Looking after clients

Lawyers may be well-paid but they still have to do what their clients tell them. Few lawyers enjoy dealing with a grumpy client who wants to know exactly what their fees are being spent on, and why. And fewer still want to deal with the eternal and unaswerable question - how much is it all going to cost?

Barristers get to escape most of the day-to-day business of dealing with clients - and it is a business - but that doesn't make them immune to the problem. After all, they may not have to deal directly with the public much, but their clients are solicitors - so they have to be nice to them instead.

For the average working solicitor, dealing with daily demands of multiple clients and having to juggle all their priorities within an 8 hour day is one of the reasons why few lawyers work an 8 hour day. Except in the public sector of course - but that's another story.