Need input on lawyer's performance

[Anonymous]

As a lawyer with 20 years of experience, I believe that some times at least the degree of aggressiveness required in a particular situation is a judgment call. Certainly, I have a colleagues who have dealt with the same situation in different ways, and sometimes it is not easy for me to decide the best approach to take.

How experienced is this associate and is she taking advice from the partner? Perhaps giving the opposing counsel little tidbits of information is a way to win him over, a catch more flies with honey approach, for example. I don't think that it is a bad idea to insist that the partner schedule a call with you to discuss strategy on how your case is being handled, but you need to be willing to listen to see whether they've put some thought into how they're managing things. If they haven't, then that may lead you to decide to find new counsel.

[Anonymous]

The time lag in responding that you describe doesn't seem out of the ordinary. If your need for a more immediate response stems from your not complying with a court order, you are creating your own crisis and your lawyer therefore may not be too sympathetic to your sense of urgency on this one issue. If you're a lawyer you know that an order must be complied with until it is stayed or vacated, even if it turns out to be erroneous or "unenforceable". You can move to reconsider, modify, stay the order. It may even be immediately appealable, but absent a stay, you'd still have to comply until it's reversed. If what you mean is that it is impossible for you to comply with, you make your best, good faith effort and move to clarify or modify. In any case, you'll be litigating the issue somehow (either via your own motion or via defending a contempt allegation) unless you comply. Therefore your lawyer may not see this is as critically urgent as you are and they may be right.

Looking for another lawyer who may or may not respond to you more promptly is not likely to help you avoid being dragged into court at this point.

All that said, if you feel that there isn't a good attorney-client relationship, start interviewing others. But consider whether your behavior and expectations are part of the problem and whether switching lawyers will really improve things for you.