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It’s a scene we’ve seen all too often. You’re sitting in a room full of lawyers, and just as you begin to speak, you hear smartphones buzzing with incoming messages. Worse, as you utter your first few words, people start checking their e-mails, some furiously tap the keyboard, others giggle at the screen. Was it something funny you said?

Smartphones, such as the Blackberry and iPhone, have become a ubiquitous part of legal practice. Most national law firms hand them out to associates and articling students coming onboard. Denise Nawata, a third-year securities lawyer at B.C. firm Farris LLP, says, “I can’t imagine what practice is like without one — I’ve always had it.”

Nawata says everyone in her department has one, and when she’s in the middle of transactions, she’s on it, she says, “pretty much 24/7.” 

Lang Michener LLP securities partner John Conway says he sleeps by his BlackBerry: “It’s the last thing I see before going to bed, and the first thing I see when I get up.”

Clients now expect quick turnaround on their files, and lawyers have to be responsive to client demands. With intense competition between law firms during this economic downturn, lawyers can’t afford to lose clients.

Lang Michener LLP banking partner Eric Friedman says matter-of-factly: “Clients have an expectation that you’ll always be in touch with the office. Not all clients are like that, but with the increase in the use of BlackBerrys, more and more clients carry that expectation.

“If you can’t provide that level of service, someone else will,” says Friedman.

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP corporate partner Martin Donner says that according to a legal survey he read several years ago, a lawyer’s availability is what clients value most. Donner says he checks his BlackBerry on evenings and weekends. “I do it because I haven’t left the planet. If there’s something I can do to help out, I’ll do it. Clients’ needs aren’t confined to regular hours.”

So where does one draw the line between work and personal life?

“It’s a source of frustration,” says one second-year Calgary litigation lawyer, who didn’t want to be named. “I don’t want to have my work attached to me all the time. Whenever you check your BlackBerry, it creates work. It doesn’t make sense to be checking your e-mail [on holidays and weekends] because the whole point is not to be working.”

Another Calgary lawyer, Clint Suntjens, a senior litigator with Litwiniuk & Company, refuses to carry a BlackBerry. “I don’t want to be checking my Blackberry 2 million times a day. Of course, if I’m in the office, I’ll check my e-mail messages.”

One senior Vancouver securities lawyer, who also wanted to remain anonymous, says his primary school-aged children often wonder why their father is always on the BlackBerry, even on Sunday mornings.

Vancouver executive coach Allison Wolf says that it’s not about the BlackBerry, but how you manage expectations — either with your internal clients (your colleagues and partners), or with your external fee-paying clients.

Wolf suggests that lawyers talk to their clients to find out how quickly they expect to receive e-mail responses. Lawyers should also explain how they run their practice, and talk about periods when they can’t be reached because, for instance, they’re spending time with family. “Clients will appreciate it,” says Wolf.

Wolf says different clients will have different expectations. “The problem is that if you don’t have that conversation, assumptions are made.”

“We feel that we don’t have the power, but control really begins with the lawyer.”

Wolf says that a big part of work satisfaction — as well as profitability — rests with effective client-relationship management.

Wolf also suggests that lawyers talk to their families as to when it’s appropriate to use BlackBerrys. For example, is it acceptable to use it while everyone’s watching television? Or around the dinner table? “It’s about setting boundaries,” says Wolf.

Are there times when using BlackBerrys aren’t acceptable? Wolf says that lawyers shouldn’t be using their BlackBerrys in meetings. “It’s vital that you’re fully present. When you’re using your Blackberry, you appear indifferent in front of your friends, colleagues and clients.”

Most lawyers, however, don’t seem to mind colleagues who use smartphones during internal meetings. Lang Michener partner Friedman says, “It’s part of being in the service industry. Lawyers know that it’s competitive out there, and they’ve got to use every tool at their disposal.”

But when it comes to external client meetings, lawyers report that they put away their Blackberrys. It’s common sense: if clients are paying lawyers $300 or $400 an hour, lawyers don’t want them thinking their attention is elsewhere or, worse, that they’re working on another client matter. 

Clients, of course, are free to use their BlackBerrys during meetings. In fact, lawyers say that clients will often pull out their BlackBerrys in the middle of face-to-face discussions. Lawyers aren’t bothered by it. “If they’re paying us a lot of money, and they’re not listening, that’s their prerogative,” quips a real estate lawyer from Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP.

Executive coach Wolf sees BlackBerry-use increasing in the future. “It’s because so much of our communications is taking place over e-mails, and more and more people are connected to social media networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. It’s convenient, instantaneous and inexpensive.”

By the same token, Wolf says that smartphones will make our face-to-face meetings more important, much more valued, simply because there will be less of them.

But as far as managing client relationships go, nothing beats sitting down with clients, showing support and giving them undivided attention for the next hour or so. Sans le BlackBerry, of course.