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July 23, 2004

CLIENT FOCUSED SERVICE: IT'S AS SIMPLE AS KINDERGARTEN

Adam Smith, Esq., a new blawg to me, has an interesting article entitled "Is Law Firm Management in Kindergarten?"   The thrust of the article is to explore whether law firm management should mindlessly expand in size and geographical location or rather focus on increased client service and "exposure" as means to expand and grow a firm and/or practice.

Bruce then goes on to quote David Maister, a professional management consultant:

Maister asked a convention of [Fortune 500 General Counsel's] how many of their outside law firms had ever volunteered to sit in periodically with senior in-house lawyers to get to learn their business better and to find out what kept them awake at night.  The number who had was.....?

Zero.

I would have to concur with this assessment.  It consistently amazes me that lawyers, and intellectual property lawyers in particular, spend so little time actually at the client's premises getting to know the client's business, technology and culture.  Every time I spend a couple of hours (usually on my own dime) at a client's site, I always come away with a better understanding of the actual issues they are facing and the role I play in making their business succeed. 

In the same vein, I am also aurprised that intellectual property attorneys do not regularly request copies of their client's business plans and regularly request updates.  I believe it is necessary to understand the client's business goals in order to appropriately develop an intellectual property portfolio of value. 

For example, I know (and my ego will attest) to the fact that I can always get picket fence type patents (i.e. narrow and virtually worthless patents) - but knowing the client's business plan and spending some time at their site provides me a broader and more indepth perspective and thereby allows me, as an outside consultant, to offer advice and counsel that goes beyond the mere "Yeah, you could patent that." 

I can patent anything -- whether the client should, that is another rub that can't be answered without truly knowning and understanding the client's business and those items that "keep them awake at night."

Do you know your client's nightmares?

Digg!


Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 08:19 PM.
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Comments

We all know the arguments of David Maister. But as long as we regard in-house lawyers as competitors nothing changes. There's a lot of unneccesary fear as a barierre to build strong relationships, Hotze

Posted by: Hotze at August 12, 2004 01:24 PM

Hotze - how true. The reality of the situation is, however, that they are not competition -- I know several GCs who would appreciate, welcome and be overwhelmed with gratitude if some of their "required/preferred" law firms would spend some time actually trying to ferret out problems and/or learn the business. It is amazing when I talk to other attorneys and ask if they read their client's trade journals. Competition is healthy -- client service should never suffer because of a perceived threat.

Posted by: Douglas Sorocco at August 12, 2004 07:50 PM