Nobody Respects a Cheap Lawyer

• Author: David V. Lorenzo
• Pages: 48-48

§25. Client Attraction Secrets for Lawyers

48

§25.

NOBODY RE SP EC TS A CH EA P LAWYER

I bet you are a good lawyer. You might even be one of the best in town. Yet at the end of the

day you have a conversation with your partner or spouse and it goes something like this:

I do not understand why I keep getting these crappy clients. They demand EVERY-

THING and they want it YESTERDAY. They call my cell phone at all hours of the

day (and night). They have unreasonable, no not unreasonable; they have CRAZY

expectations for their case. And then, when I deliver the best result possible...a true

miracle…when I pull a real rabbit out of my hat…they complain about my fee.

This conversation plays itself out over and over again in one form or another. It seems like a

good portion of the clients who come to you have Champagne expectations on a Schlitz budget.

No matter how hard you try you cannot seem to shake this syndrome.

So you wake up in the morning, you get out of bed and splash some cold water on your face.

You brush your teeth, comb your hair and head off to the office. You do this with the hope that

today will be different. You do this with the hope that the Good Client Fairy will sprinkle some

pixy dust on your desk chair and a rational client with a reasonable budget will walk through that

door and beg you to work with him.

Unfortunately, hope is not a strategy. Hope makes you feel good but it does not change any-

thing. Hope will not feed your kids and it sure as hell will not pay your mortgage.

What is the answer? How can you solve this problem?

The answer starts with the value you place on your services. Most attorneys set their fees

based upon the rates they think will attract clients. They view their fee as bait they put into the

water to attract fish. The problem is that the smelliest fish go for the smelliest bait. Bad clients

are attracted by low fees.

Ask yourself these three questions:

• “What is this service worth to the client?”

• “Will the client spend this money on something else they think is valuable (a big screen TV

or a fancy car)?

• “How can I make the client view my services with the same value they place on those tan-

gible items?”

Once you answer those questions you will be able to collect the fees you deserve.