There are times when you’re really going to need a client. Those are dangerous times.

It’s in those moments that we make the biggest mistakes. It’s in those moments when we make decisions setting off events that nearly always result in trouble. Sometimes the trouble lasts long after the client is gone.

You’re worried about paying the rent, the payroll, or the student loan payment. Financial pressures make you feel alone and helpless. You’re sitting at your desk wondering how you’re going to pay the bills as you watch the clock tick and the deadline get closer and closer.

You’re willing the phone to ring, yet it sits quietly.

You keep wishing for a client and hoping for a fee. Then, finally, after what feels like an eternity, something happens, and a client shows up at your door.

The client tells you the story, and you’re thinking, “Coffee is for closers.” You’re sending all of your juju in the client’s direction and hoping to collect a fee. You’re amped up to get this client. In fact, there’s no way this client is leaving your office without signing a client agreement and running that credit card through the swiper. You’re taking no prisoners.

Don’t Let Financial Pressures Cloud Your Judgment

That’s the way the nightmare begins.

• You ignore the warning signs.
• You realize you’re about to be lawyer number three.
• You realize your prospective client has an anger disorder.
• You realize he has unrealistic expectations.
• You realize he can pay the initial deposit to your trust account but can’t possibly afford to continue to pay.
• You realize that he wants revenge rather than the solution to his problem.

All you see is the solution to your financial problem. You ignore the rest. You’re unable to slow yourself down and back away.

And then it starts. Now he owns you.

• He’s calling at all hours.
• He’s screaming and out of control.
• He’s demanding more and more of you and paying you less and less.
• He’s out of control and blaming you for everything that’s going wrong.
• He’s embarrassing you with the court.
• He’s threatening you with malpractice complaints.

The court won’t let you out. Thoughts of him are keeping you up at night.

Yep, you really needed a client. Those are dangerous times.

Self-promotional P.S. It’s not his fault: he’s an asshole. He’s doing what he does. Don’t blame him. The fault—and there is fault—falls squarely on you. I’m not fond of blaming the victim, but you should have been marketing your practice. You should have been making the phone ring. Taking the bad client was predictable. You should never have put yourself in that spot. Had you been marketing yourself, you never would have felt the overwhelming pressure that led you to make the bad call.

There are about four spots left at my Asheville, North Carolina Workshop. Put yourself in one of those seats, and you’ll never feel the pressure to take this guy as a client.