The Curse of Knowledge
Lawyers know an incredible amount about their chosen speciality. And they are usually hungry to know more. This knowledge is both their biggest strength and their biggest weakness.
The strength of knowledge is evident when the lawyer is engaged on a client matter - the knowledge combined with experience enables the lawyer to get the client from A to B in the best way possible.
The weakness of the knowledge base is that it is impossible for anyone to forget what they already know, so far too often the lawyer assumes a base level of knowledge in the client which he or she doesn’t have.
Meanwhile, at the same time, the client doesn’t know what he or she doesn’t know, and can hence not offer up relevant information, or understand the background to the lawyers’ enquiries. This imbalance has become more prevalent in the internet age, with the rise of the “instant expert” - clients who have read 2 internet articles and think that they have mastered the topic. These people genuinely believe that all they need is a light steer to accomplish the legal task themsleves. A dangerous precedent.
The challenge, therefore, is to treat your client as a well-educated yet ill-informed individual. This means that you explain why what you do matters to him/her, the costs of getting it wrong, and what to do to ensure she/he gets it right. The trick is to do this without appearing patronising or overly technical.
You can often see a very stark illustration of getting it wrong when you read an article penned by a lawyer for a trade magazine. The article often builds from a non-existent client knowledge base, adds information which no reader is asking for, and finishes without explaining what the potential client should do next.
Remember that a lawyer’s knowledge is rare, and what you consider common knowledge isn’t.