Lynda ArtesaniLegal Accountant and Data Migration Specialist at The Proper Trust

What To Do If Your Attorney Client Is Angry?

1 Aug 2023 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:42

In this segment, the speaker shares practical techniques for handling an angry attorney client. The core approach is to first validate the client’s feelings (“it’s okay to be upset”), encourage a brief pause with breathing, and offer to reschedule if the moment isn’t right. The speaker recommends asking caring, wellness‑oriented questions (sleep, exercise, walks) to remind the client of life beyond work and to humanize the interaction. Building deeper rapport is emphasized by learning personal details—marital status, children, anniversaries, birthdays—and recording them for future acknowledgment, which helps the client feel like part of a family. An anecdote illustrates this: a remote CPA firm in Florida displayed the speaker’s photo at their holiday party, making the speaker feel included and reinforcing the safe‑space role. Overall, the advice centers on empathy, personal connection, and consistent, reliable presence to de‑escalate tension and maintain a strong client relationship.

Chapters

in your tenure of doing this. What do you do in that situation? How do you— it's like you don't want to use the word let's calm down, or that's so— I hate that when people like—
You know what I do? I just say to them, it's okay for you to be upset right now. It's okay for you to take a breath and slow down a little bit. We're going to transition out of your life right now into this other side of your business. And if this isn't the best time for it, just give me your Your topics that you want me to get information on, and I'll get back with you. Maybe we can schedule a better time. I mean, there's lots of verbiage you can use. And, you know, asking them questions like, are you getting— I do this— are you getting enough sleep? How— when was the last time you went for a walk? Well, you know, things like that, because they suddenly, they're like, well, there's another life out here. You know, let them know that you're human as well. You know, finding out in conversations Are they married? Do they have kids? When's their anniversary? When's their birthday? Put it on your calendar. Remember it. Acknowledge them on that day. It really, really makes you become part of their family, if you will. I had one law firm down in Florida that actually was a CPA firm that did high-dollar divorce cases. And I never met those people, obviously, because they're in Florida and I'm in Colorado. But I got them to the point where— One Christmas they called me like the week before Christmas, and they were at their holiday party, and they had a picture of me at a place on the table. And they're like, look, Steve, you're here with us. And I was like, oh, this is great. Aww. You know, and I try to set up those relationships that way, that I'm the safe space here for you. You know, go ahead and yell at me, but I'm going to still tell you the same thing.