When litigator J. Michael Brown joined his firm nine years ago, he had little idea what he would be spending much of his time doing.

“I hired on with the belief that all I had to do was go to court and win cases,” he says. But today, he’s the partner in charge of managing the firm’s relationship with DuPont–a big client because the chemical giant has chosen Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs as its primary firm for matters in Kentucky and Tennessee. In his role, Mr. Brown has learned that it takes more than legal competence to satisfy clients.