PICKING A TRIAL LAWYER – LOOK FOR LOYALTY

Many clients who come into a law office are in distress. They are having difficulty sleeping. They are having difficulty eating. They have a legal problem that is bogging them down. They can’t seem to come up with a solution. They are close to losing hope. They are close to losing faith. A good trial lawyer restores hope and faith. They do that by showing commitment.

Clients often feel desperate. They have a problem they can’t resolve alone. They need help. They want a lawyer to help them but they need more than help alone. The client wants a
lawyer to walk with them. They want a lawyer who will stand with them until the end. They want loyalty.

When a person comes into an attorney’s office, they need someone who will listen. They need someone who will counsel them and showed them a way of resolving their particular
problem. They need a problem solver.

Loyalty cuts both ways. As much as a lawyer needs to be there for a client, the client needs to be there for the lawyer. When a lawyer asks for information, the client needs to get that
information. When a client asks for information, the lawyer needs to provide that information.Back and forth it goes. A trial lawyer and a client working side by side getting the information necessary to help resolve the problem.

When I write about loyalty, I’m not talking about blind loyalty. I’m not talking about loyalty at the expense of honesty. The loyalty I’m referring to is steeped in ethics.

A good trial lawyer is always ethical; always trying to do things the right way; always trying to work within the rules. When a client wants to stray away from an ethical approach, the loyal lawyer calls him on it. It is not disloyal to set a client down the right path.

Also, one of my deepest desires is to teach, craft and support other Trial Lawyers. I do not want Trial Lawyers to be a dying breed. We need these types of loyal lawyers among us. I have a few in my office and I see their passion daily.

In the past four decades, I’ve represented hundreds of people. I’ve represented so many clients. Each unique. It is a joy when one of my former clients comes up to me and reintroduce themselves. It is a joy when they thank me for being non-judgmental and for helping them get through their legal problem.

It is what makes being a lawyer such a privilege.

 

Written by Attorney Peter Decato
Posted by Keely Marie, Senior Law Clerk