Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m M A Y 2 0 1 6 21 hen Laura Wil- liams launched her new firm, she wanted to ensure she was hitting the mark. So she hired a company to find out what existing cli- ents wanted. They were asked to outline what they liked about the service they had received, what was important to them, and to provide some insight on their expectations. What came back was a clear desire for responsiveness and availability from their lawyer from whom they also sought practical solutions. "What I've seen right across the board . . . is there is a height- ened expectation for responsiveness, and that can be a real challenge from a practitioner's standpoint," says Williams, principal of Williams HR Law PC in Markham, Ont. "Throw the 9-to-5 regu- lar business hours out the window. Cli- ents expect lawyers, their service provid- ers, to be much more responsive." And she discovered business consum- ers are looking for practical solutions that can be implemented, not just instructions on what they can't do but what they can do to achieve outcomes that meet their operational goals. An identified shift in the marketplace has put the client of legal services in the driver's seat. With a new sense of empow- erment buoyed by an oversupply of law- yers, a slowing economy, and ongoing technological evolution, the sophisticated purchaser of legal services is focusing on value, costs, and relationships that observers say need to be heeded. The Canadian Bar Association's defin- ing Legal Futures Initiative report, now nearly three years old, found clients, faced with more choice and access to technol- ogy-based solutions, are questioning the basic value proposition of lawyers and the cost of legal services. In this environment, clients — particularly business clients who have experience working with law- yers — seek more information on services and involvement in decision-making and greater knowledge of risks and potential outcomes, in addition to demanding better prices. The onus is now on the lawyer to identify the needs of each client and ensure they meet all their expectations. In its study, "Client Dynamics Driving Change in the Legal Profession," recruit- ing firm Robert Half Legal reports clients are seeking increased value, new avenues of delivery, alternative fee arrangements, and greater understanding of the risks and possible outcomes of legal strate- gies. Charles Volkert, Robert Half Legal's global executive director, points to two significant events that led to changing cli- ent demands: new e-ediscovery rules and the 2008 recession. The scope of discovery in the U.S. and Canada has increased based on rule chang- es as well as the vast amount of electronic data that requires review and is often han- dled by third-parties, temporary contract lawyers, and through project management. The recession, he adds, drove com- panies to search for efficiencies and led them to handle more work internally. That led to law firms searching for their own efficiencies resulting in the use of more legal professionals on a temporary contract L AW O F F I C E M A N A G E M E N T W ALEXI VELLA Expectations and feedback Know what clients want and always follow up so you know if your fi rm is providing it. By Marg. Bruineman

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