Baker McKenzie and Hogan Lovells. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

A pair of global law firms are signalling their commitment to bolstering their pricing and business operations by elevating two professionals brought on board from the client side in the last few years.

On Tuesday, Baker McKenzie announced that it had appointed David Cambria as its new chief services officer, a year after bringing on the former Archer Daniels Midland executive to serve as the firm's director of legal operations.

And in late June, Hogan Lovells named global director of strategic pricing Terry Williams its first head of client finance operations.

Williams joined the firm in New York in December 2015 after almost 12 years on the client side at American International Group, and he was initially tasked with establishing a strategic pricing group for the U.S. and Latin America.

"Clients have been getting more and more sophisticated since 2008 about how they manage and consume law firm services. But law firms and clients started serving different dialogues," Williams said on Tuesday. "My experience on the client side fed well into that, because I understood the client."

A year later, the firm asked him to take on the same role on a global scale, folding in its operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

Williams' newest role is built on the recognition that the firm and its clients interact on finances in more areas than just pricing. And it's necessarily focused on the firm's largest client

"There are so many other touchpoints in and around our client relationships," he said. "The bigger the client, the bigger the relationship, the bigger the complexity."

These measures including making sure the firm is aligned with clients' outside counsel guidelines and fleshing out full client profiles that encompass financial data, rates and how matters are set up.

Williams noted that he was lucky to arrive at a firm that was receptive to his insights, both at the senior management level and down into the partnership.

"They recognised the need for the pricing function," he said.

Baker McKenzie also looked to the client side when it first brought Chicago-based Cambria aboard in June 2017. Before he first found work in a law firm, 23 years after graduating law school, Cambria pioneered "legal operations" roles at two different career stops – first in the law department at professional services firm Aon, and most recently at food production and agriculture giant ADM.

The firm said on Tuesday that under Cambria's leadership, its services team had grown significantly, with a focus on optimising client value and enhancing the client experience.

"We recognise that our clients are looking for more than legal advice. They are looking for creative, business-minded, cost-efficient solutions that meet their business needs," Ben Allgrove, chair of the firm's global IP and technology practices and its global R&D lead, said in a statement. "David's growing team is enabling us to translate our innovation efforts into tangible improvements in how we deliver our work to clients."

In his new role, he'll oversee five connected areas: business management, pricing strategy, legal project management, alternative legal services and service design.

Williams predicted that more large firms will make similar moves in the future.

"In terms of overall firm revenue, we crested the $2 billion mark last year," he said. "You take any organisation that has that level of revenues, and you need the commensurate supporting network around that."

While the exact positions may vary, firms will need to think "more holistically about how they interact with clients in and around the practice of law", he observed.