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52 Emory L.J. 1065 (2003)
What Do Clients Want - What Do Lawyers Do

handle is hein.journals/emlj52 and id is 1077 raw text is: FUNDAMENTALS WHAT DO CLIENTS WANT? WHAT DO LAWYERS DO? Lynn Mather* INTRODUCTION A serious discussion of what do clients want? requires an understanding of the particular situation clients find themselves in when meeting with their attorneys. Consideration of emotional and financial stress, the stakes and complexity of the conflict, relations between opposing parties, a client's view of law and her lawyer, and differences between ordinary language and the language of the law are among the many factors that shape the ability of clients to articulate exactly what they want from their lawyers. Indeed, some clients do not know what they want and rely instead on their lawyers to tell them what they should do. Clients may also change their goals during the course of legal representation. Constructing client goals is a social process throughout which lawyers influence the defining of issues, the framing of the case, the formulating of alternatives, as well as many other decisions potentially affecting the outcome. To what extent should the lawyer control the client? Should she exercise independent, objective judgment about the case and attempt to persuade the client of her view, or should she simply seek to implement the client's expressed position, so long as it is within the bounds of the law? The question, more or less, is which role appropriately defines professional conduct for lawyers? Many scholars advocate an independent role,' as evidenced by the Professor of Law and Political Science and Director of the Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy, University at Buffalo. Ph.D., University of California at Irvine; B.A., UCLA. I wish to thank participants in the University at Buffalo Law Faculty Workshop for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this Article. 1 See, e.g., ANTHONY T. KRONMAN, THE LOST LAWYER (1993); Robert Gordon, The Independence of Lawyers, 68 B.U. L. REV. 1 (1988); William H. Simon, Visions of Practice in Legal Thought, 36 STAN. L. REv. 469 (1984); Fred C. Zacharias, Reconciling Professionalism and Client Interests, 36 WM. & MARY L. REV. 1303 (1995).

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