Comments on: the lawyer’s client manifesto

By: basquette

basquette — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:16:24 +0000

afterlife: not necessarily true. Many lawyers — myself included — charge flat rates whenever possible and use value-based billing, not time-based billing. And I don’t know about anybody else but while I was schooled in the art of research, NOBODY ever taught me to talk for long amounts of time. In fact, we were browbeaten into succinct clarity over those three years — no professor wanted us wasting class time on a rambling explanation of subject matter jurisdiction. I mean — who would, really?

By: gabor

gabor — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 22:50:21 +0000

For my day jobI’m a lawyer. I like this manifesto.
Point 5 is hugely significant, and needs to be fully understood by both sides, lawyer and client. Lawyers need to be able to control the time spent, and that really is not always easy. Clients need to understand that if they make demands on the lawyer’s time, the bill will reflect that. I regularly find myself telling clients that the conversation, or series of conversations, is going round in circles and will lead nowhere except an increase in fees.
And point 7 is so true. I’m a big firm lawyer. That changes in a few weeks’ time!

By: afterlife

afterlife — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:43:45 +0000

I would add another one:
“Lawyers charge by the hour and thus will explain an infinite amount of detail on any topic. They need to pay off their law school bills where they were trained to research and talk for long amounts of time. Limit them to just the information necessary to make a business decision.”