Boomer outside counsel who insists on calling me incessantly, basically demanding I call him back

[Anonymous]

even though I am the client (an in house lawyer who works with him and coordinates with my business lead) and I have nothing to update him on. I'm a woman and younger so I'm sure he doesn't think I'm someone he has to treat with respect. He has made rude comments about women and POC in other contexts. And yes, I've complained about him before on dcum.

Every phone call with him ends up being at least 30 minutes because he is a talker (so $500/1/2 hour), and he will invariably try to encourage me to have him work on something that really doesn't need to be done right now. I have politely directed him to emails many times... "thanks for checking in Bob, I'll let you know when we have updates on this matter" but he still insists on calling over and over.

What would you do? Just ignore? He is too ingrained on one particular matter to make a switch, but after this, we will likely move to someone else if this specialty is needed again...

[Anonymous]

Sounds like he’s just trying to run up the bill?

[Anonymous]

Boomer is ageism. You both sound somewhat rude.

[Anonymous]

Running up bill. Don't let him.
Don't call back. Email. Let him know he isn't needed to work on those extraneous things at this time.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

You are an ageist and he is a sexist. You can both be awful - and you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boomer is ageism. You both sound somewhat rude.

Eh, boomer is also about not liking technology

[Anonymous]

The customer is always right.
Block his number when you aren’t waiting for a call back.

[Anonymous]

Yea I’ve seen this before from you and think you’re the a$$hole. Calling him a boomer like that actually has anything to do with anything is no different than me referring to you as some young chick. It’s pejorative and unnecessary. He’s just clueless regardless of his age or gender. Most outside counsel know better than to act like him. So my advice is to stop being such a judgmental twit yourself. Start with that. Then ask your boss how to proceed.

[Anonymous]

As you say, you are the client. He serves you and he should fear you.

By letting him run up the bill, you are wasting your company's money and you are also wasting your own time.

[Anonymous]

Don't answer. Immediately email back that you have no updates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't answer. Immediately email back that you have no updates.

I agree, but I’d also say in the email that each time we speak it becomes a long (and thereby) expensive call and you are not interested in incurring such expense when it is unnecessary.

He may or may not change behavior, but it helps put him on notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As you say, you are the client. He serves you and he should fear you.

By letting him run up the bill, you are wasting your company's money and you are also wasting your own time.

He shouldn’t “fear” her FFS. That doesn’t a productive relationship make.

What she needs to do, besides insulting him as a “boomer“, is see if he is in fact, billing her for these calls. And if he is, she needs to simply grow a pair and tell him that he needs to limit the calls because they’re running the bill up. Every client does this all the time. It’s nothing. If she can’t handle this, she’s in the wrong job.

[Anonymous]

He probably doesn't have enough billables and is calling to fluff his ups

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't answer. Immediately email back that you have no updates.

I agree, but I’d also say in the email that each time we speak it becomes a long (and thereby) expensive call and you are not interested in incurring such expense when it is unnecessary.

He may or may not change behavior, but it helps put him on notice.

cc his boss the second time it happens.