My managing partner told me I lack "client instincts." I have no idea what that means. I win motions. I hit deadlines. My briefs are tight. What exactly am I missing?
— Rattled in Richmond
It means you are treating the practice of law as an intellectual exercise, and your clients are experiencing it as a financial and emotional crisis. Those are two very different things, and your managing partner is trying to tell you that you are fluent in only one of them.
Winning motions is table stakes. Hitting deadlines is expected. Tight briefs are the minimum. None of those things make a client feel heard, informed, or confident that their attorney actually understands what is at stake for them personally. "Client instincts" is shorthand for knowing when to call before they have to ask, how to translate a complicated procedural posture into plain language, and — critically — how to read the room on settlement. There is a moment in almost every negotiation where pushing further will cost your client more than they gain. Attorneys without client instincts miss that moment every time, and the client pays for it.
Start listening to what they don't say. The client who goes quiet after a bad ruling isn't indifferent — they're scared. The client who keeps asking the same question isn't annoying — they didn't feel answered the first time. If you can learn to hear those signals, your managing partner will never have that conversation with you again.