Chris Vaagt, a consultant to law firms since 1997 who advises mainly on organisation development, strategy and economics, and Mariusz Kowalski of Waterwalk Partners, a manager and adviser with decades of experience in business development, strategy, marketing and digital projects across dozens of professional services firms in more than a dozen countries, examined what makes a firm worth choosing. Their consulting work gave them a shared view of how firms position themselves and how rarely they ask clients what they want. Participant Ron Given added challenges on incentives and partner behaviour.

Overview

The speakers argued that leaders need to know their firm’s distinguishing points and who their client actually is. Kowalski recalled a CFO who was unhappy because his law firm spoke to him as if he were a lawyer. Vaagt said firms rarely ask clients what they expect, citing a former executive at a large Zurich bank who recalled only one managing partner seeking his views over several years; that partner reportedly never followed up. Both stressed that gathering feedback is pointless unless the firm acts on it.

The second theme was focus. Vaagt said many firms try to be everything to everybody and so lack a clear profile, and that “strategy is about saying no”. He described Kirkland & Ellis choosing to stop acting for banks in the London debt market and, in his account, reaching a market share of nearly eighty per cent among borrowers. Kowalski gave a smaller example: a firm dropped a practice area that overlapped with firms that could refer work, and those firms then sent it referrals. He added that risk can be reduced through data, preparation, scenario planning and internal Q&As. He also argued that legal expertise is becoming a hygiene factor, with client experience a differentiator that non-lawyer clients can judge.

The discussion then turned to implementation. Given doubted that most firms have Kirkland’s appetite for risk, and argued that compensation drives behaviour: partners who spend time with clients may see billable hours fall, and mobile partners may guard client relationships. Vaagt disagreed that this should be reduced to profit sharing, preferring routines (for example, each partner speaking weekly to a top twenty client), supported by training. Both consultants stressed that marketing follows strategy, and that senior lawyers must find time for clients.

Key Takeaways

• Ask clients what they want, and act on it. Few firms run client listening programmes, so asking can itself set a firm apart.
• Learn the client’s business challenges as well as their legal needs. Kowalski’s test is whether you know what keeps them awake at night.
• Decide which clients and work you will not take. Narrowing the offer is risky, but both speakers saw it as the basis of strategy.
• Treat major strategic exits as a managed process. Use data, prepare partners and departments, and test scenarios before announcing a change.
• Settle strategy before marketing. Once you know your target clients and sectors, the marketing priorities largely follow.
• Check that incentives support the strategy. Given warned that billable hour pressure can undermine client contact and teamwork, while Vaagt favoured routines and training over remuneration changes alone.