Taking Instructions from Your First Clients: A Practical Guide for Junior Advocates
The first time a client sits across the desk from you, the case begins. What you hear, what you ask and what you write down in that meeting will shape every application, every hearing and every piece of advice that follows. A badly taken instruction can send a case in the wrong direction for months. A careful one makes everything after it easier.
Junior advocates often sit in on their senior's meetings before they take instructions on their own. This guide is for the moment you start doing it yourself. It covers how to prepare, how to listen, what to collect, what to check and how to close the meeting so that you and the client leave with the same understanding. It is one of the core practical skills in a legal career after LL.B.
Before the client arrives
A few minutes of preparation change the quality of the whole meeting:
Know who is coming and why. Ask your clerk or senior what the client has already said, even if it is only a line.
Check for a conflict. Make sure the chambers is not already acting for the other side or for someone whose interests clash with this client's.
Prepare a simple note sheet. Leave space for the client's details, the facts in order, documents seen, deadlines, and the client's goal.
Choose a quiet place. Clients speak more openly when they are not overheard in a crowded bar room or corridor.
Listen first, then ask
A client may arrive anxious and want to tell the story their own way. Let them. An open question such as "Tell me what happened" usually gets more useful information in the first ten minutes than a rapid list of questions.
Once the story is out, go back over it in order. Ask for dates, names, places and amounts. Ask what has already happened: notices received, complaints filed, earlier cases, or orders passed. Ask, gently, what the client has left out. People often skip the facts that worry them most, and those are usually the facts that matter.
Write as you go, and read your summary back to the client before moving on. It shows you listened, and it catches mistakes while the client is still in the room.
Collect the right documents
Instructions are only as good as the papers behind them. Ask the client to bring, or send, everything connected with the matter:
Identity and contact details. A copy of the client's CNIC and a working phone number.
Court papers. Any summons, notice, plaint, FIR, order or judgment the client has received.
The underlying documents. Agreements, receipts, title papers, letters, messages and anything else that proves or disproves the client's account.
A list of people involved. Names and roles of witnesses, other parties and anyone who may hold relevant documents.
Take copies, not originals, unless your senior asks otherwise, and record what you received and when. If the matter will go to court, the client will also need to sign a vakalatnama; our guide to the vakalatnama explains how to prepare and file it properly.
Spot deadlines and urgent steps
Some matters cannot wait. Before the meeting ends, ask whether there is a hearing date, a limitation deadline, a notice period or an arrest risk. If something is urgent, tell your senior the same day. A deadline missed in the first week is far harder to repair than any weakness in the facts.
Explain fees, timing and outcomes honestly
Clients want to know three things: what it will cost, how long it will take and whether they will win. Answer carefully:
Fees. Follow your chambers' practice. Your senior may set fees personally. If you do discuss them, explain what is included, which costs are extra, and when payment is due.
Timing. Be realistic. Court cases involve adjournments and waiting. It is better to under-promise than to disappoint.
Outcomes. Never guarantee a result. Explain the strengths and weaknesses you can see, and say clearly when you need to check the law or consult your senior.
Honesty at this stage protects the client and your reputation. The duties advocates owe to clients, and to the court, are covered in our article on professional legal ethics every advocate must know.
Keep it confidential
What a client tells you in the course of your professional work is protected. Article 9 of the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 protects professional communications between a client and an advocate, subject to limited exceptions, such as communications made to further an illegal purpose. Respect it in small ways too: do not discuss the client's matter in the bar room, keep files out of sight, and be careful with messages on shared phones.
Close the meeting clearly
Before the client leaves, make sure you both agree on what happens next:
Restate the goal. Confirm in plain words what the client wants to achieve.
List the next steps. Who will do what, and by when, including documents the client still needs to bring.
Confirm how you will stay in touch. Agree a phone number and the best time to call.
Record it. Write a short note of the instructions for the file, dated and, where possible, confirmed by the client.
Then report to your senior. A clear one-page note of the meeting is one of the most useful things a junior can produce, and it is a habit worth building from your first year.
Common mistakes in first client meetings
Interrupting too early. You miss the facts the client was about to share.
Promising results. An over-confident promise becomes a complaint when the case is lost.
Not taking documents. Advice given without seeing the papers is often wrong.
Ignoring deadlines. Always ask about hearing dates, notices and limitation.
No written note. Memory fades; a dated note protects the client and you.
Frequently asked questions
What should I ask a client in the first meeting?
Start with open questions about what happened and what the client wants, then move to specific questions about dates, documents, people involved, earlier cases and deadlines. Close by confirming the client's goal and the next step.
Is what a client tells me confidential?
Yes. Article 9 of the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 protects professional communications between a client and an advocate, subject to limited exceptions such as communications made to further an illegal purpose. The rules of professional conduct also require advocates to keep client confidences.
Should a junior advocate discuss fees with a client?
Only as your senior or chambers allows. Some chambers set fees centrally. If you do discuss fees, be clear about what is included, what costs are extra, and when payment is due, and never promise a result to win the brief.
Taking instructions well is a quiet skill, but clients notice it immediately. Listen properly, collect the papers, check the deadlines, be honest about fees and outcomes, and write everything down. Do that consistently and clients will trust you long before you have a long record in court.
About this guide: the legal points in this article were checked in October 2026 against the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 and the Canons of Professional Conduct and Etiquette of Advocates in the Pakistan Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Rules, 1976. Chambers practices on fees and client meetings vary, so follow your senior's instructions.
