Rotary's Power for World Peace

How to Get Your Money's Worth, Even Out of a Lawyer

By PAUL P. HARRIS Attorney‑at‑Law (Member Rotary Club of Chicago)

The relationship of lawyer and client is essentially a trust relationship. If for any reason it can't be that, there is, as a rule, very little reason for its existence. He who employs a lawyer whose ability or honesty he distrusts is not making the best use of his money.

Lawyers place a very high valuation upon the clientage of business men. It is natural that they do so because of the fact that it is easier to gain the confidence of a business man, when confidence is deserved, than to gain the confidence of an inexperienced person. In other words, the business man has had sufficient experience to have confidence in himself and in his own judgment of men. He knows that a lawyer's stock in trade is his good name. The inexperienced person, whether a woman, or a man who has not had to fight his own way up the line, has not that self‑reliance and has not knowledge of the fact that a lawyer must deal fairly in order to live; and in some instances he supplements his lack of information with suspicion, and the trust relationship essential to good results ceases. The lawyer fails to do himself justice because he senses the distrust and divides his time between serving the interests of his client and making his action seem right. He is moreover likely to become worried or even exasperated and frustrated and his usefulness to his client is reduced to the minimum. The time has arrived when it becomes necessary to let the matter rest for a time until confidential relationship can be restored, or quit. This condition of affairs is, of course, likely to be at least partly attributable to temperamental frailties of the lawyer. He perhaps is unduly sensitive to suspicion and easily worried. Whatever be the cause, the effect is ruinous.

The surest way to get your money's worth out of your lawyer is to tell him fully and frankly all of the facts. Make no reservations whatsoever. What seems unimportant to you may be all important to your case. If you have been sued, resist if possible any temptation which you may have, to tell your lawyer that the suit is a bluff and entirely without merit. If you are strongly impressed with that view of the case, it may be very difficult to refrain from expressing yourself, but the results will be worth the effort. You will impress your lawyer favorably. His ambition will be to render you good service and thereby merit the esteem of a man who has been generous enough not to try to belittle the importance of the case.

The lawyer may be as much interested as any business man would be in being reasonably compensated for the service which he renders, but it is my own observation that it is not infrequently the case that lawyers all but lose sight of the question of fees and of themselves in the absorbing interest of the service which they are rendering.

Lawyers not infrequently work all night, and night after night, in the preparation of cases without even making mention of the fact to their clients. The lawyer figures that his client would not understand the necessity of it anyhow, and it might as well not be mentioned. In the main, the work of the lawyer must be done when his client is not with him.

When one buys a commodity from a tradesman, he knows just what he is buying. When he buys the services of a lawyer, he does not know what he is buying. How essential then is trust and confidence in the relationship of lawyer and client.

The work of the lawyer in its broadest and highest sense is a continuation of the work of his client through an emergency, perhaps through a crisis. His are like the services of a pilot who is called upon to guide a craft through dangerous waters. His knowledge of the channel must be intimate and his thoughts undisturbed. He must use the same kind of judgment that the owner of the craft would use if he knew the course and was at the helm, only he must be more careful and thorough in his work.

When employing a lawyer, make certain that you have selected the man you want, put him in possession of all the facts and then leave everything to him.