A week, and sometimes a day, doesn't go by without those of us in the legal industry hearing about adding value. Value add is often determined by service providers deciding what will be valuable to their clients. To find out what's truly valued by clients, one must ask the client. And every individual with whom the firm has a relationship at any given organization may have a different answer.

Defining value isn't easy for in-house counsel either. During a recent round of client surveys, we asked 18 in-house counsel this question: “What does 'value add' mean to you?” We received a range of responses from these GCs and senior litigation counsel, including:

From a global insurer: “Value is a function of how satisfied I am with the representation overall. If the firm is providing competent, relevant, appropriate legal advice that is consistent with the company's strategy and objectives, I'm not going to shop around.”