Nickel and Dime Attorney

I am fascinated with the subject of how to persuade people to do what you want them to do.  In my professional life I have been trying to do that for about thirty-five years, sometimes successfully, and sometimes not so much, but overall I think fairly well.  I am reminded that my college professor for a class in persuasion referred to a phrase by Quintilian (Roman rhetorician, C. 35 – c. 100 AD), “a good man speaking well,” as being at the very core of persuasion.

This phrase came to mind recently when I received a forwarded e-mail from a client, in which the other party in a protracted dispute referred to me as my client’s “nickel and dime attorney.”  Apparently the other party thought that, by demeaning me to my client, he could somehow persuade my client to move closer to his own views.  But it had the opposite effect.  My client and I had a very good laugh over the intended insult, and I even joked it would not cause me to lower my billing rates.

The other party made a key mistake.  By using crude and demeaning language, he failed to articulate a significant point, and moreover he made himself look ridiculous enough to diminish his own credibility.  It made my client and me an even more cohesive team, far less likely to concede to the other party’s views.

This is a silly example, which I will use to get cheap laughs from my client for many weeks to come, but it still yields an important principle we are often tempted to forget:  negotiations are often made far more effective by clear communication, delivered with civility.