The blog world continues to focus on ways that lawyers can improve service to clients, in particular, by finding ways to instill an ethic of service within the culture of the law firm. Over at Legal Sanity, Arnie Herz references posts by David Maister and Dick Richards that can guide firms in creating, what Richards terms, "a mythology of client service." Specifically, Richards advises firms to foster client service by:
(1) culling and sharing stories of
extraordinary service from “their organization’s past and present;” and
(2) encouraging employees to engage in dialogue about exceptional
customer service they’ve received.
As a solo, I've always recognized the value of client service; personal experience is what we solos have long touted as our advantage over larger, less personal law firms. At the same time, as I wrote here in the Paradox of Client Service, we can never equate service with being a "hired gun" or allowing our clients to become our masters. Foremost, if we don't retain our independent judgment, we may serve our short-term interest of keeping the client (think Vinson and Elkins and Enron!), but we harm both our client and our own reputation in the long run.