“We have met the enemy and he is us.”
POGO, April 20, 1970
Walt Kelly, Creator and Author

Market forces pale in comparison to attorneys as the biggest obstacle to growth at law firms. Law firm marketing leaders believe no-growth markets and ever more demanding clients have less impact than attorney resistance.

25.2% of CMOs and law firm marketing leaders name their lawyers as holding their firm back during more than 150 far-reaching interviews BTI conducted with them. This is up from 18.6% in 2014. We are in the 9th year of no growth. The pressure to develop business grows as the market becomes tougher. The attorneys who resist are fighting an increasingly uphill battle and it is the firm’s responsibility to provide the tools and training to overcome the resistance.

Much of the resistance comes from attorneys having limited to no business development experience. They are concerned about how to initiate the process, questions they might be asked, and not knowing how the process is likely to unfold if they do reach out to clients. In addition, the resisters don’t realize delivering superior client service is a potent form of business development.

The only proven tactic to remove the attorneys as obstacles to growth is to train them. We recommend training in 3 tiers:

Tier 1 – Advanced Business Development Skills for only the high-potential business developers. This training focuses on the art and science of developing large chunks of business and developing new clients.

Tier 2 – Core Business Development for the attorneys who show an inclination or interest in business development. This training introduces the tools and practicalities of developing business—including mock client meetings for conducting initial meetings and how to follow up.

Tier 3 – Client Service Training teaches all client-facing partners the skills and provides the tools to deliver superior client service—with the understanding superior client service is a potent form of business development. There are few partners who would not benefit from this training.

Your use of staggering the training by skill and inclination enables you to drive success with the attorneys most likely to be successful. It also changes the culture of the firm as the leadership illustrates how they invest in business development. Finally, the tiered approach to business development training creates incentive to become good enough to reach the most advanced training—creating a clear path to rainmaker and creating more rainmakers in the process.

The Silver Lining

We are the enemy and we are the solution. Every law firm has the power to change and overcome the obstacles in their way. And no one understands the problem better than the firms themselves. Now, every law firm can overcome these obstacles. 

MBR

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Last week we shared why only 33.3% of corporate counsel recommend their primary law firm to a peer—a task they do not take lightly. Recommendations are personal statements about the recommender as much as they are about a law firm’s client service, quality and commitment.

With clients always expecting more, law firms often have to work double time to earn the coveted recommendation given by one corporate counsel to another. Only 25 firms earn an unprompted recommendation 5 years in a row. You can see all 96 firms earning multi-year recommendations in our newest report: BTI Most Recommended Law Firms 2015. View the report below or download the complimentary report here.

The post The Most Recommended Law Firms appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

Strong brands influence client loyalty, hiring, and rates—especially, premium rates. BTI assessed which activities were most important to legal decision makers’ when:

• Making hiring decisions—both consideration and ultimate hiring of law firms
• Bestowing law firm recommendations to peers
• Awarding premium-rate work

Subtle changes in law firm behavior greatly affect how legal decision makers perceive the firm’s overall brand. This year’s in-depth research uncovered 9 significant changes, all of which impact hiring and pricing for every law firm. These are:

• Clients See More Innovative Law Firms in 2015

• Fewer Law Firms Are Premium Rate Worthy: Premium Rate Firms Declined 16%   

• Clients Note More Tech Savvy Law Firms in 2015

• More Law Firms Seen as Long-Term Market Leaders by Clients

• Clients Rearrange Bet-the-Company Law Firm Rosters

• Fewer Law Firms Making Changes to Deliver More Value

• Downtick in Client-Recommended Law Firms

• A Few More Law Firms Make Changes to Boost Client Service

• Clients Short Lists Get a Little Longer

No-growth markets amplify the impact of brand strength. Any source of unused advantage is criminal to waste: improved brand equals improved advantage.

Learn how your law firm, regardless of size, can take advantage of the 9 factors to differentiate in the eyes of clients and drive new business. Immediately implement proven steps to drive revenue with the detailed recommendations in the new BTI Brand Elite 2015: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms, available now. 

The post The 9 Roads to Premium Rates appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

Clients’ lists of go-to law firms just got a little longer. This means more law firms will have to fight harder to even be considered for hire for a new matter. As the number of top recommend firms shrinks corporate counsel are considering at least a few new firms to hire. One more sign of the marketing value of developing and investing in relationships as clients consider a longer list of competitors. 

The law firms climbing the Short Listed firm ranks in the just-released BTI Brand Elite 2015 are:

Best of the Best

Faegre Baker Daniels
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Littler Mendelson
McGuireWoods

Leaders

Ballard Spahr
Blake, Cassels & Graydon
Dechert
Eversheds
Fisher & Phillips
Jackson Lewis
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
Simmons & Simmons

Learn how to secure—and continually defend—the position of core law firm in the new BTI Brand Elite 2015: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms, available now.

The post Clients Short Lists Get a Little Longer appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

More law firms are making changes to improve client service—37 more out of the 650 serving larger clients.

This small but strategic sliver of law firms are changing their business approach and processes to improve client service. Corporate counsel’s smaller law firm rosters are forcing law firms to reconsider their client-facing activities. With client short lists getting longer, clients are demanding the absolute best service and experiences from their law firms. To their credit, some law firms are responding (the other option is letting the work go to someone else willing to respond).  

The law firms climbing the Client Service Strategist ranks in the just-released BTI Brand Elite 2015 are:

Best of the Best

Foley & Lardner
K&L Gates

Leaders

Carlton Fields Jorden Burt
Littler Mendelson

Learn how your can deliver the absolute best client service to can garner higher profits, rates, and client retention in the new BTI Brand Elite 2015: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms, available now.

The post A Few More Law Firms Make Changes to Boost Client Service appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

Those in the vanguard of recommendations have declined, down 12.6%. Client expectations are soaring as corporate counsel push for more change and more business value from their law firms. However, the response from law firms has left corporate counsel reluctant to unequivocally recommend a firm to their peers. The silver lining: the firms earning these increasingly rare recommendations are among the best positioned to win new work.

The law firms bucking the trend and climbing the Recommended firm ranks in the just-released BTI Brand Elite 2015 are:

Best of the Best

Alston & Bird
Seyfarth Shaw

Leaders

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Baker Botts
Barnes & Thornburg
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings
Dechert
Duane Morris
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Paul, Weiss
Perkins Coie
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Learn how your firm can earn client recommendations in the new BTI Brand Elite 2015: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms, available now.

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Streamlining and making corporate counsel’s lives easier translates into better value.

Unfortunately, clients report a 5% drop in the number of law firms adding value to the client experience. This may be the first sign of legal project management becoming more mainstream. Clients are thinking beyond project tools towards changes in work streams and work processes. The decline in the number of firms recognized for these changes can also be an early indicator of clients increasing their expectations for change at a rate faster than law firms can implement.

Fewer firms delivering this attribute means the law firms making these changes have found a source of potent advantage.

The law firms bucking the overall trend and climbing the Value Driver ranks in the just-released BTI Brand Elite 2015 are:

Best of the Best

Bryan Cave

Leaders

BakerHostetler
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings
Carlton Fields Jorden Burt
Dentons
Foley & Lardner
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
K&L Gates
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton
Stoll Keenon Ogden
Valorem Law Group

Learn how to become a value master in 2 steps in the new BTI Brand Elite 2015: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms, available now.

The post Fewer Law Firms Making Changes to Deliver More Value appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

48 law firms enjoy new nods from corporate counsel for their ability to handle bet-the-company work.

Corporate counsel have consolidated their law firm rosters to a select number of firms demonstrating the absolute best understanding of their business and needs. These firms earn the client’s trust and are in position to showcase their unmatched client understanding to handle high-stakes, bet-the-company work. 

The law firms climbing the Bet-the-Company ranks in the just-released BTI Brand Elite 2015 are:

Best of the Best

Sullivan & Cromwell

Leaders

Davis Polk & Wardwell
DLA Piper
Foley & Lardner
K&L Gates
Norton Rose Fulbright
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Ropes & Gray

Learn more about why legal decision makers only consider ¼ of law firms a sure bet in the new BTI Brand Elite 2015: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms, available now.

The post Clients Rearrange Bet-the-Company Law Firm Rosters appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

The end may not be upon us after all. 90 law firms are earning recognition as best bets to be long-term survivors—an astonishing uptick of 45% from 2014. 

In what can only be a sign of confidence and optimism, corporate counsel recognize substantially more law firms as successfully navigating market shifts to emerge as long-term leaders. This means law firms are doing a better job executing on their strategic plans—as clients are the people who experience implementation most. This rise in potential market leaders has a strong impact on hiring for large and potentially long-term assignments, i.e., big‑ticket litigation. No corporate counsel wants to even consider a law firm for long-term work if they sense their firm will not be a strong player in the future.

Corporate counsel believe the future market leaders will not only prosper, but also be more immune from partner defections and be a magnet for talent.

Interestingly, the surge in client confidence in law firms comes at the same time large law firms express substantially more confidence in their own strategic plans. Law firm marketing leaders rate their own confidence an 8.7 (on a scale of 1 to 10), up from 7.4 only short 2 years ago. Maybe confidence is contagious.

A selection of firms new to the list of Long-Term Market Leaders in the just-released BTI Brand Elite 2015 includes:

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Arnold & Porter
BakerHostetler
Bryan Cave
Dechert
Faegre Baker Daniels
Fish & Richardson
Fisher & Phillips
Foley & Lardner
Haynes and Boone
Holland & Knight
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Shearman & Sterling
Sutherland
Vinson & Elkins

See the full list of Long-Term Market Leaders as named by corporate counsel—and learn how to position your firm to join them—in the new BTI Brand Elite 2015: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms, available now.

The post More Law Firms Seen as Long-Term Market Leaders by Clients appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

Clients see more tech savvy law firms emerge as corporate counsel identify 9% more law firms using technology as a source of innovation in 2015.

Corporate counsel register an increase in the number of firms using technology to the client’s advantage, as law firms are being more aggressive in their use of client-facing technology. 

Improved use of technology offers clients the sense of a streamlined experience and improved value, which make the client’s life easier. Clients will only give law firms credit for utilizing new technology when the technology improves the client experience.

The law firms climbing the Tech Savvy ranks in the just-released BTI Brand Elite 2015 are:

Best of the Best

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

Leaders

Baker & McKenzie
DLA Piper
Foley & Lardner
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Greenberg Traurig
Jones Day
Latham & Watkins
Morgan Lewis
Sidley Austin
Sullivan & Cromwell

See direct feedback from clients and learn more about how tech-savvy firms are adding firepower to their client service performance in the new BTI Brand Elite 2015: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms, available now.

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