Law firm relationship management has been driven by personal connections and personal relationships. Very little has changed, but the future methods of relationship management will veer away from the personal and move towards more objective and empirical foundations. Data will become a staple in those relationships and will drive which relationships continue and which ones may end.

Data allows law firms to answer corporate legal departments' most basic questions about legal work: How many? What kind? How much? When those questions are accurately and capably answered, relationship management is optimized.

The two-pronged mission is to look for ways in which data can make firms more effective while delighting their clients with insights they don't currently have. Think of it this way: as providers of a service, if there is some aspect of the work that is repeat business from a client, there are always valuable insights that the client might not have access to. Perhaps the client would enjoy a summary, with some visuals, that clearly outlines basic data points: how many matters, what types, total fees, applicable discounts, etc.