Legal Counseling Defined
At its core, legal counseling is a specialized form of customer service. Rather than advising clients on how to resolve a concern with their utility bill or purchase a car, legal counselors focus exclusively on helping clients navigate issues related to family law, criminal law, personal injury or employment law. A thorough understanding of both the legal and administrative aspects of the firm enables them to provide valuable insight to clients that they might not have discovered themselves. Offering clients proactive legal advice is at the center of legal counseling. Counsellors are tasked with understanding exactly what a client needs. Although clients seek us through a host of circumstances , most simply want to know where to turn in a time of uncertainty. Clients experiencing legal problems must be advised on the best- and worst-case scenario, what next steps are required and what to anticipate throughout the process. Legal counseling is not a specific set of documents or workshops that can be easily packaged and sold to clients. Instead, it is a comprehensive, personalized experience designed to help individuals make smart decision in a troubling time. Emphasizing prevention and education, legal counseling plays a critical role in arming individuals with insight that allows them to take charge of their own situations.
A Legal Counselor
A legal counselor is not merely a lawyer with a client, but rather, a stalwart guide to helping the client navigate complex legal issues. In this specialized role, a counselor works hand-in-hand with clients from the outset as they face complex legal situations that impact the future of the client. The focus on counseling usually relates to lawyers that represent business in commercial matters, but the truth is that every kind of lawyer should be a counselor.
By their very nature, law school courses and bar review courses attempt to indicate that lawyers are supposed to be "pragmatic" in their interpretation and application of law. There is nothing particularly wrong with that concept, but too many lawyers go too far into the "realism" channel where they become afraid to do the "right" thing because there might be liability, or there might be an adverse outcome, or else becuase they feel it goes against some "pragmatic" school of thought and "that’s the way it is guys."
The problem with that "pragmatic" approach is that there are never black and white in legal matters and there is no single path to reach a goal. Sometimes a risk is worth taking, even a legal risk, especially if the gain is significant. Sometimes it is worth having a less-than-advantageous case on principle. Sometimes a lesser case won at a lower fee is better than a bigger fee for a better case.
What is important too, is to maintain a relationship with clients who depend upon you for counsel. It is not a good thing to beat a client out of a favorable fee for the good of the practice if the client relationship is poor. However, it is also foolish to put a client in a position of risk, whether that is a large fee or a weak case, simply because it is in the interests of the firm and not in the client’s interest.
Let’s face it, the role of counselor is often difficult, it is often fraught with emotional turmoil, and it is often at various odds with both the firm’s and the client’s best interest.
That is where the true art of legal counseling resides.
When You Should Seek Legal Counsel
Different situations may require legal counseling. If you are experiencing family law matters, such as divorce, child custody, or domestic violence, legal counseling can help you understand your rights, obligations, and resources available to you under the law. A very common situation requiring legal counseling is guardianships, which is a legal proceeding where someone else becomes responsible for another person’s care and management. For example, in a Child Guardianship, the parent retains their rights, but the Guardian has a duty to provide for the child’s care and control. In a Guardianship of an Estate, the Guardian has a duty to manage the assets of a person for that person’s benefit. Business disputes may require legal counseling. If you have a business dispute, legal counseling with experienced attorney can help you understand your rights, obligations, and possible outcomes under the law. If you are experiencing any type of criminal issues, legal counseling will help you understand your options and the possible outcomes. Legal counseling is also essential if you have a dispute with another consumer, or an issue with another consumer company. A skilled attorney can help you navigate the situation in order to reach a fair outcome. Legal counseling with an attorney is essential if you are facing administrative issues as a result of a prior DUI, or if you are facing a license suspension or administrative issue. Trips to the Department of Motor Vehicles involving serious issues such as a traffic collision, or loss of your drivers license, can be complicated. Driving offenses and other problems can range from a confusing citation to a life threatening situation if you need legal counseling in order to prevent your drivers license from being suspended, your finding of guilt from becoming a conviction on your criminal record, or your insurance premiums rising exponentially. If you have suffered an injury, it is essential to receive legal counseling. An experienced attorney will meet with you and discuss your rights and obligations under the law.
Why You Should Consult a Legal Counselor
One of the primary reasons people seek out legal counseling is to avoid future legal disputes. Legal counseling can help individuals identify potential problems and deal with them before they arise in a costly or damaging manner. Finding an experienced attorney early on that can provide your company with legal advice is a great way to prepare for future challenges. Another reason to seek legal counseling is to get personalized legal advice from a professional who knows your company’s background and needs. Each individual or business is different, and a legal professional can help you figure out the best way to handle a situation. They are able to review your specific circumstances and give you skilled legal advice and sound guidance to comply with the law and meet your goals. Of course, legal counseling is also helpful for individuals who have no issues and just want to know what their next step should be. You may have questions about what you’re allowed to do and what your rights are. The legal system can be confusing, and having a legal professional by your side to explain things and offer perspectives can help a client feel much more confident about making decisions. An attorney will be able to ask clarifying questions that determine your situation and provide informed advice to make good choices.
Selecting a Legal Counselor
In selecting a legal counselor, the most important thing for the client to understand is how the individual approaches the situation. While many attorneys will claim to practice both in the transactional (that is, advisory) role and in the litigation (that is, adversarial) role, the fact is that most of us have an instinctual preference for one end of the spectrum or the other. It may be a matter of personality or even temperament, but each of us approaches a problem in accordance with our instinctual preferences. Although the lawyer is not always conscious of his/her preferences, they nevertheless affect the process of counseling.
It is in understanding this process that the client must be an active participant in choosing the right legal counselor. Early on, the client should begin to learn about the prospective counselor’s approach to the matter at hand. If the counselor is to be an advisor, does he/she have a desire to advise? (It is not uncommon for an attorney who prefers litigation to actually prefer to litigate in the counseling context . ) You can ask general questions about their approach to a particular type of challenge and learn about the attorney’s predisposition toward working with the client to fashion an appropriate resolution of the matter. (The attorney’s predisposition is a function of their programming, not a conscious calculation.) If the counselor is to be in an adversarial representative role, does the attorney evidence a propensity to "go to war?" Or, is he/she predisposed to mediate the dispute? Again, generally, the more experience the attorney has had working toward resolution of contentious matters will determine the individual’s predilection. Determine if the prospective attorney engages and produces results from a conflict resolution system. Does he/she embrace mediation, arbitration, collaborative law, private judging or other forms of alternative dispute resolution? If these matters are clear, the client’s efforts to secure the right legal counselor will be productive and rewarding.
Common Myths of Legal Counseling
While some may think legal counseling is only for serious legal issues, seeking legal counseling can be a proactive way to resolve issues before they snowball into larger problems. People often assume legal counseling is only a service available to fewer people who can afford expensive retainers and fees, but this is not true. Legal counseling is a service available to all and many Family Lawyers offer legal counseling consults for low flat fees. Legal counseling is often compared to lawyers who provide legal services; however, legal counseling is different in that sometimes the lawyer may provide you with little or no advice or guidance, but simply allows you to gather information for you to consider before making a decision. Instead of merely interpreting the law for the client, legal counseling enables the lawyer to explain the law in a more personal and supportive way to lead the client in making an informed decision.
The Future of Legal Counseling
As we look to the future, a number of trends indicate that legal counseling is going to become more efficient and more affordable. One of the most obvious is the continued growth of the Internet. Resources that are currently unavailable or too expensive to hire outside counsel for, including small business issues and contract issues for employees, will soon be addressed through the Internet for a relatively small fee. In fact, if you look at sites like Legal Zoom, Rocket Lawyer, and others, these services already provide contract templates that you can customize and use.
More importantly, technology is artificially lowing the costs of legal counseling. For instance, document review used to take a long time for attorneys to manually read through. Now, software is capable of scanning large volumes of text in a fraction of the time and helping lawyers identify issues . Other software, like eDiscovery software, allows businesses to easily go through uploaded documents for litigation.
Another trend that we see with a number of forward-looking firms is the use of technology to streamline IOLTA trust account compliance. With the 2015 Supreme Court decision, these accounts became impossibly complicated to manage. Now, more than ever, it’s important for law firms to have computerized assistance for their IOLTA trust accounts. We expect there to be an influx of new software to help attorneys comply with the stricter IOLTA trust account rules.
It’s not all good news for lawyers. As legal counseling becomes more accessible with technology, lawyers are going to have to compete against non-lawyer competitors that provide similar services. Some states already allow non-lawyers to own legal services companies, meaning that they will effectively become law firms themselves.