A New Way Of Working…
Re-thinking Customer Relationships
The need to strengthen lawyer and customer relationships has been at the forefront of industry discussion for many years, whether that is in-house teams becoming business partners, or law firms engaging better with their clients. However whilst much has been written and talked about, there remains plenty of opportunity for improvement.
Our research has identified the attributes that GCs feel are needed to strengthen those relationships, going much further than pure technical knowledge alone. Through real-world application, and innovative experimentation by law firms and their customers, relationships can be re-imagined and service delivery can be improved.
The O Shaped Pilots
The O Shaped Pilots gave law firms and in-house legal teams the opportunity to explore new ways of working in a safe, open environment. It was the profession’s chance to demonstrate that training and developing our lawyers in a different way will have long-term and far-reaching benefit for everyone in the
legal ecosystem. The pilot saw law firms partnering with in-house teams to form ‘O Shaped teams’. These teams honestly and openly discussed the challenges and opportunities they have working together and then put in place initiatives to overcome these challenges and maximise the opportunities.
The actions were measured and lessons learned to help to create clear guidance on the most effective and impactful initiatives, development tools and processes.
What pilot participants say:
“The pilot we ran with DLA has clearly strengthened and deepened the relationship with the firm... It’s worked really well for us.”
— Kenny Robertson, Head of Outsourcing, Technology & IP, Legal, NatWest
“The O Shape is a game changer. It has taken client listening to a new dimension”
-Richard Norman, Partner DLA
“We are delighted to be the first law firm to be involved in the O Shaped Lawyer pilot. Addleshaw Goddard has played a key role in working alongside Dan Kayne… as we passionately share Dan’s vision of a better legal profession”
— Greg Bott, Director of AG Consulting at Addleshaw Goddard LLP