Again, these techniques do not translate easily into the legal field. Lawyers Must Memorialize Factual InformationĪs a practical matter, the mental health model simply does not work well in the legal field, in which lawyers must memorialize factual information and generally attend to “who, what, when, where, and how.” Those are the catchwords for journalists, of course, but journalism literature focuses almost exclusively on obtaining the story quickly, finding good quotations, and moving rapidly toward publication. Cunningham, What Do Clients Want from Their Lawyers, 2013 Journal of Dispute Resolution ), anything that interferes with that communication is negative. Because “effective communication” is a goal of good lawyering ( see Clark D. Not surprisingly, using a therapy model, almost any kind of note-taking is labeled negatively, variously described as distracting interfering with maintaining appropriate eye contact intimidating to a reticent client contributing to the client tailoring the information to suit the note-taker, because when the lawyer takes notes the client keeps talking, but when the lawyer stops taking notes, the client quits talking hijacking the pace of the interview to accommodate the lawyer’s needs over the needs of the client and so on through a litany of why taking notes interferes dramatically with client communication. Of course, therapists rarely take extensive notes because they focus less on facts or events and more on the effect of those events on the client. When examined critically, most of these writings rely on a mental health model of client interaction, emphasizing rapport building and communication skills in a “helping” context and referring to mental health counseling literature. Note-taking, if mentioned in practice skills materials at all, is a subset of “client interviewing and counseling.” Client interviewing treatises may mention note-taking but usually as only a minor part of the discussion about creating and fostering rapport with the client. In this article, this overall skill is referred to as “note-taking.”Īlthough a crucial part of lawyering, note-taking is not included in standard lists of lawyering skills.
The lawyer, unless endowed with the superpower of enhanced memory, must be able to create and maintain a record of each client meeting. Accurate, legible file notes play a vital role in ongoing client representation.
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