denotes premium content | Aug 30 2008 Managing Partner archive
Volume 5 Issue 7
Law firms seeking to win and retain clients must strive harder to meet the needs and expectations of a demanding marketplace. Even firms that have enjoyed a relatively stable position on a legal panel must now prove their merit as clients, cut legal spend and reduce the number of firms they work with.
A first step to meeting client needs must be to understand their requirements. This month’s interview with Jonathan Spencer, vice president and associate counsel at Cable & Wireless Global, gives an insight into client expectations. He raises some refreshing thoughts that should do much to ease the pessimism that many firms are feeling. In particular, he says that tough times often mean a greater rather than a lesser need for external lawyers, and building a mutual relationship of co-operation is the way forward for both businesses.
It is clear from the features in this issue that the best firms meet the needs of their clients and look to the additional services they might provide that will help develop and sustain a key relationship. This might include supporting a client with their training needs or providing a library of documents. In return, lawyers might be offered secondments to in-house departments – an ideal way to learn more about their clients and a good opportunity to bond with a client company.
Focusing on the internal as well as the external process of winning and retaining clients, Helena Twist and Claire Wheat of Hammonds Suddards Edge present a detailed case study on managing the content behind business relationships. A law firm’s main asset is its people and their knowledge. Harnessing and effectively managing that expertise is a sure-fire way of better dealing with clients. Jonathan Spencer believes law firms are generally getting their relationships right – this case study does much to reinforce that view.
There is of course another side to the coin and Michael Simmons of Finers Stephens Innocent delivers a damning and harrowing verdict on the current state of affairs. While there’s always something to learn from the toughest of times, Simmons argues that law firms can easily become the brunt of their clients’ woes, forced to quote work on a loss-leader basis and striving to win beauty parades that are designed merely to sharpen up the act of an incumbent firm.
While depressing, there is a great deal of truth to his argument. Law firms must balance the good with the bad. Tough times can provide the perfect chance to differentiate service offerings and shine in the eyes of a client looking to work with core firms. Firms can, however, fall into the trap of accepting everything and anything even if the work doesn’t pay the overheads. Successful firms are those that remain the most discerning, that recognise the difference between good and bad client opportunities, and are happy to withdraw if they’re faced with a turkey.
On that note, if you’ll pardon the obvious pun, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Caroline Poynton
Editor
Features
Targeting and winning business
Business development can be a difficult concept for professionals who have long relied on their reputation and expertise to win clients. However, in a changing marketplace where professional firms need to sell their services if they are to maintain profits, strategies for effective business development must be understood and practised throughout the firm. Peter Matthews, partner in charge of business development at Ernst & Young, examined this area at the recent Professional Services Marketing Group (PSMG) conference. In this article, he gives a synopsis of the workshop that he ran.
Client power: A lesson in the harsh realities of life
Law firms rarely receive much sympathy during recession where cut-backs and an image of money-hungry lawyers appear an incongruous match. Michael Simmons, a partner at Finers Stephens Innocent and a consultant on professional practice problems, argues that legal spend is often the first casualty in an economic downturn where clients are eager to cut costs to sustain their own profitability. With firms left out in the cold, how can lawyers hope to survive the hard times?
Why some law firms are more successful than others
Why is it that some law firms, ostensibly operating in the same sector and providing much the same services, in much the same way, do better than others? In this article, Stephen Mayson, a professor at Nottingham Law School and consultant on legal practice, identifies the underlying factors that might explain these relative differences.
Managing content-heavy client relationships
Helena Twist, director of legal development and Claire Wheat, director of quality at Hammonds Suddards Edge examine a number of content management issues in the professional services environment. In particular, they assess how the introduction of their content management system enabled them to offer improved access to quality knowledge and expertise. They explore the challenge of meeting the requirements of internal clients (or co-workers) and external, or business clients.
Live your values and become an employer of choice
Competition to recruit the best staff can be fierce and for many mid-tier practices the budget will rarely stretch to parallel the recruitment spend of larger firms. Michael Shaw, managing partner at Cobbetts, explains why budget is not the be-all-and-end-all and how firms can enjoy successful staff recruitment and retention by living out the firm’s values.
Outstanding service: Going back to the basics
Firms are continually looking for a differentiator that will set them apart from their competition. This is particularly the case during economic downturns when retaining clients becomes imperative for sustaining profitability. Lisa Hart, a director at Acritas, examines how effective research of your clients’ needs can make all the difference in this competitive marketplace.
Regulars
Web article: Selecting employees with competence
Getting recruitment wrong can have a huge impact in terms of costs to a firm. Bettina Alderton, an occupational psychologist at Longbridge International, explains why law firms might have been getting the recruitment method wrong and examines how the interview process can be better used to predict job performance.
Web article: Lessons on press relations following the Anderson-Enron event
The fall of Anderson should have left a resounding message to all professional service firms: if it could happen to a firm like Anderson, it could almost certainly happen to your business. Richard S. Levick, president and Larry Smith, strategic director at Levick Strategic Communications examine the fall of Anderson and the lessons that law firms should absorb to ensure that they do not make the same mistakes.
Interview: the client equation
The past year has been a tough one for business and many law firm clients have been forced to cut down expenses and justify their spend. In such a market, law firms must work ever-harder to understand and meet the needs of their clients. Caroline Poynton talks to Jonathan Spencer, vice president and associate general counsel at Cable & Wireless Global about their needs and expectations. In particular, he argues that it’s all about developing a co-operative approach and a spirit of mutual understanding.
Law firm profile: Bevan Ashford EPL
Despite the economic uncertainties of recent months, Bevan Ashford has enjoyed a particularly successful year with profits per equity partner up by 41 per cent (The Legal Business 100, 2002, published in Legal Business, September 2002). Caroline Poynton talks to Simon Rous, managing partner at Bevan Ashford’s EPL profit centre, about the firm’s successes and challenges and about how his own career has developed during his 17 years with the firm.
