As the legal industry continues to disaggregate and is increasingly flooded with technology, clients and in-house counsel report that they want a more personalized legal relationship. As hyperpersonalization permeates the legal industry, clients will continue to push for more tailored service.

But it can be difficult for law firms to know where to begin when addressing these requests. Should they focus on data and analytics or knowledge management? Or maybe they should focus on security and risk awareness? What about staffing efficiencies and technology innovation? And what is a realistic investment in value-adds? For their part, in-house counsel tend to have a more difficult time obtaining or sharing necessary information; they also suffer from tangible constraints on time and resources that affect their practice and what they are able to commit to outside counsel partnership efforts.

These circumstances suggest that a key step in bridging the gap between client expectations and law firm efforts is for both sides to open a dialogue about needs and obstacles and how to develop collaborative ways to address them. Below, we discuss a few specific areas to consider as a starting place for those initial conversations, and for making the investment in better understanding clients' specific business and legal needs.

The Value of Data

Clients always want to know what a matter will cost and its predicted outcomes. Lawyers are frequently loathe to put a precise cost on their services, citing particular facts, judges' peculiarities, transaction type and other reasons for why predicting actual cost is hard. Leveraging data and analytics is one way in which firms can accede to client requests for more predictable pricing, staffing and results. Metrics about prior matters and their variables can also provide clients with more information about anticipated turnaround time, settlement value, jury verdicts and other considerations, which, in turn, clients can use at the outset of an engagement to make decisions that align with their broader business goals and directives. Essentially, data allows for a more informed decision-making process.