THE CLIENT AUDIT GAMBIT BY GARY R. GARRETT Copyright © 2003 Gary R. Garrett Directing a firm marketing program has become a common job component for most law firm managers. Many law firms have advanced from the tentative decision to create a brochure to adopting sophisticated techniques of client maintenance and development. One such tool is the client audit. It is critical that your clients have a vehicle for communicating how they feel about you, your firm and the legal work performed on their behalf. Client perceptions of your legal services are usually somewhat different than lawyers perceive they are, or at least, cast a different light on the working and personal relationship between client and lawyer. Only by asking clients can the firm and its lawyers actually determine what their clients think. This is the logic upon which the client audit program is based. Lawyers dream up any number of negatives when considering a client audit program. Commonly we are told that the clients won't like it as a matter of principal; that client judgments about legal issues are ill-founded; that the discussion will be focused on minor and annoying criticisms; and that lawyers are not trained or temperamentally suited to interviewing clients. All these objections and fears can be true but overcome if the audit program is properly conducted. The results of audit reviews are generally positive. Clients are usually impressed and ...
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