He called. He left a voicemail. You can already tell that it’s going to be a long and painful conversation. He’s going to blame you for all the mistakes he’s made with his life. Nothing you’ve done is good enough. In fact, everything you’ve done has made it worse, not better. You want to scream at him. You want to remind him that he married her, not you. You couldn’t have screwed up his whole life, you are late on the scene. He, not you, was there when his life went down the tubes.

I have no idea how you’re going to make him settle down. It’s possible that you should help him find other counsel. But, that’s a discussion for another day.

Today you’re going to return his call. You’re going to try to help. You’re going to remain as his counsel.

The best advice I can give you is this – call him back now. Get it over with. Call as quickly as you can.

We tend to delay these conversations – that only makes it worse. The sooner you call the easier it will be. At a minimum, you’ll eliminate the discussion about why it took you so long to call back.

On top of that, you eliminate prolonging your own personal sense of dread. Get it over with.

The sooner, the better. Call him back now.