A damning new report has raised concerns that many commercial law firms are failing to deliver value for money to their clients, and are often struggling to stick to pre-agreed budgets.
Nisus Consulting, which published the research, found that clients said their solicitors only met or exceeded their expectations on value for money in half (49 per cent) of all cases.
Questions were posed to more than 800 corporate clients in relation to their client/solicitor experience.
“Law firms have existed in a very comfortable place for a very long time. This has seen prices kept high and profits similarly elevated in ways that other industries and professions can only dream of,” said the report.
However, this is one aspect of the sector which has not gone unnoticed.
“Clients feel they are paying through the nose and that the profits are excessive,” said Nisus Consulting, adding that “convincing clients that your firm is delivering real value in the context of the legal market is an uphill battle at best”.
The report found that failing to stick to estimates, charging by the hour, not keeping clients informed of changes to estimates and the reasons for those changes, all contribute to a “feeling that value is poor and that law firms are only interested in looking after number one”.
It suggested that the challenge was better communication with clients on value for money and providing them with more transparency on “the profitability of a piece of work”.
Tim Nightingale, founding director at Nisus Consulting, said: “Clients want to work with people they can get on with; people who can think strategically – who can see the bigger picture for the client company and how the legal advice works in that context.
“They bring with them solutions to problems, not more problems or reasons why things can’t be done.
“It really doesn’t matter how well a firm is judged to perform on its professionalism or its offices, however new and shiny they are, understanding what’s important to clients in general, and individually, is really the game changer and what we all need to get our heads round because service matters to clients.”
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