As clients who see a lawyer are under stress, most of our clients are at times due to the external issues they are facing difficult to handle.  All you can do is treat them with honesty and be as polite as possible. You may have to be firm but that does not detract from you being polite and to the point as you can be. 

 

By attempting to meet/exceed rtheir expectations. Keep the conversation strictly business and ensure that you meet chaellenges head on. Oh, and above all, stick to your guns.

Make sure you know where the line is. Don't be pushed around. Don't push back too hard. Reason and relaity should be part of every project you work on. Ask the question, i'm i being pushed fairly, or pushed around unfairly. Always lean on the side of "if i can learn something out of this and it is reasonable" then learn it at your cost, as in the future before you work that hard again, you know how to cost and structure it into the project. Everything is about leanring and evolving, including difficult clients. All that being said, there is always 1% of clients (or thereabouts) who are off the charts, want the world, amazing quality, a peanuts pricing - Eject at all costs.