The Law Firm of the Future: Intimate Client Relationships
Winslow Homer, An Afterglow (1883)
“My lawyer is my best friend.”
How often has a client said that about you?
“Client intimacy,” not just good client service, will be an important feature of the successful law firm of the future.
This is the third of a series of posts that will describe and explore seven characteristics that will determine which law firms remain successful in the legal services industry of the future, and what law firms can do now to build them into their operations and professional cultures.
One shift, which we have already observed in law firms that have done well during the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be closer, fully-informed, and proactive relationships with clients.
What will this look like?
There are at least seven (and probably more) defining characteristics of a successful response to this challenge:
In-depth — indeed, intimate — knowledge and understanding of the client's strategic and business objectives, not just in the case or transaction that is currently on the lawyer's desk, but reaching into every corner of the client's enterprise
Precise, timely anticipation of the impacts of economic and political developments on each client's need for legal services
Proactive communications with clients, rather than sitting in the office and waiting for the client to call
The ability to deliver legal services anytime and anywhere the client needs them, either directly or through already-established relationships with other legal services providers
Frequent personalized contact, not just a monthly mass-mailing of a newsletter
Custom-tailored performance standards to meet each client's needs and service expectations
Every lawyer, not just a few "rainmaker" partners, with acknowledged, significant individual responsibilities for client relations and business development
What will law firms need to do?
Meeting these new conditions for success will require that some law firms and lawyers shift away from the paradigms that, while arguably successful in the past, have become irrelevant or even counterproductive today. We will see greater attention to, and investment in, a more systematic approach to collective and individual innovation in the management of client relationships. These will include, for example:
Custom-tailored client relations and business development plans for each major client
Interactive client relations management systems that are deployed to, and used by, every lawyer in the firm, not just the marketing department or a few partners
Systems and procedures that support ongoing client feedback — more than the general client survey or the end-of-matter client-satisfaction questionnaire
Policies and procedures to involve clients more directly, and in more significant ways, in decisions about the law firm's management in areas that affect, directly or indirectly, client services
Investment of time, resources, and management attention in the professional development of associates, especially in business development and practice management skills
A client oriented, value-added perspective in the reporting and analysis of firm-wide, practice group, and individual financial performance
None of this is new. Many law firms are already taking these steps toward a successful future. However, those who fail to do so will risk an erosion of the best parts of their client base, the loss of their best legal work, and possible extinction by the of this decade, as increasingly sophisticated clients gravitate to law firms that demonstrate — not just assert in their marketing materials — that they understand the needs of 21st-century clients and meet them with 21st-century approaches to legal services.
The seven defining characteristics of the law firm of the future are:
A conversion from a "factory" model for the production and delivery of legal services to a "shipyard" model
Closer, ongoing client relationships
Sustainable profitability
Very high workflow leverage
"Anytime, anywhere" service delivery capabilities
An intense focus on quality management
A predisposition for innovation.