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CRMs: The Link Between Lawyer and Client

By David Maurer
March 28, 2013

One-third of the global in-house legal departments surveyed by market research firm Acritas (which annually surveys the General Counsel of the largest corporations in 45 countries on their experiences with their outside law firms) dropped at least one of their law firms in the past year. Respondents listed the following as their main reasons for changing firms: pricing (compared with the value delivered), less-than-stellar legal expertise, and insufficient customer service. In addition, they claimed that many firms are inefficient and spend resources unwisely, lack project management skills, and are often slow to respond, which is especially glaring in today's high-speed, highly-connected world.

Acritas CEO Lisa Hart Shepherd says a lot of these problems boil down to a lack of communication between the firms and their clients. “The main problem with law firms is that they aren't asking their clients often enough and proactively enough how they're doing.” A recent ALM survey (“Legal Client Relationship Management: The Elusive Essential”) backs this up. It found that 77% of law firm administrators believe their firms are not focused enough on understanding clients and their needs. “Firms need to ask these questions,” agrees Chris Lenhart, Senior VP & Associate General Counsel at U.S. Bank, “but in my experience, 98% of them don't.”

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