Superficially at least, every law firm in the world insists on characterising itself as a client-focused organisation. The motivation is obvious: clients are a law firm’s lifeblood and its dinner ticket. But despite the repeated avowals, in most countries the structure of the legal profession faces regular criticism from outsiders who see it as self-serving and protectionist.
The truth, of course, is somewhere in between. Law firms value their clients (or at least the larger and more profitable ones) and the service standards expected by clients are undoubtedly on the rise. But despite the readiness of the average firm to climb aboard the ‘client-focused’ bandwagon, the legal industry’s experiences with customer (or client) relationship management systems – CRM systems for short – are by no means a universal success.
