An attorney should treat every client matter as a very important matter.

Sometimes, attorneys think in terms of “big problems” and “small problems.”  Clients who regularly work within the legal system may think of things this way too.  For example, a landlord with 50 or 100 residential units may be involved in the legal system somewhat regularly.  Most of their matters are “small problems”—economic annoyances.  Other problems, on the other hand—a sever personal injury to a tenant—may pose “big problems.”  That said, most people dop not have regular involvement in the legal system.  They think of the legal system as a foreign land that is intimidating and daunting.  Merely the thought of having a legal issue to deal with causes stress and anxiety. A small problem to a landlord with extensive holdings, is likely a tenant’s fight to keep a roof over their head and provide their children with a stable home.

For attorneys—regular players in the legal system—it is too easy to forget just how intimidating the legal system can be.  A lot of people find attorneys themselves or the thought of interacting with them to be intimidating too.  Some of this comes from preconceived notions of how attorneys are or how they act—arrogant, pompous, judgmental, unapproachable, etc.  In certain cases, attorneys behave in a way that reinforces these preconceived notions.  What people see of attorneys on TV and in the news reinforces these ideas too.

It is vitally important that attorneys remember that—to a client who is not a regular player in the legal system—what may appear to the attorney as a minor problem or an economic annoyance, may be the biggest problem a client has ever experienced.  In the case of the tenant fighting to keep their housing, it is easy to see.  In other cases—like the adult daughter who was promised her grandmother’s wedding ring that is now claimed by another sibling as part of a disputed estate—it is not as easy to see how important the issue is to the client.  The connection to the thing—grandmother’s wedding ring in this example—may be irrational when looked at objectively.  But perception is everything.  The daughter who thought she would get the ring, may perceive it as the last connection she has to her family and to the love and affirmation she experienced as a young child.

It is vitally importance that attorneys meet their clients where they are.  Part of that is understanding that what may appear to be a small problem in the greater scope of the world may be of utmost importance to the client.  The resolution to the client’s problem may be a court battle using scorched-earth litigation tactics.  Or it may be helping the client to see things differently—the ring is just a thing that isn’t really that important.  The appropriate approach to a solution will turn on the specific circumstances of each matter.  The starting point, however, is recognizing that—no matter how small they may appear in the greater scheme of the world—a client’s problem is an important problem. 

If attorneys start from the position of acknowledging the importance of client problems, they can better serve clients on the whole.  If more attorneys remember this in each encounter with a client, it will pay off for the clients by allowing attorneys to better serve them.  It will pay off for the legal profession by making attorneys and the legal system less intimidating, more human, and more approachable.  More people will be inclined to seek legal help and attorneys will be better able to help them.