Legal Profession Commons^™

When Lawyer And Client Meet: Observations Of Interviewing And Counseling Behavior In The Consumer Bankruptcy Law Office, Gary Neustadter

Faculty Publications

What happens when lawyer and client first meet? How do they talk, how do they listen, what do they say, and what do they do? The answers to these questions are generated, and then lost, in thousands of law offices daily. There is thus a treasure of information, but it is mostly hidden from our view by legal barriers that protect privacy and confidentiality and by other barriers, economic, psychological, and logistical, that inhibit or preclude third party observation of lawyer-client contact. This Article reports an exploratory journey in search of that treasure, a journey into six law offices in …