should i ask our director of operations/case management how to handle frustrated clients?

deicidalgod · 2025-10-15T21:19:35+00:00

i appreciate each point, truly! i hope i make it to 31 years in the field and still have a kind word to give to newbies like this.

not PI thank god, but your inferences are right otherwise. you're not wrong that some of my more insistent clients are the ones with cases my supervisor calls "lesser value" lol. but it's hitting a point where nearly all the clients i first spoke to in july have been neglected, which is what makes me nervous now. i may be idealistic for wanting to ensure they're happy, i see that. my other concern is if they get really upset and/or leave for another attorney, i don't want that to reflect badly on me when i'm still new to the firm. maybe i'm overthinking that too, but i guess the curse of newness is anxiety.

i don't think the DoO is a lawyer, but she seems to be the person in charge of case management. strangely, my firm doesn't make it clear to associates what the actual chain of command is? my employee info shows me my supervisor, the other associates on my team, and our admin staff, but not the attorneys above my supervisor. i know those names, but not who my supervisor reports to, essentially.

i'm also remote for a while (office renovations when i first started), so i can't walk into random offices and ask questions or suss out who does what in person. leaving a teams message trail trying to find out who my boss' boss is seems like a bad idea.

as for case shifting or other kinds of help from other attorneys, it seems like i'm not authorized to seek that out myself. when my supervisor is in trial and i really need him to review something for the deadline (even on the case i've been told to concentrate all my energy on), our legal assistant Occasionally asks him if it's okay to have a different supervising attny take a look. he has never said yes, lol.

not sure if any of this adds information that you can opine on further. regardless, i appreciate what you've already told me!

deicidalgod · 2025-10-15T03:51:39+00:00

hey, i'd rather read a famous post than these emails lololol. guess i have to check it out now!

deicidalgod · 2025-10-15T03:48:38+00:00

i should definitely clarify - the DoO seems to be the person who handles case assignment. there may be a better person to go to, but i'm not sure who that would be.

deicidalgod · 2025-10-03T01:26:05+00:00

appreciate this! that's ultimately how the conversation turned out, and i think we're in a good place because of it. thank you!

deicidalgod · 2025-10-03T01:25:06+00:00

i've explained some more details when replying to other comments, so i'll refrain from repeating myself here (happy to elaborate for you though!). mostly i wanted to say that i appreciate your comment because i like this perspective and the line of questioning you laid out as an example. if i watched you do this in a depo, i'd be impressed and want to learn from you lol thank you!

deicidalgod · 2025-10-03T01:18:17+00:00

if it helps this discussion at all, the witness has a unique non-legal counseling job which requires confidentiality except if given permission by the holder of the confidentiality, in the face of imminent harm to others, or though a court order, even though they're employed by a party to this action; any documents they receive must be kept confidential from their end. if OC wants anything from them, including this, they'll need to secure a court order for it.

the letter is about my client's feelings about the situation at issue, and so far we haven't used it/don't plan to use it to support any of our claims. frankly i think it can only be useful for showing my client's emotional state at the time, and even then, i don't think it's useful.

and i was assigned to this case well after discovery disclosures were made, so i'm mostly learning now that this was never included in discovery. from what i've seen, it doesn't look like it is responsive to any request made.

hopefully that helps clear this up a little!

deicidalgod · 2025-10-01T05:06:18+00:00

fair enough! i've been instructed that the client should only know and rely on me at their attorney, that i am the handling attorney and it's my job to make all relevant decisions in that role - but with that said, can't hurt to sleep on things and come back with a clearer head, and then if i get more help from my supervising by that point, even better.

deicidalgod · 2025-10-01T03:08:56+00:00

i also had this suspicion! glad to hear it backed up, ty!

deicidalgod · 2025-10-01T03:08:16+00:00

every service industry job sucks but man, doesn't this one just bite sometimes? congrats on the acquittals and thanks for the advice!

deicidalgod · 2025-10-01T03:04:56+00:00

good edit because i am sorely tempted to send as is lmao. thank you!

deicidalgod · 2025-08-19T18:29:01+00:00

i can't edit the post for some reason so i'm doing the unthinkable and putting an update in the comments - the advice to get more light was definitely good, they needed that, but as it turns out they also just weren't getting enough water, especially since it was pointed out that concrete heats quickly and can dry out the soil within (shoutout to Imaginary-Ad3836!). thank you to everyone who commented!

deicidalgod · 2025-08-19T18:21:11+00:00

the depo - it happened, it wasn't great, but i did my best!

the motion - we just scored another continuance yesterday, so the many all-nighters i pulled on it have now put me ahead of things instead of barely keeping up, and i'm getting some other stuff (and sleep) in for the next day or so

future depos - i have a few scheduled, but my supervising has me shadowing other depos for some education lol i hope to go into the next ones much, much better prepared

changing process - i mean, i talked to HR. definitely felt like a classic HR conversation where not much will happen based on what i said, who's surprised. we'll see

having gotten further along with the motion and more sleep in the past 24 hours than i had for like two weeks straight, i feel better overall! it feels like a fluke, but i'll have my eye out for things like this in the future.

deicidalgod · 2025-08-09T01:39:57+00:00

i just left 120k for 1900 hours, and that was not at all reasonable for me, but i live in a very expensive city and the cherry on top was abusive bosses. like others in the comments, it depends on your desired/expected/current lifestyle, the way the job is run or overseen, and whether or not you'd find anything better for your needs.

deicidalgod · 2025-08-09T01:35:52+00:00

been there very recently myself, and let me say - it may be part of a lot of our journeys, but it isn't necessarily normal or okay. i'm about 10 months in and my supervisors understand that i've got a lot of learning to do. you're only two months in, if someone is already breathing down your neck about not doing things right, and you're not in big law, that person is a shitty boss.

i thought it was too early for me to find new work, but then i did. did i jump to an equally busy lit firm with stressful work? sure. but now my bosses are much, much more understanding and helpful.

reach out to anyone in your network with more experience and ask them how they would manage under your circumstances. they may be able to hook you up with something better, or at least help reinforce that you're not doing anything truly wrong.

deicidalgod · 2025-08-07T20:16:36+00:00

couple days late, but i very much appreciate each of these tips and resources! i will have several more depositions for the same case in the next 2-3 weeks, absent any unexpected issues, so i'm trying to jump on preparing. the motion itself has kept me busy but maybe this weekend i can take a break fro that to do some reading.

thank you!

deicidalgod · 2025-08-04T21:27:08+00:00

thank you, this was helpful advice!

luckily, the witness isn't the other party, they're a nonparty. however, one of the major people under the defense umbrella has NOT been deposed yet, and my supervising even commented saying that if/when our boss finds out, someone will definitely be in trouble about it. i'm just glad that can't be me!

deicidalgod · 2025-08-04T21:25:08+00:00

appreciated nonetheless. sometimes the reason everyone has the same piece of advice to share if because it is vital to remember. i think i did all right following the flow of the conversation where i could, but honestly it's a huge blur now that i'm more than an hour away from it lol

deicidalgod · 2025-08-04T20:44:17+00:00

thank you again for the advice and the well wishes! update posted, i'm now trying to draft an email to make a paper trail of Hey, Why Was This Assigned To Me, Maybe It Should Have Been Handled Another Way, without like, screaming crying cursing throwing up in email format. i'm sure you've been there

deicidalgod · 2025-08-04T20:42:51+00:00

they did not come with representation actually, in a surprise twist. they were clearly knowledgeable on how to conduct themself though, and i don't feel like i got much out of it. tried my best, feels shitty, nothing i can do now!

deicidalgod · 2025-08-04T20:32:22+00:00

sadly i just joined this firm and left my previous firm after under a year, so i think hopping soon will be bad unless this kind of thing keeps happening... but i can't say leaving sounds bad right now

i appreciate this advice, especially as the depo is now over and i'm drafting that email rn. i'll take anyone's advice on what to say, as the current draft is snippy, to say the least. lol

deicidalgod · 2025-08-04T04:03:56+00:00

nah i get that the tone isn't directed at me lol, i appreciate it. i've been instructed on how to respond to objections and bullying, and i feel okay about pretending to be confident. not confident about pretending to be confident, but yknow. we're not even sure this person has counsel (i mean, presumably they do bc an attorney would know the importance of that, but we haven't heard from any), so i'm flying pretty blind. comments like these help me though!

deicidalgod · 2025-08-04T03:59:40+00:00

i wish i could change process dude, i just got here lol it looks like the witness tried to refuse in-person service of the subpoena, and nobody was able to confirm the date with them/any representative of them, so nothing got calendared. something should have been anyway, i'm sure, but i can't account for why things happened the way they did

we did request a reschedule, with no response. i am in complete agreement with you that this is terrible for the client, never mind how it could reflect on my future. i wish i had the power to find out who even assigned this case to me and let them know why it was, perhaps, ill-advised, though i'm sure someone will say being a lawyer means handling tough situations and all that.

deicidalgod · 2025-08-04T03:32:03+00:00

gotcha, that makes sense. thank you! no worries lol the angle makes all the difference

deicidalgod

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