You resist the rude practice of actually finishing the sentence for them, but in the pressure of time to complete the interview, you begin drawing conclusions and noting them down. You finish those sentences in your mind. Thus the first lesson is the simple technique known as active listening. Then summarize the essence of what was said and, again, insist on affirmation or clarification. This simple technique, as irritating as it can be in it's inept application, performs a remarkable function of gathering correct information, but also allows the client to feel heard.
Lawyers know they have an ethical duty to communicate.
We usually think in terms of returning phone calls and copying correspondence to the client. Perhaps more important, and rarely considered, is the duty to make sure the client understands and the lawyer gets what the issues really are. The practice of family law is the ultimate arena since that is the place lawyers and judges most often lose the self they created in law school. We may not have experienced a personal injury or a theft of intellectual property, but each and every one of us has experienced the presence or absence of family relationships. Thus we bring to these disputes the thoughts, feelings and fears of our own life experiences.