Factors Influencing Law Firm Selection

A MORI survey has revealed the major factors influencing some of Europe's biggest companies in their decision to select a law firm for the first time. Decisions are heavily swayed by the ability of a firm's individual personnel, as well as the technical abilities of the firm. These are the top selection criteria given by the in-house lawyers who participated in the poll.

A proven 'track record' in the relevant area and an understanding of the client's business are also key influences.

The criteria that influence selection are consistent throughout Europe. However, in the UK, commercial awareness exerts greater influence over selection compared with other countries.

The in-house lawyers surveyed in top German companies are less influenced by technical ability and a proven track record than the rest of Europe, but were reported to be more influenced by 'beauty parades' than their European counterparts.

Provision of internet-based information services and the publication of newsletters are the main marketing activities that bring a law firm to the attention of in-house lawyers. At the other end of the scale, advertisements were rarely seen as effective marketing activities.

French in-house lawyers are more responsive to legal research as an effective marketing activity than respondents in the UK and Germany, while the cross-selling of other areas of practice is seen as more effective by German respondents than those from Italy and the UK.

All of the listed marketing and promotional activities, however, were more likely to be perceived to be ineffective than effective.

However, law firms could improve the way they market themselves by providing more information about their companies and demonstrating knowledge of potential clients' business and industry sector:

"They could spend more time finding out what we are about, they could go a bit out of their way to learn about the business and be more proactive and more creative."

"They need to get under one's skin a bit more i.e. to get to know our business a bit more."

"Speaking more to the client and spending more time with the client. The big City firms tend to rely on their reputation quite a lot and they don't bother spending much time getting to know the client."

"They need to constantly demonstrate the spread of good quality people; show industry awareness."

Technical details

MORI interviewed 101 lawyers at companies from the Financial Times European 500 such as Bayer, Credit Suisse Group, Danone, Pearson, SAP and UBS Warburg. All those interviewed were responsible for hiring outside legal advisers. Interviews were conducted by telephone between 13th December 2000 and January 26th 2001.