Since lawyers usually cannot handle all of the matters that cross their desks, attorney referrals are a huge part of the legal industry. Oftentimes, referrals are good for both attorneys involved — the referring attorney can maintain contact with other lawyers and ensure a client is looked after while the attorney receiving a referral gets work. However, sometimes lawyers have matters that are properly handled by a given lawyer for free or turned down entirely because they are too small, lack merit, or cannot be monetized. In such cases, lawyers can hurt other attorneys if they refer such matters rather than handle the clients themselves.
When I was just getting my law practice off the ground, I was open to all types of referrals. Some really helped, but at other times, lawyers simply offloaded their friends and relatives onto me when they did not feel like offering free legal advice to people they knew. For instance, one time someone referred their mother to me. She felt jilted by a service for which she’d paid a few thousand dollars. This prospective client wanted to pursue claims against the service provider for providing work that did not live up to expectations.
I very patiently told the person that it often did not make sense to engage a lawyer to pursue claims for a few thousand dollars. Even if all I did was write a demand letter or draft litigation papers, the amount of the fees could easily exceed the total value of the claim. The lawyer who referred his mother to me should have just written his mother a demand letter for free or taken some action on her behalf by himself. Instead, I needed to spend time explaining the mechanics of the claim and how it did not make sense to hire a lawyer even though I did not have a pre-existing relationship with this lawyer’s mother.
Another time, someone referred a matter to me — also worth a few thousand dollars — involving an area of the law with which only specialized lawyers are familiar. I again had to explain how it did not make sense to engage a lawyer for this small claim, and I had to do some research on this area of the law to make sure that I did not give this person the wrong advice. The lawyer who tried to refer this matter to me could have done the exact same amount of research, and he should have done it rather than me since he had a friendship with the prospective client.
Attorneys may think they can pawn off matters they should handle themselves without significant consequences, but such referrals can have a negative impact on a law practice. Many lawyers live and die by reviews they receive online. Accordingly, even if a lawyer refers a matter that cannot be monetized to another attorney, that attorney will likely need to do some level of work on the matter so they do not receive a bad review. In addition, the lawyer receiving the referral may need to conduct research on an issue and waste time that can be spent on other work.
All told, every lawyer is confronted by friends and family members who have small legal matters or questions that cannot really be monetized by other lawyers. In such instances, lawyers should usually not refer the matters to other attorneys. Rather, they should help their friend or relative themselves. Other attorneys usually cannot monetize such matters, and the one who already has a connection to such friends and relatives should spend the time needed to give these individuals legal advice.
Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothman.law.
The post Lawyers Shouldn’t Refer Some Matters To Other Attorneys appeared first on Above the Law.
Since lawyers usually cannot handle all of the matters that cross their desks, attorney referrals are a huge part of the legal industry. Oftentimes, referrals are good for both attorneys involved — the referring attorney can maintain contact with other lawyers and ensure a client is looked after while the attorney receiving a referral gets work. However, sometimes lawyers have matters that are properly handled by a given lawyer for free or turned down entirely because they are too small, lack merit, or cannot be monetized. In such cases, lawyers can hurt other attorneys if they refer such matters rather than handle the clients themselves.
When I was just getting my law practice off the ground, I was open to all types of referrals. Some really helped, but at other times, lawyers simply offloaded their friends and relatives onto me when they did not feel like offering free legal advice to people they knew. For instance, one time someone referred their mother to me. She felt jilted by a service for which she’d paid a few thousand dollars. This prospective client wanted to pursue claims against the service provider for providing work that did not live up to expectations.
I very patiently told the person that it often did not make sense to engage a lawyer to pursue claims for a few thousand dollars. Even if all I did was write a demand letter or draft litigation papers, the amount of the fees could easily exceed the total value of the claim. The lawyer who referred his mother to me should have just written his mother a demand letter for free or taken some action on her behalf by himself. Instead, I needed to spend time explaining the mechanics of the claim and how it did not make sense to hire a lawyer even though I did not have a pre-existing relationship with this lawyer’s mother.
Another time, someone referred a matter to me — also worth a few thousand dollars — involving an area of the law with which only specialized lawyers are familiar. I again had to explain how it did not make sense to engage a lawyer for this small claim, and I had to do some research on this area of the law to make sure that I did not give this person the wrong advice. The lawyer who tried to refer this matter to me could have done the exact same amount of research, and he should have done it rather than me since he had a friendship with the prospective client.
Attorneys may think they can pawn off matters they should handle themselves without significant consequences, but such referrals can have a negative impact on a law practice. Many lawyers live and die by reviews they receive online. Accordingly, even if a lawyer refers a matter that cannot be monetized to another attorney, that attorney will likely need to do some level of work on the matter so they do not receive a bad review. In addition, the lawyer receiving the referral may need to conduct research on an issue and waste time that can be spent on other work.
All told, every lawyer is confronted by friends and family members who have small legal matters or questions that cannot really be monetized by other lawyers. In such instances, lawyers should usually not refer the matters to other attorneys. Rather, they should help their friend or relative themselves. Other attorneys usually cannot monetize such matters, and the one who already has a connection to such friends and relatives should spend the time needed to give these individuals legal advice.
Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothman.law.
