Lawyer’s Client Letter Examples
Have you improved your Lawyer-Client relationship yet?
Effective communication can be crucial for enhancing and further building your relationships with your clients, especially when your work focuses on providing services for them.
Unrelated to the field, good communication is a powerful and valuable skill; most of the time, it is even required in your job applications.
And as for law practitioners, you will need it to write emails, attend meetings, call your clients, and write proper letters.
However, as we have said before, this is one of those things that law school does not teach you about. Even most lawyers do not give it much thought, thinking that effective communication skills are a given to them.
On the contrary, we are talking about something that needs awareness. It is not a skill that comes naturally; you need to learn to improve it.
A huge part of a lawyer’s working days is spent communicating, though you may not notice it. When working for a law firm, you cannot afford to make a bad impression with your poor communication skills.
What do we mean by this? Well, you need to convey a message effectively when addressing your clients, particularly by making sure that your recipient understands both the intention and purpose of your message.
This is fundamental when you need to write a client letter.
The Importance of Being Good Communicators
As we have expressed, effective communication saves time and money for you and your clients and improves your relationship with them.
By communicating properly, you lower the risk of misunderstandings, whether it is within your practice, with your clients, or with your colleagues, according to the International Bar Association.
As they put it, misunderstandings in this field can lead to allegations of malpractice. Those can be costly, and sometimes very expensive and difficult to solve.
Of course, this is something that you need to avoid, which can be achieved by effective communication. Thus you ensure that everyone is aware of what is expected of them and what actions they need to take.
So do not underestimate the importance of trust with your clients. Remember that a satisfied client leads to better referrals and reviews, which in turn leads to a better reputation. This will make you stand out among the competition and help your business thrive.
Plus, a happy client would also be more likely to repeat business and hire your law firm again.
According to the International Bar Association, lawyers should consider the following aspects:
- Communicate clearly and often: Make sure that what you are communicating is easy to understand; your clients should know what is going on with their case.
- Set expectations from the start: To avoid any possible disappointments.
- Invest in developing your interpersonal skills: For any job, empathy is always a plus. Remember that your clients are, most likely, going through a high-stress process, so catering to their emotional needs as well as their legal needs can make a difference.
For the same reason, you should consider training to understand better how to deal with your clients. Spending some money in training, whether for your business growth or your interpersonal skills, is always a good investment. - Listen: This may sound like a given, but sometimes your clients will need you to listen. We are not talking about merely hearing them, but to listen to them. Understand them. Do not jump in and share your thoughts before you have truly understood their problems. This way, you will make them feel that they are being truly heard.
- Know when to automate communications (and when not to): We are living in a digital era where you can automate your most tedious processes and make your job easier. However, when it comes to communication, you should be thoughtful and careful when employing it. Learn to use digital assistance properly; for example, it is okay for transactional communications but not for personal or specific matters that your clients choose to confide in you.
- Know which channels to use: Depending on your area of practice and the types of cases you handle, you will need to use different communication channels, which may be more or less appropriate depending on the situation. Take a moment to think about whether it is best to deliver news, answer questions, or provide an update via phone, email, letter, text, or another medium.
This leads us to talk about drafting letters for your clients, specifically engagement letters. We also aim to provide a lawyer’s client letter example that demonstrates the key elements of a successful communication strategy.
What is an Engagement Letter?
As Clio explains, when a company goes into business with a client, an engagement letter puts the parameters of the relationship into writing. This way you can give clients clear boundaries of what they can expect, protecting your law firm from any misunderstandings and subsequent complaints or allegations from your customers.
In simple words, an engagement letter is a written agreement between you (a lawyer or law firm) and a client that outlines the new business relationship. In this document, you are tasked with detailing key parameters to set clear expectations for all parties, eradicating any possible problematic outcome.
These key parameters are:
- Engagement details
- Staffing details
- Scope of services
- Changes to scope of services
- Payment terms and fee structure
- Communication details
- Dates, service terms, and period of engagement
- Conflict disclosure
- Responsibilities
- Terms and conditions
- Disputes
- Document and file retention policies
- Signature and date lines
Eforms provides some examples:
Here you can find another example; this time the letter is a lot more detailed and even offers you some insight on what to add to make things clearer between your law firm and your client.
Another sample, provided by Yumpu:
Or a template that eSign offers:
Just make sure that you customize them accordingly!
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