Abonitalla

Adaza
Andot
Arancon
Arellano
 A lawyer’s workload cannot be excluded
from the subject of legal counseling, if for
no other purpose than to acquaint and
polish the legal practitioner of the bread
and butter of his profession. Any omission
of this important aspect from the standard
work tasks of a legal practitioner, would
spell a difference in the success or failure of
his law practice.
 The standard yardstick of successful lawyering may be defined
from the accomplishment of the following word tasks of the
practicing lawyer, to wit:
a) Advice
b) Negotiation and conciliation
c) Drafting, whether of pleadings to be filed in court, or
of documents and written documents;
d) Litigation
e) Financing
f) Property management
g) Acting as executor or trustee of a will, or special
administrator in the case of intestate succession
h) Specialization
 In the field of advice, every lawyer is
presumed to be competent in giving
spontaneous and off-hand advice to
prospective clients during the first
interview, at least on a foreshadowing and
relative outcome of a potential litigation.
 This is to pre-empt the falling out from
conciliation and mediation process.
 But if there is a glimmering hope of
pursuing further negotiations and
compromises, this process should first be
pursed relentlessly and exhaustively before
giving up.
 For in the layman’s language, better a bad
settlement than a good litigation, with all
the attendant anxiety, mental torture,
recurrent stress and sleepless nights.
 On matters involving an intricate question
of law and latest ruling of the Supreme
Court, the lawyer should be frank to the
client, that the same cannot be answered on
the spot, hence, needs a reservation on your
part to make prior research and verification
with the recent applicable jurisprudence
and statute.
 Giving of advice is the task lawyers most
commonly perform, and whatever else they
do for clients is almost invariably
accomplished by advice.
 This task is usually based in a large measure
on the lawyer’s conception and learning of
relevant substantive law and doctrines
applicable on the particular facts involved.
 The advice may also revolve on the information and
probable outcome based on the following
consideration such as:

a) anticipated reactions of courts and other

administrative agencies or official or quasi-
judicial bodies;
b) probative value of evidence;
c) desires and resources of clients and other
affected parties;
d) alternative courses action.
 The following are alternative courses of action that the
lawyer may suggest to his client, he should pursue
either any or all of them:

a) Indicate the preference as to which course of

action should be pursued by the client;
b) Proceed to argue persuasively as to why the
client should adopt this course of action; or
c) He may try to avoid showing any preference at
all on which course of action should be taken,
merely posing available alternatives in as
neutral terms as possible.
 In pursuing the latter alternative, the lawyer
merely restricts his role to illuminating
choices, not recommending and any opinion
he expresses are directed only at the
relevancy and merits of the alternatives, not
at deciding among them.
 But he should never seek to coerce the
client, or to threaten to impose sanctions if
the client does not decide a certain way.
 Not infrequently lawyers are asked to give
advice having little or nothing to do with
legal doctrine or law-making adjudicating
bodies.
 Lawyers who are holding positions in
government and business often become
trusted counselors on a wide range of family,
business, administrative and political
problems.
 Widows, spouses with marital troubles, and
small businessman in financial difficulties
are among most likely to seek non-legal
advice from their lawyers.
 As long as the performance of these acts do
not prejudice the interest of the public or a
are done outside of office hours, there is
nothing wrong in the acts of government
lawyers who earn extra income outside of
their official functions.
 In advising clients, the lawyer can often run into
role conflict giving rise to the following questions:

a) When should the lawyer be the client’s

servant and when his critic?
b) To what extent should he identify with the
client’s goal and follow his expressed
wishes?
c) To what extent should he question them?
 The best approach in dealing with this
particular client is to define right upon the
acceptance of the employment or before giving
any advice, the extent of the client’s role.
 The lawyer’s role is to stand foursquare with his
client’s interest, but only to such limit that will
not allow him to compromise your professional
and moral standards, by advising on a course
conduct bordering on ethical principles.
 Among others, the most common task a
lawyer encounters in his daily practice is,
the dealing with another or potential
adversary in an effort to reach an accord
between the client and the other party.
The factors may consist in,
1) proposals to the other side;
2) counter-proposals;
3) reconsiderations;
4) compromise;
5) advice to clients; and
6) client instructions to counsel.
 Negotiation usually transpires in a face to
face conferences, by the active role of a third
party negotiator.
 Lawyers may enter negotiations at any stage.
 Some clients want their lawyers to
participate at the inception of dealings,
other wait until after the essential terms of a
bargain have been agreed upon.
 But there is nothing more effective medium
of negotiation that leads to a quick
compromise agreement than, when the trial
Judge himself personally intervenes with or
without their lawyers, in having the parties
litigants attend an impromptu conference,
by inviting them inside his chambers,
playing the role of a baton leader or like a
conductor in an orchestra.
 One important thing to remember when
negotiating for a client is that the lawyer
must be equipped with a special power of
attorney before sitting at the negotiating
table.
 This is so because the essence of a lawyer
and client relationship is likened to that of
agent and principal in a contract of agency
forgoing out a compromise agreement.
 As aptly ruled, a compromise agreement
without a special power of attorney or
special written of authority from the client,
renders the judgment based on a
compromise agreement null and void.
 But once approved by the court, a
compromise agreement has the force of res
judicata between the parties, unless vitiated
by forgery or other vices of consent.
 Lawyers play a prominent role in negotiating such real estate
matters as:

a) closings;
b) coverage of title;
c) insurance policies;
d) eminent domain awards;
e) conflicts between real estate brokers over sales
commissions;
f) mortgages;
g) real estate tax adjustments;
h) lease terminations;
i) tenant relocations and settlement litigations.
 Delay is one of the effective techniques in
negotiations designed to increase on the
other side and to act as a deprivation at least
before the case reaches the court.
 Concealment of facts, particularly when the
intentions of the bargainer’s principal is a
conventional negotiation tactic, and one resorted
by lawyer-negotiators.
 It is not unethical for a lawyer to lawfully conceal
from the other side the least favorable terms that
their clients are willing to accept, as long as it is
done with the primary purpose of forestalling the
possibility of a court litigation or of abbreviating a
court trial already started.
 Better results can be realized if a
lawyer-negotiator should start
negotiations by making demands
extremely favorable to his client, often
by tendering proposed instruments
consistently slanted his way.
 Another approach which a lawyer-
negotiator should adopt in order to rake
beneficial results is by not asking for more
than you think you can get, thereby
developing a reputation of fair dealing that
makes negotiations faster and increases the
chances of getting what you want because of
the aura of trustworthiness that this
approach creates.