We asked General Counsel — what does it mean for the relationship to be a success? What makes a firm a go-to firm and a lawyer a go-to lawyer?

Quality, responsiveness & price, in that order, and we address each in the engagement process. It helps if they’re nice, too. Success is defined project by project, and it includes coming in at or under budget. — Son-U Michael Paik, EVP for Legal, Trade and Risk Management, SeAH Holdings, Korea

In an honest and brutally frank fashion — clarity of communication is key and cannot be lost in jargon. We set clear expectations from the beginning also making it clear that we may not have a potential transaction or project to work on immediately but would like to keep our doors and the relationship open via continuous communication and exchange of ideas. A firm which is able to get that this is a long time investment on both sides is uniquely positioned to grab the lucrative opportunities when they arise. — Priti Shetty, General Counsel, ICICI Bank

A client must be clear at the start of the relationship what the ground rules and rules of engagement are to be. This is the same as any relationship and will engender trust from the start that can then be built upon as the relationship grows. As a GC, I am only as strong as the weakest member of my team and that includes external advisers. Therefore, make me look good and make me feel valued and we have the beginnings of a match made in heaven! — Andrew Garard, Group General Counsel & Director of Corporate Affairs, Meggitt

My two main motivations for go-to firms are: context/history — not having the explain previous transactions to them or often, them knowing the transaction history better than me because of having been around longer than I have. Generally this also results in the answer being a more commercial than purely legal one, because of their level of understanding/application. This off course does create a vicious circle of never really allowing anyone new in to learn the ropes. The second is speed/reliability of delivery. — Carina Wessels, Executive: Governance, Legal and Compliance, Alexander Forbes, South Africa 

Goals/Expectations: “We talk about the business objective first and secondly how that legal solution can fit best with that objective.” Success: “Success happens where legal solution and business objective are either seamlessly integrated or at least complementary.” Go-to firm: “The firm that understands our business better with each increasing assignment and provides more practical and efficient solutions with each engagement becomes a go-to firm. As the good firms’ attorneys go down the learning curve they become more like in-house partners rather than distant advisers. That’s when they become the go-to firms.— Jay Grant, EVP, General Counsel, Univision Digital & News, U.S. 

A successful relationship is about relationships. There has to be a meeting of minds and values and a feeling that this relationship will surpass the current deal or company you are working in. When I was a GC of a Nordic business, my go to firm was a small firm that saw the value of helping me achieve what I needed to achieve, whether deploying paralegals to catalogue records in the basement, to reviewing property deeds on a Sunday as part of an acquisition or devising a spreadsheet to record KPIs from a scanned idea. Not law necessarily but a platform of supporting tasks to build the relationship that would lead to them being the go to firm for law and everything else. — Edward Walker, General Counsel (Interim), Vivo Energy