Legal Research

"Another Mistake: Overestimating the Value of Personal Relationships"

This post was written by Jim Hassett: "A few weeks ago, I wrote that the biggest mistake lawyers make in developing new business is failing to listen.  This week I'll talk about another mistake that is not quite as common, but just as deadly: overestimating the value of personal relationships.

As David Fine, city attorney for the City of Denver put it at a recent panel discussion for general counsel hosted by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association:

I don't need to have a close personal relationship with my outside counsel.  I really don't want to play golf with them or see them outside the office. But I do want to have a good professional relationship with them.  [They should] help us do our jobs better.

And, as several other panelists at that session stressed, these days the best way to help GCs do their jobs is to provide more value. 

In my experience, many lawyers don't understand that the value of personal relationships has declined.   This mistake is seen most often among senior lawyers who have been working with the same clients for years, especially those who have been relatively unaffected by the economic downturn.  They've built entire careers by taking clients to sporting events and developing personal friendships, and believe that the best way to succeed in the future is to just keep doing the same thing..."

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Source: Legal Business Development, 16 June 2010, reproduced with permission of the author

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on June 17, 2010 (boomark / email).