Ten for starters

It has been six months since I started as a trainee solicitor. For me these 10 points (although many are rightly interconnected) are the most important considerations that I’ve begun to understand and appreciate. I hope they ring true for you too.

1. Communication and coordination

It is not a requirement of success (financially/reputability) to be Scotland’s finest legal mind. Ability is ultimately assumed by clients – rightly or wrongly – up to a certain level and it is suggested that what is more likely to catch lawyers out and lead to complaints is a lack of communication and coordination.

Communication:

1. A fulsome letter of engagement sets the standard.
2. Minimise legalese when speaking to clients. For example, sisting a case is “putting it to sleep”.
3. If there is a problem (such as delay in gaining a grant of confirmation) then chase it up, make a file note and ensure the client knows you are on top of this matter. Don’t let it be a phone call of complaint that spurs you to action.
4. Respond at the earliest opportunity, but without letting quality suffer. For example, the effort you put into an email should not differ from that of a letter.
5. Forward to the client, especially in civil litigation, letters that are going out following their instructions.

Coordination:

1. Use a bring forward diary to ensure that you are following up on all letters and emails that you send.
2. Use a to do list. I write down my to do list for the following working day, reviewing that day’s work, every evening.
3. Review at the end of the day/week what you’ve done that day/week and whether you may have missed anything.
4. Consider what next steps you have to carry out. Does your client need to sign any (further) documents? Do they need to provide any further information?

2. Know the law

Maybe somewhat contradictory to the above, yet it really isn't. If you do not know the law well enough to answer the majority of a client's questions, you are not communicating effectively. Not to mention that it does not instil confidence if the legal adviser to whom you are paying a not inconsiderable hourly rate is uninformed.

Note: This isn't the same as knowing everything. It is always preferable to say "Let me get back to you on that"/"Let me just double check that"/"I believe the position is, but", than allow yourself to provide misleading/incorrect advice. Best to avoid the potential for either annoying a client, making you look incompetent or at worst a Scottish Legal Complaints Commission/Law Society of Scotland complaint which can easily go on for over a year.

3. Worry

Having had a continual involvement with Legal Defence Union work since starting as a trainee (including sitting through a SSDT hearing which its chairman hoped would help my “edification”), I do believe there is a need for effective worrying, as malfeasance is rarely the main reason for facing a complaint.

The best advice I've received so far was that that there are three meanings to each letter you write:

1. the meaning that you intend;
2. the meaning that the client takes from it; and
3. the meaning that the Discipline Tribunal takes from it when you are appearing before it.

Neurotic? Definitely. Nonetheless it sharpens your letter crafting. Is the call to action clear enough? Will the client understand my analysis of the law? Have I met my ethical obligations? (Legal rights are an interesting topic: Law Society of Scotland v David Haddow Campbell details exactly what you should ask of an executor/executrix client where a child has been excluded, and there is now Society guidance on this point.)

4. Choose a specialism

Being a trainee in a smaller high street firm, I don’t have six months in dispute resolution, private client etc. It just doesn’t work that way. Rather, each day I will be doing a mix of civil litigation, private client (executries, wills, PoAs), property law and conveyancing.

This has allowed me to develop a broader knowledge, yet still focus on developing and improving my practical understanding of private client and professional discipline and negligence – the areas I see as potential long term specialisms.

5. Managing expectations

Most people who come into contact with the legal professional do so at a stressful time in their life: from buying a house, getting divorced, litigating or winding up a loved one’s estate. Unlike with healthcare professionals, the general public – unless they are a businessman or woman – do not generally have much contact with the legal profession and as such it is important to manage expectations.

“Managing expectations” is phrase a bit like the mystical concept of “commercial awareness”: crucial to being a lawyer and difficult to define, yet employers don’t insist on asking you to “Name a time when you managed expectations”. The steps involved for effectively managing client expectations will be different for each client and each area of the law. The same principles generally apply. My three suggestions, concentrating on litigation, are:

1. Do not be overly optimistic. Even the case which at first glance looks factually and legally strong could unravel due to witnesses, have weak points you are yet to examine etc.
2. Emphasise that few legal matters can be dealt with quickly. As Lord Buckmaster said in Donoghue v Stevenson, admittedly with reference to the development of the law, “the mills of the law grind slowly”.
3. Emphasise the unpredictability of litigation matters. A case previously considered to have a possibility of success could be dismissed, after years of litigation. See Lord Carloway in Ruddy v Chief Constable of Strathclyde.

6. Clients are not your friends

Without retaining and gaining further clients, law firms wouldn’t continue to operate and solicitors would be out of work. The very real corollary is that a single client can damage a firm’s reputation built up over many years, or have a solicitor face a lengthy complaint (even if they are absolved of any service or conduct issue). This is why I believe in effective worrying.

7. Understand people

Ian Morley QC in his book on advocacy says it best: “You have to understand people – you have to have a feel for personalities – you have to know how, to an extent, to get under a person's skin, and wear their soul, seeing the world through their eyes, and feel their fears and prejudices – you have to have read the great works of literature, to have seen plays, to have watched good films, and been part of messy situations, either in them or observing them – you have to have a grasp of the human condition, and be more often right than wrong, in working out what everyone is thinking, and feeling, and who is stirring, and who is fair, and who is mean, and who is the victim, and who is playing, and who is lying – even to themselves – like I say, you need judgment, which is a talent, which I cannot teach you – but you can improve it, by reading, and watching, and developing the uber-sensitivity which is the hallmark of the true courtroom Greats.”

8. A bring forward diary

As above, diarise forward for responses to those initial letters and any further letters you may write.

9. Cardboard personalities don't make money

Simply put, clients wish to instruct someone they are comfortable with, someone who is indeed legally knowledgeable, but certainly in private practice if you have poor interpersonal skills and/or are banal, you may be kept on for your legal skills but you will never make partner.

10. Professional fees

The majority of the general public have limited experience of paying professional fees. After all you don’t pay for visiting your GP, and dental costs draw huge subsidies etc. It is in this context that legal fees of £180/200 upwards per hour (although many matters are often done on a fixed fee basis) can be viewed as excessive. They aren’t. You are paying for a professional who will have spent, including the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice and traineeship, perhaps seven years studying and training. You are paying for the knowledge that comes from that level of education and the many years of experience which many practitioners can bring to bear for their clients. So be robust in defending legal fees. Don’t be ashamed or nervous.