Not with but with colleagues. Our founder "Could he make it up to you by referring you work in future?"

Me: I've already told him I'll never work with him or for any of his clients ever again.

Founder: So that'll be a no then.

Yes.  It doesn't count if you do it by email. 

Deeply unpleasant Saffer client, acted for him for a couple of years in various litigations. 

He started becoming very difficult, then stopped paying money on account, I chased him, he got v sweary on the phone, and in response I said  ‘Pieter, that’s it, fook off’ and put the phone down on him. Followed up same day with short letter ending retainer.

He was the sort of bloke who you just knew it would end in tears, and we made enough hay in the early years.

Wouldn’t take him on now though.

Some people respond better to being told to eff off than they do to kid gloves. 

One of the most satisfying feelings ever. And the one occasion that I really gave a “client” (are they if they don’t pay invoices?) a piece of my mind was when I was leaving my previous job. Somewhat protected by the fact that I was moving IH so I was confident that the firm would be more forgiving. My team (who had done most of the work that went unpaid) loved me for it. It wasn’t just the failure to pay fees. It was also their arrogance and stubbornness throughout. We negotiated a settlement that was 20% of the award that went on to be made against them but they hated the other side (ex-employee) and could not bring themselves to set their vengefulness aside and take the deal.

Don’t act for w**kers then. If you don’t have the choice, that’s your failure.

Not always that simple is it Cookie. W*nkers don’t walk into the first meeting and say “Hi - I’m a w*nker” so by the time you discover that they are, you’re already acting for them. And then there’s the fact that when you’re in PP - even as a Partner - you don’t get to decide who you will and will not act for based on your own personal assessment of whether they’re a w*nker. 

Anyone with any self respect can and does, but thanks for the millennial lecture. You people preach piety on all fronts and then bend over to take the worst sort of dollars. Utter hypocrisy.

“You people”? Millennial? I think you have a spreadsheet error tough guy

In lawyering - lots of clients in the early days of the middle East boom wanted low or no fees today on the basis that the relationship was developed (think if all the other deals we will do). These people also showed zero loyalty and shopped around like nobody.  I had zero tolerance to such khuntery 

I had someone who didn’t pay the final 40k bill of a 300k ish project. They loved the work and even vouched for me on partnership. He was a referral and the firm had done a lot with him. His rationale was that the market was down and the investment looked less good.  About two years later when I was a partner they needed to speak to me urgently about an element of the deal and I agreed to speak.  

At the end of the call I said ‘great we’ve got next steps agreed.  I just need you to settle that invoice in full and we’ll get on it’ he went batshit crazy at me and called the managing partner/ relationship partner - to both said - ‘find someone else then’ 

Another client called my bluff on payment. He assumed - as a lot of clients in the middle East seemed to, that the promise of value of future work was more valuable to me than actually getting paid for this work. He eventually said ‘Ok we will pay in full but we will never instruct you again.  Otherwise I want 50% off

I said - great - he’d assumed I’d cave.  

Others I just priced myself out of if they were awkward or awful. 

Yep, sounds familiar! I’d have done the same in the second scenario. Clients who don’t respect you and appreciate your expertise are better off being someone else’s clients.

What I always found harder was acting for w*nkers who paid our bills but who I didn’t like for some other reason. For example, acting on behalf of an investment banker who I was convinced had acted exactly as he was accused (bullying & harassment of colleagues) but   - unlike cookie - I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to refuse to act for a client. You don’t have to like them or agree with them on everything to do your job.

The frustration that a lot of clients have is not getting a clear timetable on deliverables and then they get frustrated with their outside counsel.  If you always agree timing and next steps then the instances of frustration will be fewer.

twots are more likely to  behave like twots  that’s when they are under pressure. It doesn’t excuse the behaviour but if you look at yourself as a handler you can neutralise a lot of it. 

Some clients behaved far worse with my team than with me and when this happened  I changed the interface so that this happened less - but ultimately I had a no tossers role in terms of clients 

G the instance that prompted this post was  someone who I have never met. From the email exchanges and brief conversations I would never have warmed to her face to face and as a result probably would never have tried to cultivate as a customer. She found me and each transaction has been soured by her patent dislikability. She pays her bills but has such an arsey attitude she deserved some back. 

Few for not paying bills 

Only one bad incident when a client grabbed a colleague 

I told him where to go 

Then he called the next day to apologise and thank me for not kicking his ass 

Never worked with him again 

I don’t think I’ve ever had to. 

Lots of needless to say, I had the last laugh here

Prodders - that’s the advantage of seniority/being the owner. If you spot the early warning signs of the person being an ar$e then you can just sidestep it. 
 

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