Client is King: How the legal industry is scrambling to respond
The concept that "Client is King" is not new in business circles. But it is a farily 'new' revelation in the legal services industry.
There's certainly a shift happening. The voice of the legal services client is growing in frequency and volume and firm's who wish to stay in business are starting to listen. Here's a sampling of current conversations I've come across about how the legal industry is scrambling to respond to the client voice (not to mention other sweeping changes affecting business today). If you know of others - please join the conversation by providing links to them in the comments section. Enjoy!
Blogs/Groups/People on the transformation in the legal industry
The End of Lawyers? (Richard Susskind) First published in November 2008, at a time of grave economic uncertainty, The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services predicts significant new pressures on the legal marketplace and, in turn, great change in the world of legal services.
Legal Transformation (Your 2020 Vision of The Future) The Study is designed to: challenge current legal service models; answer key strategic questions; and enable corporate and law firm counsel to effect a 20/20 strategic vision with foresight, not hindsight.
The Belly of the Beast The Blog of Steven J. Harper, author, educator and observer of the human condition – who pays special attention to the universal forces that reshaped most professions, including the law, over the past three decades. Not all change is for the better.
Law21 Dispataches from a legal profession on the brink, by Jordan Furlong, lawyer, speaker, and consultant based in Ottawa, Canada.
LinkedIn Group: What will be the 21st Century Law Business Model
How buyers of legal services want to be treated
Don't blow the dream date (The Careerist)
What Clients Expect From a Lawyer (Canadian Lawyer online)
Five Things You Should Know About Corporate Counsel (Canadian Lawyer online)
Law Firms Need to Reinvent Relationships With Clients (National Law Journal)
Who's to blame for the fact that lawyers don't have 'business' sense?
Firms Send Newbies Back To (Business) School While it may only be for a few weeks — or even just a weekend — some firms are starting to give first-year associates a crash course in business to better prepare them for the job and help allay client concerns about the high cost of legal services compared to the value young attorneys provide.
My two-cents: Nothing beats common sense, a genuine interest and curiousity and a willingness to learn 'off the clock'.
Alternative law firms
Technology offers 50 ways to leave your lawyer CONVENTIONAL law firms charge vast hourly fees and then hand the work to underlings while the partners play golf at clubs their clients are too poor to join. At least, that is how it seems to many clients, whose irritation at being overcharged turned to fury during the recession. Some clients are switching to unconventional law firms, which claim to offer equally good lawyering for much less money.
What if law schools opened their own law firms? Law schools have been pummeled with criticism for not producing practice-ready attorneys, so two law professors have come up with a novel fix: Law schools should operate their own law firms.
Law Schools Get Practical Looking to attract employers' attention, some law schools are throwing out decades of tradition by replacing textbook courses with classes that teach more practical skills. "Law firms are saying, 'You're sending us people who are not in a position to do anything useful for clients.' This is a first effort to try and fix that," says Larry Kramer, the law dean at Stanford.
Getting Real Reconsidering legal education is important. The first year of law school teaches students to think like lawyers; the second year covers important substantive areas. To deal with the universally maligned third year, Stanford is considering a clinical course requirement that involves 40-hour plus weeks of actual case work ...
And, what prevents lawyers/law firms from embracing change?
Richard Susskind on social media, legal marketing and "irrational rejectionism" Adrian Dayton (attorney, speaker, business development consultant and author of the book, Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition; ARK 2009) had the chance to interview Richard Susskind, author of the bestseller, The End of Lawyers (Oxford Press 2008). He asked him about his perceptions of social media, marketing for law firms and the future of the legal industry.
Nothwithstanding the importance of this overall dialogue... I throw the following concept into the mix: Do any of these endeavours to bring 'real world' experience to lawyers miss the client-centric boat? I think so.
Teaching lawyers real skills they will need to interact in the real world with real clients should be for the benefit of the client - which in turn will be for the benefit of the lawyer and the firm. (happy client, happy lawyer/firm). Seems that these discussions are still all about the firm and it's benefit. Oh, we have so much farther to go to truly be client-centric... or is this even possible given where the legal industry began?
Call me idealistic - but I still think it's possible. Enjoy the long Labour Day weekend (if you celebrate it) and I wish you good business success!
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Client-Centric Selling with the Agreement Based Sales® Program and the LEAP Adult Learning® System.