CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION (CLE)

ACADEMIC YEAR 2023/2024

CLIENT CENTEREDNESS
 Objective

• To enable the student appreciate the client centered model of

lawyering
• Improve students communication skills in the lawyering
process.
 The theory underlying
client-centeredness

 Its based on the need to protect clients

as consumers of legal services;
 Thus the client’s problem shall be
handled from the client’s point of
view.
 Outlay:

• Client Centeredness explained

• What Client Centeredness entails
• When is Client Centeredness relevant?
• The Advocate's role
• Goals of Client Centeredness
• Achieving Client Centeredness
• Benefits of Client Centeredness
• Technology & Client Centeredness
• Technological aids to Client Centeredness
• Conclusion
 Client Centeredness explained

 Client-centered lawyering is a model which offers lawyers

techniques that motivate client participation, adopted first in
the legal clinics.

 In earlier times, the clients used to delegate the work to the

lawyers and completely trust them with their cases. The clients
did not have active involvement in their cases then.
 Client Centeredness explained

 Further, it means putting your clients at the center of your

thinking. This goes beyond the legal deliverable you provide.

 Being client-centered means truly putting yourself in your

client’s shoes and looking at the experience of hiring a lawyer
and going through a legal matter from their point of view—and
thinking through how you can provide a good client
experience in a way that’s efficient for your practice
 Client Centeredness explained
 This approach requires commitment to looking at
problems from client’s perspectives, of seeking the diverse
nature of the problems and of making clients true partners
in the resolution of their problems.

 According to Hofstra Law Professor Monroe H.

Freedman, "
the paramount aspect of client-centered lawyering is
paying attention to what the client says, according respect
to the client's desires, and, in appropriate cases, advising
the client about the morality of particular courses of
conduct."
 What client centeredness
entails:

 Establishing rapport,
 Being responsive to clients’ concerns,
 Assessing credibility,
 Acquiring relevant facts, and
 Providing helpful information to clients in an empowering but
not demeaning fashion.
 The approach

• Paternalism versus autonomy

• The dictatorial expert versus benevolent counsellor
• Understand the problem from a client’s point of view;
• Involve the client in exploring a broad range of options and
potential solutions with maximum benefits to the client;
• Provide advise based on the client’s values
• Acknowledge the client’s feelings and their importance
• Convey a desire to help;
• Keep the client informed about concerns
 When is it relevant?

 Interviewing
 Counselling
 Offering Legal advice
 During the use of ADR mechanisms
 Legal Representation
When is it relevant?
 Interviewing: The client may help in building the context
of the problem during the interviewing process.

 When interviewing, a lawyer should be able to gather

information on all concerns of a client. The concerns are
both legal and non legal.

 When helping a client identify the possible solutions to

the problem, there is need to predict the legal and non
legal consequences of the problem.
When is it relevant?
 Counselling: Counselling theories, and especially the
school of person-centred counselling, tend to emphasise
client autonomy.
 For counsellors, the commitment to autonomy tends to
include a belief that each person has the capacity and
right to self-direction.
When is it relevant?
 Offering Legal Advise: the Legal and non legal
concerns
 The Legal aspects of a client’s problem are often
at the heart of a lawyer’s concern. The training
received at law school in most cases is geared
towards seeing a client’s case through court’s
eyes which biases lawyers.
 Lawyers fail to see the client’s non legal
concerns/consequences.
 CLIENT’S PROBLEM

NON-LEGAL LEGAL

• ECONOMIC
• SOCIAL
• PSYCHOLOGICAL
• MORAL AND RELIGIOUS

OUTCOME/SOLUTION
When is it relevant?
 All solutions to a client’s problem produce non
legal consequences.
 An example of divorce; the petition for divorce is
a legal solution and non legal consequences
include; costs of the petition, effect on the
children, time taken on the case, fear for public
proceedings, the heart break
Legal Concerns and non legal concerns
Legal Issues/Concerns
• A legal issue/concern is a question of law that is raised based
on the facts of a case.
• A factual issue, as the name suggests, is a question that arises
based on the circumstances and actually events that transpired
leading up to the case.
Legal Concerns and non legal concerns
 Non Legal Issues/Concerns: The non legal ramifications or
concerns of a client are typically economic, social,
psychological, moral, political and religious.
 Economic concerns/ consequences
The economic consequences include; fees, damages, time spent
on the case.
 Social concerns/ consequences
These include the effects on the client’s relationship with others.
 The Advocate’s role
1. Know key client-centered terms.
a. The client’s journey - refers to the path the client takes;
from first contact with you, to interest, engagement, giving
you instructions, to you working their case, and finally,
closing their case.

b. The customer experience; this amounts to a client’s overall

experience with your product, your brand, and everything to
do with your practice.

 An important distinction here, is that this refers to your

client’s point of view and how they perceive their experience
with you, which may differ from how you think of your
practice.
 The Advocate’s role: – Cont’d

2. Don’t innovate in a vacuum:

 Use established tools to create an excellent client experience.

3. Listen (Actively):
 Think of your clients first, and don’t make assumptions. Ask
about their experiences, and look for opportunities to improve.

4. Be deeply empathetic:
 Put your clients at the center of your thinking in all things;
 With the right tools, it’s possible to provide a better client
experience and make your own life easier as well.
 The Advocate’s role – Cont’d

5. Timeliness and affordability: Help your client resolve their

particular legal issue, in a timely and hopefully affordable
manner.

6. Trust: Building trust with your clients, which can help make it
easier to get the information you need.

7. Relationship: Build a good working relationship with your

clients.

8. Client satisfaction: Leave them satisfied and willing to refer

more clients to you once their case is closed/finalized
 Goals

1. Primacy to client decision-making:

 This entails reducing the role of lawyers’ in trivial matters and
creating opportunities for increased client participation. This
helps the client play an essential role in making thoughtful
decisions of their case, developing and owning the solutions.

 Even though lawyers unequivocally possess considerable

knowledge of the law and legal consequences, clients are in the
best position to understand how their lives will be affected by
legal outcomes.
 Goals – Cont’d

2. Good rapport with the client:

 The client-centered approach improves the understanding of
the clients’ experiences, emotions, and perspectives, which
enables in adducing additional material in building the case.

 This holistic method puts the client in the center of decision-

making. In prospect, it also ensures more likelihood of success,
and develops the personal relationship between the client and
lawyer.
 Goals – Cont’d

3. Prevents confusion and uncertainty:

 It gives prominence to client communication. Direct communication
with the client prevents confusion while dealing with legal matters.

 It helps in facilitating the information to transfer between the client

and the lawyer in a crystal clear way without any ambiguity. Besides,
the lawyer can understand the unstated feelings and vaguely expressed
emotions of the client only through clear communication.

 They can also elicit accurate timelines and information through

properly framed questions with the help of direct communication.

 Above all, the lawyers can provide adequately articulated advice by

being empathetic.
 Goals – Cont’d

4. Tackling Hostile Clients:

 Lawyers usually deal with a variety of clients - impatient,
angry, and emotionally driven. A client-centered approach to
lawyering takes special care of the clients’ concerns and places
importance on keeping them informed about the case.

 In response, it helps in reducing violent situations by giving

the clients the feeling of being understood by the lawyers.
Lawyers can also explain the matter and help the clients in
making informed decisions.
 Achieving client-centeredness

1. Put your clients at the center of your thinking:

 It’s important to innovate and make changes in your practice, but each
time you do, ask yourself, “what will this mean for my client?”

 Better yet, look at your existing processes, tools, and setups, and how
those impact the client experience. Do you send multiple forms to clients
when you could be sending a single form? Are your intake forms easy to
understand, and do they ask for only relevant information? How fast do
you respond to client requests?

 Wherever you see a gap, look for an opportunity to improve the

experience clients have with you.
 Achieving client-centeredness

2. Consider the entire client journey:

 It’s important to start considering your client’s experience right at
the start of their client journey, from when they first realize they
have a legal issue, through to when they inquire about your services
and book an initial consult, to when the final solution is reached at.

 It’s also worth considering what happens after a case is closed: Has
the client gotten a remedy? Is any further follow up required?

 From your client’s point of view, this is all one continuous

experience, and some additional thoughtfulness towards making
each stage run smoothly makes the process user friendly.
 Achieving client-centeredness
3. Give your clients what they’re looking for:

 Clients don’t just come to you to get a legal issue resolved; they come
to you for peace of mind, reassurance, emotional support, advice, and
more.

 Lean into this; finding better ways to address these client needs will
show your client you care and help them rest easier, but the right
approach will also help you handle these realities more efficiently,
meaning you’re able to balance yourself while building trust and feeling
you’re serving your clients so that you can provide great representation.

 Plus, the more empathetic you can be, the better positioned you’ll be to
handle your own stress, support your client emotionally, and deliver the
best services.
 Achieving client-centeredness

4. Prioritize Communication
 From the first moment you make contact with a prospective
client until you resolve their matter, make communication a
priority.

 Clients need to feel absolutely confident that they can come to

you with their concerns and receive a thoughtful response.
 Achieving client-centeredness

5. Don’t make assumptions:

 Creating a better client journey and overall client experience
means truly seeing things from your client’s perspective,
gaining insights into their experience straight from the source.

 Stay engaged with your client, and look for opportunities to

get insight into their experience.
 Achieving client-centeredness

6. Always improve/innovate:
 There’s always room to get better. Whether it’s practicing law,
building a business, or both, proactively focusing on growth
will help you get to the top of your game.

 A great way to do this is to elicit client feedback. By figuring

out what your clients liked and disliked about their experience
working with you, you can identify strengths to emphasize and
weaknesses to improve.
 Benefits

 Mutual trust: it creates an interactive dynamic space that

facilitates developing mutual trust and respect between the
client and the lawyer.

 Client participation: When a client senses that they’re

working with a lawyer that cares about them, they’re likely to
be more forthcoming with information that’ll help you build
your case. This begins with being client-oriented.
 Benefits

 Client satisfaction: In this modern era of alternative legal

services offered through Artificial Intelligence, clients expect
instant response and action from the lawyers.

 Additionally, it facilitates the disclosure of accurate information

and timelines of the case.

 The client’s importance in decision making is respected and

valued.

 It also takes into consideration the emotions and perspectives in

related to the matter.
 Threats to client-
centeredness

 Predicament of outcome of the case;

 Quantification of costs at the early
stay;
 Financially dominated strategies.
 Technology and client
centeredness
The use of technology is inevitable in this fast-paced modern era of
globalization. Manual workflows are often error-prone and time-
consuming.

How Does Technology aid a client centered approach?

 Employing automated workflows improve efficiency, quality of work,

and reduces error.

 Attracts clients and makes your practice more profitable by keeping the
overhead costs less.
 Technology and client
centeredness

 Furthermore, legal tech facilitates the lawyer to manage the

plethora of work in an organized way.

 Automation cuts out time-intensive and repetitive tasks, which

improves your productivity and cash flow considerably.

 Ultimately, technology helps in building a beautiful and long-

lasting relationship between the client and the lawyer.
 Technological aids to client
centeredness:

Client portals:
 The client portal in a legal setting, such as the client desk (Client
Relations Management) bridges the gap between the lawyer and their
clients by improving transparency and trust, leading to a happier and
more efficient/borderless work environment.

 Lawyers can create tasks and events and send them to the clients and
send reminders to get legal documents returned.

 The client portal maintains confidentiality and helps in sending

secured messages and keeps them informed about the legal matter.
Such client-portals are one way of transforming your practice into a
client-centered one.
 Technological aids to client
centeredness:

Virtual Receptionist services:

 Responsiveness is an integral aspect of a practice that gives
prominence to its clients, but a lawyer may not always be in a
position to respond to clients.

 Therefore it is vital to have a virtual receptionist who is

available all day to address the concerns of the clients. Virtual
receptionists can take messages, schedule appointments,
transfer calls, and even answer basic questions from clients and
helps in improving client satisfaction.
 Technological aids to client
centeredness:

Live chat specialists:

 Live chat specialists can be employed for people who visit the
firm’s website. They can engage in real-time conversations
through an online chat box.

 It will eventually help in capturing leads and later convert

them into clients. Delivering instantaneous communication can
be achieved through live chat specialist.

 Through the use of Artificial Intelligence, live chats can also

be automated to some extent.
 Technological aids to client
centeredness:

Online payments:
 Providing clients with flexible payment options online is another
way of ensuring client satisfaction. It is effortless, and reduces
the burden of traveling to the office and waiting for the lawyer.

 Clients can pay electronically as and when needed by the lawyer

for filing the cases, registering documents, stamp duties, court
fees, and other things.

 There are also features such as time tracking, to track the time
spent on each case to track billable hours.
 Conclusion:

• To sum up, client-centered lawyering, combined with legal

tech, results in an efficient and organized practice with happier
clients. Embracing technology also aids in the reduction of
internal clashes by distributing the workload efficiently.

• Positive relationships with the clients aid in the growth of your

practice and also drives more business in this ever competitive
legal world.