If you’ve been practicing law for any amount of time, you’ve undoubtedly run into a client that made your life miserable. Someone who required a disproportionate amount of your time and attention. Constantly calling and emailing you. Expecting immediate replies and getting upset when they don’t get them. Never satisfied with the work you do for them and always asking for more. You know them as the Demanding Client.

We’ve all had them. But did you know that you can actually train a client to be MORE demanding? That your most recent demanding client might have been your own fault?

In this episode I talk about the dreaded Demanding Client. You can often tell if a potential client is going to be a demanding one during your intake process by listening for red flags that come up in your conversation with them. Someone who controls the direction of the initial consultation with you? Probably going to be a demanding client. Your goal, then, should be to weed these people out before they ever become clients.

But not all clients are predisposed to be demanding. You can actually train your “normal” clients that it is OK to be demanding. If you don’t maintain your boundaries, a client will keep pushing to see just how far you are willing to go. Just like my kindergarten daughter is constantly testing the boundaries of what we will let her do.

Takeaway: a demanding client only has as much as power as you allow them to have.