Episode 83: Interviewing Clients

As I teach Tax Procedure at Washburn University School of Law as an adjunct professor, I am going to discuss each week’s different teaching topic on the podcast.  This may be review for you, but it could be the focus on a new topic for a beginning practitioner.

This week, the focus is on interviewing clients.  New practitioners need to be comfortable in talking with a client to hear their story.  Issue spotting is necessary to find out what the client’s needs are and goal setting will make sure that both the client and practitioner know what results are necessary when working on the case.

There are also different considerations for clients with low income, diverse, and English as a Second Language backgrounds.  Tax protestors and other difficult clients may take special handling.  Finally, when negotiating with the IRS, know that there are both competitive and cooperative styles.

Tune in to find out greater detail on these topics.