What Steps Do You Take to Make Sure You Have Positive, Productive Interactions with Your Clients?
Steven Keeva, 1956-2012.
This week, we are honoring the memory of Steven Keeva, the author of Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life and a former assistant managing editor and columnist at the ABA Journal who died Dec. 7.
The last “Keeva on Life and Practice” column we published in the Journal was an excerpt from Transforming Practices in which Keeva outlined a “compassionate checklist” a lawyer can run through during his or her initial meeting with a client and at other crucial intervals during the representation.
At the initial meeting with a client, Keeva queried, are you asking yourself (among many other things):
Am I listening as if he is the only other person on earth at the moment?
Have I turned off the phone or made arrangements for someone else to answer?
Am I seeing the whole person or focusing narrowly on the possible legal issues?
So this week, we’d like to ask you: What steps do you take to make sure you have positive, productive interactions with your clients? When meeting with your clients, what do you keep in mind, and what do you actually do to keep yourself focused on your clients’ needs and goals, and communicate this effectively to clients?
Answer in the comments.
Read the answers to last week’s question: Are You Raising Your Billing Rate in 2013?
Featured answer:
Posted by Solely: “I’ve not raised my rates in over five years. My clients (reality television producers) are cutting back on how much they use me to save money. I don’t want them to cut back even more.”
Do you have an idea for a future question of the week? If so, contact us.
