If You Want High End Clients, Dont Cut Costs

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers If You Want High End Clients, Don’t Cut Costs When I retired from my law practice to coach lawyers, people (including some close to me) asked why I would give up my law practice at the very peak of my career. There were many reasons. One was I simply wanted to do something different and new. When I retired from coaching at the end of last year, people asked why I was giving that up. I told one friend that either I was considered too old by law firms, or as I had thought for some time, they did not want to invest in the future. Now that I am recruiting lawyers, I’m not surprised to find how few young partners have a portable book of business that would be attractive to a law firm. I’ve been told that law firms do not want to invest in young lawyers because firm leaders believe those lawyers will leave the firm. I believe the opposite is true. I believe investing in young lawyers will give those lawyers a reason to stay. A few years ago I read Seth Godin’s blog: Cost Reduction for High End Markets. The essence of the post is that if you cut costs, you become less remarkable and more like firms trying to serve the middle of the market. Seth says: Go through all the ways you serve your customers and make them more expensive to execute, not less. Your loyalty and your market share will both grow. People who can afford to pay for service often choose to pay for service. I rarely meet lawyers in a firm of any significant size who want to compete on price. Your law firm would likely want to increase revenue from your firm’s largest clients. Why would a client want to pay more (either higher rates or giving your firm more work) when they are getting less from your firm? If you want to stand out from all the other law firms, take Seth Godin’s advice. If you are sitting around with lawyers in your practice group or office, brainstorm on what you can offer that will be more expensive for your firm to execute, but will make your firm more valuable to your clients, and in the end, increase revenue. I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.