This AmLaw Daily piece about a Dish television executive who
both cried at the courthouse and was mean to an opposing counsel’s elderly
father serves as a good reminder that what’s day-to-day work for us as lawyers
or paralegals is life-upending for some clients, even if they’re just getting
help with a dispute over something like access to TV channels. (Sara Randazzo,
Dish Network Executive Apologizes for Emotional Outburst Aimed at Gibson Dunn
Lawyer’s Father, AmLaw Daily, Oct. 22, 2012.) Certainly, litigators might
mention the stresses of going through a trial to clients, but lawyers should
also be prepared to aid a client who is having a meltdown.
Soothing someone who
is angry, seething, crying, ranting, or all of these within the confines of a
courtroom is no doubt a challenge. What would you do? Are you prepared to have
to treat an out-of-control client as you would your having-a-tantrum
two-year-old? If only just giving out a lollipop would be guaranteed to work in
this context. If minor measures—a whisper, a pat on the back, a scribbled note
suggesting the client ratchet down the emotionalism a bit—aren’t successful,
will you be prepared to hiss, You are
ruining your case. Shut up and save it for later, in the ear of a client on
the verge of a breakdown?
If you cannot save your client from himself, be prepared for
some crisis management afterward.
See also:
Claire Atkinson, Dish exec mea culpa expected, N.Y. Post,
Oct. 18, 2012.
Hint of settlement in Dish, AMC standoff, Reuters, Oct. 18,
2012.
“Proud of Your Son?” Dish Executive Shoves 83-Year-Old Father of an Opposing Counsel in the Back, JD Journal, Oct. 23, 2012.
—Lori Tripoli
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