Guide to
Client care:
Communication and service
Practice support
Enquiries/comments to:
Giles Watson
QLS Practice Support Manager
Tel: 07 3842 5853
g.watson@qls.com.au
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Client care – communication and service – page 2
Table of Contents
1.
What is client care? and why is it important?......����������������������������������������������������������������4
2.
Customer dissatisfaction and risk management���������������������������������������������������������������11
3.
Service, value and value for money.....................��������������������������������������������������������������13
4.
What do clients want?...........................................��������������������������������������������������������������17
5.
Delivering client service..........................................��������������������������������������������������������������27
6.
Client care as a marketing tool.............................��������������������������������������������������������������30
7.
Managing expectations.........................................��������������������������������������������������������������32
8.
First interview with client.........................................��������������������������������������������������������������34
9.
Effective Communication......................................��������������������������������������������������������������36
10. Confirmation & retainer letter................................��������������������������������������������������������������41
11. Fees and costs information
1: Regulator requirements and client requirements.��������������������������������������������������������43
12. Fees & Costs Information
2: Client Care And Profitability..............................��������������������������������������������������������������45
13. Ending the Retainer................................................��������������������������������������������������������������50
14. Cultural issues...........................................................��������������������������������������������������������������51
15. The role of support staff..........................................��������������������������������������������������������������54
16. Handling Complaints..............................................��������������������������������������������������������������57
17. Researching client satisfaction..............................��������������������������������������������������������������61
18. Making it happen: the key steps in transforming your practice��������������������������������������66
19. Complaints, discipline and the role of the LSC....��������������������������������������������������������������72
Appendix 1: Do’s and Don’ts of client care.................��������������������������������������������������������������78
Appendix 2: QLS Client Service Charter........................��������������������������������������������������������������80
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Client care – communication and service – page 3
1.What is client care? and why is it important?
What is client care? What is good service?
Solicitors often struggle with the concept of client care. Although many educators now have
a more practical focus, legal education and training has often been primarily based on black
letter law and principles of justice, rather than service and communication, and solicitors have
traditionally believed that their worth – to either employer or client – will primarily be assessed
according to their legal, technical expertise rather than how that expertise is delivered. This can
often cause a ‘great divide’ between client and solicitor.
Times are changing, however - with developments in client service in other markets, the wider
use of information technology, and the increasing availability of legal information. In future
the success of both practices and individual solicitors will depend increasingly less on legal
expertise, and increasingly more on service delivery.
In attempting to define client care and client service (and for the purposes of this guide, these
terms are used interchangeably), it might be best to start with an examination of some of the
misconceptions or partial understandings concerning client care:
Not quite client care:
“Client care is about doing the
best job I can in looking after
my clients’ interests.”
It is a common error of solicitors to think that because the matter is progressing
well, and the clients interests are being protected or enhanced, that a good
service is being provided. Whatever the progress of the matter, if you cause the
client stress or frustration by poor communication or administration, you are not
providing a good service.
Protecting your clients’ interests is of course important, but it is not the same
thing as good service. Client care requires a greater focus on how you do things,
and how you interact with your clients. The majority of client dissatisfaction
concerns not legal expertise, but weaknesses in service, administration and
communication. Excellent service means providing a service that is excellent in
the client’s terms rather than service that you consider excellent.
“Client care is about
regulatory compliance and
obligations such as costs
disclosure.”
Client care is about much more than costs disclosure and fulfilling regulatory
“Client care is about retaining
and upholding high ethical
standards in all my dealings
with clients.”
Client care is about more than ethics. Honesty and integrity are important but
obligations. Rules and regulations only cover some service issues, and then
only provide a minimum benchmark. If you focus solely on a limited number of
minimum benchmarks, your chances of client dissatisfaction will remain high.
are taken as read and assumed by clients – at least by the time they have
instructed you. Ethics provides a set of rules and principles to guide your actions in
a generalist sense, but they do not equip you for responding to the specific needs
of different clients. To provide good service, solicitors need guidance not only
from ethical rules or principles, but also directly from their own clients.
“Client care is about avoiding
complaints and providing ‘the
standard of competence and
diligence that a member of
the public is entitled to expect
of a reasonably competent
Australian legal practitioner’.”
As with specific regulatory obligations, it is important to think of client care not
as some defined minimum benchmark, but as a constant journey towards best
practice and ever-higher levels of client satisfaction.
Levels of client care are primarily measured by individual clients, not the LSC, and
just because your service meets the ‘standard of competence and diligence
that a member of the public is entitled to expect of a reasonably competent
Australian Legal Practitioner’, it does not mean that your service will satisfy specific
clients in specific circumstances.
“Client care is about having a
good ‘desk side manner’ and
being sympathetic to client
concerns.”
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A good desk-side manner or developing a good personal relationship with a
client is not the same thing as good service. Clients might enjoy your company
but still feel frustrated by delay or other issues. Personal communication skills are
valuable and important, but they need to be backed up by good administration
systems to guarantee client care.
Client care – communication and service – page 4
Professionalism, ethics, commercialism and client care
Solicitors often over-emphasise the importance of their ‘professional’ status, believing that this
status guarantees clients a superior service protected from ‘commercial’ instincts, guided by
worthy ethical principals and protected by high admission and ongoing regulatory standards.
Although ethical standards are important, they are different from service standards, and for
many clients, the term ‘professional’ has negative rather than positive service connotations.
Professional status is dependent on the recognition of technical skills, the maintenance of
expertise and the acceptance of professional standards. Solicitors should rightly recognise the
importance of their training and ethical framework, but should also realise that client concerns
are different. Clients do not buy your expertise or your time; they buy service and a solution to
their problems. Similarly they do not (usually) judge solicitors by their technical skills, expertise or
compliance to ethical standards (these are assumed), they judge them by their service delivery,
efficiency and communication skills. Whilst ethics and standards certainly have their place, it would be wrong of professionals
to assume that these guarantee a superior level of either protection or service to clients.
Regulation is necessary for the professions because of their unique market position, the relative
inability of consumers to protect themselves, and the necessity of trust. But does the commercial
world suffer because of its lack of regulation? In other industries, the market is better equipped
to regulate, often in tandem with a varying degrees of government intervention. Such client led
regulation is often highly effective: improving service much more efficiently than any code of
conduct.
In terms of a driver for practice standards and behaviour, the legal profession has a tendency
to over-rely on tradition and their ethical framework at the expense of listening directly to
the needs of their own clients and markets, specifically in the key areas of costs information
and communication. As clients become more confident, vocal and demanding, however,
they are becoming increasingly useful guides as to what good service is and how it should be
delivered. An over-reliance on regulatory codes of conduct, as opposed to the seeking of client
feedback, is likely to lead to poorer rather than higher standards of service because codes of
conduct can only set minimum standards or benchmarks: by consistently aiming low, some
people will inevitably miss their target. Clients, on the other hand, demand the highest standards
– and this is what professionals should be aiming for.
Similarly, the professional trait of over-reliance on ethics and technical skills as the most
important drivers of standards is again misplaced. Most complaints or poor service can be
attributed to administration, management and communication failings rather than either ethical
or technical failings. In not recognizing this, and in continuing to focus on ethics and technical
skills, professionals again risk failing in relation to client service.
Given the above, it seems that some professionals might be able to learn something from more
‘commercial’ industries. Commercial industries are often seen as leading the way on service
because, unlike some solicitors, they understand that to be successful and profitable they need
to provide a good service and to provide a good service, they need to listen to their clients.
It is a criticism of the legal profession that by sometimes sneering at commercialism, they fail
to learn from its strengths, not least in service delivery and responsiveness to customer needs.
In reality of course, the conflict between professionalism and commercialism is exaggerated:
solicitors need to acknowledge both their ethical framework and the needs of their clients.
The danger lies in thinking that an ethical framework is sufficient in itself to guarantee good
service. Clients live in the commercial world and have commercial needs, and solicitors need to
respond to these commercial needs with a commercial service.
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Client care – communication and service – page 5
Client Care objectives & strategy
Effective client care is based around a number of overlapping objectives:
Focus on the client’s service
requirements, not just the
legal product.
What does the client need?
Speed? Reassurance? Value? Communication? Candid advice? Sensitivity?
Respect? Efficiency? Regular updates? Involvement?
Contrary to popular belief, clients do not buy your time and expertise, they buy a
service. As a result, they do not just need technical skills, they also need the good
feelings, positive experiences and confidence that go with it.
Manage expectations
Identify and address any assumptions – both the client’s and your own – that could
lead to later misunderstandings or tensions. See section on managing expectations
Keep the client involved and
in control
One of the main concerns when clients retain lawyers is they feel they have lost
control and have ‘handed over’ all responsibility to the lawyer. Fee-earners should,
therefore, ensure they keep the client regularly informed on the progress of the
matter, any changes to cost estimates, and any changes to timescales. Even if the
matter hasn’t progressed, or if there are no changes to initial estimates, it is good
practice to stay in touch with the client just to reassure them that everything is on
track.
Make every client feel they
are your most important
client
Many clients will leave a firm, not because of any problems with the quality of legal
work, but because a perception has arisen that they are not a particularly valued
client. Often this is a misperception, and the lawyer can be working very hard on
their case with considerable success. If the client is not advised of progress, or is not
included, a perception of neglect can occur.
Develop good team and
individual communication
skills and habits
Not everyone is a natural communicator, but skills and techniques can be learned
to improve your communications with your clients.
A large number of law firms would claim to do some or all of the above, but many would
struggle to tell you how. It is not enough for a law firm to claim to subscribe to these as principles;
a strategy is needed to ensure these principles are embedded in all of the firm’s activities.
A complete client care strategy should involve a mixture of the following:
Policies, processes,
procedures & checklists to
facilitate effective client care
Client needs should form the basis of all systems and procedures, and must also be
The right practice culture
Does your practice culture support or hinder people in their efforts to provide a
perceived as credible by those operating them.
good service? See section on cultural issues
A philosophy of continuous
improvement, using client
feedback
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Client feedback and complaints information, as well as your own observations,
should give you the information to identify strengths and weaknesses in your
service, and to continuously improve.
Client care – communication and service – page 6
Why is client care important?
The importance of client service cannot be overestimated. Many lawyers find it surprising that,
according to research, around 75% per cent of the incentive for choosing one lawyer over
another is linked to service delivery, and only 25% to technical/legal expertise. In most situations,
clients will already expect a lawyer to know his or her law, so in choosing a lawyer, the level of
service will nearly always be more important.
Client care is important to your practice for a number of reasons; and can bring the following
benefits:
• Fewer claims and complaints
• Increased client retention
• Client development and cross-selling services from different departments or practice areas
• Increased referrals
• Differentiation and positive brand appeal
• Higher recovery rates (percentage of recorded time or work in progress actually recovered in
fees)
• Potential for higher rates/fees
• Improved practice morale and staff/partner retention
“Client care is all very well, but you can’t charge for it can you”
Although many of the above benefits are acknowledged, many solicitors are still cynical about
the link between client care and profitability – seeing client care as a bureaucratic drain on
both time and money, and making comments like, “Client care is all very well but you can’t
charge for it can you?”.
You can of course charge for client care both in terms of increasing your rates and, if the client
agrees, though time costs for additional service-related tasks. As professionals, solicitors often
believe they are paid primarily – or even solely – for their professional expertise. This, however,
is not the case and in reality clients not only pay for a service but are willing to pay more for a
better service from their solicitor in the same way that they would pay more for a better service
from their builder, insurer, hairdresser or broadband provider.
Just as many of the most profitable companies in commercial industries are successful because
of their service quality, so client service can be a key driver of profitability for solicitors. Small
but significant improvements in clients’ perceptions of service quality can produce significant
improvements in some key practice measures, and even bigger differences in profitability. The
cumulative effect of the changes below – which are by no means ambitious or unrealistic – can
have the effect of doubling profitability.
• 10% increase in fee rates?
-- 25% increase in profits
• 15% increase in volume of work from improved retention and referral rates?
-- 35-40% increase in profits (assuming costs controlled)
• Increase in WIP recovery rate from 85% to 90%?
-- 10-15% increase in profits
As the above benefits are some of the most important strategic objectives for just about any
legal practice, you would expect client care and service issues to have a higher profile both
within individual practices and in the legal industry generally. This, however, is demonstrably not
the case, with practices rarely investing in or prioritising service issues as a strategic objective,
and with client care and service usually falling behind issues such as marketing, finance, risk
management, compliance, IT, HR and knowledge management as a practice concern. How
many firms, for instance, have a specialist client care manager or partner?
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Client care – communication and service – page 7
An unfair emphasis on the negative?
One of the challenges with client care and service is that client perceptions place an emphasis
on the negative. Here are some statistics, regularly repeated with only slight changes to the
figures in numerous reports or surveys.
• it takes ten positive impressions to make up for one negative
• 80% of dissatisfied clients will tell someone else about poor service
• over 80% of customers don’t complain when they have a problem - they just don’t come back
• Satisfied clients might tell one or two other people of their experience. Dissatisfied clients are
likely to tell between 5 and 10 others.
Statistics such as these demonstrate the client care challenge: providing reasonably good
service most of the time might not be good enough. Because the importance of service failings
are exaggerated above good service in client perceptions, practices have to eliminate virtually
all service failings before any positive aspects of service are recognised. With client expectations
constantly rising, this is probably a more demanding challenge than most practices realise:
There is a big gap between good service and an official complaint, and your service doesn’t
have to be that bad, by your own standards, to risk client dissatisfaction.
The challenge of keeping the customer satisfied applies to all industries, but evidence suggests
that solicitors have more problems than most. Here are some results from a survey by Which (a
consumer organisation) in England, in 2006:
• a third of people think they receive poor service from their solicitor;
• a quarter of those surveyed think their solicitor doesn’t listen to their opinion;
• a third don’t feel they are told enough about how much they will be charged; and
• more than half the people surveyed said they received no pre-estimate of fees at all; and
only about a quarter said they got one in writing.
Although these figures relate to solicitors in England, are solicitors in Queensland doing any
better? In 2006, QLS and the LSC received a total of 8696 enquiries. Although not all calls and
enquiries will be fair indications of poor service, these figures are at least the equivalent of
enquiries to the Legal Complaints Services in England. In a state of c8,000 practitioners, there
is definitely room for improvement in relation to client care, service and communication,
especially if, as surveys suggests, the vast majority of people prefer not to complain.
There are a number of reasons for client care’s relatively low profile amongst solicitors:
• Solicitors are instinctively less interested in service issues than ‘harder’ technical, legal or
intellectual matters;
• Service issues rarely seem as urgent as either fee-earning or other practice concerns;
• Both practices and individual solicitors assume they are already ‘good’ at client care; or
• Practices do not understand the different elements of client care, and do not know how to
effectively address client care concerns.
These reasons are all barriers to effective client care and service, whether they are true for the
practice as a whole or just for a minority of solicitors. The route to overcoming these barriers is
usually a greater focus on listening to clients. Once solicitors truly listen to their clients, both the
importance of client care, and the required actions become much clearer.
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Client care – communication and service – page 8
To get your colleagues to accept the need for the practice to focus more on client care, you
might need to first directly challenge complacency. Here are a few questions to consider:
• Are you happy with your client retention rates?
• Are you confident about introducing clients to all of your colleagues? and that all your
colleagues will provide a good service to your clients?
• Are you happy with the number of referrals you get?
• Are you confident that all your clients would be happy to unreservedly refer friends or
colleagues to you?
• Does the culture of the practice help or hinder excellent client service?
• How many complaints – formal and informal - have you had in the last 3 years? Multiply the
figure by 4: Most people are not comfortable making official complaints to solicitors.
• What do your clients really want by way of service? Are you confident your clients’ answers
would match yours?
An unfair emphasis on the negative?
One of the challenges with client care and service is that client perceptions place an emphasis
on the negative. Here are some statistics, regularly repeated with only slight changes to the
figures in numerous reports or surveys.
• it takes ten positive impressions to make up for one negative
• 80% of dissatisfied clients will tell someone else about poor service
• over 80% of customers don’t complain when they have a problem - they just don’t come back
• Satisfied clients might tell one or two other people of their experience. Dissatisfied clients are
likely to tell between 5 and 10 others.
Statistics such as these demonstrate the client care challenge: providing reasonably good
service most of the time might not be good enough. Because the importance of service failings
are exaggerated above good service in client perceptions, practices have to eliminate virtually
all service failings before any positive aspects of service are recognised. With client expectations
constantly rising, this is probably a more demanding challenge than most practices realise:
There is a big gap between good service and an official complaint, and your service doesn’t
have to be that bad, by your own standards, to risk client dissatisfaction.
The challenge of keeping the customer satisfied applies to all industries, but evidence suggests
that solicitors have more problems than most. Here are some results from a survey by Which (a
consumer organisation) in England, in 2006:
• a third of people think they receive poor service from their solicitor;
• a quarter of those surveyed think their solicitor doesn’t listen to their opinion;
• a third don’t feel they are told enough about how much they will be charged; and
• more than half the people surveyed said they received no pre-estimate of fees at all; and
only about a quarter said they got one in writing.
Although these figures relate to solicitors in England, are solicitors in Queensland doing any
better? In 2006, QLS and the LSC received a total of 8696 enquiries. Although not all calls and
enquiries will be fair indications of poor service, these figures are at least the equivalent of
enquiries to the Legal Complaints Services in England. In a state of c8,000 practitioners, there
is definitely room for improvement in relation to client care, service and communication,
especially if, as surveys suggests, the vast majority of people prefer not to complain.
There are a number of reasons for client care’s relatively low profile amongst solicitors:
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Client care – communication and service – page 9
• Solicitors are instinctively less interested in service issues than ‘harder’ technical, legal or
intellectual matters;
• Service issues rarely seem as urgent as either fee-earning or other practice concerns;
• Both practices and individual solicitors assume they are already ‘good’ at client care; or
• Practices do not understand the different elements of client care, and do not know how to
effectively address client care concerns.
These reasons are all barriers to effective client care and service, whether they are true for the
practice as a whole or just for a minority of solicitors. The route to overcoming these barriers is
usually a greater focus on listening to clients. Once solicitors truly listen to their clients, both the
importance of client care, and the required actions become much clearer.
To get your colleagues to accept the need for the practice to focus more on client care, you
might need to first directly challenge complacency. Here are a few questions to consider:
• Are you happy with your client retention rates?
• Are you confident about introducing clients to all of your colleagues? and that all your
colleagues will provide a good service to your clients?
• Are you happy with the number of referrals you get?
• Are you confident that all your clients would be happy to unreservedly refer friends or
colleagues to you?
• Does the culture of the practice help or hinder excellent client service?
• How many complaints – formal and informal - have you had in the last 3 years? Multiply the
figure by 4: Most people are not comfortable making official complaints to solicitors.
• What do your clients really want by way of service? Are you confident your clients’ answers
would match yours?
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Client care – communication and service – page 10
2.Customer dissatisfaction and risk management
Talk of risk management for solicitors is most often associated with claims and insurance, but
not only are poor service and client dissatisfaction risks in their own right, they can also be
addressed using many of the common risk management techniques and processes that are
more commonly used to minimise claims.
As with other risks, poor service risks can be managed by implementing systems/arrangements/
processes/plans to address specific concerns and limit either the likelihood or impact of different
categories of poor service.
The importance of minimising both the likelihood and impact of service risks cannot be
overstated. As discussed in the first chapter, clients not only judge legal practices primarily
on their service delivery, but also place a disproportional emphasis on any service failings
compared to examples of good service.
The Risk Management process
A simple risk management model involves a continuous four stage process:
The Risk
Management
Process
1
Risk Identification
Analysis of complaints handling records, client satisfaction research, supervision meetings &
file audits
internal discussions involving fee-earners and support staff.
2
Risk Assessment
How did it happen? What are the underlying causes?
Which risks are the most likely to occur
What is the likely impact
Not all risks to good service can be addressed easily or immediately, so you might need to
prioritise
3
Risk Management
Once you have assessed and prioritised the different risks, you then need to implement arrangements to manage them
Arrangements could include training, guidelines, changing the culture, new IT systems, new
processes, procedures, plans, policies etc.
4
Monitor Evaluate
Improve
Neither risk management nor client care are one-off exercises
Constantly monitor, evaluate and improve
Measure results, seek feedback, and continually improve.
Many of the activities used to avoid negligence claims are equally useful in the context of
client care. Mistakes rarely lead to claims but the common causes of claims (delay, poor
communication, poor administration, poor supervision) can cause just as much harm in terms of
regular client dissatisfaction as a single claim. Poor client service is a risk that can be managed
like any other, and is probably the biggest risk that practices face.
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Client care – communication and service – page 11
Here are some common risk management techniques and issues which are equally useful in
relation to client care and service.
Initial risk
assessment
• Identify the problems that might arise during the matter, and implement arrangements to eliminate
Risk template
• Document the common service risks that could potentially occur in each type of matter, and
or manage them.
compare new clients/matters to this template
Delay & missing
deadlines
• Diary, reminder & bring-up systems
• processes & procedures for key date management
• inactivity checks.
Supervision & file
audits
• Oversight of how fee-earners within your team communicate with clients. File audits to check on
Effective first
interviews
• Understand and manage the client’s expectations. Agree who will do what, and what the fee-earner
client communications.
won’t do.
• Discuss the client’s service requirements.
Informative retainer
letters
• Provide the client with all relevant information and make sure they understand it.
Checklists
• Have you missed anything?
• Encourage the client to come back to you if they have any questions or concerns.
• Are you making any assumptions?
Updates
• Keep the client informed and involved.
Manage complaints
• Give yourself the chance to address any client dissatisfaction quickly and efficiently in-house before
the client makes a formal complaint, leaves or sues.
Seek Feedback
• Always listen and seek feedback – both informally, and through formal arrangements like client
satisfaction surveys.
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Client care – communication and service – page 12
3.Service, value and value for money
Value
Lawyers instinctively think that value relates to the level of fees and the quality of advice.
In the vast majority of cases, however, a solicitor’s technical skills are assumed, and clients will
find it difficult to distinguish between one lawyer’s technical skills and another’s.
Similarly, even in areas of practice where fee rates vary considerably, practices prefer not to
compete directly on price because this affects profitability.
Clients can and do, however, judge solicitors on their service levels, and it is how you deliver the
service that creates the perception of value.
Service is therefore the factor which most influences perceptions of value, and the area where
law firms seeking to improve customer perceptions of value should invest.
According to research by Heather Stewart, a leading consultant on legal client service in
Europe, the key elements in gaining (most) clients trust and creating value are as follows:
• Your technical skills, even though these have to be assumed;
• Your honesty and integrity, which are also taken as read;
• Your communication skills, including your listening skills, how you communicate and how
often you communicate,
• Your responsiveness, promptness of action and timeliness of advice;
• Your accessibility, and how easily clients can contact you for advice;
• Your reliability, efficiency, attention to detail, how often you do what you say you will and
actually ensure that work accords with your clients instructions;
• The way in which you demonstrate to a client that you value both the client’s work and the
client;
• The approach of everyone in the firm.
It should be stressed that whilst the above qualities are appreciated by the majority of clients,
YOUR clients might value some of the above more than others, or might value something new.
You will need to undertake research with your own client to identify their priorities. In other
words, understand what your client values and then give it to them.
Although many of the above (which are discussed in more detail in chapters 6 and 11) might
seem obvious, lawyers consistently fail to meet related client expectations. This has an effect on
client confidence which in turn affects client perceptions of value.
Value for money
Value can be defined as:
“The importance or worth of something for someone.”
To speak about the value of legal services to clients, you have to first understand the views of
clients. Clients want to feel that the fee they pay is reasonable for the value they have gained
for your services. Clients will regard your bill as fair and representing good value for money only if
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Client care – communication and service – page 13
you have provided a service that matches – or exceeds - their expectations
Matching these expectations is difficult for two reasons:
• Clients often find it difficult to understand either the complexity of legal work, or the
numerous practice overheads associated with it.
-- Providing information to explain that the fee charged is not your take home pay will help to
limit sensitivity over costs.
• Legal costs are high: the charge-out rate for many lawyers will be the same as many private
clients earn in a day.
-- As the costs are high, expectations will also be high before clients feel they have received
value for money.
Perceptions of value for money are subjective and will vary between clients, but the difficulties
of matching client expectation of value will often lead to a large proportion of clients
perceiving a gap between the cost and the value of legal work.
To ensure your clients consider your service good value for money, you not only have to build
and demonstrate your value by focussing on the areas identified above, you also have to
ensure that this perceived value meets or exceeds the monetary value of your bill.
According to the same research mentioned above, the issues which most affect perceptions of
value for money are as follows:
• Managing the matter to your client’s satisfaction
• Managing financial arrangements and billing
• Perceptions of your technical ability
The commerciality of your advice (if appropriate).
Of these, the first two are the most important, as whilst clients appreciate and value technical
ability, they are rarely in a position to judge or assess it. Similarly, the commerciality of your
advice will only be relevant for some clients or in some situations.
In most situations, therefore, clients’ perceptions of value for money will primarily be driven by
how practices manage both the matter and the associated financial arrangements and billing.
Communicating value
To reap the benefits that enhanced client service can bring, practices not only have to invest
in the areas mentioned above, they have to ensure that this value is perceived by clients. This is
not meant to suggest that you need to do a hard-sell and simply tell them how wonderful you
are, but simply that solicitors should attempt to bridge the gap between what you think your
services should be worth, and what the client thinks they are worth.
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Queensland Law Society
Client care – communication and service – page 14
What you think you should charge
Perceived
value gap
Your current fee
What your client considers to
be the value received
As mentioned above, the majority of clients do not understand either the complexities or
economics of legal work, so it is understandably difficult for them to recognise the value in
your service. Solicitors can address this by improving and increasing client communication.
Clients appreciate and value communication from their solicitors, so the act of communication
helps to build value in itself. It also, however, helps to justify your fees by giving the client more
information about your activity.
Building the clients perception of value can primarily be achieved through the following
communication activities:
• First interview;
• Client agreement / retainer letter;
• Cost & matter updates; and
• Final bill
It involves explaining
• Not just what work is being done, but why it is being done, and how this benefits the client
• Not just who is doing the work, and their experience/expertise, but why it is necessary to
have someone with such expertise handle the matter, and how this will benefit the client.
In a first interview for example, the more you discuss the work you will be doing, the more
the client will understand the work and complexities involved. If, however, you simply extract
information from the client, but give nothing back, it is not surprising if the client undervalues the
work you are doing for them.
Similarly, if you send a cost update, revised estimate or final bill which provides only dollar figures
rather than emphasising the work related to these costs, it is not surprising if the client focuses on
the cost rather than the value. Always try to tell the client what you are doing to justify the fees
you charge.
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Client care – communication and service – page 15
Lawyers and Builders
The challenge of communicating value can be illustrated by comparing solicitors to builders
and imagining yourself as the client of a builder.
You would like the builder to build an extension to your house, and you see
this as a fairly simple task which should not cost more than $15,000. The builder
however quotes $25,000 but doesn’t indicate that the work is any more
complicated than you had assumed. You reluctantly accept the estimate
and retain the builder but are disappointed when the builder keeps revising
his estimate and at the end of the job (1 month later) the final bill comes in
at $32,500. The additional cost is justified only by ‘harder than I thought’ and
‘complications’ in conversation and by ‘additional time and materials’ in the bill.
In the above situation, you are unlikely to be a satisfied client, but this is the situation that many
solicitors’ clients find themselves in. Compare this to the situation below.
You would like the builder to build an extension to your house, and you see
this as a fairly simple task which should not cost more than $15,000. The builder
inspects your property and explains that, whilst normally this would cost c$15,000,
the current drainage arrangements mean that it would be risky to go ahead
without additional work on your guttering, drainage and plumbing. Although
this will increase the cost to $25,000, he explains the risks involved of not doing
the extra work, and you end up being impressed not only by the builders skill in
recognising the initial problem, but in how he has explained the issues to you.
After 5 days, the builder contacts you and says he has some more news. He
apologises for not noticing the issue immediately, but says he has discovered
a serious termite problem in the existing wall, and that this will mean more work
and money. He explains the problem in more detail and increases his estimate to
$32,500 – making sure you are happy with this before proceeding with the extra
work. His final bill comes in as estimated, and includes a detailed breakdown of
where his time and your money were spent.
The two examples include the same initial estimates and costs, and both include prompt cost
updates. The difference lies in explaining the work, and specifically in explaining the value
attached to the extra work – in this case the value of addressing the drainage and termite risks.
Although much legal work is complicated, solicitors are often too quick to assume that the client
would not understand or would not be interested in more details of the work they are doing
on the clients behalf. By working on their communication skills, complicated legal work can be
explained in a way that not only makes sense to clients, but which helps them to recognise the
value of the work.
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Client care – communication and service – page 16
4.What do clients want?
The best way to find out what clients want is simply to ask them. This can be done in a number of
ways:
• First interview – ask and listen
• Key client reviews
• Client satisfaction surveys
• Complaints information
• Gaining feedback from ‘lost’ clients
Whilst this guide attempts to suggest some key issues in client needs and preferences, it must be
emphasized that it contains only generalisations. Different clients will want different things and it
would be dangerous to assume that any preferences apply equally to all clients. Age, location,
education, occupation, sophistication and other variables mean that all clients are different.
The biggest difference will probably be in the degree of involvement that clients want. Whilst
the trend is for growing client involvement, many clients still prefer to entrust their solicitor with
most responsibilities, and to ‘eave it all to the professional.
Levels of client service
In terms of the quality of service, client needs can be split into the following three levels:
Basic requirements
• Basic technical competence
• Honesty and integrity
• Efficiency and value for money
• Effective communication
• Reliability and efficiency
• Flexibility
Key service measures
• Superior legal work
• Low cost
• Speed
• A commercial approach
• Flexibility
Added value measures
• Help the client develop themselves personally
• Help the client better control their work and life
• Help the client look good within their organization
• Remove surprises and risks for the client
• Help the client grow their business and become more profitable
• Help the client pay less tax
• Introductions, free training, resources, advice,
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What clients want 1: basic requirements
These are the areas that address many clients’ minimum expectations. In this sense, they can
be seen as ‘hygiene’ needs: you should not expect to be congratulated for meeting client
expectations in these areas, but should expect some client dissatisfaction if your standards drop
and you fail to meet expectations. Even though these can be described as basic, some clients
can be very demanding in these areas. Expectations are constantly rising, and you will have to
constantly monitor and improve performance to ensure satisfaction.
• Basic technical competence (assumed)
• Honesty and integrity (assumed)
• Efficiency and value for money
• Effective communication
• Reliability and efficiency
• Flexibility
Technical competence
By the time they retain you, clients already believe that you are competent in the legal
technical aspects of your work. This applies to all clients. Commercial clients, for example,
usually value the reassurance provided by the range and depth of expertise offered by larger
firms. This technical competence is assumed, however, and is very rarely a major concern of
clients once the working relationship has started.
Sophisticated clients can usually tell quite quickly if a solicitor is out of his/her depth, and this can
quickly lead to a loss of confidence and lack of trust. For this reason, solicitors should never try to
inflate their experience/expertise and should not accept instructions that go outside their areas
of competence. If, however, a solicitor admits quickly that they do not have specific knowledge
in any area, and advises the client that additional or alternative advice has to be sought, client
confidence is often enhanced with the client reassured that the solicitor is looking after the
client’s best interests. Solicitors should also try to avoid any actions or situations which might,
rightly or wrongly, cause doubts as to technical skills – such as having to amend your advice, or
amend documents which have already been released.
Honesty and integrity
As with technical competence, honesty and integrity are vitally important, but are taken as
read by the time you accept an instruction and start acting for clients. You should not have to
prove your honesty and integrity, but should be cautious of acting in any way that might, rightly
or wrongly, cause the client to doubt your ethics. Common activities that can raise doubts as to
your honesty and integrity include:
• Any suggestion of overcharging;
• Misleading the client, or failing to manage their expectations, re costs, timescales, partner
involvement or the outcome of the matter;
• Failing to advise appropriately on the necessity or desirability of additional work;
• Inefficient trust account management;
• Undertaking work outside your area of competence; and
• Poor management of any personal or professional conflicts of interest
It is important to note that you do not have to act dishonestly to raise client concerns: it is the
perception of dishonesty that matters. Often a failure to manage expectations can be viewed
as deliberate misdirection and can be as harmful to the client-solicitor relationship as any real
ethical failing.
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Client care – communication and service – page 18
Efficiency and value for money
In marketing materials, or in pitches and tender documents, solicitors are usually keen to
emphasise their expertise, or better still, their experience. As with technical competence,
however, these are in most instances assumed or expected.
What clients do appreciate is when such expertise or experience can be used to increase
efficiency so that work is done quicker, and the client saves money. The fact that you have
done a conveyancing transaction 400 times means nothing to the client unless you can do the
job quicker, cheaper, and in a small number of instances better, than the person who has only
done three similar transactions.
Similar efficiency is also the ultimate benefit of a number of other features that legal practices
like to promote such as breadth of expertise, extensive knowledge management resources,
good IT systems etc. As with experience, these only improve service to the client once they are
demonstrably used to increase efficiency and save the client either time or money.
Effective communication
Try to establish how your client would like to communicate at any early stage such as the first
interview:
• How: meeting? E-mail? Phone? Letter? Fax?
• When: Weekly? Monthly? At specific points in the progression of the case?
Don’t over-communicate! Clients appreciate worthwhile communication, but do not like paying
for unnecessary communication, such as lengthy update letters if these are not required. A
balance therefore needs to be found, and agreed with the client.
To be included and in control
Because of the importance of the business, financial or personal issues at stake when clients
retain solicitors, clients normally want to retain some sort of involvement.
This basic human need, however, is often overlooked by solicitors, possibly because:
• they consider themselves too busy at any given time to keep in touch with the client;
• they mistakenly believe the client doesn’t want or need to be involved in legal complexities;
• they prefer the technical side of legal work to client communication; or
• they assume a greater level of responsibility for the matter than the client has actually
entrusted to them.
The last point has grown as an issue in recent times as solicitors adapt to the end of professional
deference, rising service expectations, and a growing client assertiveness. Many clients do trust
their lawyers and surrender control willingly, but lawyers have to remember that this trust has to
be earned, and until then, they need to work together with the client. “No worries – leave it all
to me” does not necessarily provide the level of confidence that some fee-earners anticipate.
Solicitors need to approach the client-solicitor relationship as a partnership, and agree in
advance how much control, responsibility and communication the client would like to retain.
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Client care – communication and service – page 19
To keep the client included and in control, all fee-earners should aim to update the client, at
agreed intervals, on issues including the following:
• If there is a delay, and the reason for any delay;
• The implications of any developments;
• Any changes to the fee-earner or team handling the matter;
• Any changes in cost estimates; and
• Any changes in timescale estimates.
Involving the client often means going beyond updates and communication. Just as clients
don’t like paying for unnecessary communication, they also don’t like paying for things they can
just as easily do themselves. If there might be areas where the client could save either money or
time by doing things themselves, this should be discussed at the outset.
Clients increasingly want control over costs. This will often mean going beyond simple costs
information to involving clients in decisions which have cost implications – such as which feeearners to use (expensive partner time, or cheaper, less experienced fee-earners), the necessity
of different work, and whether the client can actually do some work themselves instead of
paying the solicitors to do it.
To be listened to and understood.
Communication is a two-way process. Solicitors are trained at giving advice, but are not
necessarily as good at listening. All too often fee earners assume what a client wants from a
situation without discussion. Solicitors need to ensure they understand what the clients want in
terms of both legal work and service, but this isn’t as easy or straightforward as many lawyers
believe. The following actions can help lawyers improve their listening:
• Set aside enough time for a client interviews, and do not take calls during this time
• Set aside any preconceptions you might have about the client or the topic, so you can listen
openly
• Put the client at ease, so they feel confident in raising issues
• Avoid interrupting the client
• Ask the appropriate ‘open’ questions
-- Clients often don’t know how their case differs from normal, and aren’t aware of what the
lawyer needs to know. It is the lawyer’s responsibility to ensure they get all the information
required, by asking the right questions.
• Prepare and follow checklists to ensure you discuss all relevant issues with the client – this
will help to ensure you avoid making false assumptions
• Help the client clearly articulate issues
• Confirm understanding with the client through feedback or summarising.
The last point about confirming understanding is vital because it is not enough to listen to and
understand the client: they have to feel that you are listening to them.
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Client care – communication and service – page 20
To know and understand what is going on
In addition to listening skills, lawyers need to develop good speaking skills and written
communications. To facilitate client understanding, a fee-earner needs to:
• Imagine they are not a lawyer
• Put themselves in the client’s situation
• Tailor what they say to the understanding of the client
• Avoid legal or technical jargon where possible, and explain it where used.
Both written and verbal communications are discussed in more detail in chapter 11.
Pro-active communication from the solicitor
Managing communication and updates in a proactive way is good for both the client and the
solicitor. For clients, proactive communication is a sign of good service, and is likely to increase
the trust and confidence they have in their lawyer. For solicitors, proactive communication is
more efficient than reactive communication and also reduces the communication burden by
limiting any update requests caused by client restlessness or anxiety. Proactive communication
is discussed further in chapter 11
Responsiveness from the solicitor
Both commercial and private clients highly value responsiveness:
• Commercial clients because of their own internal and external obligations; and
• Private clients because any delay can lead to a perception that something is wrong and
anxiety.
Responsiveness is discussed further in chapter 11.
Reliability and efficiency
Reliability means doing what you said you would do, how you said you would do it, by the
agreed time. Reliability matters to clients because it is one of the few ways that they can judge
your competence. If you do what you said you would do, when you said you would do it, then
there is a good chance of you handling the matter well. If, however, you fail to successfully
action simple administrative tasks, the client is entitled to question whether you can be trusted
with their important legal concerns.
Things which can lead to clients doubting your reliability and efficiency include the following:
• Delay, specifically missing deadlines
• Not returning communications
• Slow or inaccurate billing
• Changing advice or sending through revised documentation
• Getting details such as names or addresses wrong
• Asking for information that has already been provided
• Lack of co-ordination & poor internal communication
-- if a client tells one person a piece of information, they will resent having to tell two
additional people in the practice the same information
• Lack of awareness
-- Not knowing where the partner is
-- Not knowing if something has been actioned
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Client care – communication and service – page 21
Reliable and efficient service needs reliable and efficient support staff, and their role is
addressed more in a later chapter.
Appreciation
All clients want to feel that they matter to you and your firm, and that you value their business
and their time as much as you do your largest or most prestigious client. Here are some dos and
don’ts to ensure your clients feel valued.
Do
Don’t
Meet the client promptly in reception.
Leave them waiting for hours or send them
to find their own way around your offices
Give the client your undivided attention in
a clear and tidy room.
Take calls, tidy files, or discuss other
matters with colleagues while you are in a
client meeting or if the client is waiting in
reception.
Arrive promptly for all meetings.
Keep your clients waiting.
Let your clients know as soon as possible if
you are going to be late for any reason.
Waste clients’ time.
Close matters promptly and
comprehensively.
Put off closing files in order to work on other
matters.
Provide continuity of service and personnel
for each client.
Repeatedly change teams or promote
good associates to bigger clients.
Remember names, personal details and
refreshment preferences.
Act like you can’t remember meeting
them before.
Find a way of showing your appreciation
to all clients.
Entertain some clients at expensive
events but forget to send smaller clients a
Christmas card.
Ask clients how their business is going.
Boast about the importance of your work
for other clients
Ensure each client gets appropriate
contact with the partner or senior lawyer.
Delegate work to more junior fee-earners
as soon as the first interview is over.
What clients want 2: key service measures
These are the service measures most commonly used to compare one practice to another; and
include:
• Superior legal work;
• Low cost;
• Speed;
• A commercial approach; and
• Flexibility.
It is often said that to be seen as providing excellent service, you need to be better, cheaper
or quicker than your competitors (and you can only be two of those!). The final further two
measures are particularly important for commercial clients, but flexibility is becoming an
important service issues for everyone.
Superior legal work
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Client care – communication and service – page 22
What does it mean to be a ‘better’ lawyer, and how does this improve the service to the client?
For some work, ‘better’ will mean ‘winning’ a dispute or achieving a better financial settlement,
apparent in the short term. For much legal work, however, the client is unable to judge quality
in the short term, and will only be able to form an opinion as to quality when a dispute arises or
specific failings are identified.
Superior legal work can therefore be difficult to demonstrate in the short term. One common
failing amongst solicitors is to assume that thoroughness is always the same as quality service
or to define ‘superior legal work’ in their own terms rather than the clients’. Solicitors are natural
perfectionists and will look to cover off every possible risk in their work. Although this is a healthy
trait, it is possible to take this too far – as with overzealous due diligence for example. Being
excessively thorough will often lead to increased costs and additional time delays, ultimately
leading to the perception of poorer service.
For superior legal work to lead to perceptions of good client service, therefore, solicitors have to
ensure that where a superior legal is offered, clients are aware of this and how it benefits them.
This involves discussing:
• Not just what work is being done, but why it is being done, and how this benefits the client
• Not just who is doing the work, and their experience/expertise, but why it is necessary to
have someone with such expertise handle the matter, and how this will benefit the client.
Low Cost
Other things being equal, clients’ perceptions of service received – or at least the value of the
service received - should improve as fees decrease, relative to either client expectations or
competitors’ fee levels. Pricing is so central to client perceptions, however, that it is rarely that
simple.
If fees are set too low, for example, clients might interpret this to suggest that a ‘discount’ or
lower quality service is being offered, and expect or become more aware of service failings.
Alternatively, because service expectations have been lowered, it might be easier to meet and
exceed client expectations – leading to improved perceptions of client service.
Similarly, higher fees might lead to client reassurance and prompt the client to place more faith
in the solicitor – thus facilitating better communications and smoother service, or alternatively
might raise expectations to an unsustainable level, prompting greater dissatisfaction when
standards are not met.
Because of the link between fee levels and client expectations, it is good advice to concentrate
on value rather than absolute fee levels wherever possible. This will mean emphasizing the
quality of the legal work alongside fee levels to reassure clients.
Speed
As with price above, client satisfaction and service perceptions should improve as work is
completed quicker. Also as with price, however, solicitors should be aware of any assumptions
clients might make about the quality of work, and possible speed / quality compromises.
If you are able to complete work quicker than your competitors, it might be worth explaining
to clients how this is possible without any compromise in quality – by mentioning experience, IT
investment, knowledge management resources or similar.
Commercial advice
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Client care – communication and service – page 23
Increasingly, commercial clients do not simply want generic advice on the law, they want
advice that is relevant to their needs and helps them in their business objectives. In order
to provide the sort of practical and creative advice that clients are demanding, solicitors
increasingly have to understand both the issues affecting the client’s specific industry, and also
the specific corporate objectives and concerns of their clients.
For this reason, many firms are developing industry groups, as well as practice areas, so solicitors
can share knowledge about different market sectors. Many are also using IT databases or using
internal client teams to discuss specific clients.
By developing this sort of knowledge, solicitors are then able to build their confidence in giving
practical, commercial advice rather than advice that is purely ‘legal’.
Flexibility
One of the growing criticisms that clients, particularly commercial clients, have about lawyers is
their inflexibility:
• Inflexible in relation to fee arrangements
• Inflexible in relation to project management and managing the working relationship
• Inflexible in terms of how documents are prepared or what IT is used
• Inflexible in their choice of external advisers
Whilst many legal practices claim to be responsive to their clients’ needs, this is often not
backed up with actions when it comes to, for instance, offering a fixed fee service, offering
secondments, letting in-house people work on-site at the law firm, using different project
management software or providing documents in a different format.
Whilst developing consistency in practice management arrangements within a practice is
important, this has to be weighed up against being flexible in responding to clients’ needs.
Clients want to be listened to, and that requires being able to adapt to the client’s wishes rather
than offering a single way of working and ‘telling’ the client how things are going to work:
increasingly clients expect to be able to tell solicitors how to do things, and for the solicitors to
adapt as required.
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What clients want 3: Added value measures
Meeting client expectations in relation to both basic service requirements and the key
(comparative) service measures will help you to create confidence, trust, and this in turn creates
value – for both yourself and your clients:
Meeting
key service
expectations
Meeting
basic service
requirements
Technical
skills
Prof
Standards
& Ethics
Confidence
Trust
Value
Whilst creating value in this way is vital, it is only what clients expect. To deliver truly excellent
client service that exceeds client expectations you have to go the extra mile and provide
clients with advice or assistance they were not expecting, and often did not even know they
needed. This might include:
• Helping the client develop themselves personally;
• Helping client better control their work and life;
• Helping the client look good within their organization;
• Removing surprises and risks for the client;
• Helping the client grow their business and become more profitable; or
• Helping the client pay less tax.
These are the service measures that will keep clients coming back, and generate regular
referrals.
To deliver on these measures, it is vital to KNOW YOUR CLIENT! - understand their pressures and
concerns so you can identify opportunities to add value by helping them in innovative ways.
Examples of this include:
• Introducing them to other clients or contacts who might be of benefit to them;
• Referring business to them.
• Raising their awareness o issues relevant to their business;
• Providing them with access to useful resources;
• Inviting them to free information sessions on relevant issues.
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Client care – communication and service – page 25
If you can EXCEED client expectations in relation to both their basic requirements and key
service measures AND provide added value by identifying additional innovative ways to help
your clients, you will truly be offering excellent client service.
Meeting
key service
expectations
Meeting
basic service
requirements
Technical
skills
Prof
Standards
& Ethics
Confidence
Trust
Basic
Value
Exceeding
Expectations
Added
Value
Measures
Enhanced reputation, competitive edge, loyalty,
client retention, higher fees, referrals, $
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Client care – communication and service – page 26
5.Delivering client service
After you have developed some understanding of what clients want (specifically what your
clients want), the next step is to transform you practice, and actually deliver excellent client
service.
This involves a mixture of systems, skills and culture constantly being refined through the use
of client feedback, and team and individual performance management. Whilst many will
instinctively focus on skills rather than systems, or vice versa, the delivery of excellent client
service is dependent on all three key areas:
• Many practices will have good systems to facilitate service but the quality of client care and
communication will be inconsistent if individuals lack specific skills.
• Fee-earners might have well developed communication skills, but their ability to deliver a
quality service will be hampered if a practice lacks the appropriate systems or arrangements
to assist with delivery etc.
• Teams and practices might both possess skills and have practice systems to utilise, but if
the culture of the practice does not support or recognize the importance of client service,
standards will inevitably fall as other priorities take precedence.
Systems
Supervision &
Performance
Management
Skills
Client Feedback
for Continuous
Improvement
Excellent
client
service
Culture
Systems
Excellent service delivery is dependent not just on actions at the point of delivery, but on
everything your practice does before and after the fee-earner meets the client. This includes
billing and finance, leadership, supervision, people management, IT and facilities.
A weakness in any area of practice management (for example, inaccurate billing or poor IT)
can cause client dissatisfaction and negate any efforts of the fee-earner to provide a good
service.
Practices, therefore, have to focus on all areas of practice management, and develop
effective processes and procedures in all areas. These have to be matched to a client’s needs
to ensure that the service is effective and supports all of the efforts of the fee-earner.
This can be seen as a “matching process” between client needs and organisational inputs to
provide a service. The diagram below, developed by Heather Stewart, a leading authority on
client care in Europe, demonstrates ‘the matching process’:
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Client care – communication and service – page 27
The matching process
Inputs
Selected
client
markets
Inputs
Client needs
THE
MATCHING
PROCESS
•Leadership
•Partners
•Culture
•People management
•Knowledge
•Fee earners
•Support staff
•Management structures
•Organisational
structures
•Financial management
•Systems & procedures
•IT
The service
Source: Excellent Client Service (Law Society Publishing 2003) Heather Stewart.
Skills
Effective client service requires the development of a number of personal and team
communication skills including:
• Interviewing
• Active listening
• Clarity of explanation
• Time Management
• Stress Management
• Expectation Management
• Written communications
• Conflict management / dealing with difficult people
• Receiving feedback
Whilst some people will have ‘natural’ skills in some of these areas, it is rare that training,
practice or focus cannot help to develop them further. Contrary to the belief of many, good
communication skills are not a natural genetic gift – most people have to work to develop their
capabilities, but investing in communication skills can bring big rewards in the delivery of client
service.
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Client care – communication and service – page 28
Culture
How important is client service to your practice?
Do the partners or team leaders make client service a priority?
Is excellence in client service recognized and rewarded?
Are fee-earners given the time and support to deliver excellent client service?
In any practice, culture plays an important role the delivery of excellent client service. In
larger practices, ‘culture’ might be influenced by a number of factors such as working hour
expectations, the number and diversity of workers, performance assessment criteria and more,
whilst in smaller practices, ‘culture’ might be more dependent on the behaviour of a single
person, such as a principal.
It is important to assess the culture of your practice and decide whether different elements
either support or hinder the delivery of excellent client service. Then, see what can be changed
for the better.
Cultural issues are discussed further in chapter 14.
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Client care – communication and service – page 29
6.Client care as a marketing tool
By ensuring good client care throughout your practice, you will benefit from:
• Higher client retention;
• More work referrals;
• Increased cross-selling and client introductions between departments; and
• Brand differentiation.
Providing a service that clients perceive as excellent is the most cost-effective means of
marketing or business development for a firm, and the only certain way to retain client loyalty.
• In focusing on marketing and business development, it is often the case that firms
concentrate too much on getting new clients, and not enough on keeping those clients they
already have. Even where the focus is on client retention, it will often be through expensive
corporate hospitality, or a series of events and publications rather than focussing on what
really matters to clients – good service.
• The claims above are backed up by numerous studies that underline the importance of
client care for solicitors. Here are some statistics that vary only slightly between different
jurisdictions:
• 85-90% of new work comes from either repeat business, recommendation or referrals
• It costs up to 60% more to attract a new client than to sell additional services to an existing
one
Client care and marketing resources
From the figures above, it seems obvious that client care is THE most important driver of
marketing success. The importance of client care is further driven home when you consider the
potential cost of poor client care. Here are some more statistics:
• 80% of dissatisfied clients will tell someone else about poor service
• On average satisfied clients might tell one or two people about good service, whereas a
dissatisfied client might tell between five and ten people.
Given the above, you might expect to see client care as a central plank in any practice’s
business development strategies, and, if the firm employs any marketing staff, for such people
to be client care and service specialists. On the contrary, it is very rare for a practice to either
employ someone to concentrate on client care, or to give someone specific responsibility for
client care, even in larger firms who have a marketing or business development team of twenty
or more.
Similarly, you might expect practices to ensure that everyone employed by their practice
attends regular training on client care or service, but again practices rarely organise this
internally and any ‘client care’ CLE/CPD events are often poorly subscribed.
Why is this? A major reason for this lack of focus on client care is usually complacency, or at
least an assumption that a practice, or the individuals within it, are already good at client care.
Another reason might be that solicitors see client care as solely an ethical compliance issue,
and therefore to be managed in the same way as other compliance issues. Whatever the
reason, it is probably fair to say that client care is something that solicitors are reluctant to ask for
help on – either from their own marketing teams or from external specialists.
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Client care – communication and service – page 30
Client Care and Branding
In recent years, branding has become an important issue for legal practices. As marketing
sophistication has grown, firms have increasingly understood the need to differentiate in what
has traditionally been seen as a homogenised industry.
Beyond a minority of firms who have chosen as a strategic decision to position themselves as
focussing on specific approaches, practice areas or clients, most have seen ‘re-branding’ as an
exercise in redesigning visual identity, or in changing their advertising campaigns. Many of these
firms are realising, however, that branding goes much deeper than a new logo.
Internal branding
All lawyers have personalities, allegedly – a collection of qualities and traits, of character
or behaviour that are peculiar to a specific person. Similarly, legal firms will have their own
collection of qualities and character traits, and a ‘brand’ is the consolidation of a firm’s traits,
and the projection of these to the outside world.
When it comes to an important decision like choosing a legal advisor, clients are not interested
in a practice’s visual identity, which might or might not reflect the reality of the service, but are
influenced in the reality of the corporate personality: the sum of qualities or traits, of character or
behaviour that are peculiar to any specific practice.
To truly ‘re-brand’, practices have to do more than change their advertising strap-lines or
redesign their ads and brochures – they need to change the way clients perceive them from
direct contact. And as clients are poorly equipped to judge a solicitor’s legal or technical
expertise, this assessment will largely be based on the service aspects of the client experience.
Many practices have recognised the importance of service issues in the branding of their firm
and have emphasised service and client care in their promotional literature and websites. Whilst
this often accurately identifies and appeals to clients concerns, this can often be a risky exercise
for practices because it immediately raises clients’ expectations. To claim service excellence,
or to brand yourself as significantly more focussed on client care than other solicitors, you
immediately focus clients’ attention on all aspects of your service and increase the likelihood
that fault will be found. If you are going to claim service excellence in your external branding,
you need to ensure that your internal brand accurately reflects this.
Another risk in superficially claiming client care and service excellence in your promotional
campaigns is the likelihood that it will invite cynicism and thus be counterproductive. All too
often, legal practices make grand claims such as “We have a commitment to exceptional
client service” or “we maintain the highest standards of client care” without being able to
justify those claims or back them up with explanations of how that commitment to client care
is realised, or exactly what your client care standards are. If your practice does make claims
about the excellence of its client care, you should ensure that your staff can back up any claims
with more detail such as management arrangements, targets, protocols and guarantees.
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Client care – communication and service – page 31
7.Managing expectations
Dissatisfaction with legal services often arises out of the gap between client expectations and
their assessment of the service they have received. For example, if someone expects a matter
to be handled in four weeks, and it takes nine weeks, they are likely to feel disappointed and
dissatisfied. If, however, someone expects the same matter to be handled in 12 weeks, they will
be pleasantly surprised by a response after only nine weeks.
It is therefore vital that a fee-earner:
• Gains as full an understanding as possible of the client’s requirements and expectations,
particularly with regard to cost and timescales;
• Gives clear and accurate estimates re costs and timescales;
• Explains when and why they cannot do what is asked and promise only what they can
deliver; and
• Explains his or her expectations for the case, and why these might differ from the client’s.
Understanding client expectations might not be as simple as it sounds. Many expectations are
‘latent’ expectations that the client doesn’t voluntarily mention. This could be because:
• They are intimidated by the solicitor;
• They believe their expectations are normal and not worth discussing;
• They are worried about embarrassing themselves; or
• They do not want to ask for a certain level of service if this might lead to an increase in either
time or costs.
It is in the fee-earner’s interests to ‘extract’ the client’s expectation in a first interview, so
s/he can then manage such expectations as required. It is better to do this than to let
misunderstandings harm a relationship further down the line.
It is important to remember that many clients might not understand the complexities of legal
work and therefore might find it difficult to accept the time and money involved for some
work. In these situations it is often helpful to explain the required work in more detail. This will
demonstrate the practicalities and help to justify the costs and amount of time required. For
example, conveyancing might seem like a simple transaction to some, but briefly explaining
the variety of different checks required and the time delays caused by the need to liaise with
different people will help the client understand that “these things take time”.
The fee-earner should also avoid being too ambitious or aggressive when giving estimates
on time and costs. It is often tempting to give ambitious quotes in order to win the business,
and also to say what the client wants to hear. This, however, is only likely to increase client
expectations and lead to dissatisfaction if costs escalate or deadlines are missed. Research
proves that clients would much rather be given accurate information, even if this differs from
their initial hopes.
Rather than giving a single figure (for either costs or timescales), it might be better to give
estimates between two figures, or to give component costs and explain the variables that
might affect overall cost (such as saying each letter will cost $x but between and five letters
might be required depending on the progress of the case). You should also consider explaining
the circumstances that might lead to delay or extra costs. This will limit the chances of giving
misleading expectations.
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Client care – communication and service – page 32
Pro-active management of client expectations
Management of expectations needs to be proactive rather than just reactive. The fee-earner
must do more than just assume the client has reasonable expectations until they mention
otherwise.
As mentioned above, one of the best ways to manage client expectations is to first identify
them through questioning and listening. Another approach is to proactively provide the client
with as much information as is practical on both the details of the matter, and the client-solicitor
relationship, as early as possible. Whilst the legal details are often covered effectively by an
initial interview and a retainer letter, many solicitors fail to proactively manage expectations
about the client-solicitor relationship.
One good idea is to have a leaflet, website page or even video/DVD that prepares your clients
for meeting with a solicitor, gives them some information on how the practice/solicitor works,
and encourages clients to raise issues, volunteer information or ask questions. Such leaflets/DVDs
could:
• List the areas of law the practice does and doesn’t offer advice on;
• Give some information on how different matters might progress;
• Detail typical cost and fee arrangements, hourly rates, billing arrangements, whether a first
meeting is free etc;
• Give an example of the extent of client communication or involvement in a typical matter;
• Encourage clients to raise any issues or concerns they might have;
• Encourage clients to let the solicitor know, in detail, what their expectations are re time, cost,
communication and involvement; and
• Encourage clients to ask for clarification if they do not understand something the solicitor
mentions.
Managing your own expectations
Often, solicitors’ expectations need managing just as much as a client’s. A common complaint
from clients is that solicitors make assumptions about either them or their matter, fail to listen
effectively, and subsequently mismanage the handling of the matter or further communication
with the client.
Solicitors should therefore aim to approach each client discussion either without any
assumptions about the client or matter, or with the intention of promptly checking the validity
of any assumptions. Checklists can be useful in managing any assumptions the fee-earner
might have, as they prompt the solicitor to confirm any details that might otherwise remain
assumptions.
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Client care – communication and service – page 33
8.First interview with client
Before the interview
A first meeting or interview with the client will be the first and possibly the only opportunity a
fee-earner has to get to know the client and their requirements, and get the relationship off to a
good start. The most important thing to do is therefore to ensure the meeting takes place.
It is often tempting to forego the opportunity of a meeting, either because the fee-earner is
busy, because the client is busy, or because it is assumed that the matter is either simple or
similar to earlier matters and therefore does not require a time-consuming meeting. The risk of
not having a first interview is that the fee-earner has no opportunity to identify and manage
client expectations, to agree matter and communication requirements, or to ensure that there
are no misunderstandings.
Once a meeting has been agreed or arranged, the next step is to ensure that it is as effective as
possible. There are a number of reasons why a first meeting could be less than effective:
• Insufficient time allocated for the meeting;
• Either solicitor or client doesn’t bring all necessary information or documents to the meeting;
• Time pressures, interruptions or other distractions;
• Other interested parties of either the client (family member, work colleague) or solicitor (other
team members) are not included in the meeting;
• The solicitor fails to communicate effectively; or
• The client fails to communicate effectively due to a lack of confidence, a concern about
costs, or other concerns.
One of the major concerns clients have when retaining a lawyer is uncertainty over what is free
and what they might be charged for. To facilitate effective communication, it might help to
give them the following information, in writing, before discussions start:
• the name and status of the solicitor or other person conducting the interview confirmation
either:
-- that the interview is free
-- that the cost of the interview is $x
-- that the cost of the interview is at a reduced cost of $x per hour pro rata; or
-- that the first y minutes are free, and thereafter they will be charged pro rata at the rate of $x
per hour; and
• details of who to contact if they have any concerns.
This information can be prepared in a pro-forma document in advance. Practices might even
consider asking interviewees to sign and date the document acknowledging receipt.
You might also consider bringing a colleague into the interview with you, especially if you as a
partner intend to delegate much of the work to a more junior fee-earner. Clients can often get
disappointed when they meet the partner in the fist interview, but then find that the partner will
not be doing the work and that they haven’t met the person who will be.
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Client care – communication and service – page 34
In the meeting
Once the discussion starts, the fee-earner should then:
• gain as full an understanding as possible of both the facts of the case and the client’s
requirements, objectives and expectations;
• establish whether the fee-earner is the appropriate person to deal with the matter or whether
it should be referred to a colleague (or another firm);
• establish the method of funding, including the availability or suitability of legal aid, insurance,
trade union benefits, conditional or contingency fee arrangements, or costs insurance
products;
• advise whether the intended action would be merited on a cost benefit analysis.
• discuss the issues surrounding the case with the client;
• discuss costs and timescales with the client; and
• confirm what the fee-earner will do, what the fee earner will not do, and what the client needs
to do.
Gaining an understanding of the clients’ requirements can be more problematic than it might
appear. Many clients are not used to working with lawyers, and there can be barriers to
effective communication on their side including:
• feeling intimidated by the lawyer
• assuming the lawyer ‘knows it all’, or
• not knowing which details to tell the lawyer.
It is the responsibility of the fee-earner to overcome these barriers by putting the client at ease
and ensuring all relevant information is collected. It might help to prepare checklists for different
matter types to ensure that all issues are raised and addressed. Checklists can also help to
overcome any assumptions the solicitor might hold about the client or the matter.
If the case runs into problems, there is no benefit in saying “the client didn’t tell me that”: it is the
fee-earner’s responsibility to ensure all relevant information is collected.
The fee-earner and client should also discuss and agree on:
• the best way of communicating (phone / letter / email?)
• how much communication is needed
• the required regularity of matter, cost and timescale updates.
When the interview is coming to an end, the fee-earner should then:
• Summarise what was discussed and agreed
• Confirm the next steps with the client
• If required, arrange the time and date of the next meeting
• Introduce the client to colleagues if, following the meeting, it seems likely that they will be
involved in the instruction.
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Client care – communication and service – page 35
9.Effective Communication
Different ways of communicating
Although technological advances have in recent years made communications easier, the
growth of email, mobile phones, extranets and text messaging could also be said to have
complicated communication. The growing number of communication channels raises questions
of which method to use when, and whether you need to ‘double up’ by using more than one
method.
Although you might have your own communication preferences, or might believe, for wellfounded reasons that, for example, telephone is usually preferable to email, your views and
preferences in relation to communication should only be a secondary consideration next to the
preferences of clients.
Try to discuss with clients, ideally in or before a first meeting, their communication preferences
and requirements:
• How much and what type of updating is required? (cost? matter? Timescales?)
• How often are updates required?
• Would they prefer updates by email, phone, letter, in person or other method?
• Do they want written confirmations of any discussions?
• Should communications be copied to any other individuals?
The key is flexibility. Be ready to adapt to your clients demands, and use a variety of
communications methods without solely relying on either letters or the telephone because they
suit your way of working. If you feel it is necessary to confirm advice in a letter, that doesn’t
prevent you from raising issues in either a phone call or email. Combining formal and informal
communications also limits the risk that some communications might be missed because a letter
is mislaid or a phone call not returned.
Similarly if the major form of communication is through letter, it is often useful to follow up with a
phone call. This is firstly to check if the letter has been received and read by the client, but also
to ask if the client understands the issues involved, and whether there are any questions: writing
a detailed letter to a client is of little benefit if the client does not understand it.
Also, make sure your clients are aware if there are any cost implications to any of the agreed
communication. Clients want to be kept informed, but often resent having to pay for the time to
produce a detailed letter if a simple phone call would have sufficed.
Effective verbal communications
Communication is a more complex process than many people imagine. In addition to
the exchanging of recognized terms and phrases, effective communication requires
an understanding of the roles played by attitudes, listening skills, partial understanding,
expectations, prejudices, motivations, assumptions, codes and nuances.
Most of the above can in some situations assist communication, but they can also act as a
barrier to effective communication. Solicitors need to be able to recognize the potential barriers
to effective communication and remove them.
Consider some of the barriers that you have experienced in yourself or in others
The table below identifies a few:
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Client care – communication and service – page 36
Solicitor – Poor Listening
Client – poor listening
• Interrupting the client
• Stress or anxiety
• Dominating conversation too much
• Poor attention due to pressure of time or
interruptions
• Poor questioning e.g. closed rather than open
questions (“Do you want this?” rather than “What/
How would you like?“
• Not requesting or allowing feedback
• Failing to clarify issues or confirm understanding
• Poor awareness of clients body language
Solicitor – poor talking
Client – poor talking
• Excessive use of legal jargon, or failing to explain
• Inability to articulate the issues clearly
terms
• Failure to raise issues because:
• Excessive detail
• of assumptions that the solicitor knows it all;
• Not enough detail
• they are embarrassed about their own lack of knowledge;
• Speaking for too long without seeking feedback
• they are concerned about the cost of further discussions; or
• Patronizing or condescending attitude
• they lack confidence in a professional environment or are
• Inability to articulate the issues quickly
• Pre-conceived ideas and assumptions about the
client or the matter
intimidated by the lawyer
• Indiscriminate mistrust of lawyers
• Excessive deference for or trust in lawyers.
• Rushed discussions due to pressure of time
• Anxiety in front of an influential client
• Not allowing feedback
• Not checking to confirm client understands
• Poor body language
• Poor preparation
Solicitors need to focus on their own communication, consider possible communication barriers
for the client, and work to remove any such barriers – often by putting the client at ease or
by asking the right questions. Much will depend on the solicitor making a quick and accurate
assessment of the client’s sophistication and ability to understand issues: what is confusing for
one client might be patronizingly simple for another. The key is flexibility. Solicitors need to be
able to adapt to different situations and tailor their language accordingly.
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Client care – communication and service – page 37
As suggested above, one of the biggest problems with communication is poor listening skills.
Here are a few tips for improving listening skills.
Stop talking
• Stop dominating conversations. Stop interrupting
• Give the other person a chance. Aim to talk for no more than 60% of the time
Try to put the talker at
ease
• Show you want to listen
• Open up the floor for them to talk
• Avoid distracting behaviours
Listen objectively
• Try to forget assumptions and prejudices
Try to understand
• Put yourself in the place of the other person
Do not evaluate too
quickly
• Hear them out
Ask open questions
• Avoid questions that might illicit a limited yes/no response
• Do not dismiss something without considering it first
• Help the speaker to explain better so that you might understand better
Take brief notes
• Taking brief notes shows you are listening and interested, and will help you remember.
• Avoid taking excessive notes, as this limits your potential for ‘active’ listening.
Restate & confirm
• Restate the speakers ideas to show that you understand
Look for non-verbal
communication
• Non-verbal communication (body language) can be as informative and useful as words.
Writing skills
As mentioned above, written communications are of little benefit if the client does not
understand them. Here are some tips for increasing the readability of you client letters:
• Avoid big blocks of text – use headings, paragraphs, bullet points & tables wherever possible
• Highlight any important sections
• Emphasise the main points at the start of the letter and/or place secondary detail at the back
or in an appendix
• Write in short sentences and avoid long, intricate paragraphs.
To these can be added all of George Orwell’s 5 rules for effective writing:
• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive where you can use the active
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an
everyday English equivalent.
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Client care – communication and service – page 38
Using short sentences and short, commonly understood words can dramatically increase the
readability of any letters. Research suggests that on first reading:
• Only 4% of readers understand a sentence of 27 words.
• 75% of readers understand a sentence of 17 words.
• 95% of readers understand a sentence of 8 words.
Clearly, your assessment of your own ‘readability’ will depend largely on your evaluation of
where your clients are likely to be in terms of the above percentages. In writing, you are aiming
to achieve a balance of style. Too many lengthy words and sentences and the letter (or other
document) becomes unwieldy. Too many short ones and you risk sounding either excessively
simplistic or authoritarian.
Updates & ongoing communication
One of the main concerns when clients retain lawyers is they feel they have lost control and
have ‘handed over’ all responsibility. Any frustration is compounded when the solicitor is slow
to respond to enquiries. Fee-earners should, therefore, ensure they keep the client regularly
informed on the progress of the matter, any changes to cost estimates, and any changes to
timescales.
As mentioned above, and to ensure you meet the client’s expectation, you should discuss
updates and communication at a first interview, and then ensure you keep to any update
commitments.
Proactive updates
Managing communication and updates in a proactive way is good for both the client and the
solicitor. For clients, proactive communication is a sign of good service, and is likely to increase
the trust and confidence they have in their lawyer. For solicitors, proactive communication
is more efficient than reactive communication because it allows the solicitor to deal with
updates at a time that suits them, rather than constantly coping with interruptions. The proactive
approach can also reduce the communication burden by limiting any update requests caused
by client restlessness or anxiety.
Specifically, you should aim to proactively update clients, as early as possible on:
• Any changes to the likely overall costs of the matter;
• Any changes to likely timescales;
• Any delays or problems;
• Any significant developments in the matter; and
• Any changes in the legal staff managing the case.
Even if the matter hasn’t progressed, or if there are no changes to initial estimates, it is good
practice to stay in touch with the client just to reassure them that everything is on track.
Practices should implement arrangements to ensure that updates are provided as agreed with
the client. This might include treating ‘update dates’ in the same way as the practice might
treat other key dates such as finance dates in conveyancing or limitation dates in personal injury
cases.
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Client care – communication and service – page 39
Responsiveness
Nothing frustrates a client more than a solicitor failing to respond to their inquiry in a timely
manner. It is one of the major reasons why clients become disenchanted with their solicitor
and either take their business elsewhere or complain to the Legal Services Commission or the
Queensland Law Society’s Client Relations Centre.
Here are some suggestions for improving your responsiveness:
• Set internal targets for returning phone calls, e-mails, letters and faxes;
• Where an immediate response is not possible encourage both fee-earners and support staff
to acknowledge the message and advise the client when they might expect a fuller response;
• Either invest in IT or improve internal process/procedures so that updates can be provided
more quickly and more efficiently;
• Advise clients in advance if you are going to be unavailable for any significant period of time,
and where possible update them on progress before you leave; and
• Make arrangements for the handling of all communications (phone messages, emails etc)
when you are out of the office or on leave.
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Client care – communication and service – page 40
10. Confirmation & retainer letter
The client agreement is useful for a number of reasons:
• it provides a reference resource for both client and fee-earner going forward;
• it gives the client confidence that the fee-earner has understood their requirements;
• it gives the client a chance to query or clarify any part of the understanding;
• it gives the fee-earner a chance to confirm that (s)he has correctly understood the clients
requirements; and
• It protects the fee-earner in respect of any future disputes on the nature of the instruction.
The client agreement should therefore be seen as a positive opportunity to go beyond
regulatory or risk management requirements and ensure that client-solicitor understanding
is as high as it could be, increasing the confidence a client has in your services by providing
additional information.
Standard retainer letters should:
• Clearly identify the client and the status of any related entities;
• Give the name and status of the person who will be dealing with the matter, together with the
name and status of any supervisor;
• Identify the client’s objectives;
• Discuss the issues involved and options available to the client;
• Confirm the solicitor’s understanding of the retainer: what the solicitor is instructed to do and
what the solicitor will not do;
• Confirm what the client has agreed to do;
• Provide accurate cost and time estimates;
• Confirm how fees are calculated; and
• Provide the name and status of the person who that client can approach in the event of any
problem.
To limit the risk of misunderstandings, the fee-earner should include in a retainer letter anything
and everything that might have been discussed in an initial meeting and which might have
been misunderstood.
The problem with retainer letters is of course that clients don’t read them, and this should be of
concern to a solicitor because it increases the risk that misunderstandings will continue. The first
priority is therefore to make the retainer letter as readable and accessible as possible with plain,
commonly understood English words rather than ‘legalese’, and accessible sections, perhaps
with key points highlighted and details in appendices, rather than page after page of heavy
text.
The next step is to follow up on the retainer letter. Ask if the client received it, if they have read
it, and if they have any concerns or questions. This simple call can be highly effective – either
prompting the client to read the letter, or prompting them to raise concerns or ask questions
that they might not have done otherwise.
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Client care – communication and service – page 41
Terms of business
Additional information, including terms of business, should either be included in the client
agreement, attached as an appendix to the client care agreement or, if there are standing
terms of business with regular clients; these should be referred to in the client agreement.
It is often advisable to include such terms of business information in an appendix rather than
the main client agreement, as many clients can find excessively detailed client agreements
frustrating, and prefer key information on the work and the costs of the matter to remain
separate and accessible.
Terms of business could cover the practice’s arrangements for any or more of the following:
• storage of documents;
• termination of instructions;
• communication by email;
• outsourcing of work;
• hours of business;
• service commitment;
• payment of interest;
• data protection;
• quality standards; and
• complaints.
Service commitment
Part of a practice’s general terms and conditions should advise clients of the specific service
standards that you will endeavour to adhere to during the retainer, for example:
• keep the client regularly informed of progress;
• communicate in plain language;
• explain the legal work that may be required;
• advise the client regularly of the costs/risk benefit of pursuing a matter; and
• advise the client of the likely timescale involved.
Repeat clients
One of the biggest problem areas with client agreements is with repeat clients. Fee-earners
regularly fail to reach agreements with repeat clients for one of the following reasons:
•“The client trusts us, knows our terms and rates, and doesn’t need an agreement”
• “It was more important to get on with the case, than attend to paperwork”
Even when the above reasons are valid, the danger of not formalising an agreement is the
client doesn’t have a chance to query or clarify any part of the understanding, and the feeearner is not protected in the case of any future disputes on the nature of the instruction. It will
not always be ‘safe to assume’ that the instruction is exactly the same and the same terms and
conditions apply.
For this reason, the fee-earner should always try to formalise an agreement. Even where the
practice has standing terms and conditions with regular clients, the nature of the instruction
should always be confirmed.
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Client care – communication and service – page 42
11. Fees and costs information.
1: Regulator requirements and client requirements.
Note from Megan Mahon, QLS President, on the QLS Costs Guide
(available from the QLS website at www.qls.com.au)
Dear Members,
It is with great pleasure that I advise that the Society has released its “Costs Guide” which
deals with the new costs regime under the Legal Profession Act 2007. Please note, if you are still
entering into Client Agreements under the repealed provisions of the Queensland Law Society
Act 1952, a draft Client Agreement is available on the QLS website.
The Costs Guide highlights the significant issues that must be considered by each law practice
in meeting its obligations under the new costs regime under the Legal Profession Act 2007 and
contains draft covering letters, disclosure notice, costs agreement and bills notice.
The Society has been aware of the need for a practical guide for use by members in putting
into practice the requirements of the new costs regime which became mandatory on January
1, 2008. To this end, the Litigation Rules Section developed this guide and I would like to take this
opportunity to thank, in particular, Tony Deane (Clayton Utz), Paul Garrett (Hickey & Garrett)
and vice president Peter Eardley (Eardley Motteram) for their enormous efforts in producing this
guide.
As you will appreciate, the Costs Guide is exactly that – a guide. Members need to familiarise
themselves with the new legislative regime under the Legal Profession Act 2007 and must
exercise independent legal judgment and skills in the preparation and administration of
disclosure notices and costs agreements addressing client needs, relevant matters and
individual circumstances.
In relation to how the Legal Profession Act 2007 affects existing retainers and client agreements
under the Queensland Law Society Act 1952, and the transitional provisions relating to those
matters, I would encourage members to read CEO Peter Carne’s page in the August issue of
Proctor.
Should any member require any further guidance, please do not hesitate to contact our Client
Relations Centre on 3842 5843.
Yours Sincerely,
Megan Mahon
President
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Client care – communication and service – page 43
Client requirements
Whilst compliance with the regulatory regime for costs is of course important, it has to be
stressed that regulatory compliance is only the start of good practice in relation to costs.
Regulatory standards should be seen as only a minimum benchmark which practices should
then develop according to their clients’ requirements. There is a big gap between mere
regulatory compliance and client satisfaction, and approaching costs from merely a
compliance point of view is unlikely to guarantee client satisfaction in relation to costs.
Both individuals and commercial clients are highly sensitive to how costs are handled, are
concerned by the unpredictability of it, and are highly aware, under billable hour systems, that
‘the meter’s running all the time’. The management of costs information is one of the few areas
where clients can genuinely assess your performance, so costs are often the key deciding factor
influencing client satisfaction.
As with other elements of client care and service, the strategy for meeting client needs in
relation to costs has three elements:
Effective use of client
feedback
• Identify both general trends and specifics in client concerns and preferences re the management
Consistency
• Implement systems, policies, processes, protocols to address the issues identified through
of costs.
feedback
• Arrange training, guidance and supervision in relation to any agreed systems etc.
• Retain enough flexibility for fee-earners to react to different client needs
Practice culture
• Ensure adequate support to facilitate accurate estimating, updating and the capturing of feedback
• Strategic focus on client satisfaction in relation to costs.
• Recognition and reward of cost management effectiveness.
The most common causes of client dissatisfaction about costs are as follows:
• Inaccurate initial estimates;
• Failing to explain the difference between a quote and an estimate or to draw attention to the
fact that an estimate is not a (fixed) quote; and
• Failing to provide sufficiently prompt cost updates or revised estimates.
All of these causes of dissatisfaction can be addressed simply by training, guidance, checklists
or other measures. Failing to address these issues can not only cause client dissatisfaction in
terms of service, they can also lead to accusations of overcharging or unethical practice.
Although such accusations will often be unfounded, the solicitor should aim to ensure that such
issues do not arise in the first place.
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Client care – communication and service – page 44
12. Fees & Costs Information
2: Client Care And Profitability
Costs disclosure is not just a regulatory or ethical issue – it can have a significant effect on the
profitability and success of your practice, both in the short term and the long term. Why is the
issue of costs information so important?
In summary:
is key to
which is
which are
key to
Good costs
information
Clients’
perceptions of
service
key to
Clients’
perceptions of
value
Recovery of
recorded time, and
Clients’ willingness
to pay bills.
Clients want to feel that the fee they pay is reasonable for the value they have gained from
your service. Mismanagement of costs information and billing is one of the simplest ways to
destroy client confidence, and to make clients question the value of your service. If you do not
meet their service expectations, there will be a gap between what your recorded time suggests
and what your client perceives as reasonable value.
Estimates
Let’s start with a couple of myths/misconceptions about the provision of accurate estimates to
clients:
Myth 1: The accuracy of the estimate does not have a strong influence on the
profitability of the work - because whatever the estimate, the bill and fees
recovered will depend on the actual hours recorded, not the estimate.
It is wrong to assume that the accuracy of the estimate has little bearing on the profitability of
the work. With firms on average recovering only c80% of recorded time, the link between time
recording and fees is not as strong as is sometimes assumed, especially where the submitted bill
exceeds the estimate. Research from both law firms and their clients has shown that accurate
estimates can affect profitability in a number of ways:
Surveys demonstrate that the closer the final bill is to the estimate, the higher the recovery
rate - the percentage of recorded time (or work in progress (WIP)) that is finally paid by the
client to the firm. If a bill comes in exactly as estimated, clients pay it because there are no cost
concerns and nothing to debate or complain about. For the same reason, there is no partner
editing of the bill before it is sent.
If, however, the bill comes in above the estimate, this is when partners either write off some WIP,
or the client is disappointed and becomes more inclined to scrutinize or dispute the final bill,
leading to write-offs or discounts. There seems to be an understanding, observed (to varying
degrees in different markets) by both firms and their clients, that any fees above an estimate are
negotiable. It therefore follows that if work is done without any estimate of overall costs, then an
even bigger proportion of the final bill is negotiable, or at risk of being written off.
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Estimate
WIP
Notes
Recovered fees
Profit @ fees less
75% of WIP
$8,500
$10,000
Partner notices fees are more than the
$9,000
$1,500
$10,000
$2,500
estimate and reduces bill to $9,500 to
please client. Client is still upset. If he pays
the extra $1000 he has to justify it to his boss
and it affects his budget for other work. He
scrutinizes the bill and sees $500 has already
been written off. This makes him believe
there is scope for a bigger reduction. He
asks for another discount
$10,000
$10,000
Client is happy with the bill and pays
quickly.
In a similar way, if the final bill comes in close to the estimate, fee-earners will be quicker to
bill and clients will be quicker to settle - for the same ‘nothing to discuss, nothing to dispute’
reasons. If the estimation and billing system can be managed to ensure that bills are consistently
settled quickly in this way, this can dramatically improve the cash-flow of the firm, releasing cash
for investment, reduction of bank overdraft or partner drawings.
Myth 2: Accurate estimates are not possible: the work is potentially complicated
and there are too many variables that could affect the final size of the bill.
In relation to the second ‘myth’, some lawyers might be surprised at the number of instructions
it is ‘reasonably practicable’ to make accurate estimates for, once they realize the extent
to which such accuracy can affect client satisfaction, the payment of bills and profitability.
Although some legal work is genuinely unique and groundbreaking, the vast majority (either
in its entirety or once broken down into its constituent parts) has been done before by any
particular firm. This means that the firm should be able to draw on historical accounts data to
identify what past jobs, or their constituent parts, have previously cost.
Using historical data to provide accurate estimates is an obvious but often under-used
approach within law firms: it requires a combination of legal knowledge and accounts analysis
skills that neither lawyers nor accounts staffs have fully acquired. Two solutions to this might be to
either train the fee-earners up on estimation skills to a greater extent, or to change the accounts
focus (or move staff) from billing to estimating. The breaking up of legal work into constituent parts is also vital for accurate estimating. This
not only helps a law firm come up with accurate figures, and provides a client with more
information; it can also increase the perceived fairness and accuracy of a bill even where the
overall costs can not be accurately predicted. For example, a law firm might not be able to
reasonably predict how many documents of a certain type it will be required to review as part
of a case, but can predict what each review will cost, for instance, either there hours or c$750.
If a firm can quote, stick to, and refer to these estimates, then the final bill will still be consistent
with the estimate, irrespective of the number of documents reviewed. This then gives the client
little room to dispute the bill, so the likely recovery rate and speed of payment will remain good.
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Updates
Client satisfaction with bills, and hence the likely recovery percentage and speed of payment,
can also be affected by the speed and manner of updates on costs, or deviations from initial
estimates. The key is to give the client as much information as possible, as early as possible. This
makes the client feel ‘in control’ and reduces the potential for dissatisfaction or disputes.
Ensuring updates are accurate and delivered quickly, however, is not always easy, especially
when your main concern is fee-earning. How much updating is required? And how do you know
if costs are rising too rapidly? Here are some suggestions for best practice:
• Provide staff training on estimation skills;
• Monitor the accuracy of all estimates & encourage team members to improve their estimation
accuracy performance;
• In a first interview, raise the issue of updates with the client, and ask them how regularly,
or in what circumstances, they would require cost or matter updates. Make sure the client
understands the cost implications of updates if there are any.
• If the client has asked to be updated on a regular basis, treat ‘cost update’ dates as key
dates the same way you would court dates or statute of limitation dates, by entering them on
file and in diaries and reminder systems.
• Always update the client before, rather than after, costs exceed any initial estimate.
• If you have a sophisticated accounts or time recording system, program it to alert you when
the accumulated work-in-progress exceeds c70% of the estimate. This will prompt you to
consider the likelihood that you will ultimately exceed the total estimate, and therefore the
need to inform the client.
• Always provide an explanation for any increase in costs, and wherever possible discuss
this with the client. This helps to focus attention on the progress of the case, or the value
provided, and not on the costs.
• Arrange to compare the accumulated costs to estimates, on all your open files, on a regular
basis.
• Do a staged matter plan for each instruction, estimating the costs that should have accrued
at the end of each stage. Consult this regularly and update the client as required.
Billing
When it comes to costs communication, clients want a number of things: accurate estimates,
to be in control, and both proactive and reactive communication from their solicitors. When it
comes to billing they also want reliability (bill when you say you are going to bill, and quickly),
fairness (no outrageous charges for photocopying), transparency, and just enough detail to let
them fairly asses the bill.
The narrative should be sufficiently lengthy to communicate the value of the work, but not so
overlong as to be impenetrable. Above all, the bill should include a breakdown of the way it
has been calculated: “$10,000 for legal services in relation to the sale of XYZ” is rarely enough.
Although many firms or fee-earners prefer to wait until a client asks for a breakdown, this is
too late for many clients: they resent having to ask for further information and the damage is
already done: the failure to issue a detailed bill not only causes a client to focus on the cost
rather than the work and its value, it can also immediately cause doubt or suspicion about the
firm’s ability to justify their charges.
To remove any doubt, and in addition to an initial summary of work and costs, it is good
practice to offer clients a full breakdown of all recorded time entries on their matter. Many
clients will not require this, but that does not mean they don’t appreciate the offer. To prepare
for this, all time has to be recorded as if the client was the next person to see it. If descriptions
are too vague, the client might either doubt the legitimacy of the entry, or feel they have room
for negotiating a discount based on the vagueness of any description.
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Client care – communication and service – page 47
Finally, never send a bill unless the client knows what is in it. Discuss it with them first. If you send
clients a bill for an unexpected high amount, not only are you unlikely to get paid in full, you will
also undo any good work you have previously put into building the relationship. Surveys show
that corporate clients prefer to discuss bills with their lawyers before receiving them, and it has
benefits for solicitors too: it is an opportunity to remind clients of the work involved and its value,
and removes any potential shock, so that when the bill arrives, the client is expecting it, and is
more likely to pay it quickly.
Conclusion
Lawyers are often uncomfortable with discussions on pricing and billing, and this can lead to
failures in communication and client dissatisfaction. Many solicitors think they handle costs
reasonably well, but costs remain one of the key areas of dissatisfaction for the clients of
solicitors. Clients are usually highly aware that ‘the meter’s running all the time’, but will resent
having to raise the subject of costs themselves. Practices should aim to build their confidence
in discussing costs and, where possible, should go beyond the regulatory requirements and aim
to ensure that costs disclosure becomes an area of strength, and a driver of profitability, rather
than a potential weakness.
Below is a table summarising the key issues that solicitors should consider in relation to costs
information and billing:
Communication
Understanding your clients’ needs and preferences applies equally to the pricing of
services. Wherever possible, try to discuss their preferences on the structuring of fees, so
you are then able to come up with an offer or solution that is attractive to them.
Flexibility
Wherever possible be prepared to offer a number of different arrangements on fees,
so the client is able to identify which best suit them. Consider hourly rates, blended
rates, fixed fees, staged fee arrangements, additional services, no-win no-fee, volume
discounts and capped fees.
Reliability
Agree when you are going to bill your client – and stick to that agreement.
Extras
Clients hate to see unexpected extras or overheads on a bill. State clearly at the outset
what expenses and disbursements will be included in the final bill and try to limit these
as much as possible. If you are going to charge the client for travel, photocopying and
refreshments/subsistence, these amounts should be reasonable and made clear at the
outset.
The Legal Services Commissioner has published his guidelines for charging outlays and
disbursements. This should be read by all partners/principals, and is available at http://
www.lsc.qld.gov.au
Certainty
One of the main concerns that clients have in working with lawyers is uncertainty over
costs, so fee arrangements that limit or eliminate this uncertainty are often very popular.
This will usually mean moving away from the traditional hourly fee in some way, towards
fixed fees or fee caps.
This can be problematic for a law firm because the hourly fee provides a greater
guarantee that firms will be paid for the work done. If they move away from this, they
might not be able to bill for all their hours. The solution to this is to introduce effective
analysis of all completed work so that a firm can then predict with greater confidence
the likely costs of future similar work, and so offer an alternative to the rigid hourly fee.
Transparency
Another major concern of clients is to know exactly what they are getting for their
money. For this reason, it will often help not only to explain in detail the work you will
undertake, but also to offer a full printout of work done and hours spent on the matter by
all fee-earners involved. Some firms even offer the chance for clients to inspect their time
recording or billing systems.
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Client care – communication and service – page 48
Risk-sharing
Recent years have seen the rapid growth of no-win no-fee offers from legal firms,
primarily in the sphere of claimant personal injury. Many other clients, however, including
commercial clients, would appreciate their legal advisers offering to risk a proportion
of their standard fee/price in the form of a success bonus. This sort of approach is often
highly appreciated by clients.
Regular cost updates
Once fees have been quoted, it is vital to keep the client informed about the progress
of costs against the estimates, and to issue interim bills and interim estimates whenever
possible, including an explanation of the additional costs. It is much better to do this than
to wait until the end of the matter and shock the client with a bill exceeding the initial
estimate.
Volume or loyalty
rewards
The past 10 years have seen retailers offering loyalty schemes to frequent shoppers and
the same principle can be applied to law firms. Clients who give significant amounts
of work to a law firm might be disappointed if their loyalty is not rewarded. Many firms
already offer discounts to key clients or to gain particular instructions. Firms could,
however, be more creative in the way they offer these across the board as a way to
increase long-term client retention.
Gearing & leverage
The final bill to the client can depend to a great extent on whether the majority of
the work is done by (expensive) partners or (cheaper) fee earners. For this reason,
sophisticated clients are increasingly asking their legal advisers to increase the leverage
on their work to ensure fees are controlled.
Firms should discuss with clients the anticipated ratio of work to be done by partners,
compared to other fee earners. Some clients will prefer a greater degree of partner
involvement, whilst others would prefer less partner involvement to keep costs low.
The above considerations apply equally to the level of blended rates, so that when
blended rates are quoted, they should be accompanied with details on the gearing
assumed for the rates.
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13. Ending the Retainer
The thing that clients usually look forward to most when retaining a solicitor is the end of the
matter, when they know that everything is resolved, there are no more fees payable and they
can walk away from both the matter and the related stresses or concerns.
Some solicitors, however, do not always share clients’ enthusiasm for quick closure and are
sometimes slow to finalise matters, even after the substantive work has been done, because
either:
• They are natural perfectionists and are reluctant to close the file until they are at least 100%
sure that everything is in order; or
• They are distracted from the closing of files, or collection of costs, by more urgent or exciting
work.
The delayed closure of files and collecting of costs can have a big impact on client satisfaction
even if the service up to that point has been of a high standard.
Legal practices should therefore emphasise the importance of prompt closure of files and,
where appropriate, implement arrangements such as checklists to ensure that this is handled
effectively. Procedures for file closing should include:
• Reporting the outcome of all matters relating to the case;
• Confirm what action the client needs to take going forward;
• Confirm any duties or responsibilities the fee-earner or practice will retain;
• Return any documents or other property owing to the client, or any other party;
• Return any trust monies owing to the client, or any other party;
• Archive or destroy any materials as appropriate;
• If appropriate, confirm arrangements for storage or retrieval of any documents, and any
charges to be made in this regard;
• Advise whether the matter, or any parts of it, should be reviewed at any time in the future;
and
• Forward a bill for any outstanding costs to the client.
Check, check and seek feedback
When you are closing the matter, it is good risk management practice to do a closing ‘risk
assessment’ – a check to see if everything has been done competently, and if there are any
outstanding issues that could lead to a claim or a complaint. This should be extended further
with fee-earners asking themselves whether there are any grounds for client dissatisfaction, and
whether anything can be done to avoid or minimise any perception of poor service.
Once the fee-earner has satisfied themselves that they have done all they can in relation to
client care and service, it is vital when closing a matter to again check the client’s expectations
and ask whether they have any outstanding needs, requests or concerns. Again, without this
final check, it is possible that the client’s formerly positive perception of the service received
from your practice can be negated by the failure to provide one last piece of advice or action
some minor piece of administration.
Finally, after you have checked that there is nothing further you can do for the client, you should
then seek feedback on your service – a topic which is discussed in more detail later in this guide.
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14. Cultural issues
Management arrangements are of course only half the story with client care. To achieve
something real you have to change individual and cultural attitudes. Any firm’s culture plays
an equally important role in its ability to consistently deliver excellent service. The table below
suggests some features of law firm practice that could either enhance or restrain any efforts to
improve client service:
Supportive Culture
Unsupportive culture
• Balanced approach which acknowledges the need for a
• Excessive focus on chargeable time and billable hour targets
focus on service
• Individual workloads are managed and reasonable
• Long hours, deadline-driven culture
• Co-operation, support, knowledge-sharing and team-
• Protective, individualist approach to matters and clients
working are encouraged
• Success, remuneration and promotion based on
broader measures including service, client relationship
• Success, remuneration and promotion primarily based on
billable hours or personal fees earned
development and contribution to practice.
• Investment in training, IT, support staff etc
• Minimal support
• How can we help?
• Demanding expectations of individuals
• Understanding, supportive
• Critical, competitive
Changing culture is never easy, but having a plan or a framework to focus on cultural concerns
will help.
What culture does your
Identify:
firm currently have?
• Those aspects of the current culture that enhance client care; and
• Those aspects of the current culture that detract from client care.
Consider not only internal discussions, but also findings from complaints handling and client
satisfaction surveys.
What culture would your
• What cultural attributes, values & objectives does your firm want?
firm like to have?
• Does this fit with your clients’ perceptions and requirements?
• Does this fit with your current colleagues and staff?
• Communicate the agreed values and cultural objectives to your staff and colleagues.
• Consider offering training
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Modify the existing
Actions here will depend on your cultural analysis and objectives but some of the following
culture
might help you to develop the right culture to facilitate service excellence:
• Leadership by example;
• Team building initiatives;
• Change reward, remuneration, promotion arrangements to recognise the importance of service &
communication
• Agree individual development appraisals and plans;
• Improve internal communication;
• Offer more support for training (both team and individual);
• Invest in facilities/IT/support staff;
• Re-evaluate billable hour targets or working hour expectations;
• Move away from reliance on the hourly fee as a basis for both charging and performance
assessment.
• Improve work/life balance;
• Increase diversity of staff (age / sex / ethnic origin etc.)
• Change organisational structure;
• Move to more modern office facilities;
• Include service and client care as part of performance assessment;
• Re-evaluate delegation and supervision arrangements;
• Increase respect and dignity at work / reducing bullying.
Review and continuously
Client feedback and complaints information, as well as your own observations, should
improve
provide information to identify strengths and weaknesses and to continuously improve your
firm’s culture.
Time pressure and the culture of the ‘billable hour’
Probably the biggest aspect of a firm’s culture that affects a fee-earner’s ability to deliver a
quality service is actual and perceived pressure of time.
There are a number of aspects to this, but regular deadlines, billable hour targets and
performance assessment based purely on hours billed or fees earned can have a dramatic
impact on fee-earner’s motivation to invest in client care and communication. Obviously the
deadlines and desk work will not go away, but firms do need to help their fee-earners strike a
balance that allows them to provide a satisfactory service.
Possible initiatives that firms might consider include:
• Time management training;
• Increase efficiency through means other than time measurement.
• Relieve pressure of work by introducing more staff – for either fee-earning or support.
• Reduce billable hour targets, or offer a concession in billable hour targets for productive but
unbillable client care; and
• Move away from the hourly fee as a primary billing method, so solicitors focus on providing a
service rather than just their time.
Much of the perceived time pressure in legal firms relates to the dominance of the ‘culture of
the billable hour’, and the belief that setting targets for billable hours is the best way to ensure
that each fee-earner is productive.
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This culture, however, not only lowers the motivation for solicitors to invest time in nonchargeable client care, it is also inherently inefficient in that it limits the motivation for feeearners, or the firm, to raise productivity and introduce time-saving working practices (if time is
saved, less hours can be billed).
Productivity can, however, be increased through other initiatives such as use of IT, knowledge
management and effective supervision. Moving away from the culture of the billable hour
and taking a broader view of productivity can therefore not only help to raise efficiency (and
therefore profitability), it can also change the firm’s culture to facilitate an increased focus on
service and client care.
Motivation
Efforts to change the culture and improve standards of service, communication and client
care within your practice are unlikely to be effective unless the people within your practice are
motivated to change.
Many of the cultural changes discussed in this chapter will be popular on their own merits –
especially to the younger generation (Gen Y) of solicitors – but for many fee-earners, motivations
will still revolve around individual goals and ambitions: namely pay, promotion or other rewards.
Legal practices traditionally reward, promote and remunerate according to a single, narrow
measure – the solicitor’s short-term fee-earning record or potential. In practices where this is the
case, it will probably be unrealistic to expect people to focus on service and communication if
this will not be recognised or rewarded by the practice. Even where service can be improved
without the need to compromise on fee-earning time, solicitors will often lack the motivation to
focus on these areas.
If a practice is serious about raising its service standards, it should therefore consider changing its
reward and recognition policies. Things to consider include:
• Increasing the focus on client service during supervision meetings;
• Increasing the focus on client service during annual appraisal meetings – including making
improvements in service a key objective and measuring a solicitors’ performance in relation
to service;
• Setting time-recording targets for service and client development, as well as for fee-earning;
• Making service skills and performance a consideration during pay reviews; and
• Making service skills, performance and potential a key consideration during discussions on
promotions
None of the above should be seen as a threat to a practice’s fee-earning potential. On the
contrary, as other chapters in this guide have demonstrated, improved client service can be a
key driver of profitability. It does, however, take a long-term and more sustainable approach to
fee-earning, and acts to provide individuals the broader motivations that hopefully mirror the
practice’s objectives.
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15. The role of support staff
Support staff are often, and quite rightly, described as the human face/voice of a law firm.
Support staff have a vital role to play in clients’ experiences of any law practice. Support staff
not only assist fee-earners in their client care efforts, they also have their own communications
and relationships with clients - which are often as important as the client’s communications with
the fee-earner.
Many secretaries, personal assistants and practice managers embrace this role, accepting
more responsibility for client communication and service, and leaving the fee-earner to
concentrate on fee-earning. Others take a more minimal role. Whatever division of duties is
agreed between the fee-earner and their support, service and communication has to be coordinated and the pivotal role of support staff recognised.
Before the mat ter starts
People’s perceptions of the service they receive from their law firm will often start forming even
before they meet a fee-earner. Poor service or communication by support staff at the enquiry
stage can either lose the practice work, or lead to negative perceptions about client care at
the practice.
Handling enquiries
It is very easy to make a bad first impression. Practices should therefore consider training their
support staff on some of the common issues related to the handling of enquiries, and constantly
monitor performance. Here are some dos and don’ts as pointers
Do
Don’t
Thank the person for the call
Act as if the call is a burden
Speak with a smile
Let personal stresses, moods or frustrations affect the
caller experience
Be prepared – with information on common enquiries (costs,
Allow the caller to assume you are disorganised or
practice areas etc)
disinterested
Know about the availability of your fee-earners, and when
Act as a defensive gatekeeper for the fee-earners
you can put calls through.
Be helpful and positive. Give the caller options about how to
Be unhelpful or negative
proceed, e.g. “Would you like:
• “He’s out”
• An appointment?
• “I don’t know”
• To call back?
• “No”
• To talk to a fee-earner now?
• For a fee-earner to call you back?
• More information”
Answer calls quickly, and transfer them efficiently and
• Let the phone ring more than 5 times
politely to the right person
• Transfer a call before the caller has finished speaking
• Allow a caller to be kept on hold too long, or
needlessly transferred around different people
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Ask open questions & listen to the answers
Only ask closed questions
• How can I/we help you?
• Did you want to speak to the partner?
Client care – communication and service – page 54
First Interview preparation
Another vital role for support staff is in helping both the fee-earner and the client prepare for a
first meeting or interview. Clients will often have a number of concerns such as the cost of the
meeting, what they need to bring etc, and support staff should ensure they are relaxed and
prepared for any meeting. Similarly, support staff should ensure that the fee-earner has all the
required information for the meeting and is equally relaxed and prepared: if the fee-earner is
busy, stressed or unprepared, this will often show and leave a bad impression with the client.
Some of the common concerns or criticisms concerning first interviews can be addressed by the
following support staff actions:
• Getting clients to complete any forms before rather than during the interview – thus saving
them time and money;
• Ensuring the fee-earner has any information the client has already given - so that clients
don’t have to repeat themselves;
• Advising the client what information or documentation they need to bring to a first meeting;
• (Wherever possible) Providing costs information regarding both a first interview and
subsequently;
• Ensuring the client is informed of the name and status of fee-earner they are going to see –
and checking that they are happy with this (e.g. would client prefer to see a partner); and
• Ensuring the fee-earner is not interrupted during the interview.
Managing expectations
Although fee-earners will usually take the lead role in managing client expectations, support
staff also have a part to play. Problems usually arise where support staff are either ‘just trying to
be helpful’ or ‘just trying to reassure the client’, and inadvertently overstep the mark. Typical
problems that can arise include when staff:
• Advise the client that the firm is able to assist with the clients concern;
• Advise the client about what the fee-earner will or won’t do.
• Give time and cost indications; or
• Advise the client about the expected result or outcome of any matter.
Whilst it might be OK for support staff to offer advice such as the above on some occasions,
the above matters are usually best left to the fee-earner for good risk management reasons.
Practices should consider providing guidance and training to support staff on what guidance
they should or should not provide to clients.
During the matter
During the matter, the main role of support staff will be to assist the fee-earner in maintaining
effective communication with the client. Primarily, this will mean co-ordinating communications
and assisting with time, matter and cost updates. Clients increasingly expect their solicitors to
provide them with updates, but are often frustrated with the need to both chase solicitors for an
update and with the subsequent slow response.
The ideal response is to focus on proactive communication as much as possible. This is not only
the usual preference of clients, it is also a more efficient way of managing communication
for the law practice because communication occurs at a time that suits the fee-earner, and
because – ultimately – proactive communication reduces the communication burden by
limiting any update requests caused by client restlessness or anxiety.
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Specifically, secretaries and support staff can assist by:
• Managing their fee-earner’s diary to allocate time for pro-active updates;
• Noting update requirements for each client or matter, and managing these in the same way
as the firm would manage key dates (such as statute of limitations etc);
• Regularly compiling cost updates for matters and preparing these for the fee-earners to
consider; and
• Undertaking any other administration which makes it easier for the fee-earner to update
clients.
In their own contact with clients, support staff can play an important role in making clients
feel appreciated. Little things like calling clients by their name and remembering refreshment
preferences can make a big difference in clients perception of service.
After the matter
When the matter is closing, support staff can then take a lead role in assessing client satisfaction
and identifying any weaknesses in the practice’s service. Solicitors are often poor at either
seeking or addressing client feedback, so this is an area that support staff can really help.
See chapter 19 for more discussion on this topic.
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16. Handling Complaints
Even if you have highly effective client care arrangements, there will be occasions when things
go wrong or the client perceives them to have gone wrong . Complaints from clients can have
an adverse impact on your business: they take up valuable fee-earner time and can be difficult
and expensive to resolve. They can also have a negative impact on your firm’s reputation.
They are also, however, vital sources of information for any practice, and can be turned
into a positive if you can address them promptly to the client’s satisfaction and exceed their
expectations in the process.
In modern business, complaints are inevitable, but needn’t cause sleepless nights if you have an
effective complaints handling system.
Setting up a complaints handling procedure should involve the following:
• Define what a ‘complaint’ is.
• Draft and approve a written complaint handling policy and procedure for your practice.
• Circulate your practice’s written complaints handling policy and procedure to all staff to
ensure that anyone a client speaks to can provide a copy of the additional information about
complaints.
• Identify one person with ultimate responsibility for handling complaints. Ideally, this should be
a senior person who has the authority to settle complaints as required;
• Identify the root cause of any complaint and design processes/procedures to ensure that the
same problem/oversight does not arise again; and
• Review all complaints information at least once a year, and introduce new client care or risk
management arrangements as required to address areas of weakness.
A sample complaint handling procedure is attached in appendix 1. You may choose to inform
the client about the whole complaints procedure at once at the start of the matter. However,
this is not essential, and might lead to negative perceptions about the likelihood of a complaint.
Only in the event of a problem arising need the procedure be provided or explained.
One of the key issues to address when designing a complaints-handling procedure is to define
what a ‘complaint’ is. A broad definition (for example, ‘any description of client dissatisfaction,
however expressed’) will gather a lot of information, but will the practice be able to effectively
handle so many complaints? Alternatively, a narrow definition of complaint might mean that
much client dissatisfaction goes un-recorded and un-addressed.
Latent client dissatisfaction
Negative client comments
Informal complaints
Formal complaints
Appeals
Complaint to QLS / LSC / Claim?
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Client care – communication and service – page 57
Many firms find that workable definitions of ‘complaint’ include:
• Any expression of client dissatisfaction that the fee-earner is unable to resolve immediately;
or
• Any expression of client dissatisfaction that, if unresolved, could lead to either negative
word-of-mouth, loss of client, a complaint to QLS or LSC or a claim
• Any expression of client dissatisfaction that is formalised in writing.
Looking at the inverted pyramid above, it can be seen that the client dissatisfaction gets more
serious as you go down the pyramid and client dissatisfaction increases. For this reason, the
most effective complaints handling procedures recognise and define ‘complaint’ broadly so
that the firm has a chance to formally resolve the complaint early and thus eliminate the risk of
either a more formal complaint or any other effect of client dissatisfaction. A broader definition
of complaint will also provide you with more information to identify areas for improvement. If
client dissatisfaction is identified early and addressed to the client’s satisfaction, this can actually
improve the firms standing in the eyes of the client, and be seen as an example of good service.
With complaints handling, it is important to get the attitude right as well as implementing
effective procedures. Here are some dos and don’ts to remember. Don’t
Don’t
Do
• Be aggressive, defensive, combative or patronising
• Be positive, open minded and honest
• Reject the complaint without good reason
• Be friendly and sympathetic
• Forget clients are your livelihood
• Contact the client as soon as possible after you receive
• Let a complaint go unresolved. When considering
how to react to a complaint it should be
remembered that an unresolved complaint to your
firm might turn into a formal complaint to the Legal
Services Commission, or even a claim.
the complaint, and tell them what steps you will take (or
have taken) to assess the complaint
• If the complaint is justified, be ready to make a serious
offer.
• Be consistent in your handling of complaints
• Think about the costs to your practice, in terms of feeearner time and lost good-will, of continuing to fight a
complaint.
• Make all staff aware of things that have gone wrong and
how they should avoid similar problems in the future.
• Say sorry. Sometimes this is all the client wants to hear. It
should be easier to say sorry than to carry on fighting or to
offer a reduction in the bill.
• Learn from the complaint
In handling complaints, people rarely intend to be rude or unhelpful, but it is often difficult to
control natural human instincts when confronted with criticism, or what is perceived as criticism.
Law firms should therefore consider assisting fee-earners in their complaints handling through
training, and/or the development of a ‘no-blame’ culture within a firm. This should help to
control the impact of any defensive or adversarial instincts.
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Here are some quotes adapted from real(!) legal practice complaints handling procedures that
act as a humorous warning on the type of attitude that should be avoided.
“We rarely get things wrong so please check your facts before raising any
complaint with us.”
“Please remember we are busy people. When your complaint arrives it will be
amongst many other important matters that we have to deal with, but we assure
you we will get back to you as soon as we can, which hopefully will be the end
of the matter.”
“Please remember that our time costs money and the time taken to deal with
your complaint will mean we are unable to deal with proper clients. However,
we understand and take your complaints seriously and for this reason you will
be charged a flat rate of $250 in recognition of the time we have spent in
evaluating your claim. This is regardless of how long we actually spend and is
quite good value for money given that our cheapest fee earner charges $250
per hour.”
A sample complaints handling procedure
To be adapted to suit your own practice culture and arrangements.
Our complaints policy
We are committed to providing a quality service and strive to continually improve service
standards for all our clients.
To help us identify areas for improvement, we need you to tell us when something goes wrong,
or if you have any concerns about our service.
If you have a complaint
If you have a complaint, please contact [ ], our nominated client care officer, at [ give contact details] and provide them with the details of your complaint. This information can
either be provided in writing or through an interview with either the client care officer, or through
a solicitor known to you, depending on your preference.
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What will happen next?
1.
We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or
explain any details. If it seems appropriate we will suggest a meeting at this stage. We will
also confirm the name and status of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.
2.
We will then open a file for your complaint, record your complaint in our central register
and investigate your complaint be examining the relevant file(s).
3.
If appropriate, and usually within [14 ?] days, we will then invite you to discuss your
complaint. If you would prefer not to meet, or a meeting is inconvenient, we will write
confirming our approach to the complaint, and any redress we feel to be appropriate.
4.
Within 2 days of any meeting, we will write to confirm any agreements and, where
appropriate, offer an apology, reduction in bill or a repayment.
5.
At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will then arrange to
review our decision within [10?] days. The review might involve:
a)
A review by someone in the firm who has not been involved in the complaint;
b)
A review by the senior partner
c)
A suggestion the matter be referred to Queensland Law Society Client
Relations Centre
for advice, mediation or resolution.
6.
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We will give details of any review and the timescales involved.
We will let you know the results of the review within [5?] days of its completion. At this
time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our
reasons.
We will also give you contact details of Queensland Law Society and the Legal
Services Commission. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about
your complaint. We very much hope this will not be necessary.
Client care – communication and service – page 60
17. Researching client satisfaction
Measuring client satisfaction can have a number of benefits:
• It gives clients a chance to voice their concerns, and you a chance to address them, before
clients feel forced to either complain or move on to another legal advisor;
• It sends a message that you value your clients’ opinions;
• It might provide a significant amount of positive feedback which can be used to help with
either staff morale/motivation or marketing; and
• It will give you valuable information on where you need to focus efforts in order to improve
the service you give to clients.
There are a number of ways to measure client satisfaction, and a number of decisions your firm
will have to make. Your choice will often depend on the type and number of clients you use,
with interview perhaps more suited to high-value key clients, and postal surveys more suited to
high volume-low value clients. Ideally, a mix of these will maximise your chances of identifying all
relevant service issues.
Annual or ongoing? / paper or face to face?
Ongoing feedback can be collected by including a form in any documentation or bill following
the end of a transaction. This method is good for collecting a lot of data on a regular basis, so
problems can be identified early, and trends identified. Feedback forms can also be used for
annual surveys, to give a snapshot of client perceptions on a year-by-year basis. An example
client feedback survey can be found in appendix one.
One drawback of paper surveys is that they are generic and often fail to address the specific
concerns of specific clients. Annual face-to face interviews are often more effective than formbased feedback because they give you the chance to develop themes and ask clients more
probing questions (if your clients are comfortable with this). They are also useful as an exercise in
managing specific client relationships, and to give information on any areas of service that are
particularly important for different clients
Interviews by main contact, other partner, or an independent?
For most practices, independent researchers or consultants are prohibitively expensive. If
practices can afford them, however, they can often produce more honest and open feedback
than if the client were talking to their main contact. The down-side of independent interviewers
is that they might not have sufficient knowledge of the practice or work type to fully understand
the issues involved.
Between the options of key contact and true independent is the option of using someone who
knows the work type, and the firm, but is not directly involved in the service delivered to the
client being interviewed This could be another partner or a support manager.
The killer question:
The most useful question by which firms can track or assess their levels of client service is:
“Would you be happy to refer us or recommend us to a friend or colleague?”
followed by
“If you have answered no to the above question, please give details of your concerns,
or outline how we could improve.”
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The results to this single question will not only provide a vital measure of the practice’s success
in improving client care, it will also identify the most important issues to address. Firms should
monitor on an ongoing basis the percentage of clients that would be happy to refer them to
someone else, not just for the practice as a whole, but for different teams, practice areas and
individuals. Weakness can then be identified and the practice can together work to improve
their scores.
What is an acceptable score? If 70% of your clients would be happy to refer you to someone
else, that means that 30% had significant enough concerns about your service not to refer you.
If, as a practice you are serious about client service, you should be aiming for no less than 95%
success rate. This is not to say that you expect to reach 95% immediately, but that to aim for
anything less is to accept poor service as a common feature of your practice.
Why do we lose clients?
Even practices who undertake regular client satisfaction surveys often fail to seek feedback
from clients they have lost. Whilst this might be uncomfortable or embarrassing, it might also
provide the law practice with much more valuable information than they receive from existing
clients (who can be expected to be at least reasonably satisfied).
Once it becomes clear that a client has been lost, practices should always try to gain some
feedback on why the relationship broke down. This will not only be valuable for maintaining
other client relationships, it might also be the start of winning a client back.
Overcoming objections to seeking client feedback
At a strategic level, the arguments for and advantages of seeking client feedback are obvious.
On a personal and operation level, however, it can often be difficult to gain commitment from
colleagues for a consistent approach. The table below details common objections from feeearners on the topic of client feedback, together with ideas for gaining commitment.
Common objections to seeking
client feedback
Possible responses
“It suggests that we have problems
• Research shows that clients rarely infer or assume poor service from a
with client service.”
request for feedback. On the contrary, most believe that the seeking of
client feedback is an example of commitment to client care and a sign of
good service.
• If you are in doubt as to your client’s response, explain your reasons for the
survey – perhaps as a means of improving what is probably already good.
“Fee-earners do not like or cope well
• Whilst criticism might be difficult to cope with on a personal level, the
with criticism, and do not want to
majority of firms who embark on client research are pleasantly surprised
admit to or recognise problems.”
how the majority of feedback is positive, and can therefore help morale.
• What is worse: a bit of criticism, or losing a client because you didn’t
address dissatisfaction?
• Explain to colleagues that negative feedback will not be used to blame or
criticise individuals, but rather to identify any systematic failings that can be
addressed through new arrangements or activities.
“It seems like selling”.
• Clients should only perceive it as a selling exercise if you treat it as one.
Do not try to cross-sell your services when trying to get their views on your
service performance
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Client care – communication and service – page 62
Common objections to seeking
client feedback
Possible responses
“It is unprofessional”.
• Clients are used to different companies seeking feedback and may even
do it in their own jobs or activities. Most clients welcome any efforts a firm
makes to improve its service.
• It is only ‘unprofessional’ in a good sense: moving away from the
perceptions that some people have of professionals being aloof , arrogant
or unresponsive to client needs.
“I’m too busy”
• Emphasise the long-term benefits of client feedback.
Other indicators of client satisfaction
Seeking direct feedback from the client is only one way of measuring client satisfaction. It
is often useful to combine analysis of client feedback with ‘harder’ statistics that also give a
measure of client satisfaction:
• Number of complaints (formal or informal)
• Rates of client retention
• Number of referrals
• Speed of payment
• Recovery rate (% of work-in-progress finally recovered from bills from any client or matter)
If statistics in any of these areas show a trend in the wrong direction, it is likely that client care
and client service issues need to be addressed. It should be noted, however, that none of
the above will identify the specifics of client dissatisfaction, and should not be considered an
alternative to directly seeking client feedback.
Reacting to feedback and addressing the issues
It is important that responsibility is defined for analysing the results of any feedback,
communicating the results around the practice as required, and addressing any arising areas
of concern. If you have asked clients for their feedback, and they have identified areas for
improvement, a failing to address any weaknesses could lead to further dissatisfaction.
• Does anyone need specific training?
• Is training required on any specific elements of your service?
• Do you need to improve your office systems and procedures?
• Do you need to manage client expectations if they are unrealistic?
Feedback can also be used in performance management. No-one likes to see negative
feedback about their levels of service, so discussing client feedback with the fee-earner
involved can bring dramatic improvements in performance.
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Client care – communication and service – page 63
An example client feedback survey
As part of our commitment to providing high quality service to clients at all times, this firm
conducts a Client Feedback Survey.
This survey allows you to tell us about any improvements we can make in our service to you.
Your comments are important to us and can be provided anonymously.
Please take a few minutes to let us know where we can improve our service. Please mail the
completed form in the enclosed reply paid envelope.
Thank you for your help with this survey. We look forward to providing you with the highest
standard of service in the future.
________________________________________________________________________________________
(Signature of partners)
Q1
Which legal representative did you see?
________________________________________________________________________________________
Below
Listening to your concerns
1
2
3
4
B
Being able to explain information and advice clearly
1
2
3
4
C
Being able to write clear explanations of advice/information
1
2
3
4
D
Keeping you informed of developments
1
2
3
4
E
On following your instructions
1
2
3
4
F
Giving you the feeling that your solicitor is supportive of you
1
2
3
4
Do you have any suggestions for ways in which your solicitor could improve his/her
services to you?
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
average
Below
Good
Factor
Average
How would you rate your solicitor’s secretary and articled clerks on the following factors?
Very good
Q4
Queensland Law Society
average
A
Q3
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Good
Very
Factor
Average
How would you rate your solicitor on the following factors?
good
Q2 A
On handling your queries or requirements
1
2
3
4
B
On how quickly they respond to your request
1
2
3
4
Client care – communication and service – page 64
Q5:
How could your solicitor’s secretary or clerks improve their service to you
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
Q6.
How would you rate the service provided by reception and administration staff?
Below average
Average
Good
Very good
Factor
A
On how quickly they responded to your requests
1
2
3
4
B
On handling your queries or requirements
1
2
3
4
C
Answering telephone calls quickly
1
2
3
4
Q7
Are you satisfied with services provided for fees paid?
Yes /
No (please circle)
Comments
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
Q8
Would you be happy to recommend this firm to someone else
Yes /
No (please circle)
Comments
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
Q9
Please provide any other comments you would like to make on the service you
received
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________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
Client care – communication and service – page 65
18. Making it happen: the key steps in transforming your
practice
This guide doesn’t pretend to have all the answers for improving client care, service and
communication– more ideas will come from your own staff and clients. It should, however,
have stressed the point that good service and effective communication are not just individual
attributes that you either do or don’t have: they are things which can be developed or
enhanced through a management approach.
Below are some suggestions for ensuring that your efforts to improve client service are effective:
• Get the basics right
• Agree, communicate, and keep focussed on, your objectives
• Define responsibility
• Initial and ongoing client research
• Maintain the profile
• Provide training and guidance
• Review high-level management policies and arrangements
• Systems, arrangements, processes, procedures & work practices
• Supervision and Performance Management
• Effective complaints handling
• Fight complacency and constantly review performance
1) Get the basics right
The three most important tools in the client service toolkit are:
• The first interview;
• The client agreement/retainer letter; and
• Updates and ongoing communication
All three of these should be very easy to get right, but without training, guidance, oversight and
the right culture/attitude, they are also very easy to get wrong.
Getting it right might involve a cultural change, or a change in individual attitudes to ensure
that fee-earners see these things as absolutely central to not only the client experience, but to
their work as a professional. If these activities are seen as a bureaucratic burden, as secondary
to more technical legal work, or as either simple or intuitive, there is a risk that they will not be
carried out conscientiously or effectively.
To ensure your practice ‘gets it right’, you should consider some of the following for each of the
client interview, the retainer letter and ongoing communications.
• Initial and ongoing training – both on practice procedures/processes (how we do things
around here) and on communication skills;
• Checklists guidance & manuals;
• File audits;
• Ongoing review of client satisfaction data;
• Team meetings to review best practice; and
• A client service focus to performance appraisals and supervision meetings.
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2) Agree, communicate, and keep focussed on, your objectives
Obviously, your main objective is to improve client service, but it is not necessarily as simple as
that:
• why?
• how?
• by how much?
• by when?
• how much will it cost?
• how will you know if we have succeeded?
• are there any related objectives?
• How will this affect profitability? Recruitment? Retention? Fees?
Objectives should ideally be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Resourced and timebased). You should not necessarily expect to reach agreement on SMART objectives at the
start of the process, but you should be able to gain agreement on the general direction. This will
involve being able to discuss some of the anticipated costs and benefits of any plans.
For any initiative to be successful, you will also have to gain support, both at a senior level and
then generally throughout the practice. If people are to be expected to change the way
they do things they must not only understand why change is needed, but must also trust that
the required change will bring about the beneficial outcomes. If key people, or any sizeable
minority, are not committed to the process of improving client service, it can be very difficult to
effect the necessary cultural change.
Do not expect all your plans to be successful immediately. Effecting cultural change is a
learning process, and you will likely have to alter your plans a few times before things click.
Staying focussed on your objectives will help to both maintain commitment and to formulate
effective strategies.
3) Define Responsibility
Unless responsibility is defined, it is very easy for client service initiatives to lose momentum. For
this reason, it is often vital to identify one person (or in larger firms maybe a committee) to drive
the process forward – either for the practice as a whole or in each team. Responsibilities of this
person could include:
• Communicating objectives
• Devising and implementing strategies
• Implementing the required changes to management systems and administrative processes
• Managing the process of seeking and interpreting client satisfaction feedback.
Ideally, such a person should be a senior or authoritative person with the practice who can lead
by example. If the task is delegated to a junior person, this risks indicating that the initiative is a
low priority for the partners or management.
4) Initial and ongoing client research
The key ingredient for any attempt to improve client service is finding out what clients think of
you, what they see as the strengths and weaknesses of your current service, and how they think
you could improve. Wherever possible, make your research quantitative as well as quantitative
– this way you can track your progress over time and compare between departments or
individuals.
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The more information you can gain from your clients, the better, and whilst the last chapter
discussed the different options for gaining client feedback, the key to success is in how this
information is used. Accepting some of the criticisms that are levelled at the firm or at individuals
will not be easy, but acceptance is key to moving forward. Too many law practices go through
the motions of undertaking client research but then fall into one of the following traps:
• Ignoring the negatives and focusing only on the positives – either for staff feedback or for
marketing purposes;
• Questioning or rejecting any negative comments in the belief that ‘the client doesn’t
understand’; or
• Either failing to analyse the responses, or failing to act on the analysis.
Failing to respond to client feedback is not only a waste of resources, it can also send out the
wrong signals to clients if concerns aren’t addressed: nobody likes having to make the same
negative comments twice.
5) Maintain the profile
Too often service initiatives lose momentum under the demands of fee-earning. Try to combat
this risk in whatever way works:
• Ensuring service and communications are a permanent agenda item at all management
team meetings, team meetings, or individual supervision meetings;
• Posters, screensavers;
• ‘Service initiative of the month’ awards; and
• A service orientated ‘employees of the month’ award.
6) Provide training and guidance
Whilst it can be claimed that some people are naturally skilled at service and communications,
skills can nearly always be improved by training. If new arrangements, policies or processes are
implemented to improve service, these will also have to be supported by training and support.
Training and/or the drafting of guidance documents should be considered in the following
areas:
• Handling initial enquiries;
• Client interviews;
• Accurate estimating & managing expectations;
• Client agreements / costs disclosure / retainer letter;
• Updates & avoiding client perceptions of delay; and
• Closing files.
No-one should be considered either above or below the need for training in these areas.
Training can be as useful for experienced partners or support staff as it is for junior fee-earners.
7) Review high-level management policies and arrangements
Changing people’s behaviour so as to improve client service will often mean changing
some of the main policies and understandings about how the practice works. Each practice
should consider whether changes are needed in areas such as recruitment, promotion and
remuneration.
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Traditionally, practices have focussed on technical legal skills and specific legal experience as
the sole basis for recruitment, pay and promotion. If practices are serious about client service,
surely this should be a consideration as well. Often there is an assumption that legal skills are
the most important attribute and that other qualities such as communication and service skills
are either secondary or can be learnt on the job. This, however, seems to ignore the fact that,
according to research, most client value is built from those skills that clients can judge – namely
the service/communication skills.
Practices should also review their time recording targets or policies. Time recording policies
whose main objective is to ensure that billable hours reach a set target each day/week/month
risk acting against client service in two ways:
• By adding an incentive for the fee-earner to constantly favour fee-earning work at the
expense of client service or development time; and
• By providing a temptation for the fee-earning to inflate or ‘pad’ their timesheet.
In addition to the many alternatives to the billable hour system, practice can also build in
specific incentives for client service: instead of a target of 6 billable hours a day, why not set
targets of 5 billable hours plus one hour of non-billable client service/development activity.
8) Systems, arrangements, processes, procedures & work practices
Below the level of high level management policies, practices should then concentrate on the
numerous administrative systems and habits that can impact on clients’ perception of service.
The best way to approach this task is for relevant staff to consider each identified activity, and
ask themselves 2 questions:
• Is there any way we can improve the way we do things to enhance client satisfaction?
• Is there any risk of error, oversight or other failing in this arrangement that could cause client
dissatisfaction?
For many practices, improving service delivery will involve significant investment in new IT
applications, but whilst IT can be highly effective in improving responsiveness, managing
risk or reducing delay, practices should also look for quick, ‘cheap wins’. Little things such
as remembering personal details or being proactive with updates can often make a big
difference.
Wherever practical, practices should aim to review all administrative arrangements, not just
those which are most obviously concerned with client care: IT, finance, marketing, knowledge
management, time recording, supervision arrangements, staff training and more call impact on
the fee-earner’s ability to provide a good service, and thus on client satisfaction.
Finally, try to include as many staff in this process as possible. People have a natural aversion to
bureaucracy being imposed from above, so try to use their ideas wherever possible.
9) Supervision and Performance Management
In legal practices, supervision and performance management are too often focussed almost
exclusively on either the discussion of specific legal points, or on productivity (in the narrow
sense of measuring billable hours). For both risk management and client care reasons,
practices should look beyond this and actively supervise both file administration and client
communication.
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Client care – communication and service – page 69
Because for many types of work it will be impractical for a partner to personally review and
discuss all files, practices are increasingly implementing a system of file reviews or audits. This
is where fee-earners will audit a random sample of another fee-earners file against a preprepared checklist. In addition to any risk-management related checks, file audits should also
check things such as:
• Client communication preferences recorded?
• Client care letter sent?
• Client care letter consistent with practice policy/guidance?
• All client communications recorded and responded to within target timeframes?
• Follow-up telephone call?
• Cost updates sent?
• Matter update sent?
Beyond file audits, practices should also ensure that client service is discussed in performance
appraisals and as frequently as possible in supervision meetings. If supervision meetings continue
to discuss only legal matters and the number of hours recorded, fee-earners cannot be
criticised for assuming that these are the only things that matter. Key to the supervision role will
be identifying development issues in relation to service, and also identifying training needs as
appropriate.
The next step is to bring the client more directly into the process by directly discussing specific
client feedback with the fee-earner involved. This will be an uncomfortable step for many
practices, but can bring dramatic improvements in performance.
10) Effective complaints handling
Complaints are good. Not only do they give you a chance to impress the client by handling
the complaint efficiently and fairly – thus changing the clients perception of your service, it also
provides you with vital information that you can analyse and use to improve your service going
forward. Here are some tips to ensure you get the most out of your complaints handling process:
• Try to define a complaint as broadly as you can so you can capture as much information as
possible;
• Pick the right person as the main complaints-handling contact: objective and supportive
rather than defensive, authoritative enough to make important decisions, and senior enough
to ensure that appropriate changes are implemented;
• Train all your staff on the complaints handling process so they can advise clients as required;
• Remember that retaining the client might be more important than being right: be ready to say
sorry and make amends; and
• Learn from your mistakes, but avoid a blame culture and look for a systematic solution to
ensure that the same mistakes don’t happen again.
11) Fight complacency and constantly review performance
Complacency is one of the biggest risks that practices face when tackling client service issues.
Delivering excellent client service – the kind of client service that brings referrals, boosts recovery
rates and justifies rate increases – requires much more than simply meeting your professional
obligations and avoiding complaints.
Guard against complacency by constantly seeking and responding to client feedback.
Measure your progress against a number of indicators, and implement the arrangements to
ensure that you respond.
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Client care – communication and service – page 70
Client service performance indicators:
• Claims information
• Complaints information (both internally and to QLS/LSC)
• Client satisfaction surveys
• Annual client reviews
• Staff views
• Views of other stakeholders
• Client retention rates
• Referral rates
• WIP recovery rates
• Speed of bill payment
• Media mentions
Review performance and respond
• Regular (6 month?) review of all client service performance data
• Regular audits or reviews of practice’s management systems
• Client service best practice agenda item at any relevant meetings
• Client service date discussed at performance appraisals and supervision meetings
• File audits to include client service focus
• Develop and amend practice management systems as required.
• Training to be provided as required for communication and service skills.
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19. Complaints, discipline and the role of the LSC
Contributed by John Briton, Legal Services Commissioner
Our core business
The Legal Profession Act 2004 comprehensively reformed the regulation of the legal profession in
Queensland including the system for dealing with complaints about lawyers. It took responsibility
dealing with complaints away from their professional associations – the Queensland Law Society
(which represents solicitors and had long-standing statutory powers) and the Bar Association
of Queensland (which represents barristers but did not) – and gave it instead to the new and
independent statutory office of Legal Services Commissioner supported by the Legal Services
Commission.
The new system came into effect on 1 July 2004 but has now been replaced by the Legal
Profession Act 2007 which commenced exactly three years later, on 1 July 2007. The new Act
consolidates and furthers the earlier reforms.
The Commission is the sole body authorized to receive complaints about lawyers in Queensland.
Of course, many people who want to complain about a lawyer find their way to the Law
Society or to the Bar Association in the first instance and others take up their concerns directly
with the lawyer concerned. Many ‘complaints’ are resolved informally in this way and that
is all to the good. Not everyone feels comfortable doing that, however, and it’s not always
appropriate and doesn’t always resolve things, and people are always entitled and they remain
entitled in those circumstances to make a formal written complaint to the Commission.
We deal with complaints about solicitors and barristers as our core business and that includes,
if the evidence when we’ve finalized our inquiries warrants it, initiating and prosecuting
disciplinary proceedings in the disciplinary bodies.
We are not simply limited to responding to complaints. The Act also gives the Commissioner
power to start an investigation into the conduct of a solicitor or barrister of his or her own motion,
in the absence of a complaint, ‘if the commissioner believes that an investigation should be
started’. These are called ‘investigation matters’.
We will be able to deal with complaints about and initiate own motion investigations into the
conduct of legal practitioner directors of incorporated legal practices from 1 July 2007, too –
complaints not only that they have breached their professional obligations as legal practitioners
but also complaints that they have breached their additional obligations as legal practitioner
directors.
We don’t only deal with complaints about lawyers: we can also deal with complaints and
initiate investigations into the conduct of:
• Law practice employees;
• Anyone a complainant suspects or we suspect may have committed an offence under the
Act – people suspected of being ‘unlawful operators’, for example (that is to say, people
who represent or hold themselves out to be lawyers when in fact they are not) and people
suspected of unduly influencing or attempting to unduly influence a legal practitioner
director or other lawyer employed by an incorporated legal practice to act contrary to their
professional obligations as lawyers.
We are also able to investigate the conduct not only of people who work for an incorporated
legal practice but in certain circumstances the corporation itself – if we suspect it has employed
or entered into a partnership with or shared receipts with a ‘disqualified person’, for example;
and
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Anyone a complainant suspects or we suspect of touting at the scene of an accident or
otherwise ‘claims-harvesting’ for lawyers in relation to possible personal injuries claims or of
breaching the restrictions on the advertising of personal injury services under the Personal
Injuries proceedings Act 2003.
Notably we have a broader role than dealing with complaints and investigation matters. Our
core business now extends to include auditing incorporated legal practices to monitor their
obligations under the Act and the management of their provision of legal services including
their supervision of the lawyers who provide those services.
Our approach
We have a big job to do and an important one. We try to go about our work in ways as best
calculated as we can to achieve the main purposes of the Act – in this context, ‘to promote
and enforce the professional standards, competence and honesty of the profession’ and to
‘provide a means of redress for complaints about lawyers.’ The act envisages and no doubt
consumers expect us to go about our work independently and without self-interest and, in
dealing with any particular matters that come our way, as efficiently, fairly and quickly as
possible, and we set ourselves these goals also.
We think we will best achieve these goals if we set out deliberately as part of what we do to try
to reduce the incidence of the sorts of conduct that give cause for complaint before the event,
as it were – before things go sour and give rise to complaint. We also therefore set ourselves the
goals of:
• Putting our investigation matter power to good use wherever possible and appropriate by
looking out for and identifying conduct and patterns of conduct that appear to put consumers,
especially vulnerable consumers at risk or that appears to be widespread and initiating
investigations into that conduct: and
• Learning whatever we can from our experience dealing with complaints and investigation
matters and to making good use of that information and perspective by undertaking
and partnering the professional bodies, the law schools and other legal stakeholders in
undertaking research and educational and law reform projects and activities that make a
practical contribution to improving standards of conduct in the profession.
Even more fundamentally, we think we should be looking for every opportunity, when we are
dealing with a complaint or investigation matter and believe there is something to it, to remedy
whatever it is that went wrong and to prevent it from happening again.
Some complaints and investigation matters involve dishonesty and other willful or reckless
misconduct of a serious kind and clearly conduct at this end of the spectrum warrants a
disciplinary response to protect the reputation of the profession or to ‘send a message’ to other
practitioners by way of deterrence or both.
Most complaints however describe conduct of more prosaic kinds – they describe minor
incompetence and mistakes and errors of judgment and delays and discourtesy and other
poor standards of service that give consumers less than a good or fair deal and so entitle
them to a legitimate sense of grievance. Intuitively it seems harsh and clumsily inefficient to
put practitioners who may be ‘guilty’ of minor misconduct of these kinds through the same
disciplinary process as practitioners who may be guilty of more serious transgressions.
Intuitively at least it seems more appropriate simply to require them to apologise to the
complainant or to re-do the work they were engaged to do in the first place or to waive some
or all of their fee or otherwise to remedy the faults in the service they provided and to learn
from their mistake by fixing their office systems or undertaking some further training and the like –
wherever ‘tailor-made’ remedy and / or preventative measures that best fit the particular facts.
It’s a form of restorative justice.
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We use the leverage the statutory framework gives us to that end. Notably the Act gives us
only two ways to deal with complaints over which we have jurisdiction – as consumer disputes,
or as complaints (lets call them ‘conduct complaints’) that involve an issue of unsatisfactory
professional conduct or, at the more serious end of the spectrum, professional misconduct.
The Act doesn’t define unsatisfactory professional conduct in any exhaustive way but
(consistent with the uniform definition of the term nationally) says only that it ‘includes conduct
of an Australian legal practitioner happening in connection with the practice of law that falls
short of the standard of competence and diligence that a member of the public is entitled to
expect of a reasonably competent Australian legal practitioner’.
The obvious question is just how unsatisfactory a practitioner’s conduct has to be to count as
unsatisfactory professional conduct. Arguably it is open to us to interpret and apply the concept
narrowly so that it excludes the sorts of minor ‘misconduct’ we have in mind and so allows us
to deal with complaints about conduct of this king not as conduct complaints but consumer
disputes. That would distinguish them from complaints that describe more serious misconduct of
kinds which unambiguously warrant a disciplinary response if proved.
That approach has appeal, and it’s the approach our counterpart regulators take in other
jurisdictions including New South Wales, but it would come at a price in our jurisdiction – it would
deal us out of the game by robbing us of any powers we might otherwise have to achieve our
most fundamental purposes, to promote and enforce professional standards and to provide a
means of redress for complaints.
That’s because our Act obliges us to investigate conduct complaints and gives us significant
powers of investigation but gives us no such obligations or powers in relation ‘to suggest to the
parties that they enter into mediation’.
We have no powers to require the parties to complaints to negotiate a fair outcome and failing
that to impose an appropriate outcome – we don’t have the powers our counterpart in New
South Wales has, for example, to require respondent practitioners in these circumstances to
enter into mediation or in certain circumstances and subject of course to review to caution or
reprimand practitioners or to require them to pay compensation, or to impose conditions on
their practicing certificates.
Nor do we have the powers our counterpart in England & Wales now has following the recent
reforms there to require practitioners to apologise to complainants or to redo the work or
to reduce or waive their fees or ‘to take other steps in relation to the complainant as [our
counterpart] considers just’ or ‘to order a payment for poor service, loss or distress, such an
award to be enforceable as a debt.
We think for these reasons that the Act obliges us to interpret and apply the concept of
unsatisfactory professional conduct broadly, so that it includes conduct that gives complainants
less than a good or a fair deal and that most people would regard as unsatisfactory in any
ordinary sense of the word but mightn’t ordinarily be seen to warrant a disciplinary response.
We think the Act obliges us to deal with complaints about conduct of this kind not as consumer
disputes but as conduct complaints.
We believe however that we can still deal with them in a way that distinguishes them from
complaints that describe more serious misconduct of kinds that warrant a traditional disciplinary
response and the naming and shaming that goes with it. The Act gives us only two options
after we have investigated a conduct complaint – either to dismiss the complaint or to initiate
disciplinary proceedings – but two grounds to dismiss a complaint. One is that there is no
reasonable likelihood a disciplinary body will make a finding of unsatisfactory professional
conduct or professional misconduct and the other – and here is our opportunity – is that there is
no public interest in initiating disciplinary proceedings.
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The public interest test gives us our opportunity because it is hard to see how it could possibly be
in the public interest to initiate disciplinary proceedings for alleged unsatisfactory professional
conduct at this minor end of the spectrum provided only that the practitioner has apologized
to the complainant or re-done the work or waived some or all of their fee or fixed their office
systems or undertaken some training and the like – that is to say, done what they reasonably
can in all the circumstances of the complaint to make good their mistake or to prevent or at
least reduce the risk of it happening again, or both.
So this is our approach to dealing with complaints at the minor end of the spectrum: we deal
with them as conduct complaints, not as consumer disputes, and when after investigation the
facts aren’t in dispute and appear to give complainants legitimate grounds to feel aggrieved,
we invite respondent practitioners to make submissions that seek to persuade us that no public
interest would be served by initiating disciplinary proceedings. We invite them to persuade us
that they have resolved the problem as best they can or fixed whatever is was that went wrong
so that it’s unlikely to happen again or both – and, if they succeed in persuading us, that’s
the end of it: complaint dismissed. If not, our options remain open, and we will look again at
whether to commence disciplinary proceedings.
The system established under the Legal Profession Act 2007 for dealing with complaints
Our first task, when we receive a complaint, is to assess it against a series of threshold criteria
to decide whether we have jurisdiction to deal with it. The assessment process is sometimes
straightforward, but not always. The Act obliges us, for example, to check whether the conduct
that is the subject of the complaint:
• was ‘conduct happening in connection with the practice of law’ – if the answer to this
question is ‘no’, then we can proceed to deal with the complaint only if the Commission is
satisfied that the conduct ‘would, if established, justify a finding that the practitioner is not a
fit and proper person to engage in legal practice’;
• happened less than three years before the complaint was received – if the answer to this
question is ‘no’, then we can proceed to deal with the complaint only if the Commissioner is
satisfied that ‘it is just and fair to deal with the complaint having regard to the extent of, and
the reasons for, the delay’ or that the conduct ‘may be professional misconduct’ and ‘it is in
the public interest to deal with the complaint’;
• might amount to negligence – if the answer to this question is ‘yes’, then we can proceed
to deal with the complaint only if the lawyer admits being negligent or the negligence is
obvious on its face, and even then any compensation order will be capped at $7,500 unless
both parties agree. As a general rule, only a court of competent jurisdiction can decide if a
practitioner (or anyone else) has been negligent and to award compensation.
Importantly, we have to assess complaints to decide not only whether we can proceed to deal
with them but, if we can, how. The Act gives us different powers and obligations to deal with
a complaint depending on whether the conduct complained of, if the complaint were to be
proved, would amount to unsatisfactory professional misconduct.
The Commissioner has to decide, in other words, applying the statutory definitions, whether
the conduct complained of would if the complaint were proved ‘fall short of the standard of
competence and diligence that a member of the public is entitled to expect of a reasonably
competent Australian legal practitioner’ or ‘justify a finding that the practitioner is not a fit and
proper person to engage in legal practice’ and:
if the answer to both questions is ‘no’, then the complaint is assessed to be what the Act calls
a consumer dispute and the Commission’s powers are limited to suggesting to the parties that
they enter into mediation – and either to attempt to mediate the complaint itself or to refer it to
the Law Society or Bar Association for mediation, and that’s the end of the matter;
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• if the answer to either question is ‘yes’, then the complaint is classed as what we call a
conduct complaint and the Act obliges us to see to it that the complaint is investigated –
and either to investigate the complaint ourselves or to refer it ti the Law Society or the Bar
association for investigation.
• Importantly, if the Commissioner decides to refer a conduct complaint or investigation
matter to one of the professional bodies for investigation, the investigation remains subject
to our direction and control and they have no authority to decide how those matters should
be resolved, only to report their findings and recommendations to the Commissioner for
decision.
The Commissioner and the Commissioner alone has power to decide whether the evidence
after investigation is sufficient to warrant a disciplinary response and, if so, the power to initiate
and prosecute disciplinary proceedings.
The Commissioner has to decide whether ‘there is a reasonable likelihood of a finding by a
disciplinary body of either unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct’ or,
in relation to offences, whether there is a reasonable likelihood a court will find an offence to
be proved. The Commissioner also has to decide whether ‘it is in the public interest’ to initiate
disciplinary or court proceedings. These are sometimes quite difficult questions, but:
• if the answer to both questions is ‘yes’, then the Act obliges the Commissioner to initiate
disciplinary proceedings in either the Legal Practice Tribunal (in relation to more serious
disciplinary matters) or the Legal Practice Committee (in relation to less serious disciplinary
matters) or a court (in relation to offences); and
• if the answer to either question is ‘no’, then the Act obliges the Commissioner to dismiss the
complaint or investigation matter or in other words, to take no further action in the matter.
John Briton
Legal Services Commissioner
A selection of statistics from the LSC
Theses statistics are taken from the LSC Annual Report 2010-2011 which can be downloaded
from the LSC website at http://www.lsc.qld.gov.au/
Inquiries by nature of the enquiry
Inquiries comprise inquiries made typically be telephone but sometimes in writing, by email or
in person including inquiries about how to make a complaint, informal complaints, and ethical
enquiries.
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Queensland Law Society
No. of
enquiries
% of total
2010-11
% of total
2009-10
% of total
2008-09
% of total
2007-08
Costs
891
34.78
31.08
31.48
24.64
Quality of service
384
14.99
17.69
20.05
21.59
Ethical matters
258
10.07
10.64
9.52
8.91
Communication
234
9.13
9.2
7.81
7.6
Advice
105
4.1
7.7
9.36
13.53
Documents
105
4.1
2.47
2.88
3.26
Trust funds
48
1.87
2.05
1.88
2.08
All other (combined)
537
20.96
19.17
17.01
18.41
Total
2562
Client care – communication and service – page 76
Consumer disputes by nature of matter
No. of
matters
% of total
2010-11
% of total
2009-10
% of total
2008-09
% of total
2007-08
Costs
21
41.18
45.07
27.27
31.37
Quality of service
18
35.29
32.39
30.68
31.37
Ethical matters
5
9.8
–
15.91
11.76
Communication
3
5.88
9.86
14.77
10.78
Documents
3
5.88
5.63
3.41
11.76
All other combined
1
1.96
7.04
7.95
2.94
Total
51
Avoidable complaints summary
The following table records for every consumer dispute and conduct matter that the LSC has
closed over the year and that in the complaint handler’s opinion was avoidable, how in the
complaint handler’s opinion it might have been avoided. The complaint might have been
avoided had the respondent performed better in the following areas.
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Queensland Law Society
% of total
2010-11
% of total
2009-10
% of total
2008-09
% of total
2007-08
Work practices
36.29
44.74
28.88
29.08
Communication
23.09
24.04
25.74
27.65
Costs
22.06
15.26
18.66
14.47
Timeliness
7.01
4.91
6.09
6.16
Trust accounts
2.68
4.74
10.41
6.59
Conflict of interest
2.47
2.98
4.13
4.01
Supervision
2.06
1.4
2.16
7.31
Liens and transfers
1.65
0.88
2.75
1.72
Undertakings
1.44
0.7
–
1.86
Record keeping
1.24
0.35
1.18
1.15
Client care – communication and service – page 77
Appendix 1: Do’s and Don’ts of client care
Do
Don’t
Client care & value
Invest in client care as your practice’s most effective
business development tool.
Don’t underestimate the importance of either service
delivery or of a satisfied client.
Agree and implement a cohesive client care strategy for
your firm.
Don’t assume client care is limited to ‘being nice’ to
clients.
Add value by raising service standards.
Don’t assume you are delivering value by simply doing
good work or keeping your fees low.
Focus on client care as an area for continual improvement.
Don’t become complacent about client care.
Provide a quality service, in line with the client’s
requirements.
Don’t run up costs by providing services a client didn’t ask
for.
Treat every client as though they are your most important.
Don’t limit your attentions to your most profitable clients.
Client Care & Practice Management
Focus on all areas of practice management to facilitate
better client care.
Don’t assume that client care is solely the responsibility of
individual fee-earners.
Managing Expectations
Gain as full an understanding as possible of the client’s
requirements and expectations, particularly with regard to
costs and timescales.
Don’t assume that all cases are the same, or that you
know all you need to know.
Don’t ‘tell’ the client what they can expect.
Discuss the client’s expectations and explain when and why
some projects might take more time or money.
Don’t over-promise or be too ambitious when giving
estimates on timescales and costs.
Provide estimates within a range of figures and explain the
circumstances that might lead to delay or additional costs.
Don’t quote rigid estimates that you might not be able to
keep to.
First Interview
Ask questions to ensure you have all the required
information from the client.
Don’t give the impression that you don’t need any input
from the client.
Try to put the client at ease.
Don’t patronise or intimidate the client.
Set aside enough time for the interview.
Don’t allow calls to be put through or allow other
interruptions.
If you plan to delegate, bring the fee-earner who will do the
work into the first interview.
Don’t give the client the impression that you will be doing
the work if this is not the case.
Advise the client of any costs relating to the first interview.
Don’t allow client concerns about whether the ‘clock is
ticking’ to hinder effective communications.
Advise the client on the client on the cost/benefit merits of
any action
Don’t assume the client is aware of the all the costs and
consequences.
Advice the client if you think the client should consider using
a solicitor who is more experienced in this area of work.
Don’t assume the client is aware of your particular areas
of specialism.
Discuss the client’s requirements re communication
Don’t assume you know how much communication is
required, or the best way to communicate.
Client care & retention letters
Confirm all instructions or understandings in writing.
Don’t assume that repeat or return clients don’t need
retention letters.
Advise the client of your service standards
Don’t fail to live up to your quoted service standards.
Complaints handling
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Be friendly and sympathetic
Don’t be aggressive, defensive, combative or patronising
Be positive, open minded and honest. If the complaint is
justified, be ready to make a serious offer.
Don’t reject the complaint without good reason
Think about the costs to your practice, in terms of fee-earner
time and lost good-will, of continuing to fight a complaint.
Don’t forget clients are your livelihood
Client care – communication and service – page 78
Measuring client satisfaction
Seek regular client feedback on whether you are meeting
client expectations.
Don’t fail to act on the information to improve services.
Cultural issues
Offer training on client care and communication skills
Don’t assume that client care skills occur naturally, are
unnecessary or can’t be learned
Change the culture of your firm to facilitate higher
standards of client care.
Don’t assume that client care is solely the responsibility of
individual fee-earners.
Fees and costs information
Offer greater flexibility of fee structures.
Don’t stick rigidly to the hourly fee.
Offer to discuss fees at the outset.
Don’t wait for the client to raise the issue of costs.
Update the client with regular interim bills and revised
estimates.
Don’t shock the client with unexpected bills at the end of
the matter.
Client communication
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Queensland Law Society
Discuss the client’s requirements re communication
Don’t assume you know how much communication is
required, or the best way to communicate.
Include and involve the client
Don’t assume that you completely have clients all the
clients trust, or that the client has completely handed over
all responsibility.
Update the client as agreed
Don’t run up costs by over-communicating.
Listen attentively to the client.
Don’t interrupt.
Tailor what you say to the understanding of the client.
Don’t use legal or technical jargon.
Speak in short, manageable chunks.
Don’t bore the client with convoluted reasoning.
Invite comment and feedback.
Don’t lecture.
When writing, use short words and short sentences to
improve ‘readability’.
Don’t hide important but simple information in long
streams of text.
Be proactive in your communication.
Don’t wait for your client to chase you for information.
Advise your client of the best times to contact you.
Don’t use your secretary as a gatekeeper.
Respond to enquiries promptly.
Don’t delay communications just because matters have
not progressed significantly.
Make sure your client understands the things they need to
understand.
Don’t assume that just because you have provided some
information that it is understood.
Client care – communication and service – page 79
Appendix 2: QLS Client Service Charter
The Client Service Charter has been developed in conjunction with the Legal Services
Commissioner, Mr John Briton and its use has been endorsed by the Council of the Queensland
Law Society, which is committed to assisting solicitors to deliver high standards of service.
Complaints by clients about the technical aspects of legal work are relatively rare. Most
complaints are made because of issues relating to communication. The Society and the
Commissioner see the Charter as being a short, succinct and easily understood document that
clearly states what clients can expect from their solicitors and what they can do to help progress
their matters efficiently.
We encourage solicitors to adopt the Charter and provide a copy of it to clients at the first
meeting with the client, or the initial letter to the client. It sets the scene for what is expected
to be a harmonious, respectful and professional relationship by recognising that effective
communication is a 2 way street.
The Charter encourages clients to first discuss any problems that may arise with the managing
partner of the law practice, or if the client considers that is not practicable, with an officer of the
Society’s Client Relations Centre.
We consider that the adoption of the Charter is likely to assist in the development of a good
working relationship with the client and reduce the possibility of a formal complaint being made
by the client to the Commissioner. As a member of the Queensland Law Society, it is our aim to
ensure that you are satisfied with our service.
What you can expect from us:
• We will put your interests first;
• We will treat you courteously;
• Your matter will be handled by competent staff;
• You will receive advice that is legally correct and relevant to your needs;
• We will explain what your costs are likely to be and keep you informed of your costs as your
matter progresses;
• We will keep you informed of developments in your matter;
• We will keep your matter confidential.
In turn we ask that you:
• Be honest and frank with us about what you hope to achieve;
• Provide us with clear and full information and instructions;
• Provide funds promptly to be placed in trust to pay outlays and disbursements,
• Pay our accounts in accordance with agreed terms.
Concerns:
If problems arise, we invite you to contact our Managing Partner to discuss your concerns.
Formal complaints can also be made to the Legal Services Commission on 3406 7737
(Brisbane) or 1300 655 754.
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179 Ann Street, Brisbane Qld 4000
3842 5888 | F 07 3842 5999 | info@qls.com.au
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