One of most serious challenges faced by lawyers today is how to differentiate themselves in the increasingly competitive legal marketplace. Stellar legal skills are no longer enough to attract and retain clients; they are simply assumed. You need to be able to bring more to the table than excellent legal skills and deep knowledge of the law if you want to “stand out” in the crowd.
Having held several in-house counsel roles during my legal career, I would like to share some insights into what your in-house counsel clients are looking for from their outside counsel and how you can build deep relationships of trust with clients who will remain loyal to you year after year. And, as we always say at Threshold, whoever is able to develop and nurture the most sustained, long-term valuable relationships “wins.”
Here are a few tips that will help you to develop and sustain relationships of value with your in-house clients that will, in turn, enable you to have a consistent and profitable “book” of business:
(1) Know your client. Get to know your client both personally and professionally. Take the time to learn as much as you can about your client’s family, work, hobbies and interests, career and personal aspirations and share yours with them. This will help to deepen your relationships and allow you to help your clients in ways that have value far beyond the traditional lawyer/client relationship. (An example: you learn that your client’s 9-year-old son is a soccer player and a serious professional soccer fan and you get tickets and take him, with his son and yours, to a professional soccer game when Manchester United is in town…now, that’s value!)
(2) Know your client’s business and industry. The more you know about your client’s business and the industry of which it is a part, the more valuable your advice will be. Get to know the company’s long-term strategies and goals; its financial performance (e.g., its stock price, performance and trends and market cap, if public, its investors, if private) and key business drivers (i.e., how it makes a profit); the organizational structure and its key players; its market share and major competitors; its industry and the current trends and factors impacting the industry (e.g., new regulations); its most important customers, suppliers and strategic partners, etc.
(3) Understand your client’s company politics and internal challenges. Every company has unique characteristics with internal politics and pressures all its own. When you know the company’s culture and key players, you will know what it means when your client says “I need this answer for John” (his boss, the impatient CEO), and you can respond appropriately, knowing that your in-house client is under severe pressure to get that answer for John ASAP! The more key players you and your team get to know at the company, the deeper your knowledge and relationships will be and the better service you will be able to provide, substantially increasing the likelihood of client satisfaction and loyalty over time.
(4) Put the right team on the matter. These days, in-house counsel are under significant pressure to control their “legal spend.” The scrutiny of legal bills and expenses is intense, with regular demands made of in-house counsel to both predict and lower outside counsel costs. Spend your client’s money as if it were your own by properly staffing matters and getting upfront agreement about who from your firm will be assigned to the project and what their roles will be. Keep the client regularly updated…he/she does not want to surprised with a larger than expected legal bill. Would you want to sit each month with your internal audit or finance staff having to justify why your budget is so far off or why there was so much time spent by junior associates doing research for a minor legal matter?
(5) Give fast, practical, useful advice. In many cases what in-house counsel needs is quick, practical advice that they can act upon immediately. They are generally not looking for long-winded explanations or exquisitely researched, beautifully written legal memoranda—they have a problem and they need to solve it…yesterday! They call you because you can get them the answers they need so they can timely and appropriately meet the needs of their clients.
(6) Play fair/don’t overreach. It has been my experience that if you do the right thing for a client, it will always inure to your long-term benefit. You will build trust if you work with your clients in an open and honest way that honors each others’ needs. If appropriate, keep an open mind and work with them to creatively manage costs, considering alternative fee arrangements, discounted rates, risk sharing, etc., with the understanding that they value and respect the service you provide and recognize that you and your firm need to make a profit too!
(7) Make your client “look good.” There are many ways to make your in-house client “look good”; the most obvious being doing excellent legal work and getting them the answers they need in a timely manner. Other, less obvious, ways can include offering to “co-author” an article with them where you do most of the work and they add their quick “two cents” and get authors’ credit; endorsing or recommending them on LinkedIn and for internal and external awards for which they may qualify; speaking to their boss and other senior managers about the great job they are doing for the company, etc. Whatever you can do to help your clients to advance their careers will help to cement your relationship.
Equipped with these tips, you will be able to build a reputation for providing outstanding service that will set you apart from the competition and make you the lawyer with whom they choose to work year after year!