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Anyone marry their law school sweetheart?
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I’ve had to do it a few times. It’s usually a huge relief to not be dealing with an awful client anymore, but I’ve usually also had fears of malpractice claims, bar complaints, bad online reviews, etc. when I’ve had to do it, as those things are much more likely to arise in these situations.
Rising Star
When I was a baby attorney, I had a client who kept repeating the pattern of (1) call and tell us there was NO WAY they were giving the other side an extension; (2) let me send that message; (3) immediately give in when the purchaser said “pretty pleeeeeaaaase?”; (4) ignore our advice on a reasonable compromise where they could get compensation for agreeing to an extension; (5) extend; (6) complain that we charged them for steps 1-5. This went on for 6 rounds. On the final round, my managing partner called and told them we were not a good fit and were withdrawing. I deeply appreciated that lesson.
I recently fired a client. It was a Canadian trucking company I represented for an accident that occurred here in the US. Once they realized that the settlement value of the case was going to be higher than they wanted, they just ghosted our firm completely. They were apparently convinced that it would be very difficult to enforce a judgment against their company because they were outside the US. They refused to engage in discovery and wound up getting sanctioned, so we really had no choice. Good riddance.
It was a family company where I was a director. I went back after they agreed that they were insane and listened to me. (Thank god they did, in hindsight—that would’ve been a shit show of epic proportions.)
Director. And I could not do that. I likely would’ve been removed. But in the end it all worked out. To this day I tell certain people I saved them from jail.
Congrats! Now - take the lessons you learned from that mistake and build filters into your intake systems to reduce problem clients in the future!
Maybe..,you need to take a break ? This job is too stressful for you
Rising Star
See my post above for the laundry list of reasons that lawyers should fire bad clients. Very few of them are because we’re “mad” or otherwise emotional about the representation, and none are because the lawyer is out of control. I would expect a legal professional to understand this.