‘Responsiveness’ is the most important factor when in-house counsel choose external law firms, new research shows.
It was rated 8.8 out of 10 in terms of importance, closely followed by ‘understanding of the business’ (8.6) and ‘deep specialist expertise’ (7.6), in a survey of more than 200 in-house lawyers by Thomson Reuters, Differentiation factor: What do businesses value most from external counsel?
Technology and innovative service delivery are also important—more so than personal relationships between in-house counsel and lawyers at the firm.
‘There is now tremendous pressure on law firms to understand, agree and keep to, service level agreements with their clients, and to ensure their responses reflect the commercial and wider-industry in which the client operates,’ said Samantha Steer, a director at Thomsons.
