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  • Inside Track
    November 03, 2010

    Client satisfaction drives law firm innovation in a new legal environment

    Foley & Lardner, with a new budget management system, provides a cutting-edge tool in addressing client needs in the changing legal environment. But large firms aren't the only ones that can use innovation to keep clients happy.
    Client satisfaction drives law firm innovation   in a new legal environment

    Nov. 3, 2010 − Finding innovative ways to attract and keep clients has become an increasingly important part of life as a lawyer in private practice. Big firms, like Foley & Lardner (Foley), have created cutting-edge tools to promote client service.

    In fact, in a recent survey in which clients decide what law firms are best at 17 activities driving superior client relationships, clients named Foley the nation’s top firm for client service among 500 law firms serving Fortune 1000 companies.

    That top ranking is largely the result of Foley’s new budget management tool, which provides clients and attorneys with better fee and budget predictability.

    According to consultant Matthew Homann, large firms aren’t the only ones that can use innovation to rethink the practice of law and provide better client service. Lawyers just need to rethink service delivery through the client’s perspective, Homann says.

    “What the economy has done is to force more lawyers and law firms to be more responsive to their clients’ desires, who now have more bargaining power in the relationship,” Homann said. That is, market forces are driving law firms and lawyers to change the way they do business.

    Firms like Foley are leading the charge in establishing the new age of client service by identifying what clients really want, and finding innovative ways to deliver it. For smaller firms and solo attorneys, the same general concept applies.

    “I think lawyers generally understand that law practice is changing,” said Homann, founder of LexThink, an innovation consultancy for lawyers and law firms. “One of the easiest ways to change things for the better is to simply talk with clients and ask them: ‘how can I serve you better.’”

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    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQASZCJMkVI

    Matt Homann, a keynote speaker at the 2010 WSSFC, discusses ways for lawyers to build a more innovative practice.

    Budget predictability

    In terms of assessing client expectations and delivering service, Foley is staying ahead of the curve. Back in 2006, Allen (Sandy) Williams, a partner in Foley’s Milwaukee office, foresaw the advantages of creating better budget predictability.

    Williams spearheaded development of an online budget management tool that delivers real-time analysis and reports to clients and attorneys on a given matter. It allows users to track fees at any stage and eliminates surprises.

    Developed largely by Foley’s national information technology group, which is based in Milwaukee, the firm uses the tool in offices nationwide.

    While allowing attorneys to be more proactive in managing legal projects, the budget management tool enhances collaboration with clients to better align expectations.

    “It’s a basic tool that engineering and business consulting firms have been using for years,” said Williams, who got his law and MBA degrees from Columbia University and is a member of the firm's transaction and securities, private equity and venture capital practices.

    Because legal work contains an element of unpredictability, Williams said legal service providers have been slow to embrace such budget tools for fear that law firms might be held to budget estimates. But he said times are changing.

    “We could get to the point where attorneys are billing by the matter, not the hour,” said Williams, who uses the tool extensively on his own cases. “Our intent is to get quite good at developing estimates using this tool.”

    James R. Kalyvas, chair of Foley’s information technology and outsourcing practice and based in the firm’s Los Angeles office, said Williams spearheaded the project based on client feedback.

    Joe Forward is the legal writer for the State Bar of Wisconsin. He can be reached by email or by phone at (608) 250-6161.

    “Through interviews, clients told us that budget predictability and client-attorney alignment on projects were very important to them in terms of how they wanted us to serve them,” Kalyvas said. “Some clients just like knowing that we offer it, and others actually use it.”

    Kalyvas said the essence of the tool is to set objectives, establish a budget, input the budget, and then use the tool to track work completion, dollars spent, and attorney time. The tool puts clients and attorneys on the same page, eliminating surprises.

    “The tool is very useful when there is an intense burst of activity. It gets flagged, the client and the attorney can see what has happened, and discuss it,” Kalyvas said. “That kind of collaboration is what everyone is striving for.”

    Kalyvas expects that over time, other big, small, and mid-sized firms will develop similar budgeting tools. But right now, the tool sets Foley apart. In addition to its top ranking in the BTI client survey, Foley earned a spot on the 2010 InformationWeek 500 list, an annual listing of the nation’s most innovative users of business technology.

    The small firm innovator

    Big firms may have the resources to stay on the cutting edge, but that doesn’t mean big firms are the only innovators, according to Homann.

    “Technology is the one place where small firm and solo lawyers have always had an advantage over big firms,” Homann said. “Where bigger firms are hampered by institutional overhead, smaller firms can more easily implement off-the-shelf solutions.”

    Homann says the key, more than anything, is looking at innovation and client service from the client’s perspective. That is, technology that makes the lawyer’s life easier, but does not necessarily benefit the client, may not benefit the firm in the long term.

    Is your firm using innovation to serve clients better? We want to hear about it. Contact Joe Forward at the State Bar of Wisconsin.

    “Plenty of law firms say they share information with clients, and maintain a transparent firm, but clients have to ask for it,” Homann said. “If lawyers are able to deliver information to clients in a way that they want to consume it, at times that they care about it, the clients often turn out to be happier, and often are willing to pay more for the service,” Homann said.

    Foley’s new budget management tool is an example of giving clients what they want, when they want it. Finding innovative ways to address client needs, Homann said, is a cornerstone in building a solid and successful practice in the changing legal environment.



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