gonna work going forward. You may be implementing a new workflow. I'm a big believer in getting a Lucidchart and creating the chart so they can see exactly where all the parts are. And if you're entering in with some new software, Helping them understand how the pieces work together. So one of the most effective strategies in handling a demanding client is to establish clear expectations from the beginning of the working relationship. Define the scope with the client and your services and your timelines and your deliverables, but more importantly, stand by them, stick to them. Don't have the client come looking, go asking you, where is my financials? Nothing makes it worse than having your client come back to you after you promised them this on the 12th or the 15th. And if you can't make that deadline, don't ignore it. Let them know. Just let them know. Drop them a line saying, you know, I'm running a little bit behind. I had a vacation, or whatever, and let them know why you're gonna be late. Very, very important. It's a lot smoother to align your services and your expectations right in the beginning of a relationship with the client. My second strategy tip is to actively listen with empathetic communication. Let me say that again, because that didn't come out very well. Actively listen with empathetic communication. Avoid the need to respond or react, and just listen. Just listen. Just sit there and listen to what they have to say. Maybe let them blow off the steam that they had from their day. Because communication is paramount when dealing with difficult attorneys. But actively listening to their concerns and understand their perspective before you react or respond. Try to always show some empathy and acknowledge the frustration. So if your team did something that wasn't exactly what was expected, acknowledge that they're frustrated, you know, reflect that back. That's gonna really help you build rapport and trust, and it will lead to a more productive working relationship. So when you're working with a difficult client, difficult attorney-client, try to remain calm and remain professional. At all else fails, stay professional. Don't lower the bar, especially if they start to swear at you or curse at you. Don't drop below them. Rise higher. Avoid becoming defensive. Avoid engaging in arguments with them. Instead, just focus on finding a solution to their problem and offering any alternatives if you have to. This is the steps that are really crucial in keeping them— so helping them understand that you have a willingness to work together, and it allows you to defuse some kind of situations that may just arise out of left field. And that's how it feels sometimes when the Client kind of comes at you, it's like, whoa, where did that come from? Difficult attorney clients may push the boundaries or request additional services above and beyond the agreed scope of work. It's really critical that you set very clear boundaries and manage that scope creep effectively. Otherwise, you're gonna lose your shirt in the job, right? So politely remind them that the scope was X, and that there may be additional costs or implications for expanding beyond that scope. A one-off will sometimes do. But for example, we just got out of 1099 season and that's a place that we have defined clearly in our scope. It's a very big job to do 1099s. The client might think all you have to do is click a few buttons, but it's not just clicking buttons and it's something that you want to maintain during the year to make it easier for you at 1099 season to collect those W-9s as you go. But at the end of the year, it's just doing the paperwork for it. But a lot of times the clients don't understand that, that there's an extra fee, and you want to put that clearly defined in your scope. So review the scope often, work really with it, and figure out what works best, and try to stay in line with what is on the contract, and then remind them and maybe cite the paragraph in the contract where this wasn't included in your scope. But we're more than happy to do the work. So that's another strategy. Strategy tip number 4 is to provide regular and transparent updates. So updating your client is really important. Like I mentioned earlier, transparency is the key to managing difficult attorney clients. So if you are behind on your scope, or if you're behind on your workflow, make sure that you let them know that, that you're behind. Let them know that they, you, they're gonna get their financials a week late. Give them that opportunity to understand. It's gonna provide them with less anxiety. My 5th strategy, and it's really dealing with the conflicts in difficult situations professionally. And I've already mentioned that several times, but conflicts are inevitable. It's a working relationship. You're with them for the year. We don't just reach out to them annually, right? We work with them all year long. And as in any relationship, even a professional one, Difficult attorney-client interactions are no exception when it comes to conflicts. It's going to happen, so handle them with professionalism. Keep that level head, and it's essential really when you're dealing with a client and you feel conflicted with them. Sometimes it's best to not answer right away. Take a step back and assess the situation objectively and consider the best way to address the issue. You might even want to phone a colleague and just kind of run it by them and let them read maybe the issue or read the email wherever it's coming from. Because sometimes you read something because you're dealing with this client that's constantly on you and then you'll read it. And if you pass it to some person that's not even involved in your business, they'll say, that's not what I'm reading out of that. So you might want to address that communication in such a fashion that it finds a resolution without anybody saying, and you did it, you did it, you did it. You don't wanna do that. You don't wanna get into the you game of pointing fingers at each other. It just doesn't, it's not helpful. In firm growth. And I think that that's probably one of the most important tips here is to communicate your perspective and to work together to find a mutually beneficial, beneficial solution. So sometimes a client doesn't bring you joy. And if you find that this is just constant not feeling it with this client, when the contract's up, let them go. Open up space for someone better, someone that maybe will be happy that you're working for them. Maybe that is really like, oh my God, I'm so glad I found your firm. That's a joy to work with. So know that it's okay at the end of a contract to just to let them go. If it's really abusive and you find a need, you need to end it there. Make sure you have that clause in the contract that lets you out of jail in 30 days so that you can professionally move on. It just comes down to professionalism. It's very, very important. I hope this is helpful. Uh, there's some case studies inside the article that's attached here and some more detail in the article, but I hope this helps you. If you've had a difficult client, feel free to reach out on social media and have a conversation. I'd love to help you. Um, I do follow a gentleman on Instagram called Jefferson Fisher. He's a trial attorney and he provides great tips on how to deal with difficult Conversations and Conflicts, and I'll put a link in the blog post so you can follow him. And of course, if you have any issues like that, we'd love to have you in the Law Lab. We've got a lot of masterminds, people who've been doing this work for a long time, that people are very accustomed to working with attorneys that may be able to help you out. So I'd love to see you there. And until next week, bye now. Bye.