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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from a law school student into your professional career. As an attorney and where we make the practice of law fun.
[00:00:20] Scott Benton: Now, today we’re going to answer the question of do clients always actually know what they want? Do clients always know what they want?
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[00:01:16] Scott Benton: Now, ultimately people are going to start contacting a law firm when they have an issue that comes up that they’re not really able to resolve themselves or that they know it’s above their ability to navigate and often confusing legal process and an even more confusing legal environment.
[00:01:33] Scott Benton: So if they want to move forward with their legal objectives, the solution that they often come up with is to contact a law firm that specializes in the area of law that they’re looking for representation in. Now, that’s where you come in. And that’s where you’re going to first sit down with the potential client to find out if they have a case that you’re able to represent them in.
[00:01:54] Scott Benton: But keep in mind that as the potential client, and I’m calling them a potential client as opposed to a [00:02:00] client, at this stage in the process, because in theory they haven’t really hired you yet, or your firm, they’re going to begin to tell their story, and they’re going to explain what they want to accomplish.
[00:02:10] Scott Benton: Now, at this point, there are going to be any number of things that can take place. They might be able to tell you exactly what they’re looking for, and they might be able to explain it in detail. with a great deal of accuracy. Maybe they’re even an attorney themselves, or maybe they’ve just done a lot of research on their case, and they’ve got a pretty good idea of the work that needs to get done, which is helpful for you in gaining clarity that you’re gonna need in order to determine if this is a case that your firm is gonna be able to handle.
[00:02:43] Scott Benton: However, it’s also possible a client knows exactly what they want, but they’re not necessarily able to articulate what that is in legal terms. So for the most part, people tend not to like legal speak or legalese or [00:03:00] hearing a lot of legal vocabulary and terms.
[00:03:03] Scott Benton: It’s confusing and they don’t understand it, and that type of technical legal jargon or language can often sound intimidating, or maybe even somewhat foreboding or scary.
[00:03:15] Scott Benton: In any case, you want to be careful when you’re talking to clients unless maybe their attorney And you probably want to use a more non legal vocabulary approach wherever you can. So for potential clients who do know what they want, they’ll tend to lean towards a non legal vocabulary. In that same vein, there’s going to be potential clients who know what the outcome is that they’d like to achieve, but they don’t know how to do that, or they don’t even know what the legal instrument is called that they’re going to need.
[00:03:46] Scott Benton: Now, this is where you’re going to make sure that you’re asking the right questions to really understand on an in depth level how you’re going to be able to help them. Next, you’re probably going to talk to potential clients who think they know what they want, [00:04:00] but they don’t really know.
[00:04:01] Scott Benton: And those conversations are probably going to involve. A lot of your focus and a lot of detailed questions in order to get to the core of what they actually want. Now, at the same time, you’re also going to have potential clients who just, they don’t know what they want, but they’re in a situation and they need your firm’s help to figure it out.
[00:04:22] Scott Benton: And if they haven’t already been vetted, so by like maybe an intake team, if they haven’t been vetted already by the time that they get to your firm, then this is going to be the point at which you discover whether they’re qualified as a client or not. You need to understand that they may not have any knowledge about what’s available to them legally, which is what you’re there to help advise them on.
[00:04:46] Scott Benton: Now lastly, you might run into situations where the potential client knows what they want, but might more or less be either embarrassed or, I don’t know, maybe ashamed to fully disclose their [00:05:00] intentions. Now when you first start working with potential clients, or, Maybe they’re actually they’ve hired your firm and they’re now clients.
[00:05:07] Scott Benton: Working with an attorney might be new and it might be intimidating for them. So there may not quite be a great understanding of how the legal process works or they may not just really have built up any level of trust with you yet that allows them to really pour out everything that they can and put all of their case facts on the table.
[00:05:31] Scott Benton: Sometimes people are a little nervous or uncomfortable doing that at first and this is why you want to work on building your relationships with your clients. And as quickly as possible, something that we like to refer to on this podcast anyway, is instant rapport. That’s a skill that on the side, you might start to look at developing.
[00:05:52] Scott Benton: How do you create trust immediately? Now, in all of these examples, whether the client knows what they want or doesn’t know what they [00:06:00] want, it’s your job to make sure that you know what they want. So that you can do the necessary research to provide the options for them to choose from. However, you’re going to want to keep in mind that in answering the question of whether or not clients always know what they want, no, in many cases they don’t know, which you need to consider when you’re meeting with them.
[00:06:21] Scott Benton: Therefore, whoever the client is that you’re working with and to whatever level that they understand themselves what they want, you need to make sure that you have a high degree of certainty and clarity about their case objectives to provide accurate and outstanding legal services after they’ve made a decision about how to proceed.
[00:06:41] Scott Benton: Now, as we tend to talk about a lot on this podcast, it’s important to not only build a strong relationship with your client, but it’s equally as important to dig deep into their case history so you understand it at really a molecular level where their true case objectives become [00:07:00] clear and that you understand them as concisely as possible.
[00:07:03] Scott Benton: That way it’s going to help inform your to do list. It’s going to help inform the legal services that you perform. You’re going to then build a client, you’re going to get paid and you’re going to start again with that to do list. But at least your to do list is accurate and you’re not going to start exploring blind alleys or go off in directions that you shouldn’t be going towards.
[00:07:23] Scott Benton: because now you have clarity on what the client’s objectives are. So I hope that’s helpful. I’m Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for listening to our show and listening to this episode. If this is valuable information and you’d like to receive an alert whenever we put out a new episode, you can go to our website.
[00:07:40] Scott Benton: Our website is classroom2courtroom. com. You can leave us your contact information. We’ll send you out an alert. Also don’t forget to share and subscribe. That will also help you to stay on top of all of our newest episodes and until next time, we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time.
[00:07:59] Scott Benton: Thank you so [00:08:00] much.
