Attorney-Client Relationship

Attorney-clients relationships can be complicated.  It has been said that you aren’t an experienced attorney until you have fired at least one client.  If that is true then I am officially an experienced attorney.  There are generally only two reasons that would prompt me to fire a client.  Either 1) there is a conflict, in which case I cannot represent the client without violating the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct or 2) the client is not following my advice and would be better served by another attorney that he/she trusts.

If you ever find yourself fired by your attorney, you shouldn’t take it personally.  Some people’s personalities just don’t go well together.  When I meet a client, I do my best to follow my intuition about people and only accept clients that I think I will work well with.  When that system fails, I do my best to work with the client and have been mostly successful in doing so.  In a small number of cases, I have felt as though the client would be better served by another attorney.  I want those clients to realize that although I may no longer work for them, I still have their best interests in mind.  By removing myself from the case, I am trying to help the client move on and find another attorney that will be better suited for that particular case.

This instance does not occur very often, but when it does, it is most helpful when the client realizes that it is in his/her best interest to find a new attorney that will work well with the client.