Voice of the Client: Client Interviews: Lessons Learned

One company, a financial services firm, used a law firm for patent prosecution work. During the interview, the client expressed complete satisfaction with the three-person team that handles most of its matters. At the same time, the client was utterly unaware that the law firm also had a strong patent litigation group, not to mention broad capability in complex commercial litigation. As a result, the law firm was missing out on a number of opportunities to expand the scope of work performed for the financial services firm.

Interviews frequently reveal a client's myopia regarding the range of services offered by its outside counsel. There are a number of causes for the client's failure to see other services. Perhaps the lawyers serving the client are protecting their turf. Alternatively, they may also be unaware of their own firm's various capabilities. Regardless of the cause, the problem is particularly distressing because it is generally more fruitful to seek additional business from existing clients, with whom you have established trust and credibility, than to pursue new clients.

The cure for client myopia is gathering data and informing the client of additional capabilities. Before the discussion, an interviewer should perform extensive research on the client's business, including a discussion with the primary team serving the client, to learn about the client's needs and aspirations. The interviewer is thus prepared to prospect for opportunities to plug in colleagues from other practice areas who can address other needs. In addition, it may bear fruit to describe to the client significant developments in the firm ' perhaps a new lateral group, or the launch of an IP-focused office in Silicon Valley. When the client knows more about what a firm does, the door often opens to new work.

Deepening Relationships

Just as it is essential to make clients aware of the scope of services they offer, savvy law firms ensure that the client becomes closely acquainted with more than just the lead member of the team. In the long term, clients are justifiably concerned if their primary outside counsel is nearing retirement age, with no heir apparent. In the short term, having a deeper bench ensures seamless coverage if the lead lawyer is on vacation, in a deposition, or ill.

For example, in-house counsel at a hospital in Los Angeles farmed out much of its labor and employment work to a local lawyer who was the exclusive point of contact. During an interview, the hospital's lawyers took pains to note that that they had come to know several members of the outside team that provided corporate services. The Los Angeles lawyers got the message and quickly integrated additional lawyers into the mix.

With this in mind, lawyers should be on the lookout for opportunities to introduce their colleagues to the client, both through substantive work on behalf of the client and in social settings. When the client develops trust and confidence with other members of the team, the outside firm strengthens its position.

Demonstrating Value

During interviews, clients provide insights into what they perceive as valuable. Such insights are instructive in a firm's overall approach to client service. The list below includes some recurring themes that have helped firms demonstrate their value proposition and enhance their overall service to clients.

• Clients expect responsiveness. While the prevailing ethic in the professional world emphasizes the importance of “work-life balance,” clients haven't received the memo. During one client interview, for example, a lawyer at a financial services firm complained that his outside lawyer neglected to return e-mails promptly on Christmas weekend.
• Clients expect you to understand their business. In interviews, clients express their appreciation for lawyers who recognize their business challenges and opportunities and fold this understanding into their advice.
• Clients expect flexibility in the approach to fees. This subject could fill another article, but at a minimum, clients expect outside counsel to entertain the idea of alternative fee arrangements.
• Clients pay attention to staffing. If squadrons of first-year associates are joining conference calls or showing up on invoices, clients will wonder why they're subsidizing the associates' training.'It's better to err on the side of lean staffing.
• Clients are grateful when outside counsel alerts them to important developments. They frequently cite the value of timely, thoughtful legal updates regarding developments in their fields, such as the impact of a recent appeals court ruling or a tricky new regulation.

One client, a large, public company that found itself embroiled in a spurt of litigation, expressed an interest in a continuing legal education session on e-discovery. In-house counsel at another company said she appreciated quick, succinct updates of developments delivered by e-mail ' particularly in more esoteric areas where she lacked sufficient time to perform research. (A caveat: Clients say that just the first couple of advisories have value, and only if they are drafted and sent within hours of the triggering event. Take, for example, last year's closely watched decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Association for Molecular Pathology et al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., et al., decided June 13, 2013, in which the Court addressed the validity of gene patenting. While the first couple of advisories on Myriad were welcomed, the 10th was equivalent to spam.)

• Clients want you to understand their internal pressures. In an era of unprecedented austerity, clients are under intense pressure to hew to budgets and manage expenditures. At least one large company, for example, requires its inside counsel to account for expenditures that exceed or fall short of budget by more than 5%.
• Clients expect clear, succinct prose. Many clients express their appreciation for well-written documents. In an era of texting, it's still important to write professionally.
• Clients demand practical, substantive advice. While lawyers are trained to argue both sides of an issue, clients don't appreciate equivocation. They want outside counsel to recommend a course of action and stand by it.

Conclusion

It bears mentioning that the work doesn't stop when the interviewer leaves the client's office. If a client has the impression that its outside firm has made a commitment to certain action items ' sponsoring a CLE session, introducing a new group of lawyers, attending a conference ' a failure to follow through can harm the relationship. This is axiomatic, but busy lawyers neglect to perform simple action items all the time. Clients notice.

An interview is a terrific way to assess a client's view of a law firm's performance with a particular client. In the aggregate, however, the insights produced by client interviews allow a firm to enhance its service for all clients. The importance of studying and acting on this information derives from perhaps the most important insight: the frank admission by clients that competing law firms are regularly seeking their business.

John D. Tuerck is an attorney and partner at Law Practice Consultants. He may be reached at [email protected] or 781-801-7381.

A meaningful client interview invariably produces valuable insights into the relationship between the client and its outside counsel, as well as opportunities to expand the scope of work. An interview provides opportunities for a firm to assess areas in which it can improve its service, as well as tactics to pursue additional work. Executed properly, an effective interview is an outstanding approach to strengthening a firm's relationship with a particular client.

Firms seeking to maximize the utility of client interviews, however, will aggregate the results of interviews and review them periodically ' say, at the end of a calendar year. By analyzing trends and recurring themes from interviews, firms learn bigger lessons about improving their overall client service. The lessons tend to fall into three categories: curing client myopia, deepening relationships, and demonstrating value.

Curing Client Myopia

One company, a financial services firm, used a law firm for patent prosecution work. During the interview, the client expressed complete satisfaction with the three-person team that handles most of its matters. At the same time, the client was utterly unaware that the law firm also had a strong patent litigation group, not to mention broad capability in complex commercial litigation. As a result, the law firm was missing out on a number of opportunities to expand the scope of work performed for the financial services firm.

Interviews frequently reveal a client's myopia regarding the range of services offered by its outside counsel. There are a number of causes for the client's failure to see other services. Perhaps the lawyers serving the client are protecting their turf. Alternatively, they may also be unaware of their own firm's various capabilities. Regardless of the cause, the problem is particularly distressing because it is generally more fruitful to seek additional business from existing clients, with whom you have established trust and credibility, than to pursue new clients.

The cure for client myopia is gathering data and informing the client of additional capabilities. Before the discussion, an interviewer should perform extensive research on the client's business, including a discussion with the primary team serving the client, to learn about the client's needs and aspirations. The interviewer is thus prepared to prospect for opportunities to plug in colleagues from other practice areas who can address other needs. In addition, it may bear fruit to describe to the client significant developments in the firm ' perhaps a new lateral group, or the launch of an IP-focused office in Silicon Valley. When the client knows more about what a firm does, the door often opens to new work.

Deepening Relationships

Just as it is essential to make clients aware of the scope of services they offer, savvy law firms ensure that the client becomes closely acquainted with more than just the lead member of the team. In the long term, clients are justifiably concerned if their primary outside counsel is nearing retirement age, with no heir apparent. In the short term, having a deeper bench ensures seamless coverage if the lead lawyer is on vacation, in a deposition, or ill.

For example, in-house counsel at a hospital in Los Angeles farmed out much of its labor and employment work to a local lawyer who was the exclusive point of contact. During an interview, the hospital's lawyers took pains to note that that they had come to know several members of the outside team that provided corporate services. The Los Angeles lawyers got the message and quickly integrated additional lawyers into the mix.

With this in mind, lawyers should be on the lookout for opportunities to introduce their colleagues to the client, both through substantive work on behalf of the client and in social settings. When the client develops trust and confidence with other members of the team, the outside firm strengthens its position.

Demonstrating Value

During interviews, clients provide insights into what they perceive as valuable. Such insights are instructive in a firm's overall approach to client service. The list below includes some recurring themes that have helped firms demonstrate their value proposition and enhance their overall service to clients.

• Clients expect responsiveness. While the prevailing ethic in the professional world emphasizes the importance of “work-life balance,” clients haven't received the memo. During one client interview, for example, a lawyer at a financial services firm complained that his outside lawyer neglected to return e-mails promptly on Christmas weekend.
• Clients expect you to understand their business. In interviews, clients express their appreciation for lawyers who recognize their business challenges and opportunities and fold this understanding into their advice.
• Clients expect flexibility in the approach to fees. This subject could fill another article, but at a minimum, clients expect outside counsel to entertain the idea of alternative fee arrangements.
• Clients pay attention to staffing. If squadrons of first-year associates are joining conference calls or showing up on invoices, clients will wonder why they're subsidizing the associates' training.'It's better to err on the side of lean staffing.
• Clients are grateful when outside counsel alerts them to important developments. They frequently cite the value of timely, thoughtful legal updates regarding developments in their fields, such as the impact of a recent appeals court ruling or a tricky new regulation.

One client, a large, public company that found itself embroiled in a spurt of litigation, expressed an interest in a continuing legal education session on e-discovery. In-house counsel at another company said she appreciated quick, succinct updates of developments delivered by e-mail ' particularly in more esoteric areas where she lacked sufficient time to perform research. (A caveat: Clients say that just the first couple of advisories have value, and only if they are drafted and sent within hours of the triggering event. Take, for example, last year's closely watched decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Association for Molecular Pathology et al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., et al., decided June 13, 2013, in which the Court addressed the validity of gene patenting. While the first couple of advisories on Myriad were welcomed, the 10th was equivalent to spam.)

• Clients want you to understand their internal pressures. In an era of unprecedented austerity, clients are under intense pressure to hew to budgets and manage expenditures. At least one large company, for example, requires its inside counsel to account for expenditures that exceed or fall short of budget by more than 5%.
• Clients expect clear, succinct prose. Many clients express their appreciation for well-written documents. In an era of texting, it's still important to write professionally.
• Clients demand practical, substantive advice. While lawyers are trained to argue both sides of an issue, clients don't appreciate equivocation. They want outside counsel to recommend a course of action and stand by it.

Conclusion

It bears mentioning that the work doesn't stop when the interviewer leaves the client's office. If a client has the impression that its outside firm has made a commitment to certain action items ' sponsoring a CLE session, introducing a new group of lawyers, attending a conference ' a failure to follow through can harm the relationship. This is axiomatic, but busy lawyers neglect to perform simple action items all the time. Clients notice.

An interview is a terrific way to assess a client's view of a law firm's performance with a particular client. In the aggregate, however, the insights produced by client interviews allow a firm to enhance its service for all clients. The importance of studying and acting on this information derives from perhaps the most important insight: the frank admission by clients that competing law firms are regularly seeking their business.

John D. Tuerck is an attorney and partner at Law Practice Consultants. He may be reached at [email protected] or 781-801-7381.