The whys and wherefores of the relationship partner

For many lawyers, who have worked for so long within the individualistic culture of the partnership model, firm-wide client management is an elusive dream, rarely fulfilled. Ian Reaves, partner in charge of client development at Hammonds, argues that the answer lies with the relationship partner, a position that can drive a firm and its people to new heights of success and profitability.

A lawyer’s day-to-day focus is to deliver expertise to clients. The perception for many is that they “buy” support from within the firm on an “as needs”, sporadic basis. They also claim complete responsibility for the client.

The lawyer clearly thinks this is good for him or her. The daydream is the next salary/profit review or that tempting call from a head-hunter. You can hear it: “Yes, XYZ Group PLC is my client and they will follow me.”

The two questions that must be asked from this are whether this is good for the client and/or good for the firm?

I have said two questions, but the reality is that the client’s and the firm’s interests are the same. The behaviour I have described is no good for either, and the quality of the client relationship is diminished and damaged as a result. Some of the reasons for this are:

The client will not be getting the full benefit of the firm’s expertise, knowledge and network;
The work is probably not being done cost effectively;
The specialist lawyers are not allowed to develop relationships with the client. Will the lawyer responsible for the client miss fundamental issues due to the individualistic approach? What risk issues arise?
The behaviour is not aligned to the firm’s values and brand. On the basis that you are the client’s perception, then the firm is probably not highly valued;
The firm’s relationship with the client is very limited, fragile and unmanageable;
Lost opportunities and related income losses are probably very high.

If your firm’s strategy is to create the right client environment, which promotes cross-selling and client management, you will need a number of strategies and tactics. My article in the May edition of Managing Partner dealt with many of these in detail. In this article, I look more closely at the role of relationship partners, who, if properly trained and given clear objectives, are essential to ensure success.

Before we look at the who, what and how of the relationship partner, let’s think about the issue of titles. We are in a profession that is cluttered with titles: “head of”, “unit head”, “office head”, etc. Most titles are internally focused and have no commercial meaning or value for the corporate client, which begs the question: why add to the clutter with another title?

The title, relationship partner, is important for both client and firm. Sales development and relationship management is the most important part of a partner’s responsibilities. Having specific relationship partners, whose role is to focus and develop the firm’s client relationships, is an important part of growing the firm as a whole. It is also important to the actual client relationship as it helps the client know who is responsible and accountable for his relationship with the whole firm. If all goes according to plan, the relationship partner will become the trusted and liked ambassador of the firm.

In conceptual terms, every partner or future partner must have or develop the skills of a relationship partner. No-one can be excluded if the firm is going to live up to its objective of building client relationships based on understanding and trust.

However, against the background of a planned culture change not all partners will have the skills. You must move away from allowing a partner to represent himself as a de-facto relationship partner merely because he has current work or has “won” a piece of work in his own area. Accordingly, the senior partner needs, in the first instance, to communicate to his partners his objectives with regard to the crucial 20 per cent of the clients of the firm. He must then align and appoint the most appropriate partners to these strategically valuable relationships.

At the same time, the senior partner must use his partner-appraisal training and remuneration systems to encourage, manage and direct all partners into the most appropriate behaviour to support the objective of the firm with regard to client development. As time goes by, this will become natural behaviour, with partners acting as examples to all lawyers and support staff in the firm.

There are several short-term gains for a firm that has these objectives. Client relationships are more secure and profitable and the costs of securing new business are reduced by cross-selling and successfully managing an existing client.

This focus on client relationships will turn the firm into a more cohesive, focused and dynamic business organisation, where the client’s trust and perception of the firm also improves. The core skills required by a relationship partner can be summarised as follows:

Personal: It is essential that the partner is trusted by the client and his colleagues. Communication requires verbal presentation skills and, most important of all, the ability to listen. The relationship partner must be able to create, develop and manage the long-term agenda that exists between the firm and client;
Commercial: The core requirement is to understand the client. Traditionally, corporate lawyers have been the de-facto relationship partners to key clients. Why? Primarily because corporate transactions involve senior management. Now that so many specialist areas of law impact on corporate clients, partners from employment, pensions, construction/projects and commercial can fulfil this role. They may require training and support in increasing their understanding as to how boards and operational boards function.

Corporate clients used to have the same silo mentality to law as lawyers. There could be as many legal firms working for a company as there were board members. Now they see legal advice as a weapon in dealing with the risks facing the whole, rather than part, of the business. They are reducing the number of legal firms they rely on. This is creating a number of changes. They assume and expect you to understand their business. They also assume and demand that the lawyer understands his own business. The reality in many firms, however, is that most partners have no idea what other parts of the firm are doing. This is potentially very damaging for the firm, its brand and the client relationship.

I think things are improving because most transactions or projects have a basic need for corporate, employment and pensions skills (at least) if you are not going to be accused of negligence. However, there are still many lawyers who practice in a very individualistic way. If your firm is creating the right client environment, it should be relatively easy for a relationship partner to understand what the firm is doing. A basic understanding can be obtained from regularly reading the website, attending seminars, bulletins and client alerts.

A relationship partner must also establish relationships with all key lawyers in the areas of the firm from which his client requires services. Further, using his understanding of the client and its key legal buyers, he must start to assess whether the client is getting what they need to satisfy their long-term legal requirements;
Financial: These skills must focus on a range of areas – assessment, planning and negotiation.

Being a relationship partner for a new client that has been “won” in a beauty parade is different to becoming a relationship partner for an existing client. With a new client, every aspect of the relationship should be clear, even its financial terms and subsequent dates for review. With an existing relationship, you must assess whether the firm is being paid the right price for the current service. If not, will the client allow you to review it upwards?

The planning and negotiation skills of the relationship partner are essential both internally and externally in delivering a restructured profitable and sustainable client relationship for the firm.

These are the skills of a relationship partner – but what do they do? Why are they so important if they operate effectively?

The relationship partner’s primary objectives must be to protect, develop and manage the client relationship for the firm. Indeed, every business with high-value, people-based income streams must protect them. However, how do you protect something that is intangible?

Relationships and trust are the foundations to protecting a client relationship. The relationship partner must develop open relationships with the key legal buyers at the client company. This means that information, views and problems are shared both ways so that the relationship becomes the main channel through which problems can be identified and resolved.

We have looked at why we need relationship partners, who can fulfil the role and its principal objectives. Now, what tools/tactics can a relationship partner employ to fulfil those objectives? The essentials are:

1. Financial information
The firm’s finance department should regularly provide the relationship partner with information related to the client relationship. It should clearly show the departments, partners and lawyers who are operating on behalf of the client, with locations where applicable, their unbilled and billed time and any information on aged debtors. This information will tell the relationship partner what the firm is doing and also what potential work it isn’t doing.

2. Client-relationship information
The relationship partner must have a complete picture of the firm’s current relationship network with the client. Simply, who knows whom? When I say “knows”, I do not mean clients you once had a drink with. It means clients with whom you have a current, working business relationship. When you match this information with your current work, you can work out whether your existing relationship and income depends upon the goodwill of people your firm doesn’t yet know.

3. The client team
We have all heard comments from clients like: “He is a great lawyer but he never uses an assistant more than once.”

“I can never get him on the phone and I can’t remember the name of that excellent assistant!”

“I think he is great but I can’t get on with any of his other partners.”

Such comments highlight the importance of the client team, a key asset in the success or failure of a client relationship.

The relationship partner needs to identify whether he has a client team, which has the correct balance of cost, technical and relationship-development skills to service the current work. You must have a sound base before trying to implement a development plan.

Why is this often so difficult for lawyers? We know how clients feel. Only today, my bank (who I have been with for ten years) irritated me. I needed to open some specialist accounts. It had to be done by another department. I was treated like a complete stranger. Marketing departments, brochures, databases, websites, all are important and have their place, and have an agreed marketing strategy. However, clear objectives and successful implementation are the only key measures of success. High quality, profitable client relationships are the result. This is the responsibility of relationship partners, who must protect, develop and manage the key clients of your firm.

Ian Reaves is partner in charge of client development at Hammonds. He can be contacted at: ian.reaves@hammonds.com.