Just drifting through.

We do not finish all the cases we start.  Sometimes the firm and the client parts company.  Sometimes our strategies no longer appeal to the client.  Sometimes the client cannot follow the firm's advice.  Sometimes the client has other issues.

I once represented a client with attachment issues.  He didn't care much who he was sleeping with.  He was not loyal or connected to any particular woman.  He thought his kids ought to live with him but he gave them no good reason to and wasn't particularly concerned if they didn't, and they didn't.

I learned that those attachment issues extended to every other facet of his life, including his ability to follow through on our advice when the going got rough.  When the going got rough, he just got going.

Good bye.  He wasn't that invested in the first place.

He was kind of the accidental tourist of the divorce world.  He spent the next several months bouncing from pillar to post and, without rudder, without plan, without cohesive strategy that he could stay committed to, I understand that he got battered something awful.  Opposing Counsel was pretty good to begin with.  This now former client made Opposing Counsel's job that much easier.

As best I could tell, he wound up disappearing.  He paid his child support somewhat timely, but he wandered off to the far corners of the world, kicking up the dust in some other lonesome hovel. 

Sometimes I remember him, like now.  I think of him blowing from place to place, unattached like a dust mite. 

I'm really rooted to place.  I haven't moved more than 12 miles from the place I grew up.  So I really can't fathom having no attachments, no strings, no ties that bind the heart.  That is my antithesis.

Sometimes we don't finish the cases we started.  Far more often than not, we do.  Course corrections, when necessary, can be a good thing. 

But to say farewell to a client who can't commit, who can't follow through, whose shiftlessness rules his life, to this day remains unsettling. 

Michael Manely

The folks I work with.

I wanted to write tonight about the people in my firm. 

The people I get to work with are excellent people.  Everyday they labor for hours over our clients' trials and tribulations, sorting through the volumes of information, sifting down to the information we need to make strong cases, to accomplish justice.

The people I get to work with are compassionate.  They care deeply about our clients.  We rise and fall with our clients.  We are invested in their successes.  We are there to work through the trials and tribulations. We are a part of the community cheering their childrens' triumphs.

The people I get to work with are pros.  They know their stuff.  They can dig in, toe to toe with anybody, and ferret out the right information leading to the right result.  They are legal eagles, par excellence.

So, tonight I wanted to send a shout out to Stephanie, Jeremy, Elizabeth, Nora, Alyssa, Robyn, Gale, Loven, Jessica, Bill and last, but definitely not least, Lucy.  I wanted to take a moment in time to acknowledge their hard work, their compassion, their commitment to our clients.

And my thanks would be far from complete without expressing the greatest of appreciation for my wife, our business manager and future managing partner (once she finishes law school at Georgia State) Shelia, without whom, I think none of this would be possible.

Thank you all.  It is one of life's greatest privileges to work with such an excellent group of talented people.

Michael Manely

Different clients, different needs.

Tonight's Blog entry comes from Elizabeth Marum, Associate Attorney with The Manely Firm, P.C.
http://www.allfamilylaw.com/CM/Custom/Attorneys.asp



The Family Law attorney is part advisor, part counselor and part bodyguard.  There is no question that divorces are difficult. Even the seemingly amicable uncontested divorces are bound to cause stresses, emotional anguish and financial hardship on all the parties involved.  No matter which way you look at it, whether you are getting freedom from a situation you wanted out of or whether you feel you are being abandoned; in the end, you have lost someone that played a significant role in your life.  It is even more difficult when children are involved and will suffer the fallout.

With each case, there comes a different client with different needs, different styles and different expectations.  It is our job to learn how to work with each person that walks through the “Family Law Firm” door because no two are alike.

There are those clients who decide they want a specific result and place the whole “baby” in their attorney’s hands.   These clients are responsive and interactive in the process, but may have difficulty when it comes time to make a decision.  Overwhelmed in the process and stresses, they turn to their attorney asking the attorney to do “whatever you think is best.”  In this case, we attorneys must remind our clients that this is their life, their world and their decision.  We can advise the client of the different paths they can take and try to predict the outcome, but ultimately it is the client’s decision and the client’s decisions only.  We cannot make a choice for them.

Then there are those who want to control all the tiny, little details of their case.  While we encourage clients to take an active role in such a pivotal change in their life, there is a reason they have hired an attorney.  This is when the attorney must remind the client that we are here not only to advise of legal rights, but to buffer the client from the day-to-day, stressful minutia of domestic litigation.  We cannot completely erase the effects of such a tumultuous period of life, but we can do our best to keep many of these stresses off your radar.

Our role as your attorneys is to help you through these difficult times.  We navigate the complex procedural processes that often seem convoluted and unnecessary.  We are here to protect your legal interests.  We are here to be your bodyguard and remove as much anxiety from your life as possible.

Elizabeth Marum

http://www.allfamilylaw.com/PracticeAreas/Divorce.asp