Approach to building and maintaining client relationships

Even if a firm meets a client’s expectations in terms of capabilities, reputation, experience and value for money, the individuals working for the client probably won’t choose a law firm if they don’t get on with the firm’s people and like the firm’s working style. After all, law is fundamentally a “people” (i.e. “client-facing”) business, so don’t underestimate the value of professional relationships. People inherently want to work with people who they get along with, especially in circumstances that might involve long hours and intense pressure at times. Clients will therefore consider a law firm’s approach to carrying out work and nurturing its client relationships.

Demonstrating positive personal attributes

In general, clients want their lawyers to be friendly, courteous, professional, legally astute, pragmatic, commercial, flexible and responsive (which can mean willing to hit tight deadlines!). If lawyers demonstrate these attributes, this will go some way to helping them build both personal and professional relationships with their clients. 

Building solid personal and professional relationships

In addition, decision makers at client businesses might prioritise working with lawyers with whom they have longstanding working relationships and have enjoyed positive personal interactions. It’s therefore important that lawyers maintain positive professional relationships with even the most junior client contacts from the earliest stages of their careers, as those junior contacts may well become key decision makers further down the line. 

Providing a central point of contact

Moreover, clients often want to have a central point of contract, so that they don’t find themselves juggling dozens of lawyers at once (for example, where lawyers across five or six of the firm’s practice areas are all working on the same matter). For this reason, firms often allocate a “relationship partner” to act as a client’s main contact.

Adapting to the client’s wants and needs

It can take time for law firms to fully understand what different clients want from their legal advisers, and these expectations might change over time. Some firms are better than others at keeping records of what works well (and not so well) for each key client. Providing a secondee to a client can help, as the secondee can then report back on how the client likes to operate, which can enable the firm’s lawyers to adapt their approach to better meet that client’s needs. And if the secondee jumps ship to join the client’s legal team full-time post-secondment? Then that’s just one more person at the client with whom the law firm (hopefully) has a strong relationship.

As a more general comment on client relationships, Ben Staveley adds that it’s toxic for a client if a lawyer ever comes across as defensive, or more concerned with the law firm’s position than the client’s business. To maintain a solid relationship with clients, lawyers should always aim to identify completely with those clients’ concerns and objectives.