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Ego gets in the way of being client-centric
Confidence and assertiveness are important traits, but practitioners who are overly egocentric will almost always fail to put clients first, says one director.
Jerome Doraisamy
When she started her family law firm, Resolve Divorce, Rose Cocchiaro (pictured) was motivated by two factors: one, to serve the community in a client-focused fashion that provides transformative experiences; and two, to move away from what she calls the “golfing lawyer” attitude, whereby practitioners retain archaic mindsets about what constitutes success and how to approach clients.
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Speaking recently on The Lawyers Weekly Show, Ms Cocchiaro said that being narrow in one’s approach to those walking through the door, and simply telling them how a matter is going to go, is “small-minded”, and that in order to really give modern-day clients what they need, a lawyer must create a two-way street whereby the client can be more involved and have an element of control over how their matter is run and what outcomes they want to achieve.
Ultimately, one “can’t really mix” being both egocentric and client-centric, she surmised, because the latter requires a lawyer to dedicate one’s entirety of energy to thinking about what the client wants and putting them first.
“The egocentric lawyer, who thinks that they’re always right and that they know better, is going to really struggle if they’re faced with a client who is trying to assert some control. Now, there’s a fine line that you need to toe to manage your client’s expectations and reality check your client around what their goals are, what they’d like to control, how much involvement they have, et cetera, but that is only to benefit them in the long run,” she explained.
“What you need to do is give them guidance, say ‘let’s not do that because the impact on you is likely to be A, B and C, and we’d prefer that you portray yourself this way or that you negotiate in this way so that you’re going to reach your outcomes’. That’s when it comes back to their goals.”
This is not to say, Ms Cocchiaro stressed, that lawyers should be passive and allow clients to dictate matters.
“I certainly am not suggesting that you just be a mouthpiece for whatever your client is telling you to say. There’s a degree of confidence and perhaps assertiveness that you need to have as a lawyer with your clients, and a level of respect that your client has for you and your opinion and advice, and they need to be taking your advice,” she noted.
Such reminders are important for lawyers across the board, she mused and not just those in practice areas that might traditionally be thought of as more personal, such as family or criminal law. Even those in commercial strands such as M&A and capital markets need to remember the human element of being client-centric, she said.
“Because every deal, people and humans make the decision around what needs to occur. And, behind every dispute, there’s conflict that has occurred because of a human interaction or something that’s gone wrong between people,” Ms Cocchiaro explained.
“So, because it is the practice of law and the practice of lawyers has that personal element, that human element, those factors have to apply at some level and in every practice, no matter what practice of law you’re in.”
To listen to the full conversation with Rose Cocchiaro, click below:
