Choosing an Attorney

If law school is so hard to get through... how come there are so many lawyers? - Calvin Trillin

Whenever the benefits or advisability of using an attorney are discussed, the advice is always to use a competent, knowledgeable, and experienced professional. This is code, meaning you should use an attorney that knows what he or she is doing. It wouldn't do much good otherwise, right? The trick, then, is to find a competent, knowledgeable, and experienced attorney to draft a will for you.

Professional ethics rules generally hold an attorney legally responsible for knowing the law when representing a client. However, this doesn't mean that they are necessarily experienced at handling particular cases.

The same professional ethics rules prohibit attorneys from stating that they are experts on a particular type of law (e.g., estate tax law.) They may be general practitioners or die-hard estate planning attorneys, which may or may not be evident from the way their practice is described in an ad.

So how do you find an attorney to meet your needs? You can easily find hundreds of them through:

• the phone book (a very dangerous option if you want to make sure you get the right person for your needs,)
• an attorney referral service (nearly every bar association has a listing of attorneys by specialty area,)
• by searching online to see who is appearing on the estate planning seminar circuit, or
• a recommendation from somebody you know (although you should consider whether this individual has the same estate planning needs as you do.)

  No matter how you select your potential attorney, you should always interview them to check their competency and your comfort level with them before making a final decision. As part of the process, you should ask the attorney the following basic questions:

  • What is the focus of your law practice?
  • How much of your law practice is devoted to estate planning?
  • How much of your estate planning practice involves small business owners?
  • How long have you been handling wills and other estate planning matters for clients?
  • What continuing education courses have you taken in this area? (Most states require continuing legal education for attorneys--the courses an attorney takes are good indicators of his or her area of expertise.)
  • Do you draft your own wills or do you use some type of pre-made wills?
  • Have you ever been sued by a client, reported by a client to your state's attorney licensing board, or subjected to disciplinary action by your state attorney licensing board? You can also find out this information by contacting the attorney licensing board for your state. Bear in mind, that even the best attorney can have a disgruntled client, so the fact that should concern you most is if he or she has ever been disciplined by the attorney registration board. Be very cautious in that case!

  Of course, you are free to ask the attorney any other questions you see fit (like fees charged.) The point is that if an attorney is unwilling or unable to answer your questions to your satisfaction, you are better off looking elsewhere. Before interviewing an attorney, make sure that your opportunity to ask questions us part of a free initial consultation.

  Bear in mind that the size of their phone book listing or the number of television ads they run are not really an appropriate basis on which to select your attorney. Don't make the mistake of assuming that there is a correlation between such advertising and an attorney's skills or competency. In fact, a great deal of money spent on marketing could mean that you are dealing with a "legal practice mill," in which very junior attorneys simply crank out standardized documents with little customization.

  Take the selection of your attorney seriously, and make sure you feel comfortable with the knowledge, experience and style of the person you choose for such an important role.