The most recent Altman Weil Chief Legal Officer Survey (2017) asked a question close to many business developers heart:

In the last 12 months, have you shifted a portfolio of work worth $50,000 or more from one law firm to another for any of the following reasons?

• Client service
• Lower fees
• Legal expertise
• Managing matter efficiency
• Conflicts
• Our key partner(s) changed firms
• Size or depth of firm resources
• Inability to handle our geographic scope
• Predictable fees
• Data security reasons
• Technological sophistication

Wow – there’s a lot in there:-

Innovation. Fixed fees. Cyber-security. Critical mass. Lateral hiring. Globalisation. Legal Project Management (LPM). Legal Process Management. Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO). Conflicts. Subject matter expertise. Industry matter expertise. Being cheap. Being expensive.

But the winner is…

…

client service.

At the foremost – despite all talk of innovation, fixed fees and New Law, we should never lose sight of the fact that this is a P2P (person to person) industry.

Automate the process for sure, but never forget that the people who seek legal help need to trust that their lawyer cares.

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