BarTalk February 2005
Volume 17, Number 1

Going beyond the norm…

By David J Bilinsky

Won't you try just a little bit harder, Couldn't you try just a little bit more?
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia and Bill Kreutzmann, recorded by The Grateful Dead

It has become almost trite to read in publications that professionals of all sorts today need to learn to add “value” to their services in order to be competitive. However, what does it mean to add “value”? Is it not enough today for a lawyer to provide competent legal services? What are the attributes that clients seek (and will change lawyers in order to find?). The American Corporate Counsel Association has been looking at these issues for some time and their findings are illustrative. Their thinking raises a host of questions for lawyers who are seeking to add value to their client relationships:

• Have you upgraded your legal skills to the highest level possible in your area(s) of practice? Clients today expect that you continually learn as much as you can in their particular legal area of interest.

• How well do you bridge the gap between the law and your client’s business needs? Today clients expect that you have not only acquired the same technical knowledge that they have, they expect that you have learned their business processes as well. Can you suggest how their systems and procedures can be changed to achieve their legal and business aims in a way that promotes business cost savings and efficiencies?

• Do you read what your clients are reading? Do you fully understand their terminology and their concerns in terms of Michael Porter’s five forces model (threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of customers, threat of substitutes and competitive rivalry within the industry)? Can you couch your advice in terms of the five forces model?

• How often do your clients consult you? Do they use you to solve problems or avoid them?

• How would you characterize your working relationship with your major clients? How do you think your clients would answer that question?

• What is the one best thing about your working relationship with your major clients? What is the worst thing? How do you think your clients would answer these two questions?

• What one thing can you do to improve the working relationship with your major clients?

• Do you recommend the selection of alternate counsel where appropriate, even if they are outside the firm?

• Have you asked your clients what types of information would be of greatest use to them? If not, why not?

Asking these questions can start the process of thinking about adding value. However, while questions can be illustrative, it is always useful to have concrete suggestions as well. Here is a number of specific steps that you can take to add value to your client service:

• Become more practical – clients today want you to think like a businessperson as well as a lawyer.

• Solve problems better – give strategic advice that is creative and proactive and appropriately addresses risk.

• Raise your level of expertise – by being right up to date on developments in the law and in your client’s industry. Demonstrate this to your clients.

• Be more of a team player – treat everyone with personal parity and actively search for practical business solutions that your clients can appreciate.

• Listen better – acquire active listening skills.

• Respond faster – an e-mail with the requisite content is more important than a formal letter.

• Be more available – return calls within two hours of receipt.

• Communicate with more clarity and relevance – eliminate legalese.

• Display proficient understanding of the law and business relevant to the needs of your client – demonstrate your expertise in written updates on new developments that discuss both aspects.

• Be more flexible – considerate and suggest alternative solutions.

• Provide appropriate legal training on issues relevant to your clients – put on seminars for your clients to help them understand the legal background.

• Understand your clients’ business objectives better – meet with them “with the meter off” to discuss their business plans and how you can help shape them in a legal framework.

• Understand your clients’ businesses better – spend time on their shop floor talking to their staff and asking questions.

• Kept the clients better informed of legal developments affecting their businesses – start a regular electronic newsletter.

• Be more accurate and reliable – stick to deadlines, remember names and keep promises.

• Be better at projecting a personality that inspires trust, approachability and candour – morph out of the three piece suit mindset into a trusted legal advisor (or as my daughter says, “get real...”).

• Be better at anticipating issues and providing alternative resolutions – offer to be involved at an early stage in new projects and demonstrate why this is advantageous.

• Be a more active and accepted member of the client’s business team – sit in on their planning meetings with the meter off. Show that you take an interest in their business plans and wish to grow with them.

• Provide advice that is more intelligible and useful to the client – not couched in terms of legalese and terminology.

• Help provide solutions to problems rather than legal opinions (that are technically correct but don’t assist with problem resolution).

• Improve your professional manner – all of us have been exposed to a “bad bedside manner” – strive for the opposite.

• Show more ethical leadership – make it easy for your clients to take the high road – shoulder the burden.

When it comes down to it, how to add value is a multi-faceted answer to the question, “How can you serve your clients better?” Ultimately, it comes down to caring a bit more, trying a little bit harder and trying just a little bit more.

The views expressed herein are strictly those of the author and may not be shared by the author’s employer, the Law Society of B.C.

David J. Bilinsky is the Practice Management Advisor at the Law Society of B.C. Email: daveb@lsbc.org

This article originally appeared in the February 2005 issue of BarTalk and is reproduced here with permission of both the author and the Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia Branch.