Practice Management

Hey, dirtbag, watch your clients' money like it's yours.

By Dan Hull

Yeah, that's the ticket.

The client seems to like your firm--and, importantly, you like the client. You want more. But suddenly the general counsel presents your firm with an intense litigation project or regulatory dispute which will consume a good senior litigator and 2 or 3 associates off-and-on for 18 to 24 months. This results in monthly bills suddenly ballooning to $40,000, $80,000 or more.

And this means all of us: the good, bad, lame, and hopelessly dishonest. Anyway, pretend for a fleeting moment (1) that you are an honest lawyer, and not a dirtbag (you guys know who you are) and (2) that you want your firm's practice to be more than a string of one-night stands with another new client, which always winds up being your "adversary" rather than your "partner" in adding value. This idea not only works to build long-term relationships--in good times and bad times--but it can make you pretty rich (without being a dirtbag), too. And keep you out of Allenwood.

See our April 27, 2007 piece "How Much Money Has The Client Spent So Far?" See also WAC? Rule Eight: "Think Like the Client--Help Control Costs". Catch: everyone in your firm has to buy in, and you have to teach it.

Full post as published by What About Clients? on April 23, 2009 (boomark / email).