The Proper Care and Feeding of Your Law Firm

The proper care and feeding of your law firm can make the difference between getting treated like a Las Vegas VIP or low-level commodity work. The difference is between getting excellent service and value, and, well, not getting them.

It never ceases to amaze me how many in-house counsel, even though they must see how their company treats different customers differently, ignore this fact when they are the customer buying legal services.

Despite most law firm’s protests to the contrary, everyone understands that all clients are not created equal, let alone treated that way. That is not the interesting part. The interesting part is that most in-house counsel ignore what this means in terms of getting the most out of relationships with our law firms.

Here is the good news: Not only are there things you can do to be a better client but there is a quantifiable benefit to doing so. Don’t take just my word for it.

Take the word of two people who should and do know: Beth Cuzzone, the director of business development for Boston-based Goulston & Storrs, telling the story from the law firm’s perspective, and Michael Rynowecer, president of the BTI Consulting Group in Wellesley, Mass., who has studied this issue from the perspective of in-house counsel.

According to BTI’s research, a select few, 33 percent to be precise, of in-house counsel enjoy better service and greater value from their outside law firms.

More importantly, these lucky few are not simply the in-house counsel who spend the most money on legal fees. Although I have often admitted that my affections can be bought, and agree that the more you spend the more your bad behavior will be ignored, what the research shows is that this 33 percent work with their outside counsel in a way that their unhappy colleagues don’t.

Building a Better Relationship

So how can in-house counsel enjoy better service and more value? Below are the types of in-house counsel behaviors, the care and feeding if you will, that BTI’s research has identified result in greater satisfaction by the in-house counsel with his or her outside counsel.

In the spirit of full disclosure (and also because I don’t want to get sued by BTI), the sarcastic editorial comments disguised as helpful explanations are all mine – the facts come from BTI.

1. Actively brief outside law firms on your key objectives. (Now, there is a novel idea. Don’t just throw the work at them, but tell the law firm up front what are the most important parts of the work you are giving them.)

2. Engage in frequent informal communication. (In other words, talk to them as if you were still dating, not already married.)

3. Challenge the law firms to find ways to add value or improve service as a first step when managing outside counsel fees and budgets. (Ask for help up front, not after you got a bill you can’t or don’t want to pay.)

4. Engage with key associates, not just the partners at the law firms. (Don’t just deal with the fancy suit if the real work is being done by some poor grunt who hasn’t seen daylight in two years.)

5. Ask the law firms to develop a formal plan for meeting your needs. (Ask the law firm to think before they act and be willing to do so yourself.)

6. Ask to meet the person at the law firm assigned to track news related to your company. (If they don’t have some one, you might want to start by asking why.)

7. Share overall legal budgets and spending. (Don’t talk about how you want your law firm to be a true business partner, and then play hide and seek when it comes to budget and spending issues.)

8. Proactively address the inevitable problems and miscommunications that have occurred. (Don’t go to bed mad.)

9. Debrief the law firms after selected successes and failures. (Don’t just light up your cigarette and lie back after the deal is done without first talking about what just happened.)

10. Ask the law firms to provide an annual self evaluation. (Even if you managed to screw up and not debrief as each piece of work is done, this is at least a lousy second best and a way to step back and evaluate the relationship as a whole.)

Although you can and should certainly try, you don’t have to do each of these things to get more out of your relationship with your outside counsel. The 33 percent of “satisfied customers” engaged in some but not all of these behaviors.

Two final pieces of interesting data comes from the BTI research. First, satisfied corporate counsel will generally not work with a law firm that does not meet these requests. Second, these in-house counsel also issue the fewest number of RFPs and competitive bids for their legal work.

The Other Side of the Story

Now let’s see the story from the perspective of the law firm. Some things you shouldn’t do if you want to feel the love from your law firm. Keep in mind you want them to love you, because if they do, you are going to be happier.

According to Beth, here are some of the things you shouldn’t do. As with the BTI research, the insights and helpful advice are from Beth, and the attempts at witty editorial comments are mine.

1. Don’t demand discounts from the start. (Don’t make this demand initially unless you are trading something for it, like a guaranteed volume of work. It makes you seem like a lazy bully or ignorant or both. It makes it seem that you care more about appearing in charge than you do about making sure you pay a fair price for the work.)

2. Not every issue is an emergency. VIP clients seem to understand the difference between important and critical, and respect the outside counsel’s need to juggle priorities just like they have to. (Don’t cry wolf. Enough said.)

3. Don’t use cell and home numbers unless the situation warrants. (Don’t be a pig. Don’t cry wolf. Whatever. Pick your favorite animal. You know what I mean.)

4. Don’t let problems fester. There are very few outside counsel not willing to correct a problem, but they must know about it first. (Don’t be a coward. If you are unhappy with your outside counsel, its simply bad etiquette not to at least tell them why.)

5. Show a little loyalty. It’s okay to use several firms but at least try to use the same firms for the same services. This allows your outside counsel the opportunity to get to know your company and provide better service. (This is also what allows the outside counsel the comfort and clout within their firm to say yes when you ask them for a favor like eating a piece of a bill.)

Let’s Just Get Along

After all this talk about how we can be better customers, well, we are the customers after all, and I can’t resist some suggestions to our outside counsel on how they can encourage us to be the good clients they want us to be. This is not meant as a comprehensive list, but are just some examples of complaints I hear from in-house counsel.

1. Have a sincere interest in and make an effort to understand your client’s business. That means devoting some non-billable time to learning about your client.

2. Some work is less important to your client, more run of the mill. Get over the fact that to you an hour is an hour. If you want us to be loyal and not shop the work, make sure you don’t bill every piece of work the same way.

3. Format bills the way we want them versus the way your software creates them. Yes, this can be a pain in the you-know-what. The problem is that if you don’t do this, the result is that the finance group (and maybe even the CFO) is unhappy with what they then think of as the “prima donna” lawyers.

4. Provide your clients with emergency contact information like a cell number or home number. We (meaning the in-house and outside counsel) share a client. The expectation of the business folks is 24/7 access from us, so you get to share our pain.

5. It’s important to be responsive, which doesn’t necessarily mean getting the work done right away. But it’s a problem when outside counsel doesn’t even bother to call a client back to let them know when they will get to work.

6. Give it away free sometimes. If you really want to show you care about your client’s success, then skip the holiday cards and donations to your favorite charity on my behalf and come in and provide some free training.

7. Constantly look for ways to add value to the relationship.

Gabriel Miller was, until very recently, general counsel of Captivate Network, a Gannett company. He now spends his time helping law firms and their clients better understand and improve service, value and cost. When he is not doing that, he is the COO and general counsel of a non-profit called Give Us Your Poor. He can be reached at [email protected]. He gratefully acknowledges the help of Beth Cuzzone and Michel Rynowecer in preparing this article. Beth is the director of business development at Goulston & Storrs, which is nationally recognized for their senior partner service model (www.goulstonstorrs.com). Michael is the president of BTI Consulting and provides advice and recommendations based on compelling research to both in-house and outside counsel.