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Ballard Spahr Appoints Nonlawyer to New Client Relations Position

Could this new form of communicating with clients lead to the end of law firm marketing?

After testing out the benefits of client interviews through a consulting firm, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll has hired a full-time client interviewer.

Debra Nussbaum, a former reporter, started in the firm's Philadelphia office six weeks ago and has been working with a consultant to receive training on how best to talk with clients about their needs and concerns, firm Chairman Arthur Makadon said.

Ballard Spahr had an outside company handle some client relations work about a year and a half ago as part of a broader strategic initiative for the firm and found the information gathered to be invaluable, he said.

In looking over the data compiled from previous interviews, Makadon said he realized this might be something the firm could benefit from doing on a regular basis. The department may grow beyond Nussbaum, he said.

"Too often we were just not aware of what our clients were thinking," he said. "That can lead, over time, to an erosion of the client relationship."

The idea of bringing on a full-time client relations manager is a hot topic that many of the country's largest firms are just now testing out. One consultant said the use of these positions could really bolster the number of times clients refer the firm and could, ultimately, reduce or eliminate the need for law firm marketing.

Nussbaum is just now starting to meet with clients in what Makadon calls candid interviews in which the clients can talk about what type of service they are getting, any problems that have arisen and what needs to be done better.

While Nussbaum, who is not a lawyer, may be accompanied to some of the meetings by lawyers in the firm, Makadon said it would never be with any lawyers who work with the client being interviewed.

He said the firm is just interested in hearing how the client perceives the relationship, whether the firm agrees or not. He said it is important that the firm not try to defend itself in these meetings but just listen to the feedback.

"A key is, though, that once you commit yourself to doing it, you have to do it on a fairly regular basis without making a pest of yourself," Makadon said.

The firm will probably look to schedule these interviews about every year and a half, he said.

Ballard Spahr will initially focus on the firm's 300 or so top clients for the first round of interviews. Makadon said they are the clients in which multiple firm lawyers are involved in several different practice areas so that the firm gets feedback from several different people within the client organization.

While there have been no interviews under the new system to allow for client feedback on the program, Makadon said clients interviewed by the consultant a year and a half ago "loved it."

Charles A. "Biff" Maddock of Altman Weil said the new trend on the business development side of the legal profession is to enhance lawyer service by creating the client interviewer position.

The first component of the business side of the profession came years ago in the form of marketing, he said. About five or six years ago, firms started adding the second component by bringing on salespeople -- an area Maddock said lawyers aren't all that comfortable handling.

The third component, which is service, has always been something lawyers are great at, he said. It is just now being augmented by the new trend of hiring client relationship managers, Maddock said.

"This service component is terribly, terribly important," he said.

He said it's a huge selling point for law firms with clients as well as in their recruiting efforts.

When doing client interviews on behalf of his own clients, Maddock said it is unusual that cost would make its way into the top three complaints clients have about their outside law firms. He said the top three issues are, usually, service-based.

While Maddock said marketers don't like to hear this, if the sales function of law firms do their jobs and bring in new clients and the client relationship manager along with the attorneys satisfy those clients to the degree the clients market the firm on their own, then firms don't need marketers.

Many law firms talk a big game when it comes to client satisfaction, but few actually have programs like the one instituted by Ballard Spahr, he said.

It is unclear, he said, how many of the Am Law 200 firms have positions like this. Those that do might be waiting to advertise the fact until they find out how well the position works, Maddock said.

He did mention one firm, Orrick, as having this type of position. Not only does Orrick have a client interviewer but he said the position also acts as an ombudsman for the firm, handling all third-party issues and complaints.

Reed Smith has been in the client relations game for a few years now. The firm hired its first director of general counsel relations in 2005, but one of the clients hired her away the following year.

The firm filled the position in December 2006 with Martha E. "Marti" Candiello, a former general counsel who spent more than 25 years in various in-house positions, including time at Sunoco Chemicals and Rohm & Haas.

Makadon said the client interview role is not an area where a firm can make any mistakes. He said the interviewer needs to have a lot of information about the client and the firm's relationship with the client before even setting up a meeting.

Nussbaum is familiar with the interview process. Her background is mainly in journalism with some recruiting experience.

She has more than 30 years of newspaper reporting experience, beginning her career at The Minneapolis Star. She has also written for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. She spent some time recruiting for The New York Times as well.

She is an adjunct professor of journalism at Rowan University, where she teaches news writing and feature writing.

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