Lawyers and Clients: Critical Issues in Interviewing and Counseling

Going beyond the basics of interviewing and counseling, this book examines practical and theoretical challenges lawyers face with clients. Each chapter explores a critical issue in interviewing and counseling, such as developing connection across difference; dealing with atypical clients; using engaged client-centered counseling; bringing narrative theory to bear on lawyer-client encounters; seeking truth; pursuing moral dialogue; discussing law; and understanding how expertise affects practice. The book investigates these issues primarily through detailed analysis of multi-layered lawyer-client conversations, arising in a variety of contexts, which invite the reader to consider and critique the lawyer's choices. A key theme is engaged client-centered lawyering, which emphasizes the importance of client choice and the impact of lawyers on clients, and affirms lawyers ability, through attending to the evolving contexts of clients lives, issues of technique, ethics, and law, to achieve open-hearted and wise engagement with clients.