I am hired by my client to represent them. Doing so to the best of my ability requires me to give them my best judgment on the issues related to the matter I am handling. There is nothing in the lawyer-client relationship that requires them to follow my advice. They are the client, I am their lawyer. Translation: THE CLIENT IS THE BOSS, THE HEAD HONCHO, THE GENERAL. I am none of those things. When they make a decision, I do my utmost to execute it. It frankly doesn’t matter whether I agree or not. My job, ultimately, is to follow their direction and execute the decision as capably I can.
If you read the last paragraph carefully, there is nothing in there that says I have to agree with my client, tell them they are brilliant or in any way suck up to them. In my experience, few clients want that. They really do want to know what I think and why, what my reasoning trail is, what views are based on solid experience and what views are educated intuition, which are data-driven and which are not.
The notion of telling my clients what I think they want to hear is alien to me. It is not what clients want from their lawyer. But the stories of lawyers being afraid to take a position and reveal their thinking are so pervasive that they tell jokes about us. "On the one hand….."
Law is a chain of command. Outside lawyers are never at the top of the chain. But do not use the chain of command as an excuse to be less than forthright in expressing your complete and candid views.