(314) 726-2322

wbschock@schocklaw.com

Let’s look at this from the client’s perspective. 

The client has come to the attorney not because it is a beautiful spring day but because the client has a problem. 

Upon entering the attorney’s office the client is worried about at least three things: 

• whether the problem can be solved at all,

• if the problem can be solved, whether this is the attorney who can solve it, and

• whether the fees are going to be fair.

My answers to these worries are as follows: 

First, I have been in the general practice of law for 20 plus years and so I have a few battle scars.  I can normally provide an initial evaluation at the end of the first meeting.

Second, I think the client has to feel in the gut whether I am the right lawyer.  I can tell you that I only take cases in which I think I can help.  I can also tell you that at the end of the first meeting the client can walk out and pay nothing.  When it feels right both sides know it.

Third, I practice on my own.  I like to think I am light on my feet and can work reasonably quickly.  For bills based on hourly work, I provide a line by line record of what I have done and when I have done it. 

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It seems that all clients in all cases find the process frustrating.  Procedural issues block the facts.  The facts become fluid.  Personalities present challenges.  Hairs are split, and then split again.  To succeed the client and I must establish a sufficient level of trust to face these realities with candor.

And what of the law’s slowness?  Stall and delay are the rule instead of the exception.  I have no good solutions to the slow pace.  Perhaps I can help the client manage the impatience and the worry.

At the last it is my job to use my judgment and boil the case down to its basic issues.  I must then present those issues coherently to the other side and the judge.  When I succeed in those tasks, the case goes reasonably well.