Law360 Canada (July 23, 2026, 2:12 PM EDT) --

Murray Gottheil

Eleanor practised family law. She was good at the technical stuff, but not so good at dealing with clients. Especially vulnerable clients, such as people getting divorced.

Eleanor frequently reminded her clients that “this is family law,” which to her meant that the rules applicable in other areas of practice did not apply. To some extent, I understand Eleanor’s thinking. Family law clients are often unhappy. Emotions are raw. Money is frequently in short supply, and change makes them anxious.

Eleanor practised under a prime directive, being that she always had to guard against the risk that her unhappy and stressed-out clients might turn on her. She feared that a client might sue her or challenge her accounts.

Eleanor made sure that every document prepared for submission to the other side or to the court was “perfect,” which to Eleanor meant that it was very long and detailed, and comprehensively addressed every possible issue. The fact that overworked judges did not want to read such lengthy submissions did not matter much to Eleanor. No one was ever going to be able to claim she had overlooked something.

Eleanor frequently wrote very long reporting letters to her clients, confirming everything she had already told them, and on occasion including things she had not actually told them but wished she had. Of course, all this attention to detail required that Eleanor spend a great deal of time, and she billed all that time to her over-stressed and underfunded clients.

I heard this story from a client who Eleanor billed well over six figures prior to discovery or settlement negotiations, despite there having been minimal court proceedings and very little money to fight over. By doing so, she exhausted the client’s resources. Of course, at that point Eleanor dropped the client like a lead balloon. The client successfully had Eleanor’s legal bills assessed.

Eleanor’s greatest fear had come true. A client had turned on her. I imagine she felt that her cautious approach was vindicated, and she continued to practise with a renewed sense of passion about protecting herself from her clients.

I would wager that to this day Eleanor has never figured out that she was the author of her own misfortune. The client turned on her because, over and over, Eleanor had proven to the client that Eleanor’s principal concern was about protecting Eleanor, not the client.

There is a lesson for lawyers in this tale. Yes, family law is different than other areas of practice, but the fundamentals of the lawyer-client relationship are the same. Successful lawyers put their clients first, and in doing so build trust and respect. All lawyers must take reasonable steps to protect themselves, but when a client senses that the lawyer is more concerned with protecting themselves than protecting the client, the relationship is doomed and bad things will happen.

Murray Gottheil is a retired lawyer living in the country, happy and driving a pickup truck. Reach him at murray@murraygottheil.com and see what he is up to at www.lawanddisorderinc.com.

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