What to Do When Your Client Says You Are Not His Lawyer, but You Are

Wait, what?

Your client just said you are not his attorney, but actually you are. You are not dreaming; this is as real as it gets.

Clients, like life, will throw you a curve ball. So how are you going to take a swing at it?

"You're Fired!"

Maybe it's not right to look at President Trump for lessons in the law because he's not a lawyer. However, he has fired more attorneys as a reality TV star whose catch phrase is: "You're fired!"

Only this time, Trump has not actually fired his attorney general. He just said, "I don't have an attorney general."

For Jeff Sessions and any other lawyer, there is a rule for that kind of problem: withdraw from representation.

The key is to do it in a professional, not-on-television way. We're talking about the best way to fire a client.

Get Out Early

FindLaw writer Mark Wilson offered three tips for terminating a bad attorney-client relationship:

• Fire the client early
• Refer the client elsewhere
• Get permission from the court

There is another option, but we don't always see it coming. It's not to swing at the bad ones.

Related Resources:

• How to Deal with Difficult Clients (FindLaw's Practice Management)
• 3 Tips to Finding Your Work-Life Balance (FindLaw's Strategist)
• Has the Internet Changed the Reasonable Person Standard? (FindLaw's Strategist)