with clients in order to reclaim some personal time. Of course that can be hard for lawyers to accept. "We're bred to exceed expectations," comments Wattiez Larose. Nevertheless, she believes most clients understand lawyers are on more than one file at a time, which legitimizes the fact that an inquiry may take a couple of hours to respond to. Many of Wattiez Larose's top clients know she is unlikely to deal with a ques- tion during dinner. She's not bothered by those who don't. "It would be legitimate for me to be in a meeting with another
client," she notes. "In that sense, clients expect you to be available 24-7, yes, but to the extent that they understand the reality that you have several balls to juggle at the same time, it does give you a bit of flexibility." With that in mind, Wattiez Larose also isn't opposed to hav-
ing a blunt conversation with clients. She's been known to tell them there are two periods of each day when she's unavailable, but for the other 21.5 hours, she's all theirs. "I think that's rea- sonable," she says. "It's kind of hard to argue against that."
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