header-logo header-logo

A shared understanding

22 February 2007 / Allan Carton
Issue: 7261 / Categories: Features , Profession
printer mail-detail

Allan Carton explains how getting closer to your clients helps build a better business

Clients take the legal work you do for granted. However complex it is, they assume you can deal with it if they have already chosen you. So, yes, make sure you and your colleagues get it right. But most clients would say: “So what? That’s what lawyers are paid to do.” Get it wrong and you’re in trouble. Rescue a client from a real jam and they may love you forever, but you can’t build a business around these occasional triumphs.

So assuming all the decent lawyers in your area provide legal work reasonably well, what would make someone choose one from the other? Recommendations? Yes, but what makes clients or your accountant enthusiastic enough about your practice to want to tell their friends and clients about you? Maybe because you are a specialist in some area, but usually there is more than one specialist in any area and just how specialised are most lawyers? Perhaps some genuine specialists can still

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

NLJ Career Profile: Francis Ho, City of London Law Society

NLJ Career Profile: Francis Ho, City of London Law Society

Francis Ho, Charles Russell Speechlys partner, was recently appointed chair of the Construction Law Committee of the City of London Law Society. He discusses the challenges of learning to lead, the importance of professional ethics, and the power of the written word, withNLJ

Slater Heelis—Chester office

Slater Heelis—Chester office

North West presence strengthened with Chester office launch

Cooke, Young & Keidan—Elizabeth Meade

Cooke, Young & Keidan—Elizabeth Meade

Firm grows commercial disputes expertise with partner promotion

NEWS
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) must overhaul its complaints and risk assessment processes to fix ‘systemic shortcomings’, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said
The opt-out collective actions regime is facing ‘significant challenges’ but could benefit the UK by £24bn a year if enhanced and expanded, a report by Stephenson Harwood has found
Ministers have rejected the Justice Committee review’s key recommendation for the ailing county court system—an ‘urgent and comprehensive’ review by spring at the latest
Firms preparing to mount Mazur applications alleging the other side has acted in breach of the Legal Services Act 2007 may be left disappointed, the Law Society has said
The first Post Office Capture conviction—the accounting software used before the faulty Horizon system—has been referred for appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)
back-to-top-scroll