u/feralparalegal

I had a nightmare last night that I opened up a super-important brief on the day it was to be filed, and Microsoft Word had arbitrarily changed all of my spaces into tabs. It also deleted all of my footnotes and changed some of them into inline citations. Being a nightmare, I had no backups saved.

Most of the nightmare was on hold with Microsoft 365 support while they asked me to complete their new foolproof multifactor authentication, with their newest feature, a DNA swab.

Woke up in a cold sweat. I need a vacation, guys.

For context, I am a 2L in a jx that allows law students to practice under attorney supervision and with client consent. I'm in a criminal defense program that works alongside the public defender (we get all our clients from them) since I intend on working for the PD.

Unlike the PD though, I have an itty-bitty caseload of 3 clients, so I figured that while I have the chance, I would pour as much love and care into each case that I can. I've been giving a quick courtesy call a few days before each court date. One of my clients absolutely loves this. They had trouble keeping track of court dates before they "hired" me, so it's been super helpful for them.

"What the hell," I thought to myself, "if it works, then it works!" Naively, I decided I would extend the option to my other clients. One declined, the second was indifferent, but the second client's first pretrial conference was pushed out so far that when it came time, I decided to call them anyway...and that was the call I had today. Mistake mistake mistake. Client was FURIOUS. Asked if I thought they were stupid, if I assumed they forgot about the date, demanded to have the whole case dismissed and expunged by the close of the pretrial conference, wanted my opinions on evidence and refused to take any plea agreement even before discussing pleas...

Suffice to say that I didn't have answers for them. Had to schedule the client for a meeting where my supervising atty will actually be present. I probably sound like a doe-eyed newbie saying so, but I do feel pretty bad because I didn't mean to offend my client. I just wanted to confirm with them the date, time, and courtroom number.

Based on the stories in this sub, as well as the PDs in my jx, I can safely assume that I will have no time to give "courtesy calls" to my clients in the future. But specifically, when it comes to clients who go on the defensive like this, what are your ways of handling it? Any tips for deescalating these kinds of calls?

I wanted to go into public defense because I love arguing against the government. But I don't like arguing with clients...I just hope that's not a dealbreaker for this career.

EDIT: Thank you all so much for the comments. After taking a bit to cool off and read through your advice, I realized that there is some more context for why I took this so personally. Before law school, I had a long series of super abusive minimum wage jobs where “the customer is always right” and my boss would literally scream across the store if we got a bad review. I know there are no performance metrics in public defense, but deep down, there’s a small part of me that fears losing my job (and my healthcare, shelter, and food) just because a “customer” is mad.

I think that’s part of the reason why I take a lot of comfort in this subreddit; just in being reminded that my future career doesn’t have to be that way. I want to grow my confidence in my own skills, both as an attorney and as a person. I don’t ever want to be afraid that one angry customer will cost me my livelihood. It sounds childish, but I really want to be as cool and unbothered as all of you fantastic folks! Thank you all for the advice. I really appreciate it. 💖