Harmeet K. Dhillon
@pnjaban
Pro tip for potential clients seeking a lawyer to handle their case: these factors are red flags to lawyers: 1) You fired your last ___ lawyers
2) Long, convoluted fact pattern
3) Multiple relatives on opposite sides of case
4) Many acronyms
5) You drafted and filed something with the court yourself, just need a lawyer there to “satisfy the judge”
6) You’re in this for the principle of the thing, don’t care how much money or how long it takes to grind down the other side
7) You want lawyers to sign an NDA to hear more
8) This case will be “great exposure” for lawyer
9) You mention multiple people are out to get you
10) Any mention of lasers, listening devices, or the CIA Just some helpful hints… we love clients who need legal help, know what they don’t know, and understand that lawyers are not magicians, and we have families to feed. Thank you for listening to my TED talk.
All attorneys should recall this advice from a famous attorney of yesteryear:
A hundred “Amens.” Despite having spent most of my legal career in a corporate legal department, I encountered more than I would have expected of this sort of thing. As in, at least once a week.
I don’t imagine Elihu Root’s quote is part of the current curriculum in most law schools. Reading the news, it seems the idea is to run with any tomfoolery, especially when it is accompanied by good billable hours.
Elihu Root spoke at a time before the culture expected “validation” and “respect for feelings”. I think of all the “correct” language I used to have to use to convey to parents that their “under-performing” kid was a lazy snot who needed a boot to butt from Dad more than anything else to improve his grades and behavior. Heaven help the modern teacher who says a student would be better off in the trades than applying to a “dream” college!