Let Me Tell You What I Need

       My puppy girl is not really a puppy as most would define it.  She's almost 14 years old.  That's kind of elderly for the canine species.   Like the elderly, she has some arthritis, a bit of stiffness in her joints.  Some days, going up stairs is not her favorite thing.  Lots of people would be telling her to slow down. They'd be taking her on shorter walks.  They'd be telling her what to do.  I don't do that.  My girl knows herself.  She knows the length of all of her regular walks, and she tells me which one she feels like taking.  Some days, the walk is ridiculously short, and on others, like today, they're a mile or more. I let her call the shots, because she's the best judge of how she's feeling.   Not every canine is like my puppy girl, to be sure, but when you have one like her, you listen to what she tells you.
       As I've said before, clients can be like my puppies.  Some clients are extremely emotional.  They are so flooded with emotion that they can't think clearly.  They have little insight into what they need and can tolerate.  They can't help their attorney advocate for them.  They are also so overwhelmed that they don't trust that they know what makes their spouse tick.  They can't help us, and we have to tell them what do and when to do it.  We have to decide what is good for them because they can't.  Others are just like my puppy girl.  They know what they need and how to get it.  They know how their spouse thinks and what their spouse wants.  They need their attorney's help to get their desired result, but they partner with them instead of letting them call all the shots.  Neither client is either good or bad; they're just different.  The important thing for those of us here in the Trenches is knowing what kind of client we have.  Treating either one like the other would be disastrous, kind of like telling my puppy girl  to take one walking route when she wants another.  Yet, there are attorneys who don't understand these different types of clients.  I know.  I had one.  I fired them.  Dogs and their owners.  Here in the Trenches.