Simon McCrum
THE PERFECT LEGAL BUSINESS TO THE RESCUE.
Have you ever been the client of a law firm?
Over the decades I have used many, many firms for business and personal matters. I have talked with hundreds of people about their own experiences of law firms. What I and they have found is backed up by “client satisfaction” data.
Too often, at a time when a client is going through the biggest and most traumatic thing in their life, they don’t get the “treatment” they expect – particularly where they are paying what to many people are eye-watering prices.
Instead of their case being pushed all the time, and instead of the lawyers constantly keeping them informed of that progress – that is, instead of the “Push & Tell” that they want, clients can feel like they are getting the “black hole treatment” where nothing ever comes out of the law firm. They can feel like there is no progress, and things are made even worse when their emails or calls chasing for reports are not returned.
And then month-end, or quarter-end, or year-end comes around. In the law firm, it’s time to bill everything that moves (and often that hasn’t moved too).
If you have never been the client of a law firm faced with a big bill and with a time printout that shows the big bill is made up of lots of “1 units” – often by more than one lawyer spending “1 unit” at the same time, you won’t know what rage is.
But that rage is not about the size of the bill. It’s about the fact that no one had the commitment to my case and to my cause to spend on it the hours that it needs. Instead of really getting under the skin of the case, often a lawyer is so busy that, at worst, files are effectively put into storage or at best time on it is snatched when there is a chase-up call from the client or a deadline is approaching.
Now, I don’t know any lawyers who care so little about clients and their cases that they would deliberately not work on a file. With the best will in the world, it is usually not a lawyer’s fault. Rather it is the structure and practises of the firm that they work in that are the root cause of clients being happy – and the business suffering – because the bills aren’t big enough.
All too often, enquiries are converted into clients, though not always at the best possible price. Often, there is no what I call “pride in pricing”, usually because the lawyers can’t have the pride in the speed of service they’d like to deliver offer to clients. Cases are allocated to a lawyer who has usually already got too many cases. Then, because the lawyer is incentivised based on his or her own personal billings, they keep that case in storage for when they can get around to it. There is rarely any firm-wide Service Pledge on which every lawyer delivers, and there is almost never a commitment from “Management” to have in place team structures and team incentives that mean every file will get worked on all the time.
What can the Perfect Legal Business do for you?
The Perfect Legal Business falls into none of these traps. Instead, it takes a number of steps and makes a number of investments that mean both the clients and the business are happy with the size of the bills it sends out.
First – it has team structures and delegation disciplines in place that mean that every case that comes in gets triaged and started by a senior lawyer but then the file then goes to a trusted lieutenant.
Second – as all files thus get worked on, it can and does adopt a firm-wide Service Pledge. Not only does every lawyer work to a Service Pledge that they have themselves designed, but they are rewarded for doing so in a bespoke career structure. Everyone is encouraged to put their hand up whenever they are failing to meet the required service standard. No lawyer will ever be able to deliver an amazing service all the time – but they can in a team culture where they are encouraged to put their hands up and the rest of the team can step in to help the common cause.
This all suits the client very well. Their case gets pushed, and they are constantly kept up to date on progress. But it also suits the business in multiple ways.
First, the Service Pledge – and more importantly, the firm’s adherence to it – is a real differentiator that justifies a firm charging more than its competitors. Bentley service? Bentley price.
Second, no files go into storage. The work gets done.
Third, the work gets done properly rather than time on files just being snatched.
Fourth, in The Perfect Legal Business, the same career path that I referred to above rewards a fee-earner’s inputs (pricing, time recording and realisation) rather than the output of billing. Most fee-earners’ targets can be smashed by them just working mornings. If you push pricing, utilisation, and realisation, lawyers can bill far more than billing targets usually require of them – without them working any harder or longer.
Fifth, that career path makes it clear tat it’s not a lawyer’s job to do legal work and to send bills out. It rewards lawyers who do legal work, send bills out, and who get those bills paid.
Sixth, where a client is getting a great level of service, they are more inclined to use that firm for other things. They are unlikely to bounce off the law firm, as often happens. Thousands of UK adults have used a lawyer, but not many have got a lawyer. The Perfect Legal Business doesn’t want a constant in-flow of new clients with their new “Matter .001’s” where the new clients want your “best price”. Instead, The Perfect Legal Business keeps and nurtures its existing clients who value the great service and are happy to pay a good price for it – .007 really is a Licence to Bill.
The business also has in place the mentality and the toolkits to deliver proactive care to personal and business clients – these demonstrations of care aim to help a client to reduce trauma, delay, and legal spend, down the line.
Finally, what happens where you deliver a knock-out service – every lawyer, every time – is that your clients all join your sales force, “out there”. While their friends, family, and colleagues are moaning about their lawyers, your clients will be singing your praises. And we all know how powerful an endorsement that can be and what a great source of work and of new clients your existing clients can be.
It’s all about lawyers doing less, better, for more.