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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I am 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 easy and fun. And today we’re going to look at what qualities clients want in their attorney.
[00:00:25] Scott Benton: What qualities do clients want when they’re working with their attorney?
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[00:01:17] Scott Benton: Now, while there’s a lot of qualities a client wants from their attorney, a short podcast episode like this one, it’s just simply not going to cover everything. And so therefore we’re going to talk about the three that you can focus on that Together, they’re going to help you get the most mileage out of your client, and more importantly, they’re going to help your client get the most mileage out of you as their attorney, as their representative.
[00:01:42] Scott Benton: And those three qualities that we’re going to take one at a time are, they need to know you, they need to like you, and they need to trust you. Now, fortunately, a lot of what we talk about on this podcast is geared towards those three very same subjects. You’re going to hear them over [00:02:00] and over again, but repetition is how you learn a subject.
[00:02:03] Scott Benton: So we repeat a lot of the ideas that we talk about on this podcast. When you’re able to hone and largely perfect your abilities with the three subjects that we’re going to talk about on this podcast, that’s when you’re going to see your to do list is going to massively fill up and it’s going to stay massively filled up because it means That the potential client who’s considering hiring your firm is much more likely to engage your services it means the clients you’re already working with are likely going to keep their trust account replenished because They’re going to believe in the work that you’re doing.
[00:02:35] Scott Benton: They’re likely going to see lots of positive results that you’re producing As their case is busy moving forward, focusing on what the client wants is the key ingredient you need to make sure you’re coming in every single day that you’re getting to work immediately because your to do list was already updated the night before because you did that, right?
[00:02:56] Scott Benton: You updated your to do list the night before. That way you can just come [00:03:00] in early in the morning, get your cup of coffee and You’re going to know exactly what you’re going to be doing that day. It’s also going to help you easily reach and exceed your billable hourly requirement as you perform the legal services from that to do list.
[00:03:13] Scott Benton: But again, that all starts with the client knowing you, the client liking you, and the client trusting you. So let’s take those three subjects one at a time and look a little closer at them. First, you need to make sure that your client knows you, and you do that by building relationships. And you do that by getting to know everything you can about your client, such as The names of everybody in their family and the names of their pets and their interests and their hobbies and what they think about and what they talk about all the time.
[00:03:44] Scott Benton: These are things that are going to help you really solidify a relationship with your clients. You got to listen to those. You got to seek out what they’re interested in and remember them. Now, here’s a little secret about getting clients to get to know you. The more [00:04:00] you talk about and focus on them and their family and their pets and their hobbies and their interests, the more they’re going to feel comfortable with you.
[00:04:10] Scott Benton: And so much so that a lot of the time, you’ll never even talk about yourself. Now, sometimes the person you’re talking to, they’re going to turn the spotlight around on you, because you’ve probably had the spotlight on them. They may turn that around on you, and they’re going to start interviewing you and asking you about your family and your interests and your pets and all of the things that you’ve been asking them.
[00:04:31] Scott Benton: But for the most part, The more interest that you focus on your client and the more you build that relationship with them, the more they’re going to know you. Now I know that sounds counterintuitive and maybe even a little paradoxical, but you can dig more into these types of ideas and really countless other ways to build relationships with your clients and really with anybody else if you pick up the book by Dale Carnegie called How to Win Friends and Influence [00:05:00] People.
[00:05:00] Scott Benton: When you understand those ideas and master those skills, you’re simply going to reach a point where building relationships just becomes second nature. It’s something that you just don’t even think about. And it’s going to be one of those skills that you develop to the point where you’re doing it naturally all of the time.
[00:05:16] Scott Benton: Now the second quality is that they need to like you. Now, I’m not going to spend too much time here because honestly, if you’re successful in the first expectation of they need to know you, where you spent time building that relationship and you’ve gotten to know a lot about your client while getting to know all the details of the case facts, cause you’re also talking about their case and you’re digging and digging.
[00:05:35] Scott Benton: We often talk about going three layers deep into their story. So when you’re doing that and you’re referencing their husband or wife or children or pets name. It’s because you remembered them and it’s going to demonstrate how much you care about them and how much you care about their case. And as we like to talk about here at the firm that I work for, today’s clients don’t necessarily feel like they need to pay for legal services.
[00:05:59] Scott Benton: And a [00:06:00] lot of that has to do with those kind of online legal services that they can go to. And a lot of times they can file forms or fill out forms on their own without the help of an attorney. However, we do know that today clients will pay for a strong relationship with their attorney all day long.
[00:06:18] Scott Benton: And that’s why this particular skill is so important for you to work on and develop and master and just continually strengthen. Now lastly, the quality a client wants in their attorney is they need to trust you.
[00:06:30] Scott Benton: Now, if you’ve gotten through the first two qualities, this quality, the trust quality, becomes a lot easier to accomplish, but with one key differentiator, which is clarity. General, clients don’t care about the law. They don’t need to know the history of the law, or what the legal names reference, or why the laws are in place.
[00:06:48] Scott Benton: They don’t need a vocabulary lesson, or They don’t want to hear legal jargon. What they want is clarity, and clarity. And when you talk to your client, the more clearly you [00:07:00] speak using lay terms or everyday terms where you emit as much legalese and jargon as possible, then the easier it is for a client to make decisions on how to navigate their legal objectives.
[00:07:13] Scott Benton: So complicated words become barriers and they’re easily misinterpreted. Sometimes people, they just, they don’t even understand a particular word that you use, but they don’t want to acknowledge that they don’t understand that particular word. The potential for eroding that important clarity in the communication style that you’ve chosen with your client, that can become significant.
[00:07:35] Scott Benton: In its most reduced form, the three qualities a client expects to have with their attorney is, they want to know you. They want to like you and they want to trust you. And if you’re successful with all three, your to do list and your legal services that you’re going to provide, it’s never going to be anything less than overflowing and abundant.
[00:07:57] Scott Benton: I’m Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank [00:08:00] you so much for tuning in and listening to this episode. Now, if this is material that you’re enjoying and you’d like to get a, an alert every time we put out a new episode, you can go to our website.
[00:08:09] Scott Benton: Our website is classroom2courtroom. com. That’s classroom, the number two. Courtroom. com. You can leave us your contact information. You’ll get an alert when we put out a new episode. And also, don’t forget to share, and subscribe. That’s also going to help you stay on top of all of our new episodes. And until next time, we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time.
[00:08:29] Scott Benton: Thank you so much.
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