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30 July 2021 / Susan Saltonstall Duncan
Issue: 7943 / Categories: Features , Profession
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Nurturing enduring client loyalty

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Susan Saltonstall Duncan shares advice on how to make your clients feel valued
  • Clients want to be assured that they made the right choice in choosing your firm to help it with its legal problems. Make sure you are doing this by becoming a close and trusted adviser.

With all the pressures clients are under to reduce legal fees, it is easy to forget that clients have a human side and that personal relationships still often count for a lot. Don’t wait until after a matter has concluded to begin to get to know clients. At the beginning or end of every call or meeting, initiate some personal conversation, off the clock of course!

Get to know what motivates them, what is important to them and how they spend their time outside of the office. Find commonalities and mutual interests like where you grew up, university or law school, hobbies like golf, running marathons, sports teams, gardening, the performing or visual arts, favourite travel spots and restaurants and charitable and civic

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Forbes Solicitors—Stephen Barnfield

Forbes Solicitors—Stephen Barnfield

Regulatory team boosted by partner hire amid rising health and safety demand

Arc Pensions Law—Kris Weber

Arc Pensions Law—Kris Weber

Legal director promoted to partner at specialist pensions firm

Clarke Willmott—Jonathan Cree

Clarke Willmott—Jonathan Cree

Residential development capability expands with partner hire in Birmingham

NEWS

From blockbuster judgments to procedural shake-ups, the courts are busy reshaping litigation practice. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School hails the Court of Appeal's 'exquisite judgment’ in Mazur restoring the role of supervised non-qualified staff, and highlights a ‘mammoth’ damages ruling likened to War and Peace, alongside guidance on medical reporting fees, where a pragmatic 25% uplift was imposed

Momentum is building behind proposals to restrict children’s access to social media—but the legal and practical challenges are formidable. In NLJ this week, Nick Smallwood of Mills & Reeve examines global moves, including Australia’s under-16 ban and the UK's consultation
Reforms designed to rebalance landlord-tenant relations may instead penalise leaseholders themselves. In this week's NLJ, Mike Somekh of The Freehold Collective warns that the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 risks creating an ‘underclass’ of resident-controlled freehold companies
Timing is everything—and the Court of Appeal has delivered clarity on when proceedings are ‘brought’. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ, Stephen Gold explains that a claim is issued for limitation purposes when the claim form is delivered to the court, even if fees are underpaid
The traditional ‘single, intensive day’ of financial dispute resolution (FDR) may be due for a rethink. Writing in NLJ this week, Rachel Frost-Smith and Lauren Guiler of Birketts propose a ‘split FDR’ model, separating judicial evaluation from negotiation
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