At the recent 31st Annual Law Firm Marketing Partner Forum, panelists placed a lot of emphasis on ways in which a law firm can become more client centric
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — As the internal role of general counsel (GCs) has expanded beyond simple legal and regulatory oversight and as more in-house counsel are being brought to the table in strategy conversations that involve every facet of their companies’ operations, corporate legal departments are also being asked to do more with less.
And given the close relationship between in-house legal departments and their outside counsel, it is important for law firms to understand and anticipate the shifting responsibilities that GCs are facing. Indeed, firms should be asking themselves how they can better understand the changing needs of their in-house clients and best deliver the kind of legal services that are most needed.
This was the central quandary discussed at several panels during the Thomson Reuters Institute’s recent 31st Annual Law Firm Marketing Partner Forum, especially in a keynote panel that featured law firm managing partners (MPs), corporate GCs, and other company executives.
Indeed, that panel shed light on what panelists described as a “fraught relationship between GCs and MPs, especially around pricing and staffing”, and said that what’s changed significantly from pre-pandemic times is that corporate clients may now have the upper hand in the relationship. “Most law firms are facing pressures, yet firm leaders still have a different sense than do GCs in that they — the outside lawyer — are still in charge of the relationship,” said one panelist. “Yet, client pressures on pricing, efficiency, and service delivery have ratcheted up — something you can see in how RFPs [request for proposals] are written today — so clearly, this is no longer true.”
Seeking collaboration with their outside firms
Many client-side panelists said their organizations were always looking for the opportunity to collaborate with their outside law firms and that those firms that are developing more collaborative relationships can really set themselves apart from the competition. “Unfortunately, there is still too much institutional arrogance on the part of many outside lawyers, especially senior partners,” said another panelist. “Law firm partners would be smart to remember that many in-house lawyers may be smarter than they are given credit for, especially today’s crop of more tech-savvy associates.”
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Indeed, as technology shrinks the legal piece of the corporate spend pie, law firms should be looking for other work they could be doing for the client, such as those tasks that could highlight outside lawyers’ expertise in so-called softer skills such as emotional intelligence and communication, one panelist said.
Indeed, many corporate-side panelists said, until law firm lawyers sit in an in-house seat, they don’t really see how clients use the legal advice that many law firms supply. “It’s like being at a hotel,” another panelist explained. “You have to give your clients what they want. If they want feather pillows, give them feather pillows — don’t give them a cement block to rest their head upon.”
Unfortunately, many lawyers aren’t trained that way, and law firms need to make their lawyers, especially new hires, understand what legal service means to the client. Firms need to focus on training associates in real-life and how to become a better service partner — training that new associates are not getting today in law schools, panelists said.
The client-centric law firm
What do terms like service partner, collaboration, or — another hot button term — being a client-centric law firm really mean to law firms and how do those ideas impact their day-to-day operations?
Another panel addressed that directly, exploring what it means for a law firm to shift to a client-centric model. The first step in any shift of this sort is a critical focus on client assessment, the panel explained, so that firms can determine which clients are getting which levels of service and, more importantly, which clients the firm may not be serving well.
Firms should then move on from assessment to a more holistic approach to how the firm serves its clients. A key client program should be established and run by the firm’s business development department, with the critical factor being that each client should be mapped out to determine what they do and what their everyday legal needs are, panelists said. This could lead to, for example, building software for clients in the IP space, mostly on collaborative platforms, that include data sharing, continuing legal education (CLE), training, and billing platform compatibility, among other features.
“Remember, this kind of client-centric initiative only works if clients know about it. It’s important that the extra amount of work and effort put in must be communicated to the client, otherwise it is lost.”
And as part of the pitch proposal framework, this work should be offered as a value-add, and include such things as placing secondaries, establishing CLE opportunities, and connecting clients with communications and finance professionals.
“Remember, however, this kind of client-centric initiative only works if clients know about it,” said one panelist. “It’s important that the extra amount of work and effort put in must be communicated to the client, otherwise it is lost.”
For firms to truly become more client-centric, however, they have to understand that today’s clients want to expand their needs and seek partners in the legal realm to do so, and that means more touchpoints and connections, externally. Firms and their lawyers need to understand that clients don’t simply want to hear from firms repeatedly just to check in, instead clients want outside law firms that understand and anticipate their needs and can communicate how they’re bringing value to the relationship.
“To be seen as a client-centric firm, it’s important to create an internal culture around delivering legal services and, more critically, communicating that ideal to clients, showing them what the firm fully represents in value to them,” the panelist added.
This is the third and final in series of blog posts featuring key takeaways from the recent Thomson Reuters Institute’s 31st Annual Law Firm Marketing Partner Forum.
