Ensuring legal Clients Share Your Understanding of the Terms of Engagement
AvvyPro’s Professional Objective #9 for lawyers states: “Ensure that clients share your understanding of the scope of the retainer and the terms of engagement.“
Objectives are a desired outcome, or what needs to be achieved. And every good professional objective for lawyers also has supporting Best Practices, which fill in the how.
Here are two of the best practices found on AvvyPro to help achieve Objective #9:
- Best Practice 9(b) – Set out the scope of the retainer, including the steps that you will take in your retainer agreements.
- Best Practice 9(f) – Provide clients regular opportunities to ask questions and provide feedback on aspects of the retainer.
Learning resources support better understanding and implementation of best practices. Here are two resources found on AvvyPro that can help lawyers think about engagement letters and managing expectations:
Sample Engagement Letters and Fee Agreements
How to Manage Client Expectations in a Consumer-Driven Market
How would you rate your practice’s overall achievement of Objective #9? If you’d like to see more supporting best practices and resources for this objective, and others, check out section 1 of the professional self-assessment for lawyers at the link below (free registration).
