We surveyed 42 Ftse-100 companies, with a combined annual legal spend of about £300m. During face-to-face interviews, respondents were asked to comment upon topics as varied as law firm selection procedures and tendering; pricing mechanisms; the role of technology; service delivery and proactivity; the sort of marketing that clients want and that which they do not; the constituent parts of best practice and the shape of the future.
The consistency of the criticism emanating from the Ftse-100 means that this was not just clients having a cheap shot at law firms but rather the expression of deeply held convictions. This sample of respondents is shouting it with one voice, ‘Be more business-like!’ and by ‘business-like’ they actually mean ‘Be less lawyer-like’.
