He sold lots of bananas from both tables but found that he got lots of complaints about the 10-cent bananas not being of high quality.

          He tried to explain that the bruises on the bananas reduced their quality and that led him to reduce the price. Nevertheless, in an effort to satisfy his customers, he would replace the bruised ones with those of top quality. It did not take long for him to realize that he was now losing money on the good bananas, and so he stopped discounting the price on the bad bananas and simply began to discard them.

          It was this experience that led him to develop a guiding philosophy: The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.

          Law practice is a lot like the grocery business. Our clients will remember the quality of our services and the quality of their experience with us long after they have forgotten the amount of our fees.

          As professionals, we have an obligation to provide the highest quality services to our clients. Many services relate to repetitive transactions that are completed with a brief conference and the preparation of a routine document. If that document is a deed, it would need a grantor, a grantee and a description of the property. If we omitted one of these elements, it would not justify a lower fee but would require a correction.

          The point seems clear — we must discard our "seconds" and provide only the best quality of which we are capable. In my document example above, the client only needs a deed not a treatise on conveyancing, but the deed itself must be properly prepared.

          Don't Shortchange Clients

          If we hope to maintain our exclusive franchise for meeting the legal needs of the public, we cannot shortchange our clients by providing inferior service for a lower price. Michelangelo could have used a roller on the Sistine Chapel, but the world would have been shortchanged if he had.

          Clients want lawyers who are concerned about their problems and who care about them. They want honest lawyers who have good reputations. They want prompt, businesslike lawyers. And somewhere after they get all of that, clients want lawyers who charge reasonable fees. Basically, the clients are more interested in the quality of their experience and of our service than they are in the price.

          What is quality law practice? Avoiding grievances? Avoiding a malpractice suit? The absence of complaints? Competent service? Certainly quality encompasses all of those, but I submit that quality law practice means matching your services to your client's expectations. We deliver quality when we provide value for the client as the client defines value.

          Within reason, it is the client who defines quality. Within reason, the client--like the customer--is always right. Within reason, the lawyer should go out of the way to please the client.

          With that in mind, we must help our clients articulate their desires and expectations, ensure that those desires and expectations are realistic, and take prompt and appropriate action on the clients' behalf.

          Every lawyer must be familiar with well-settled principles of law and perform reasonable research. Every lawyer must exercise reasonable professional judgment, be technically skilled, organized and efficient, and with all of this, every lawyer's service must be delivered in a timely and cost effective manner.

          Every client is entitled to expect this minimum level of competence in dealing with a lawyer.

          The Kelley Law Firm Aaron Pasternak died a few years ago, and I attended his funeral. His admirers filled the room to overflowing. The eulogy was a moving and meaningful tribute and mentioned a number of his friends by name: Integrity, Kindness, Honesty, Compassion. It was a most appropriate display of affection for a man who knew and taught me about quality being remembered long after the price is forgotten.