Personal approach and efficiency: The Lindahl story

The Swedish legal market is highly competitive with a few larger, full-service firms fighting with mid-size and boutique firms for the high-end work. Lindahl was particularly pleased, therefore, when it was elected Sweden’s best business law firm in a survey published by Veckans Affärer, a Swedish business magazine. Managing partner Staffan Eklöw explores the background to their success and why he believes the firm has managed to stay one step ahead of the pack.

When the person on the other end of the line introduced herself as someone working at Veckans Affärer, a Swedish weekly business magazine, the first thought that opped into my head was “yet another sales person trying to convince me to advertise”. Thankfully, however, the purpose of her call was completely different. Lindahl had, she told me, been ranked as the best business law firm of the year in Sweden, in the magazine’s annual professional-service survey.

With 100 fee earners Lindahl is the fourth largest law firm in Sweden. It has offices in the country’s main commercial centres: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Uppsala, Örebro and Helsingborg. A central element of Lindahl’s practice is advising foreign clients on Swedish law and the firm has extensive experience of international corporate law.

In the survey, Sweden’s major buyers of professional services were asked to grade the country’s best professional-service providers within business law, executive recruitment, IT/internet, management, communication and auditing. Trust, client orientation, competence, and results were the core criteria that were assessed.

A set of core values

So why do I believe Lindahl was voted number one?

Like other law firms, Lindahl has a high level of expertise in all areas of business law and an in-depth knowledge of the clients’ businesses. Lindahl also responds quickly to requests from clients and has the ability to provide a team of lawyers with a good level of legal expertise at short notice. But this is not something that is unique to Lindahl.

What differentiates Lindahl from some other law firms is the set of core values that the firm strives to live up to. Indeed, there is no way to survive as a top-tier firm without them. Lindahl uses its core values to capitalise on the advantages of a mid-size firm and at the same time meet the standards of the largest firms.

Lindahl’s core values have not been developed by expensive external management consultants or in lengthy partner meetings. Instead, the values have been developed through a natural process over many years.

In the 1990s, six firms merged to form what is today Lindahl. Naturally, all the firms had similar basic values on how to run a law firm. The challenges were encountered when it was time to formalise those values and communicate them to the organisation to get everybody working from the same platform. Thanks to the involvement of the managing partner at each office, however, Lindahl succeeded in implementing the core values throughout the firm and, over time, making them a clear part of the firm’s way of doing business. The ongoing challenge has been to ensure staff members maintain awareness of these values in their day-to-day work.

No-nonsense approach

One of the core values is what Lindahl calls the “no-nonsense approach”. The expression was formed by a journalist to describe Lindahl’s way of doing business in an article about the Swedish legal market. In short, the no-nonsense approach is a matter of providing high-quality advice to clients on time and at the cost that the clients find reasonable. It is not about writing, and billing for a 40-page memo when the client is more interested in a general orientation paper of two pages. It is also about efficiency.

High levels of partner involvement

Another core value is the high level of partner involvement. Many clients choose to partner with Lindahl because of the expertise of the firm’s partners. When working with these clients, it is vital that they feel confident that their preferred partner is continuously involved in all aspects of the case. It is also vital that all critical issues have been fully discussed. Not only is the partner a key team member in the drafting process but he or she is highly involved throughout the entire operation. That means that any comments, questions, or criticism from the client always reach the partner.

To face the challenges that can arise in large complex projects and to provide a high level of partner involvement, the teams may be staffed with several partners. Again, the reason is to ensure that Lindahl always and efficiently delivers the best quality to each client in every transaction.

Long-term relationships

The importance of long-term relationships has become clear over the years that Lindahl has been in business. Lindahl works hard to build long-term relationships with every client. The firm also works to ensure that there is a small group of lawyers that stay in key contact with the client. The trust that develops over the years between Lindahl and clients in these relationships is highly valuable to both the law firm and the client.

Solid knowledge about the client’s business

Lindahl strives to have an in-depth knowledge about the client’s business and the business environment in which the company is active. Clients value knowing that the law firm in charge has been involved in its business for several years, knows all the key staff, and has a good understanding of its business environment.

High levels of expertise

Lindahl has put great emphasis on developing expertise within a number of key business-law areas, for example, M&A, banking and finance, EU and competition, insurance, insolvency, media, sport and entertainment, maritime and transport,

and IT/telecoms. Considering the size of the firm, I believe that we have reached an impressive level of know-how.

Recruiting the right people

Being a lawyer is, as in most consulting businesses, about dealing with people. Even the most brilliant lawyer may scare the clients away if he or she does not have the necessary communication and interpersonal skills. As associates become more senior they will be in direct contact with the clients where communication skills are not only about being able to explain a complicated legal issue, but also about building trust and a strong relationship with the client. This is vital when it comes to Lindahl’s personal approach to doing business.

Independence

Lindahl’s strategy is to remain independent in relation to other consultants and law firms. This means that the firm can choose the most relevant partners to work with in each situation. The client can always be confident that the partner chosen is the best given the client’s requirements and the individual case.

No weak links

The client’s perception of Lindahl is not only about the lawyers, it is also about how the entire staff communicates with clients. The way that, for example, the receptionists respond to phone calls or how service-minded the secretarial staff are

when dealing with a particular client’s request creates positive perceptions. Such areas are very important for the overall perception of Lindahl. Therefore, the firm puts great emphasis on the entire staff being service-minded towards each client in every situation.

Lindahl’s position as one of Sweden’s top-ranked law firms is not a result of sophisticated CRM systems or complex strategies developed by external management consultants. It is rather a result of following and living a set of core values, which have been a part of Lindahl for many years. These core values have become natural guidelines for our relationships with clients.

Staffan Eklöw is managing partner at Lindahl. He can be contacted at: staffan.eklow@lindahl.se.