Asking for Letters of Recommendation

What have you guys found to be the best way to ask for letters of recommendation?

I have an interesting situation coming up and would like to use it for my benefit. I got laid off in August and decided to go back to school to finish up my undergrad. I'm currently not working and haven't been looking, but at some point will and am also contemplating graduate school once I get my undergrad complete. So it would be smart to get letters of recommendation. The former owner/P.E. of the company I previously worked for will definitely give me one, and probably my former boss (even though he's an ass) would do so as well.

However, I got asked today to sit in on a conference call tomorrow with my former boss, the only former colleague left standing at my previous employer (yeah the recession hit the company hard), and the client for a project I completed a few years ago. Now I don't work for this company anymore, but as this was my project and this conference call is about more than just the report I wrote, I'm the only one with knowledge of the information the client wants to know. I told them that I would do it. I agreed to it because I might as well stay in good standing, and most importantly, this client was one of my favorite clients I worked with.

As such, this client has had nothing but great things to say about working with me in the past, and has made it a point to let my boss and our P.E. know about it. I figure I might as well get something in return for conducting this conference call as well. So I'd like to get a letter of recommendation from him. I'm not exactly sure how to go about this though.

I figure it's best not to make any mention about it during the conference call. I was thinking about sending him an e-mail after.

Does this sound like the best plan of action, or how would you go about it? Also, how exactly should I word the e-mail if I go this route?

These may seem like pretty dumb questions, but I worked for this company for 5 years and it's really the only professional business company I ever worked for. Thus, I've never asked for letters of rec before.

call him, don't email.

Originally Posted by Matt

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call him, don't email.

+1

My thoughts exactly.

^^^+2.

Yeah, call or visit. Needs a personal touch.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Yeah, call or visit. Needs a personal touch.

Call or ask him to go to lunch.

Depending on what you plan to do for graduate school, most will want academic letters of rec from professors/TAs instead of work experience. Or at least such is the case for law.

edit - typo

Originally Posted by skitlets

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Depending on what you plan to do for graduate school, most will want academic letters of research from professors/TAs instead of work experience. Or at least such is the case for law.
True, academic letters are desired most and carry the most weight in admissions decisions.