Today’s biggest client service risk isn’t poor service. It’s delivering yesterday’s version of great service. The 256 BTI Client Service All-Stars don’t follow the client service curve. They stay ahead of it.

Corporate counsel face more complexity, relentless regulatory change, greater business pressure, and increasingly demanding CEOs – all without significantly larger legal departments. They rely on outside counsel more than ever – and expect more than ever.

Clients don’t remember who answered first. They remember who changed the outcome.

Responsiveness is now the minimum price of admission. Today’s clients single out lawyers who help them pivot faster, make better decisions, anticipate what’s next and achieve better business outcomes.

BTI’s latest research reveals five new behaviors clients now use to separate exceptional lawyers from everyone else:

It’s easy to be caught delivering yesterday’s client service. In the last year corporate counsel found the following key changes impacting their lives:

• CEOs more involved in legal decisions than ever
• Regulatory whiplash
• New and novel litigation claims
• More claims with potentially nuclear verdicts
• Must do M&A
• Geopolitical volatility
• Highly limited additions to in-house counsel staffing

The upshot: New expectations of outside counsel as in-house counsel rely on them more than ever.

But – 256 attorneys figured out how to front-run the ever-changing demands on their clients. They earned the coveted nomination for delivering the best of the best client service.

The Only Purely Organic Ranking

No submissions. No nominations. No suggestions. No payments. Only clients can nominate a BTI Client Service All-Star.  We asked them to pinpoint these individuals by name.

This exclusive research – this report, and the online directory – serve as the gold standard to uncover the best. Used by more than 19,000 corporate counsel and law firms alike – it remains the pinnacle of client service performance.

Clients single out 256 All-Stars from 129 firms. A few highlights:

Every law firm believes the pitch ends when the conference room door closes. Clients know the real pitch starts after the lawyers leave.

While your team is busy replaying its performance, your client is answering one question:

What did I just learn?

Clients aren’t judging how much your lawyers know. They’re judging whether they know more because they met your lawyers.

Everything else flows from the answer. Not the résumé. Not the rates. This one question clients ask themselves 30 seconds after the pitch ends says everything.

Get it right, and the energy is electric. Clients are thinking:

“They’re the ones.”

Clients don’t replay great slides. They replay great insights.

That’s when one thought begins taking over.

“They get it.”

They saw the business issue. They connected risks nobody else saw. They were out in front – spotting the issues before we brought them up.

“They get me.”

They understood what was riding on this decision for me. They understood my stress. They understood what happens if I don’t get this right.

Legal skill gets firms in the room. Being understood gets firms the work.

Every winning pitch leaves clients saying three things:

• • “I learned something new.”
  • “I didn’t think they would know so much about us.”
  • “I learned more than I expected.”

Those reactions tell you the decision is tilting your way.

Now flip it.

“I learned nothing new.”

The team is polished, professional, and easily forgettable. The client heard their own problem, played back in better fonts. Nothing fresh or new.

This pitch doesn’t lose loud – it dies quiet. No one is excited. The conversation quietly shifts to another firm.

The Move for Firms Pitching This Year

The message: Stop pitching what you know. Start pitching what the client doesn’t know yet.

Competence is the cover charge – every firm in the room clears it. Insight is what wins. So is whether the room felt built around the client, or built around a template with their logo dropped in.

Walk into every pitch ready to change how clients see their own business. Every finalist explains the law. Winning firms change how clients think.

When clients leave seeing their business differently, they usually leave saying one thing.

“They’re the ones.”

Clients aren’t asking whether your lawyers are smart. They’re asking whether they are smarter because they met you.

It all started as a torrid love affair.

Corporate counsel were captivated. Every promise sounded irresistible: better outcomes, faster answers, lower costs, and smarter legal strategies.

Then reality arrived: promises had to be proven.

Corporate counsel aren’t giving up on better outcomes. They’re giving up on the idea AI automatically delivers them.

12 months ago, 61% of corporate counsel said they loved it when outside law firms used AI to get better outcomes. We asked the same question again just three weeks ago.

The number plunged to 21%.

The pursuit of better outcomes hasn’t changed. The burden of proof has. Corporate counsel haven’t lowered their expectations. They’ve raised them.

BTI research reveals 6 reasons:

1. Better Lawyers Beat Better Technology
   AI can accelerate work. It still can’t replace legal judgment, business insight, negotiation strategy, or advocacy.

2. The Hype Outran Reality
   Clients heard extraordinary promises. Many are still waiting to see extraordinary results.

3. Trust Took a Hit
   Hallucinations, sanctions, confidentiality concerns, and governance questions reminded clients AI isn’t risk-free.

4. AI Became Table Stakes
   Almost every major law firm now claims sophisticated AI capabilities. Once everyone has it, no one wins because of it alone.

5. Clients Know AI’s Limits
   Corporate counsel use AI themselves. They understand both its strengths and where it breaks down.

6. Prove It
   Clients no longer ask, “Do you use AI?” They ask, “How did it improve my outcome?”

AI isn’t disappearing. Neither is corporate counsel’s thirst for better outcomes. The only thing disappearing in the last 12 months is the belief AI automatically creates those outcomes.

AI is no longer the story. Outcomes are.

The firms pulling away are quietly using AI to solve problems other firms can’t solve, reduce risks others miss, and deliver breakthrough outcomes.

That’s when corporate counsel will fall in love with AI all over again – not because it exists, but because it delivers.

Inflation will do more to destroy a client relationship than it does to personal purchasing power.

Inflation erodes purchasing power gradually. Poor client service destroys relationships immediately. In today’s legal market, clients have little patience for firms failing to evolve alongside their business.

Improvement matters because clients reward momentum. Firms making measurable gains in responsiveness, commercial insight, and collaboration gain the most complex work.

Every new business risk, technology shift, regulatory change, geopolitical disruption, or market shock creates new demands on – and new expectations of – outside counsel.

What clients valued yesterday is today’s minimum expectation.

But 89 law firms are separating themselves from the pack. Clients identify these firms as making the greatest gains in client service performance among more than 650 firms competing for their business.

These firms don’t rely on goodwill, reputation, or past success. They systematically invest in client service. The result: clients see more improvement in these firms faster.

BTI research reveals two distinct drivers behind this accelerated progress – firm-level initiatives and attorney-level behaviors.

Firm-Level Strategies Driving Improvement

These firms are building infrastructure and accountability around client service:

• Launching client feedback programs at scale – and acting on what clients say
• Hiring Client Relationship Executives and Business Development Executives to support clients and relationship partners
• Incorporating client service performance into partner evaluations
• Establishing clear expectations for partner outreach and client engagement
• Investing in ongoing client service training
• Improving internal service across practices and departments
• Streamlining client onboarding to eliminate friction and accelerate engagement
• Using client service coaches to strengthen performance and consistency

Attorney Behaviors Clients Notice Most

Clients also point to specific attorney behaviors fueling improvement:

• Sharing meaningful business intelligence
• Providing clear recommendations – not just legal analysis
• Identifying emerging risks before they become problems
• Preparing clients for discussions with CEOs, boards, and executive teams
• Collaborating with clients to develop new solutions
• Aligning legal strategy with business objectives
• Mobilizing quickly when clients need help most

These 89 Firms Demonstrate an Important Reality

Superior client service comes from attorneys and firms who are intentional, measured, and sustained.

The following firms earned this distinction based on direct client feedback identifying the greatest gains in client service performance:

Clients prefer to work with firms they like. They will pour their hearts out about their deepest, most vexing problems to firms they love.

The loved firms get first access to everything. Especially the plum work with the record-setting rates.

Love easily eclipses satisfaction and trust – think client devotion.

Fee discussions are easier, and you are always the first to know of anything remotely meaningful. These clients will advocate for you inside and outside their organization – and make you better at what you do.

The 113 law firms earning this rare emotional support:

•  Help clients succeed
    Making in-house counsel look effective and insightful to business leaders and executives.

•  Are unfailingly reliable
    Clients never wonder whether the firm will show up when it counts.

•  Act quickly and decisively
    Especially when clients face uncertainty or change.

•  Make it easy to work with them
    Forget friction, false starts, and clunky administrative processes – everything runs smoothly.

•  Understand client’s business deeply
    They connect legal advice to business outcomes.

•  Anticipate needs
    Jump in and proactively address the problems clients have not articulated quite yet.

•  Include clients early in strategy discussions
    It’s a collaboration where clients want to make their law firms as successful as outside counsel want to make their clients.

•  Field the absolute best team for each matter
    No such thing as a “B” team for these clients.

•  Communicate without being prompted, keeping clients informed and prepared
    Ongoing dialogue with clients is the norm – the information is constantly flowing on a real time basis.

•  Deliver practical, actionable recommendations clients can immediately use
    So down to earth clients can forward them to their CEO without editing.

These firms are deeply embedded in client success. They become part of it – making them indispensable.

Congratulations to the 113 firms loved by clients: