‘The client is really rude and my supervisor doesn’t seem to care’

Definitely mention it. But put it in a risk management way. These sorts of clients are a nightmare. And they will use any excuse not to pay, including allegations of poor service or negligence. So, make a bullet point log of all his complaints and why they are unjustified (with the appropriate evidence, such as emails). Present that to your supervisor and say you are concerned he’s trying to manufacture some excuses for complaint down the line to either not pay or demand a refund.

I think it is reasonable to feel frustrated. You are a trainee – you are training. It perhaps isn’t reasonable to expect a trainee to be able to deal with difficult clients and potentially nuanced issues that perhaps a trainee may not have the experience to navigate. However, I would argue that the best experience a trainee could have is real world experience dealing with difficult clients and issues – it forces one to ‘sink or swim’ – I do see the harsh difficulty with that, and it certainly isn’t ideal.

I would try to get through it, and see the silver lining. You are gaining real experience as a lawyer – an experience many trainees would never get; speak to some trainees and junior lawyers at the much larger firms – some of them won’t get that type of experience.

If it becomes too much and it is affecting your mental health, perhaps do say something to the partner – that decision will likely depends on how much you can bear, how long you have left in that training seat, and if it is a department you’d like to qualify into (politics unfortunately plays a part in this).

Clients like this are a headache. They like bullying you so that you will treat them as the number one client and always deal with their matter first. He’s probably also trying to get out of paying the bill in full later on. If he wanted to report it to your boss he would have as he certainly knows how to.

If you report it to a supervisor they generally expect you to go through the entire file and justify why you are right and they are wrong with a view to putting it in an email or letter to the client to put them back in their place. Eg you did not instruct me to do x; or on x date I asked you to supply me with y, you did not provide this information until z date. I then did the work within x days. Whilst this does mean that you become very familiar with the file, it is a lot of work and frankly a headache.

And also you are letting the client win as you are forced to spend time justifying your position, which is not billable and ultimately even if you did a perfect job you are then forced into treating the client as the number one client in order to maintain the perfect position. It’s even worse if you have been a bit slow dealing with the file. Either way with this approach the client wins because he is making you jump around.

The best approach is to ignore his email and phone calls and look forward to moving departments. Your boss knows what the client. is like which is why he handed the file to you. If you cannot ignore the emails then take as long as reasonably possible to respond knowing that this will wind up the client. Late evening is good. Or even set the email to send at 6am.

If you do take a phone call be sure to yawn or sigh loudly and kiss your teeth if he says something stupid.

Or maybe respond to each accusation on the day it is made just before you leave the office and say I have no recollection of you giving me this instruction. Please can you confirm when you gave this instruction. Then go home and enjoy your evening. If he cannot provide proof then he’s in a weak position. You can then be firm with him if he persists in making false allegations

However you do have to try to ensure that the work on the file is of a good standard.