Every attorney encounters an occasional client who will claim that attorney is acting unethically. Often the claim is lacking loyalty to the client’s cause. Sometimes the claim will be outright corruption. However, once the client makes that claim, an attorney’s continued representation of that client is dangerous.[1]
It doesn’t matter whether the client believes the accusation or doesn’t. Either way, the attorney-client relationship is compromised. A client who truly believes the attorney is unethical should be expected to discharge that attorney immediately. A concern arises as to why a claim of unethical conduct isn’t coupled with a demand for the attorney to withdraw. An attorney whose client believes he or she is unethical cannot realistically provide that client proper representation. How precisely is a client to process advice from an attorney the client believes is unethical? If my client believes I am unethical, I’m much more comfortable if that client finds new counsel.
However, more likely, the client is simply lying about how he or she perceives the attorney. Typically this claim of unethical conduct is a misguided attempt to either have the attorney start providing advice the client wishes to hear or have the attorney devote more attention to the case than the attorney is willing to provide. However, this behavior is both dishonest and manipulative.
Many clients—especially family law clients—can be deceitful or manipulative: there’s a lot of DSMV diagnosis amongst this crowd. However, an attorney who attempts to placate manipulative, deceitful clients will end up miserable (and possibly engage in the sorts of unethical conduct that he or she is being falsely accused of). An attorney who won’t placate such clients will simply get more and bigger accusations—and shouldn’t be surprised when such clients file an ethics complaint with the office of disciplinary counsel.
I typically warns client once when they make accusations about my professional ethics. I explain my hope that there was a misunderstanding and suggest they seek new counsel if they believe the accusation. I couple that with warning that further accusations will lead to my filing a motion to be relieved as their counsel.
No attorney should want to represent a client who believes that attorney lacks integrity.
[1] This blog assumes that the accusation is false. If the accusation is true, the attorney has bigger problems than a poor attorney-client relationship.
This blog also doesn’t address a client who is unhappy due to the attorney’s unsuccessful results. An attorney can obtain unsuccessful results without lacking integrity and, when the client’s issue is with an attorney’s competence, an attorney can safely continue the representation and address the competence issue.
The problem here is clients don’t know what is ‘too much attention’ and what it takes to get you guys to provide the amount of attention we want, and from what I gather, are entitled to.
If it’s a dollar amount you want to provide ‘top tier counsel’, then put that in the agreement we sign. I am sure all of us ‘less than deserving’ folk would pay the toll to get adequate legal counsel… as unfortunate as that may seem to you.
Typically this claim of unethical conduct is a misguided attempt to either have the attorney start providing advice the client wishes to hear or have the attorney devote more attention to the case than the attorney is willing to provide.