“Lawyers would rub the fuzz off a peach” – the latent animus of clients toward lawyers

Even strenuous efforts to “team” with clients, to be “business partners” and to “align” may all lead to disappointed in-house legal departments. At bottom, clients may grudgingly appreciate that their lawyers guide them through the legal thickets, but more fundamentally those clients wish for grassy leas – no legal issues hedges and thorns in the first place.

When you are a card-carrying member of a profession that is perceived to throw up business obstacles and siphon off the bottom line, when you are a lawyer that is and clients think lawyers create problems, how can you ever expect to be genuinely embraced? For them, the perfect legal world would hum along with handshakes, trust, and fair dealing – no fuzz rubbers.