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Practice Building Skills: Straight from the GC's Mouth

By Evan and Chuck Polin
April 28, 2008

When trying to develop your business, it is always important to think about the client or potential client with whom you are speaking. It is vital to find out what their needs are, and to discover how you can best help them with their issues. It is important to take the time to ask your clients and potential clients detailed questions. These questions should not just pertain to the legal matter at hand. You should also be asking questions regarding how the individual or company prefers to interact with their law firm. Two companies may have similar legal issues, but have completely different expectations regarding what they are looking for from their law firm, and what they hope the final outcome will be. One of the major mistakes that we see attorneys and law firms make when they pitch business is that they spend too much time outlining their experience and what they can do for their client (the pitch), and they don't spend enough time asking their potential client what is important to them when hiring an attorney.

Lessons Learned from a Panel Discussion

Back in February, our firm hosted a CLE program in the Greater Philadelphia area titled 'How Attorneys Can Make the Perfect Presentation ' From a General Counsel's Perspective.' The program was a panel discussion and included four of the major rainmakers in Philadelphia and three General Counsel attorneys (GCs) of major companies in the region. As the program progressed, we noticed that there was a huge gap between what the attorneys thought was important to the General Counsels, and what actually mattered to the General Counsels when choosing an attorney. Many of the attorneys walked into that program believing that their credentials and name recognition were some of the most important factors that went into a GC's decision-making process. The answers that the attorneys received as the GCs spoke painted a much different picture.

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