Practice Management

Regular Client Communication Pays In Many Ways for Attorneys

By Brian J. Ritchey

According to the new Managing Outside Counsel Survey by ACC/Serengeti, inhouse corporate counsel are projecting a rate increase of 5.3% in 2008.  That's the good news.  The better news is that last year, they projected an increase of 4.8% but rates were actually increased 6.0%!  This is in line with most firms who plan to increase rates (between 5 and 7%).

The reports were posted in a recent article in The Law Marketing Portal.

Other findings:

? Predominance of hourly rates ? alternative billing fee arrangements (surprise!) aren?t taking hold with in-house counsel.
? Little client oversight ?  75% of in-house counsel aren?t managing outside counsel.
? ?Convergence? is going away ? 75% of in house counsel aren?t consolidating the work to a few firms.
? Cutting fees is not the top client priority ? No need to devalue work performed with mark-downs; Corporate clients are more concerned with Sarbanes/Oxley and high profile trials of corporate executives.
? Few corporate RFPs ? 76% of in house counsel didn?t issue a Request for Proposal last year.  A reason given was the poor rate of firms responding ? there?s a lesson to be learned here . . .
? Spending on firms is up ? this year on average, companies devoted 38% of their revenues on outside legal spending.  Can we thank Sarbanes/ Oxley for that too??

The news isn't all good.  Nearly half of in house counsel reported that they terminated relationships with outside counsel last year.  Why?

? Failing to perform to client expectations.
? High costs (likely related to perceived value rather than rates considering what in house counsel expect).
? Poor work product or results.
? Poor Communication and personality issues.

What can you gain from this survey?  There is nothing here you shouldn't already know and the complaints can apply equally with any client, not just inhouse counsel.  There is likely a correlation with poor communications to the other complaints from a client.  A client is more likely to complain about expectations, results, and costs if they aren't receiving adequate communications.  To the extent you don't regularly update your clients, this survey is a reminder that clients place a premium (literally and figuratively) on communications.  Make sure all the attorneys at your firm regularly update their clients on the status of their matters.

For more information on this survey, visit the Serengeti web site here.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris®.  For information about Juris products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center:

 877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com or go to www.Juris.com.

Full post as published by More Partner Income on January 02, 2008 (boomark / email).