Most of us would never retain a lawyer who promised we would be her “24th most important case this month.” But the reality is that good attorneys take every case seriously. That’s what makes them effective lawyers and enables them to stay in business. Law firms must have a strong client base to earn their money, and that means taking care of the people they represent.

Employee complaints about their legal counsel come from the misconceptions about this interaction—the seemingly unbridgeable gap between client expectations and attorneys’ concepts of customer service. The client is laying out thousands of dollars, and he wants the lawyer’s response to match the outlay.

The biggest shock may come in the courtroom, where clients may be surprised to find their attorneys discussing other cases with the judge or other lawyers. Most employees have no mechanism for understanding the legal system and how attorneys work. Without such understanding, it appears to the litigant that his or her case is going nowhere, and this impacts time, productivity and focus at work. This is especially jarring for employees who engage with the legal system for the first time while trying to maintain their jobs.