Ideas for the Initial Consultation

This past week I attended the IACP Forum in San Antonio, where I was able to attend a workshop put on by two Canadian attorneys, Beryl McNeill and Stephanie Dobson.  In their workshop they outlined a detailed client intake process for introducing clients to Collaborative concepts.

In the workshop I put on at the Forum I talked about the benefits of writing a script or outline for your consults that you could review prior to meeting with the potential client, to remind yourself of the key points and questions you want to bring up.  Beryl and Stephanie’s presentation added a whole new layer to that idea by providing more detail about what might go into your consultation script.

One element that I liked in particular is using the consultation time to get the potential client thinking in terms of interests right away, emphasizing positive objectives the client hopes to accomplish.  Rather than getting into a discussion of the law, they advise starting to refocus the client by asking questions about what is important to the client.  Specific suggestions for discussion points included:

• What are your hopes?  What are your fears?
• If I had a magic wand and we were a year into the future looking back at this, what would make you say “I did that well”
• As the client tells their story, elicit their interest with a follow up question to their statement
  • “So it is important to your that…”
  • “So you’re afraid that…”
  • “So your hope for the future is that…”
  • “So it is important to you that your children…”
• As an example, if the client says “I want 50/50 parenting”, you might get at the underlying interest by asking “So, if you had this, what would that give you that’s deeper and more important?”

To take this idea another step, you might also ask some questions about what the client thinks is most important to their spouse, i.e. what is the spouse going to need in order to get to yes.  Reframing the issues in this way helps to lay the groundwork for the type of thinking the client is going to need to be doing in the Collaborative process.

A second point that I liked was the suggestion that you wrap up your consultation by creating an action plan with the client.  This leaves the client with specific steps to take to move their matter forward.  I would imagine this might include steps for getting the attorney hired, steps both of you agree on to present the Collaborative option to the other party, for getting the other party connected with a Collaborative attorney, etc.  Clients at this point in their lives are facing a lot of uncertainty, and it is very helpful if you can show them exactly what they need to do to start feeling better.