4 minute read
How to Gain Respect from Your Clients
By Ritu Goswamy, Esq. <ritu@newbillablehour.com>
While most of your immigration clients are a pleasure to work with – they are responsive, available, prioritize their case, and pay your bills promptly – there are those clients on your caseload that may be challenging to work with. Even if it is just a few clients, they somehow take more time and energy. Over time, it can feel like these clients do not respect you and the extra care and effort you are putting into their case. You actually may care more about their case than they do. After a while, you may be investing more time, money, and resources than the client is! When it gets to this point, we feel stuck. We vent to our colleagues, and maybe even take it out on other people, including our own family, staff and clients.
It feels like there is no way out. Withdrawing from a case is often not an option and may require more work than just finishing the case. Truth is, you actually want to finish the case. The client, no matter how he treats you, deserves this legal benefit. Well, it is possible to turn this around and be respected by all your clients, especially the challenging ones. And it is easier than you think.
Many of us who have chosen immigration law have a deep soul connection with the work. We may be immigrants ourselves or have family members who are. We may have been exposed to different cultures and countries and understand the inequities in systems. We may just see that immigration is the civil rights issue of our time and we want to be part of the movement. This connection to our work is admirable, and can also leave some blind spots.
When we care so much about our work, clients, and cases, we tend to lose ourselves in our work. We forget who we are and end up immersing ourselves in something outside of us. This can be thrilling for a while, but leads to stress, burnout, illness, and feelings of lack of respect from others. When we lose ourselves, we are actually losing respect for ourselves. We forget to respect our time and energy. We become too flexible and let others manage us instead of managing ourselves. We go out of our way and give more in relationships than we are receiving. This can feel good temporarily, but is not sustainable in the long term.
Boundaries are often thought of harsh constructs that lawyers create to keep distance from clients. It is common for professionals to avoid getting close to their clients. It causes them to lack a supportive “bed-side
manner” and to maintain a transactional relationship. But as an immigration professional, you want to be present with your clients. You want to be the one they can finally trust. You know that the attorney-client relationship is key both to your success and to your job satisfaction. So how can you continue to be present with your clients, while respecting yourself?
Creating and maintaining boundaries is not what you think it is. Boundaries are meant to create connection, not separation. You know those people in your life that respect you? They likely have decent boundaries and know where they are responsible for themselves and what to expect and not expect from you. In turn, they respect themselves and those around them. Don’t change who you are. Stay passionate, lively and generous. However, it is time to do some introspection about your part in creating imbalance in your life.
Through self-awareness skills and tools, you can hone your ability to notice yourself. Notice when you give away your power. Notice when you give away your time by scheduling clients on their schedule instead of yours. Notice when you over-deliver, when the client under-delivers. By observing your part of the equation, you can make small shifts in your investment so that you truly respect yourself. When you respect yourself, you will command the respect from others you deserve. The clients will be supported in stepping into their own power. Those clients who don’t want to rise, will fall away. And we must ethically manage that result as well.
In the end, you can have a thriving immigration law practice with clients who respect you. The shift that needs to be made is that you learn how to respect yourself and set healthy boundaries. When you genuinely respect yourself, you won’t feel disrespected and will have the energy to make the decisions necessary for your clients and their cases.
About the Author
Ritu Goswamy, Esq., is an immigration lawyer and productivity strategist for lawyers. She is the bestselling author of The New Billable Hour: Bill More Hours, Be More Productive, and Still Have Work-Life Balance and The Holistic Lawyer: Use Your Whole Brain to Work Smarter Not Harder. Ritu is the creator of the New Billable Hour ® system, which helps lawyers increase their productivity by billing themselves first. She teaches this system directly to lawyers in a way that is engaging, fun, and practical. Ritu hosts “The New Billable Hour Podcast” available where you like to listen and on YouTube. She consults with lawyers individually and in groups and is an active speaker and trainer in the areas of lawyer productivity, competence, and mindfulness. For a free copy of her first book and other resources, visit: www.ritugoswamy.com. Click on the Image to Catch Catch the Free CLE with Ritu Goswamy, Esq.
