CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Client Experience In The
Legal Sector
By Pauline Warui
My life has rotated around the
corporate world. Until recently
I did not know how snobbish
my type was to matters legal and the client
experience offered beyond the organized
systems in great organizations. I had
worked with the best and even though
they would delay a contract here and there,
they always showed thick documents that
made them look cleverer than the rest of
the crop. Their Sesquipedalian ways would
always win the day.
To be honest, the first day I stepped in
a courtroom I was in my mid-forties.
Ordinarily no Kenyan wants to deal with
the court rooms in Kenya for the morbid
fear of injustice perhaps emanating from
the newspapers that so often feed us their
opinion.
My case was simple. It was an inheritance
matter being ratified in a small town. My
first shocker was the sheer population
hanging in the corridors of the courtrooms.
The diverse smells were obviously heavy on
the nose as we waited for the magistrate
to settle. Another shocker was how many
times we would stand and sit as he came
in, went for break and departed for lunch
before hearing our little matter.
But the main shocker was to see how
meek the learned friends mingled with
their not obviously opulent clients despite
their dark blue to black attire coupled
with the famous red striped ties. I had
always assumed the work station of the
mighty legal giants was as posh as they
looked. It took this experience for me to
draw an interest in the legal profession. I
spoke to a few more clients who would tell
me horror stories or may I calmly refer to
them as grandly poor experiences.
To my utter consternation Client
Experience from most advocates and the
whole judiciary framework is a foreign
word. Advocates are purely transactional.
To engage a client, the process is the same
from one advocate to the other, male or
female.
To my utter consternation Client Experience
from most advocates and the whole
judiciary framework is a foreign word.
Advocates are purely transactional. To
engage a client, the process is the same
from one advocate to the other, male or
female.
Advocates are the most charming and
humble professionals when ushering you
to their office as a new client. In-fact they
will drive to your premises even if you
operate down at Sheikh Karume road if
you sound like you have potential to pay.
The first meeting has their charm offensive
buttons all lit. The language is very simple
and sweet. English language will only be
used if you are wearing designer shoes and
even then it is the kind of naked English
we earthlings speak.
If the meeting is at their premises, the
client is politely offered a cup of tea and
humbly requested to state their issue.
Evidently if your suit looks more expensive
than his, the boardroom is quickly availed
so that you pay some levy for the dark
leather seats.
Upon stating the matter, the charmer
becomes serious as he evaluates all manner
of scales to apply the legal fees. Suddenly
big English words start dropping in
buckets and the guy who was speaking
your mother tongue is now quoting Latin
words from his university days.
Your simple matter suddenly gains new
form of complexities coated with grim
hope. It’s at this moment that the client
is requested to open a file which literally
means get your wallet wide open as big
words cannot be exchanged on an empty
stomach. The seasoned viper strikes.
What you don’t get to hear as a client is
the undertone clearly stating that it takes
a lot of reading and investment to crack all
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MAL37/20 ISSUE