Back in law school, my criminal law professor told us that our job would be to use every bit of our intelligence, ingenuity, and strength, and to work tirelessly, to deliver the best possible outcome for our client. “But,” he told us, “if at the end of the day, someone has to go to jail, make sure that it is your client.” He was warning us not to become so zealous in our representation of our client that we crossed over the ethical or legal lines.
As lawyers, our responsibility is to do our best to represent our clients’ interests. We identify risks and opportunities, advise our clients as to how to address those risks and opportunities, provide them with options, and negotiate on their behalf. It is not our job to guarantee them a successful outcome.
What has me ruminating about these basic principles of legal practice? It is something completely mundane – an asset sale transaction and a difficult landlord. (Perhaps that is redundant, and I should just have just said “a landlord.”)
A lawyer I know was trying to close a deal. The client had, as clients do, signed a commercial lease which was substantially more onerous than your usual commercial lease. Those who practice in the area will know that is really saying something.
Holding all the cards, the landlord was doing what landlords do – playing hardball to improve their position in return for granting their consent to the transaction. The deal was on thin ice. There were several options available to the client. None of them were great. The lawyer, despite doing everything to resolve the situation that could be expected of her, felt like she was failing her client.
Lawyers, and especially newcomers to the profession, are often like that. We so identify with our clients that we feel like it is a personal failure if we cannot achieve the desired result. Sometimes, we go too far in our quest for success, which was what my professor was trying to warn us about. Other times, we are simply hard on ourselves. We do not sleep well and occasionally we become so stressed that we cannot be our best self for our clients or our families.
Lawyers who identify too closely with their clients must learn that they often cannot promise results, only that they have the required skills and will put in their best efforts to try to achieve their client’s goals. I have heard this concept stated as, “we are not in the results business.”
There are three corollaries to this theme:
- Lawyers must learn how to handle the stress that comes with dealing with difficult matters and not beat themselves up when they fail to achieve the desired result.
- Clients need to understand that they are paying for the lawyer’s knowledge, technical skill, and strategic advice, whether or not they achieve the desired result.
- Since clients tend to forget this when things go badly, and except in the context of a long-standing relationship, lawyers must insist on being paid upfront.
This article was originally published by Law360 Canada, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.