I was recently asked what qualified me to help a particular client with his situation. I proceeded to share with him stories of cases that I worked on and the outcomes that we created for our clients. He seemed content with my stories, and I was subsequently hired to be his attorney.
That meeting prompted to ask about what skills and traits advisors should have in order to properly serve a client’s best interests. I supposed that much has been written on this, but I believe that a client who meets with a lawyer or other advisor for the first time should be able to ask some basic questions to discover if that advisor is qualified to help him or her:
- Have you helped a client with XYZ concern? If an advisor has never helped a person with similar concerns to you, will you get a good result?
- If so, what type of advice did you give that client, and what was the outcome achieved?
- How many clients are you presently helping? If an advisor is overwhelmed with work, your concerns may not get his or her proper and timely attention.
- What do you do outside of work? I like this question because you can see a person’s geniuneness. For me, I love God, my family and golf; you’d see that when coming to the office with all of the family photos and the golf magazines, not to mention a few golf balls roaming the halls. It’s pretty hard to fake what you really care about.
- How do you bill your clients? It’s frankly unfair to ask an advisor how much something with cost, though, until he or she knows what the work will entail. It is fair, though, to ask if that advisor bills hourly, on a fixed fee or on some other basis. With that said, it’s also unfair of an advisor to hide from questions concerning fees and avoid giving clients a reasonable understanding of the fees involved early in the representation.
A question that you cannot really ask, but need to know the answer to is “Can I trust you?” After all, there are many very good advisors working in the Tampa market, so in many respects the real concern should be focused on trust.
A good first step is to find out if you like the advisor and believe that he or she is actively listening to you and expressing genuine concern for you. This can only be answered with time, so look for an advisor who is willing to give you plenty of time to learn about one other without pushiness or applying a pressure sales technique to “close a deal.”
