New research shows clients think law firms can’t keep up with all the new regulations — leaving them with a dearth of answers or inconclusive answers they can’t use.

Soaring litigation and pressure on legal departments to stay ahead of the curve creates immediate need for definite and relevant response. So, clients are going shopping.

As The Mad Clientist discussed last week clients face a bevy of new regulations — especially in labor, data privacy, and industry-specific rules. They also face new types of litigation. Clients need early opinions on what all this means, and they need them quickly and decisively — they have their CEO to answer to.

How to Send Your Client Window Shopping

Any of the following will send your clients looking for another opinion:

• One hedged opinion
• An equivocal answer
• A clinical answer with no reference to your client’s company or industry
• Delayed response

And then your clients immediately:

• Reach out to one of the dozens of law firms with whom they work — and ask questions
• Jump on google and get a read on the issue — relying on law firms’ thought leadership and press quotes to guide them
• Check in with peers
• Talk to their single most trusted outside attorney about the issues

Unless everything comes back supporting the original opinion — your relationship just took a big hit. You can expect most clients to window shop in the following key practices:

• Labor — clients want to know what industry peers are doing or how to apply the regulations
• Data Privacy – where and how are they impacted by all the new regulations
• Litigation — early assessment — and how pervasive is this type of litigation in their industry
• ESG – what do they have to disclose and what language to use
• Clients’ use of social media — how to manage the risk of consumers misinterpreting or claiming the published statements are discriminatory or untrue
• M&A — what are the regulatory headwinds most likely to derail this deal
• Trade — what do newly implemented trade restrictions mean — and what’s next

A Clear Message to Law Firms

The message is clear. Clients want your opinions, interpretations, and very early assessments. They know the facts aren’t in. The regulations are brand new, and the world is uncertain. But clients need to make decisions now.

And the answers have to feel right — top legal decision makers bring broad experience and sense when a recommendation or interpretation is off track.

The most responsive law firms set up task forces to follow key issues and share their informal findings frequently — within their practice and throughout the firm. Because you just can’t predict which client will ask your firm next — be it the first or second opinion.

How to Answer Clients’ Pressing Questions Before they Ask

Winning law firms are brainstorming with clients to get ahead of the issues, so clients don’t have to ask the questions. They are honing their message for each practice and sticking their necks out to offer an interpretation of the problem.

Deep Insights Into Clients’ Questions

You can learn what clients want — and their deepest concerns — in each practice in the just-released BTI Practice Outlook 2023: Target the New Work and Business Development Strategies for an Uncertain Economy.

Find the Hottest Spots by Practice — BTI’s Practice/Industry Opportunity Matrix 2023

Our most popular and powerful tool to drive business development. We take our analysis one step further and break down legal spending by 18 industries and 15 practices.

Quickly spot spending surges and get the inside scoop on why and how to capture the work. Only in the BTI Practice Outlook 2023: Target the New Work and Business Development Strategies for an Uncertain Economy.

About the BTI Practice Outlook 2023

Designed for uncertainty the BTI Practice Outlook 2023 is your guide and the gold standard for laying out the next phase of legal markets — as our research has been for 31 years. In use by more than 200 law firms, this is the source to map out your business development with precision.

You can also learn exactly where clients are spending their money and see the law firms best positioned to help them — by name — in 8 key segments of litigation in BTI’s just-released BTI Litigation Outlook 2023: Litigation Spending in the Uncertain Economy and Beyond.

You can discover the new business development tactics working in the uncertain economy and how clients are spending their litigation dollars in 2023 for 8 segments and 18 industries.

Join the rapidly growing list of law firms getting a jump on the new business development trends.

Previously unseen matters are pouring in along with the old — soaking up a good portion of new legal spending.

And clients are seeing more reasons to relook at M&A — not to mention the record backlog. Combine this with in-house attrition and retention issues and it all adds up to big spending for outside counsel.

5 Practices Hogging Most of the Growth

The legal spending fire hose is still open. But it is more targeted than the last 2 years. This is driving growth twice as fast as the overall market in 5 practices, and another 3 practices are right behind them.

5 Fastest Growing Practices

• • Investigations
  • Data Privacy
  • Private Equity
  • Regulatory
  • Labor and Employment

3 Practiced Slated for Impressive Growth

• • Class Actions
  • Litigation
  • M&A

Icing on The Cake

The icing on the cake may be the flow of new types of matters into client portfolios. They are meaty and interesting — the kind attorneys tell us they love. This includes:

• New and unexpected fraud and discrimination claims from company use of social media
• Broad pursuit of forever chemicals
• State level data privacy (all of which are different and far reaching)
• A bevy of labor related issues
• ESG
• A swirl of new regulations
• M&A in a world of uncertainty

The Inside Scoop on Winning the Work

Winning law firms are honing their message for each practice — and the biggest winners have industry-specific messages. They are bringing new strategies and brainstorming with clients. But these are tuned to the clients who want to know your strategy — and those who want your interpretation of the problem.

You can learn what clients want in each practice in the just-released BTI Practice Outlook 2023: Target the New Work and Business Development Strategies for an Uncertain Economy.

Find the Hottest Spots by Practice — BTI’s Practice/Industry Opportunity Matrix 2023

Our most popular and powerful tool to drive business development. We take our analysis one step further and break down legal spending by 18 industries and 15 practices.

Quickly spot spending surges and get the inside scoop on why and how to capture the work. Only in the BTI Practice Outlook 2023: Target the New Work and Business Development Strategies for an Uncertain Economy.

About the BTI Practice Outlook 2023

Designed for uncertainty the BTI Practice Outlook 2023 is your guide and the gold standard for laying out the next phase of legal markets — as our research has been for 31 years. In use by more than 200 law firms, this is the source to map out your business development with precision.

I stood there, staring, watching a business development train wreck happen before my own eyes — I couldn’t stop it.

A rock star high-tech company wanted help with its strategy. They enjoyed a meteoric rise from start-up to multi-hundred-million-dollar company. They wanted help mapping out their next moves.

We plotted, planned, and strategized on how to win the work. The pitch would include 3 segments. One from the most senior partner — the statesmen who represented leadership of the firm for whom I worked, one from the head of strategic planning (Danny), and me — in charge of emerging and growth companies.

We developed an intro about who we were, created a one-page flow chart of our approach, and added Q&A and wrap-up. We rehearsed this presentation several times with different groups in the firm. We were up against a super-branded consulting firm, and we were pumped.

The day arrived — we met the client, said our hellos, and began the show. The senior statesman kicked things off and handed it off to the strategic planner. Danny stood up and walked everyone through the flowchart of our approach. We answered a few questions and had a brief discussion. Then it was my turn to start the Q&A. But…

Before I could begin, Danny cleaned all the markings he drew on the flow chart slide and started to re-explain our process, almost verbatim, from the first go around. And then… he cleared his markings yet again and presented our process for a third time. He continued to bestow the virtues of our approach and how it would lead to continued rock star-level success.

When he finished, Danny asked if there were any other questions. After a moment of awkward silence, the client executive group answered in unison some form of no and indicated this would wrap things up. The meeting was over. We were done.

We later got feedback from this potential client. We had embarrassed ourselves. They couldn’t believe we used the same slide 3 times as the centerpiece of the presentation. And if you are wondering — no we didn’t get the work.

Life goes on.

Another big opportunity came along shortly thereafter. I immediately went to work. I reached out to this potential client. We talked about what and how he was thinking about the problem. I asked what he thought would be most helpful to discuss in our meeting — and what he wanted to get out of it.

I conducted my own research and found out who their top customers were. We interviewed these customers about their needs and their providers. We also talked to their suppliers who are crucial to their business. We also learned how customers used their offerings. I shared all this with the senior statesman and originating partner — who after serious convincing — agreed to start the presentation with this insight.

The big day arrived.

We all gathered, and they asked how we wanted to proceed. I indicated I wanted to share some things about the market and customers and get their thoughts. I shared the research. They were especially interested in how their customers used their offerings. This led to a larger discussion of immediate actions they could take — at almost no cost — to improve their customer’s experience.

We never got to our process, and they asked if we could stay an extra half hour. Everyone from our team played a part in the conversation.

The feedback we got was as follows from the CEO. “What do we need to do to get started?”

This was the antidote I needed from our previous debacle.

And it’s a lesson I try to impart to all my clients and friends — learn about and talk about your potential client. Top legal decision makers tell us the best law firms understand the business context of the legal matter — and adding industry nuance is more assurance they will get the best result.

Your ability to articulate one aspect of the business risk proves you have a great process. And clients will give you the work. Your audience will see you as differentiated and worth more — because so few people do it.