Don't Be One Of THOSE Attorneys

Don’t be the attorney that your peers hate to work with.  Karen Thalacker reminds us all to take steps to be professional and courteous even when a case is stressful.

Transcript:

Are you one of THOSE attorneys?

Be honest.  When your fellow attorneys look at a pleading in a new case and your name is on it do they think, “Great!  I love working with that attorney” or do they roll their eyes and think, “This is going to be so unpleasant.”

Here are 3 suggestions for how to be an attorney who other attorneys will want to work with:

1. Be courteous to the attorney, their staff and their client. Courtesy extends to all.
2. Be truthful. If a delay or other issue is your fault, don’t blame the other attorney. Also avoid making disparaging comments about the other attorney to your client.  Those comments have a way of getting back to that attorney.
3. Be competent and prepared. Lack of preparedness results in delays, drives up the cost of litigation and creates unnecessary frustration.

This career may be unavoidably stressful at times but your relationship with your colleagues should ease that stress not add to it.  Here’s the bottom line:  For your own health and career, you should want to be an attorney who other attorneys want to work with.