Guest article: Andrew White
The world of client seminars is changing. I’m not referring to the well-recognised shift from face-to-face to virtual seminars. What I’m thinking of is the steady emergence of one-to-one seminars, where a law firm delivers an event for just one client, rather than for multiple organisations. Why is this happening? And what’s the significance?
For decades, law firm seminars have been a feature of client and brand development. The firm selects a suitable topic and speakers. Its marketing team plans the venue, date, and social media posts and fires off an invitation to hundreds if not thousands of recipients – clients, prospects, alumni and others.
On the day, a good number of registered delegates show up. There’s time for lawyers to greet people before the session, chat during the coffee break, and possibly at drinks after the session. Smart firms seize these opportunities for facetime with participants. Delegates depart with seminar knowhow, added insight, new contacts, and catch-up conversations with lawyers hopefully fresh in their minds.
These events are often highly valued by clients. Nonetheless, there’s an ingredient missing. As a client at such an event, you are just one in the crowd. You may have a voice during the social interactions, but you don’t during the event itself. At the end of the day, you feel a bit anonymous.
Nowadays, clients simply want more. They want to feel that the law firm is focused on their needs. In short, they’re looking for a truly personal approach. It’s part of the clients’ quest for value from their lawyers.
A one-to-one, individualised seminar can be framed in the context of the client’s own business. The law firm typically adapts the content that it has prepared for general seminars and aims to facilitate open interaction with the client about specific issues raised. Such events are often rich in ‘human touch’. Clients can ask probing questions. They can have candid conversations about their challenges, risks, and doubts. And they can edge towards solutions via free-flowing discussion. Trust levels are high. I have witnessed this, and taken part, hundreds of times. I’ve seen it work.
Ironically, taking this approach is not necessarily a straightforward matter for law firms. Many lawyers are actually wary, for one main reason – one-to-one seminars can involve a large investment of time and money in a single client organization, and a return cannot be guaranteed. Any charging for the seminar (if feasible in principle) will not cover the costs.
Savvy law firms need to overcome these hesitations. Delivering one-to-one client seminars demonstrates that the law firm really cares, and is genuinely interested in the client’s world, and committed to that client’s wellbeing. These are returns. Of course, not every one-to-one seminar will generate immediate work. But you need to see such events as an investment in the long-term relationship. And you need to prioritize, by selecting clients that would stand to gain most, and where you have a vision for a long-term, valued client connection.
Sometimes, the returns can be unexpected. A Bird & Bird tax partner in Brussels told me some years ago that his team had organised a multi-client, face-to-face seminar on tax reforms, for which only eight people registered in advance. Disappointed, they cancelled the event. However, rather than simply moving on to the next project, he rang each of the eight organisations, found out what had attracted them to the seminar, and delivered a one-to-one version to most of them. Substantial new instructions followed. The failure of the ‘one-to-many’ model was converted into a success story for the “one-to-one”.
I give the last word to a senior in-house lawyer at an online bank. It was 2001. Patents for protecting software had become a hot topic. This was the moment I realised that personalized seminars were the way of the future. He said to me, “If you can give my team an all-day teach-in on software patents, we’ll pay you £5,000 and we’ll be forever grateful”. “When would you like this?” I asked. To which he simply replied, “Yesterday”.
Andrew White is an Associate Fellow of the Said Business School at the University of Oxford. During his 23 years as a partner at Bird & Bird, he delivered over 600 one-to-one seminars and workshops for Bird & Bird clients and prospects. Andrew is now a freelance provider of legal and professional skills training.
This article was first published by Modern Lawyer: Ideas for Legal Leaders (Globe Law & Business) and is reproduced here with kind permission.