Ask if there are matters you or your staff can take care of many times a client can obtain information, run errands, or perform document gathering and organizing tasks which will advance the cause of the lawsuit and save himself money. When people are attacked, the natural reaction is to attack back. While competent trial attorneys are well equipped to attack the other side for you, a wise attorney will also step back from his role as an adversary and counsel you regarding your settlement options. In doing so, he is not necessarily telling you he doesn't believe your side of the story. Rather, he is trying to get you, the astute businessperson, to make a smart business decision which considers only your bottom line, and not the emotion of the lawsuit or who is right and wrong.
Lawsuits typically take one to four years to get to trial.
Unless you can afford to have an attorney on your payroll for that period of time and dont care about how much money you spend, you should always consider settling. Unfortunately, that may mean paying the other side some money even though they are the ones who wronged you. Because it may be the right decision to make from a strictly business perspective. You may end up paying this person something after a trial anyway. Unfortunately, for many cases, he was right.