Discussions on the provision of outstanding client service have tended to focus primarily on what departments such as IT and/or Marketing should be doing.
In this article, we will address the often-overlooked role of firm libraries and information centers in helping deliver excellent client service. Firm libraries, in particular, are not always given their due.
- As one prominent attorney/librarian recently observed: Libraries are often viewed as business units which exist for the benefit of a firm’s internal audience, rather than as contributors toward the strategic information needs of the firm’s leadership and business units.
See Jean P. O’Grady, Has the Librarian-ship Sailed? (Dewey B Strategic, November 20, 2015).
See also Zena Applebaum, Law Librarians + Legal Marketing = Successful Client Service (3 Geeks blog, August 17, 2015). Applebaum notes that Marketing/BD professionals are drowning in the volume of work and that all non-attorneys need to learn to collaborate. In short, they need to get past their “lack-of-getting-credit angst.”
Takeaway: Law firm libraries are in an excellent position to contribute to the overall client service experience, and should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Marketing and other mission-critical departments.
- Collaboration in the client service arena is not just a nice idea. It has become a necessity.
Takeaway: Libraries and information centers, which are often underutilized, have the resources and expertise to help make firms stand out from the crowd.
- Emotional IQ counts, too. Firms need to be aware of their clients’ interactions with the outside world.
- Competitive Intelligence (CI) practitioners, who often happen to be librarians, can play a critical leadership role, helping bring the outside world in. See Zena Applebaum, Emotional Intelligence For Law Firms (3 Geeks blog, June 19, 2014).
- Librarians often have the “right stuff” to step into these sorts of leadership roles. Part of the challenge has arguably been the effect of lingering stereotypes about librarians and their training.
- In fact, according to the latest figures, about 40 percent of law librarians either hold a JD, or a JD in addition to an MLS degree. See the 2015 AALL Biennial Salary Survey.
Takeaway: Librarians need to show that they can not only directly affect the client service experience, but can help the firm attract and retain new clients as well.
A couple of our information professional colleagues provided the following examples of how they and their departments make ongoing, positive contributions to the client service experience.
- We work directly with clients around the world to facilitate document legalization and travel visas;
- We maintain client-facing extranets of knowledge bases for litigation, telecommunications and other regulatory areas;
- Research Services went global and 24/7 at our Global 20 firm five years ago. Business intelligence, competitive intelligence and current awareness alerting across the world in over 45 locations establishes a foundation of insight. We recognize the importance of meeting client expectations where they are, across time zones, not when it is convenient to us.
- Scott Bailey, Global Director of Research Services, Squire Patton Boggs, LLP
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- A business development manager was meeting with an attorney who wanted to broaden his relationship with an existing client, yet not run afoul of an emerging potential client conflict.
- In preparation for this meeting, I provided the business development manager with data not found in the typical directory or American Lawyer Media tools. For example: a list of companies recently represented by a boutique, non-Amlaw 200 law firm; [and] a list of outside counsel for a major corporation in a specific area of law.
- I can also think of examples where a DC office librarian has worked directly with a client, with a firm attorney’s blessing:
- Providing to a small business contractor client potential options to automatically monitor federal government contract awards and their respective costs, features, strengths, and weaknesses.
- Performing literature searches to identify and recommend legal treatises covering European jurisdictions (EU, individual countries) for a client not familiar with the law outside of the US.
- Information services director at one of the nation’s leading AmLaw 100 firms.
In Conclusion…
If you are going to be a very effective advocate for the client, you need to understand what they do, how they make money, and what risks they face. See Susan Kostal, What Tech Company In-House Counsel Want (A Lot) — Lessons from #LMAtech 2015 (3 Geeks blog, October 22, 2015).
By Louis C. Abramovitz, MSLS, MBA, Wilkinson Barker Knauer Library Manager, for the November/December 2015 issue of the Capital Ideas Newsletter