Communication, Communication, Communication

The recent CBA Futures Report, "Transforming the Delivery of Legal Services in Canada," identified the following deliverables that clients were looking for from their lawyers:

• value and predictability (lower cost and cost certainty);
• clarity, transparency, and familiarity (clearer information about the process and use of familiar technology);
• competence and experience (results);
• involvement (interactive process);
• respect (mutual partnership v. authoritarian approach);
• disaggregation (discrete legal task/services);
• speed (efficient handling); and,
• convenience and availability.

So why must law firms change the way they deliver legal services?

The philosophical reason is, for too long, lawyers have convinced themselves that there is a mystic quality to the profession that somehow renders it immune from the laws of business gravity!