Articles
It is safe to say the number of attorneys who feel tremendous stress is reaching near epidemic proportions. According to a study done by Johns Hopkins, fifty-one percent of attorneys experience stress at rates significantly higher than the ‘normal’ population. 1
Is this endemic to the profession? Or are those who are drawn to the legal profession predisposed to stress?
Both may be true, but the latter question holds the key. An earlier Johns Hopkins study that examined all types of graduate school programs revealed that graduate students who are optimists outperform pessimists by a wide margin—with one exception: students in law school.2
Pessimism is rewarded in law school and further reinforced when an attorney goes into practice. Here’s why: pessimists anticipate the worst. As a result, they tend to plan for it and are better prepared than those who expect a rosy outcome.
Unfortunately, the traits that make for a good attorney don’t always make for a good businessperson. To thrive in the marketplace, the solo or small firm practitioner must excel on both fronts. But solos or small firm practitioners who are not buoyed by the natural sense of optimism which supports and sustains most other professionals live in constant fear that their practice may not survive. Driven by this sense of impending doom and without any real business training to guide them, attorneys tend to make unfortunate business decisions.
Eschew Threshold Law
Among the worst decisions is their failure to effectively screen new clients. Unfortunately, practicing “threshold law” (working with anyone who crosses your threshold) often feels like the right thing to do at the time, but invariably leads to further distress because of the many problematic (non-paying and uncooperative) clients who begin to populate the practice. When a practice is filled with problematic clients, the affect on the attorney’s stress level is pronounced.
What does this mean to you? If you are like many of your colleagues and don’t properly screen your clients, you’ve probably set yourself up for great difficulties.
Were you to apply Pareto’s Principle (also known as the 80/20 Rule) to your client base, you would probably discover that 80% of your income comes from 20% of your clients, who in turn take up only about 20% to 40% of your time. This is worth repeating: Your best clients, the top 20% whom we’ll call your A and B level clients, take up the least amount of your time while generating the highest percentage of your revenues.
The remaining 80% of your clients take up a great deal of time and generate only 20% of your income. They are the problematic clients who agree to pay you only after wasting much of your time—or never pay you at all. Their poor payment habits are significant because not being paid not only adds to the stress you feel, it further reinforces your pessimism and subsequent disillusionment with the practice of law. As Jay Foonberg says, “It is better NOT to do the work and NOT get paid, than to DO the work and NOT be paid.” Just as potential clients interview you to determine whether or not you can help them, you’d be wise to assess their trustworthiness as well.
Are Your Clients Stressing You Out?
Not paying for services rendered is the worst trait of C or D level clients, but it isn’t necessarily their only bad habit. Take a look at the following checklist of symptoms signaling a practice which has an overload of problematic clients.
- High outstanding receivables—you do quite a bit of work that you or your team will not be paid for
- Clients who leave prematurely or often threaten to seek the services of another attorney
- Clients who often fail to show for scheduled appointments
- Clients who often fail to bring requested documents or to follow direction
- Staff who feel abused by clients who misdirect their anger and scream at them or act unreasonably
- Staff and attorneys who dread going to work and dealing with certain clients
- Staff and attorneys who never hear “thank you” or any acknowledgment for their efforts—even after winning major victories
- Experiencing a constant sense of crisis and tension that is attributable to specific clients and/or specific opposing counsel
If you check off even one of these symptoms, it’s time to reengineer your new client screening process because the effects of practicing threshold law have already disrupted your practice and will likely get worse. Unwittingly, you have created a stressful situation for yourself by not screening for clients who will pay you, cooperate with you and appreciate your efforts. It’s time to take control.
Remember that both in law school and in practice, success favors the pessimist, but the pessimist unchecked does not a good businessperson make. Intuitively, it seems like a good idea to work with everyone who crosses the threshold, but experience in working with hundreds of attorneys over the years has shown that you owe it to yourself, your team and your firm’s bottom line to raise your standards. Start now by being more selective in choosing who you will work with and take steps to systematically clean up your caseload.
Portions of this article are excerpted from Time Management for Attorneys: A Lawyer’s Guide to Decreasing Stress, Eliminating Interruptions & Getting Home on Time, by Mark Powers & Shawn McNalis, 2008.
