Listening to the Client: Where Do We Stand?

Face-to-face meetings are best. Client presentations. End-of-matter calls or questionnaires. |

Bottom Line

An unwillingness to engage in these conversations is, at best, irrational and, at worst, fatal.

• “We use firm X more than the firm you are representing because they put their associates more front and center.”
• “We are planning to shift [a significant amount] of our work to a different firm because the partner that would be assigned to do the work [by the relationship partner] does not have positive chemistry with our team.”“We will have $400k of new patent work next year, but we will not give that work to [primary lawyer] because he is so busy, we are worried about his health. We are concerned that the additional work might give him a heart attack.” (I will never forget an interview about 20 years ago with one of a firm's most significant clients. The general counsel had great things to say about the lawyers, but then said: “But if they don't get more [expletive] fax machines, we will fire the firm ….” [Yes, the firm added fax machines.])
• “I use firm X more than [the firm I was representing] for private equity deals because they get it done with one partner and an associate or two, not a team of five or six.”
• “We would give them more work if they would just make an effort to develop a budget at the beginning of new matters.”
• Finally, my favorite comment that I have heard many times at the end of an interview: “Thanks for visiting, I can't believe more firms don't do this.”

Jim Durham The Essential Little Book of Great Lawyering The Essential Little Book of Service Excellence