denotes premium content | Oct 16 2008 Managing Partner archive
Volume 7 Issue 5
Eye to eye: In-house and private-practice lawyers face up to change
The most patronising advice to law firms surrounds client service. Instructing lawyers to understand their clients’ needs and consequently cut costs and improve efficiencies is a common theme, the corollary to which is the death of the law firm, if it fails to comply.
It all sounds well and good for the client, but extremely disconcerting for the lawyer trying to earn a living. Law firms may charge high fees, some of which may gall the client, but law firms are also running businesses that need to be profitable.
Indeed, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart’s recent ‘Top of mind’ survey of US in-house counsel (conducted by independent researchers), suggests there may not be a problem anyway. The results are surprisingly good, considering the bad press many law firms have been receiving of late. Most in-house respondents said they were satisfied with the service they were receiving from their law firms, despite the rising costs encountered by nearly all. That these are the same clients that could supposedly run law firms out of business seems unlikely, to say the least.
Refusing to see, or accept, signs of change in the market, however, would be foolish, and client satisfaction and law-firm success have been dependent on adapting to factors that did not exist ten or even five years ago. The impact of Enron perceptibly changed the status quo in companies, catapulting the in-house lawyer to new heights of status and responsibility, as risk management and regulatory compliance became essential priorities. As such, external lawyers could no longer afford to be arrogant, assuming clients would be grateful for any service received. Nor could they rely on their technical expertise to pay the bills. As Carol Williams, company solicitor at Northern Foods, so forceably argues in this issue, in-house counsel do not need to be lectured on the law; they need the expertise and experience of external lawyers, delivered in a distinctly commercial package.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that law firms have to cut costs and, as many have done, work at a loss. Rather, it means firms rethinking the way they manage their client relationships and delivering value to clients. The term ‘value-added services’ has been bandied about in recent months and generally includes everything from providing secondees and training to regular market-update newsletters. These are all important ways of meeting client needs, but they still miss the real point: clients want their firms to think as commercial entities that understand the strategic imperatives of running a business.
And, of course, to succeed in doing this, law firms would do well to change themselves, to think as businesses rather than law firms. This may mean abandoning traditional ways of practising law and accepting that many services can be process driven. That is a hard thing for many firms, whose lawyers refuse to accept that their specialism can be commoditised, but the alternative is forever cutting costs to keep up with the competition, a strategy that is necessarily finite in scope.
There may be much to fear in a competitive market, but there is also good reason for optimism. Many law firms are changing and clients appear far more willing to open their doors to allow their external lawyers to become strategic partners. In the long run, such give and take should mean more profit for all.
Caroline Poynton
Editor
Features
Building bridges: Assessing the in-house/external-counsel relationship
There was a time when private-practice lawyers could name their price and expect in-house counsel to be satisfied. And then, everything changed. Caroline Poynton talks to in-house counsel at Akzo Nobel, Northern Foods and Virgin Management, as well as lawyers at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart and Eversheds, about the evolving relationship between in-house and external lawyers. Derek Benton of Martindale Hubbell and Leigh Dance of ELD International also join the debate.
Making the grade: Winning work from new and existing clients
Asking a law firm to analyse its sales proposition may be akin to drawing blood from a stone. To then suggest training lawyers in sales techniques, such as converting leads into clients, may to many just seem like fantasy. For Jonathan Fox, chief executive at Collyer Bristow, however, it’s just part of a sensible proactive approach to maintaining a successful client-focused business.
Imitation to innovation: Lessons from the consumer world
Professional-services firms are a world unto themselves, or at least that is what we are led to believe when it comes to lessons in best-practice management. Julie Lake, marketing director at Clarke Willmott, questions this assumption to argue that law firms could learn a lot from the consumer world, particularly in respect to innovation.
A single-source solution: Making a law firm into a commercial hub for clients
When Crowell & Moring opened its London office, managing partner Peter Teare had his work cut out. But a solid strategy of cross-selling and commercial focus has created a European business that could well claim that elusive prize of being truly differentiated from its competitors. Caroline Poynton gets the inside story.
Client-relationship management: Thoughts from the bottom line
You may think you’ve heard it all before, but when it comes to meeting client expectations, there’s always something more to be learnt. Paul Gilbert, legal director at LawBook Consulting, has worked with many in-house lawyers, which has given him an inside perspective on what law firms really need to do to improve their client service.
Meeting client needs: A regional perspective
The rise of the regional law firm has been a noticeable trend in the legal market over the past ten years and TLT Solicitors, which recently won a UK ‘Regional law firm of the year’ award, is the latest example of a regionally-based firm to achieve success on a national stage. Managing partner David Pester assesses the firm’s development to date and explains the firm’s management strategy for past and future success.
Regulars
Thought leader
Virtually all large companies rely on a mix of in-house and external lawyers to meet their legal needs. For a general counsel set on achieving the best value for money for his or her company, getting the right combination of internal and external work is a continuing challenge.
Fiveminuteswith...
Client-relationship-management (CRM) strategies vary between firms, from those who define it in terms of technology to those that see it as a purely cultural challenge. Caroline Poynton talks to Stefanie Hoogklimmer, global head of CRM at Clifford Chance, about her efforts to implement effective CRM on an international scale.
