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Call of duty: Attorneys find benefits, pitfalls when offering full access

By: Jane Pribek//March 14, 2013//

Call of duty: Attorneys find benefits, pitfalls when offering full access

By: Jane Pribek//March 14, 2013//

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Passing the pager made life more predictable for Paul Bucher and his colleagues in the prosecutors’ office.

The prosecutor who had the pager was on call. Everyone else knew their off-hours were protected.

But that predictability disappeared when Bucher, a Waukesha attorney, went into private practice. His clients have his cellphone number, and it’s posted on his website.

“It can be a pain, and I appreciate why some attorneys don’t do it,” Bucher said. “But it has generated significant revenue. I do charge for those calls, and it really does engender new clients.”

It works for Madison lawyer Bob Kasieta, who has calls forwarded to his cellphone.

“My practice involves representing individuals whose lives don’t always run 9-to-5,” he said. “If they have a question or concern that they’re really worried about, I feel like it’s part of what they engage us to do, to be responsive to the questions they have, when they have them.”

Kasieta, who doesn’t advertise his firm, said that flexibility has been an effective marketing strategy.

“The feedback I get from former clients is they referred people to us because we didn’t stop caring about them at 6 o’clock,” he said. “We helped them when they needed help.”

But there are pitfalls, said Attorney Tom Watson, communications director for Wisconsin Lawyers Mutual Insurance Co., Madison.

“The more access, and the quicker access you give upfront in a case, the higher the expectation level,” he said. “You’ve set the expectation that you’ll always be available.

“It’s a dangerous thing because you can’t always be available, and when you disappoint them, you increase the risk that they’ll become unhappy.”

Communication problems are cited in roughly one-third of WILMIC’s claims, Watson said, and they often become a driving force for malpractice complaints.

Still, broad accessibility often is a necessary risk. Solo practitioner Luca Fagundes of Green Bay is bilingual and has not been able to find bilingual staff members. So he gives clients his cell number and is the main point of contact.

His work in immigration, for instance, often requires immediate action to prevent deportation. That, combined with his paperless and cloud-based practice, makes the cellphone an essential tool.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said.

But it does not have to be all or nothing.

Solo practitioner Nathan Olson, who has four small children, works from two offices, one in Berlin and the other in Oshkosh, and calling his cellphone is the simplest way for clients to reach him wherever he is on any given day. Still, he seeks a balance.

“To be honest,” Olson said, “when I get home after about 5:30 at night, I usually don’t answer my cellphone.”

He does check messages and responds to emergencies. And when he does take a call after hours, he’s not inclined to charge fees higher than his typical hourly rate, as some lawyers do.

“It’s all about the clientele you have,” Olson said. “I do a lot of business and transactional work, and they’re very respectful of my time.”

Bucher makes it clear in his representation agreement that clients will be charged for every contact — cell, text, email — and that he reserves the right to charge time-and-a half for off-hours advice.

It’s not uncommon, he said, for clients to contact him less frequently once they’ve received their first bill.

But, Bucher said, he realizes and accepts that the nature of his job requires calls at all hours, even on Christmas Eve. He represents people who have been charged with operating while intoxicated, and those calls often come in the early morning hours on Sundays, he said.

If he does not take those calls, someone else will.

“This,” Bucher said, “is a competitive industry.”

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