You were acting like the consummate professional you are. And you gave him no reason to further perpetuate a misjudgment in thinking and belief. Good for you. If you two decide to work together you may want to take the opportunity to educate him. But I suspect you won't hear from him anytime soon.

As a Jewish person and former litigating attorney, I understand why you were upset with that comment. Although I do not agree with his comments, everyone is entitled to their opinion in this country. I wouldn't take the comment personally (I know it's hard not to) but instead I may have delved deeper into why he thinks that way. If he believes that, I'm sure there are others who feel that same way. Maybe it would have been an opportunity to dispel or persuade him to change his opinions. I think you handled it professionally and I commend you. Good blog topic as well.

You acted professionally. you also reacted to his comment personally and handled that as well. It takes all kinds of people to make the world go around, some you might prefer not to deal with. I think he probably will come back and then it will be your decision to work with him despite his prejudices or to decide to refer him to another lawyer. The question in my mind is: "who referred him to you"? Please keep the blog updated.

A former Asian-American elected once told me he only hires Jewish attorneys (and he knew my faith!). The reality remains that so many folk lead relatively segregated lives. An Italian friend who grew up in Williamsburg and is closer in age to our founder than me, confided at a table of six Jews (including his wife, out of 8) that until he learned his wife was Jewish (they met just out of high school) that all Jews looked like (Satmar) Hasids. To the extent folks of different backgrounds lack interactions, many misconceptions continue to grow. I rarely share that I enjoy a rather diverse circle of friends (many close) and colleagues (by background, faith, ethnicity, color, identity, even line of work)

It's difficult to react forcefully when "blindsided" like that, but like the 1st responder, I think you were professional. If this prospect comes back however, I would not proceed until his ignorant comment is thoroughly discussed and challenged. If the prospect does ultimately understand his mistake, then so much the better and if not, you have a choice to defend an ignoramus. In America, you clearly have a right to be stupid. C.Cooke

While many thoughts must have gone through your mind after his comments, I wonder what he meant by them? We Jews might lump together all the anti-Semitic remarks that are spoken while I'm sure there are varying degrees of stupidity, ignorance and anti-Semitism among the speakers of such remarks. If we simply write off these people as anti-semitic, don't we forgo the opportunity to reduce their hostility towards an entire people? By asking them to explain their thinking we perhaps have a chance to help them understand why what their saying is incorrect and making them look uninformed. At worst we find out they are just hateful people and our understanding is improved. Then your decision to walk away from this client will be very clear.

I tend to think that he may have been a block head and not realized what he was saying. If that person had meant it as an insult, they wouldn't have said it. I once had a neighbor that knew I came from Ukranian origin. She was a Czech. She told me that she knew I wasn't going to pay to have some work done because she knew that Ukranians were cheap :-). I just looked at her and said nothing. People don't realize the things they say sometimes.

Oy vay

A WASP friend of Mother's once told her that he was so happy that his daughter was marrying a Jewish guy. "Finally, some real brains in our family!"

Your inherent "Good girl" (okay person) took over and allowed it to unfold. I wonder if he chose you because of your religion and his misguided belief. I have often heard clients brag about their "Jewish lawyer" and once had a secretary who told me Jewish men do not beat their women. It takes all kinds!

If you take this idiot on as a client, at some point during your business relationship you will find yourself in this position again as he believes that the court system is against him and you as a Jew would be part of the problem. I agree with your partner; dump him now because it will get a lot worse. Adam Singer

I would have taken the case and charged him double. The client is never wrong : ). About once a year I run into an "incident". That unfortunately is progress from my youth and my father's youth.

Ignorance is bliss!! You handled it well.

Had a similar comment after 9/11 -- "I don't know why we're fighting this war when it's all you guys' fault". I continued to represent the client, holding my nose all the while, and still question whether I betrayed myself in doing so

When you live in New York I think that people find it hard to believe that such prejudice can still exist. In my own home in R.I., a guest made numerous negative comments about the "Jews"... of course he had no idea that i was Jewish. When i told him that I was Jewish, he proceeded to say that he was referring to those New York Jews. Needless to say, that was his last visit to my home!

Wow!. Well, you handled very professionally. Given his comment, if he were to call you again seeking your legal services, I'd suggest gently telling him that given his thoughts about Jews, it would be best you not represent him as the attorney/client relationship would not be a comfortable one for you. All the credit to anonymous above who continued representing someone like that, but I wouldn't want to be around it. And at least you know at the outset, not finding out part way through. I wonder if it's even worth pointing out to him that "the Jews" didn't create the court system. Oy. Ricky Chenenko.

Great blog and I join the uniform opinion about the professional way in which you handled this insensitive ignorant comment. I am curious as to whether he has/will retain you after learning of your own background given his comment.

Probably the best blog ever! Most of us think because we live in a " melting pot" and that people in our town are educated about each other's cultures that bigotry is not so prevalent but it's definitely still out there behind closed doors.
You certainly handled it in the best and most professional way possible. You can't change someone in a conversation. It takes a village!
Arlene Haims

Let me preface by saying that I think you handled it the way you did because you are a very nice and non-confrontational person. I would not suggest changing in any way.

What I am curious about is why so many people believe that since this man was not yet your client, why you handled it "professionally." This implies that if you had handled it differently, that you would have not been handling it professionally. IF he was an existing client that you didn't want to offend for fear of losing their business, I would have understood the "professionalism" of one not confronting the comments. Otherwise, there would have been absolutely nothing unprofessional about discussing this man's lack of perspective with him in a polite and reasonable manner until he left or you had your say.

I would also disagree vehemently that nothing you could say would have changed who he is or how he thinks. Nothing could be further from the truth. The idea that people like that are just ignorant is the easy way out. It isn't always ignorance, but rather a compilation of upbringing and experience. There are many people who are prejudiced against Christians and Southerners who are extremely intelligent. Literally almost all of us could track back in their family tree and not get far before finding prejudice. We think now because those thoughts and behaviors are so violently rebuked that we are far from it and we are not.

None of us are that far removed from it. Most people simply have simply evolved in the last several generations or so based upon our wisdom and experience.

I want you to feel the rarified air up at 20 comments. It's lonely up there all alone!