Sean Connolly: How global client teams can improve firmwide revenues

With demand for legal services still relatively low compared to the high point of 2007, most international law firms are focusing on improving the quality and value of their client services, while simultaneously increasing their partners' profits. Many recognise that global teams that are aligned to clients' needs are key to providing multinational corporations with differentiated, holistic offerings (and thus obtaining more instructions for high-value work), but providing an integrated and effective global service has often proved to be a challenge.

At Mayer Brown, its established global client-team programme forms part of the firm's long-term growth strategy. The opportunities that the programme created resulted in an eight per cent increase in revenues from clients managed by the teams in 2013. Overall, the firm reported global revenues of US$1.146bn, up five per cent on 2012, and revenues per lawyer of $780,000, up four per cent year-on-year, its highest since the global financial crisis began in 2008. Strikingly, the firm recorded profits per partner of $1.285mn in 2013, up 11 per cent YoY and its highest level ever.

Sean Connolly, London senior partner at the global firm, says an important contributor to this growth is its client teams. Through these teams, the firm worked in three or more offices with 80 per cent of its top 100 clients last year and all of its top 25 clients. The firm also works for more than half of its top 100 clients and 21 of its top 25 clients in two or more of its geographic regions: the Americas, Europe and Asia. In an interview with Managing Partner, he reveals how the firm has developed and manages these client teams.

How did Mayer Brown's global client teams get launched?

The strategy that we embarked on in 2009-10 was to focus our activity on a series of global client teams that would help us to develop closer relationships with our key clients underpinned by our commitment on delivering an excellent service. The global teams work with many of our key clients, and they also work across practice groups to really drive our understanding of our client's needs. Working as an international team across jurisdictions rather than just along linear practice group lines has been tremendously successful.

We also have four global industry groupings: banking; private investment funds; insurance and reinsurance; and energy that work across the globe in the same way as the practice groups So, for example, as we look at what the energy industry is faced with, we consider which of our practice groups can help with those issues and put together teams of lawyers with the relevant insight and experience to support clients in that sector. Recent third-party surveys have shown that clients say it is our service that differentiates us from other law firms, and that comes from our understanding of our clients' needs.

How are your global client teams set up?

All our client teams are different as each client is different, but most start with an existing relationship. So, for example, a few years ago we had a client that only instructed us in one region. We did very little work for them anywhere else in the world. What did we do? We set up a client team led by the partners who knew that client best, but also drew in people from other regions and our various practices groups. Their mission was to really understand that client's business across the globe, as well as its needs and expectations.

There is a danger in trying to go out and say you can do all things for one client, to do everything everywhere - that doesn't work. So, we look to cater to those areas where we really feel our offering is strong and if you put us up against the competition we would have a right to be considered in any shortlist of firms.

Today, something like 60 to 70 per cent of our revenue from the client example that I gave now comes from other regions. It's been an excellent client relationship, one that has been as supportive of us as we are to them. The vast majority of our client teams work in this way and, in our experience clients are receptive of you trying hard to understand their needs and address them.

These clients can choose from any law firm in the world, so you are constantly thinking of ways to demonstrate that you'll go the extra mile for them and, given our knowledge of their business and the sector in which they operate, the client obtains an advantage by working with us. Quality is axiomatic at the very top end of the legal market; differentiation is the challenge.

Are the leaders of your client teams business development staff?

We have a mix of partners and sometimes senior associates leading the client team activity. However, business development professionals, accounting and project manager specialists are pivotal in making this all work. Depending on the size of the client, the matrix also includes both regional and practice area client team leaders.

Isn't there a risk of an inherent bias, that they'll want to give work to their team as opposed to another team?

That's something we're very conscious of. More often than not, the client team leaders aren't the lead partners advising the client. It is more about matching the person to the needs of the client relationship, rather than saying 'that partner is doing most of the work so we'll give the client team leadership role to him or her' - we see the danger of that. What we're doing is picking the right individual for the job in terms of skills to build relationships with the clients, support them to achieve their objectives and help us measure our performance against their expectations.

Within the global client teams, how are partners compensated? Is it eat-what-you-kill?

No, not at all. What we're trying to do is to weigh the complete contribution of any partner to the firm. We agree annual objectives with all our partners and look at other activities, such as time spent on revenue generation, business development, management and recruitment.

That contribution is assessed by practice group and office leaders, as well as the global management committee and the partnership board. Partners also provide a report. So, you put that all of that into the pot and from that emerges every year a compensation decision.

You've made London, New York and Hong Kong areas of strategic focus for the firm. What does this mean for the London office?

We act for about half of the world's banks and a large number of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies. What's clear from all of them is that it's critical that we have strength and depth in those jurisdictions that are central financial centres. As a result, we have a substantial platform with a key focus on areas such as London, New York and Hong Kong.

For London, that means continued investment to ensure that we develop the scale, quality and capability of our services in order to meet the needs of the firm's clients.

How will you increase your firm's strength in London?

One of the things we've been doing in the past few years is getting a very clear idea of the type of partners we want to attract to the firm in London. They are partners who can make sense of the global platform, whose business is such that they can add value to the global clients that we already have, or have clients that would be well served by our offering.

We are also focusing on developing and retaining our people to ensure that they have the skills to deliver a high quality service to our clients within an environment that also supports them. We do this through education and training, learning on the job, secondments into clients and secondments into other offices across the world.

It is also important that we continue to spend more time understanding our clients' needs. Being able to anticipate and respond to their industry-specific issues and opportunities also strengthens our offering.

So, it's about winning and retaining clients by fostering a culture of client service and attracting partners who can utilise our global platform for clients.

Manju Manglani is editor of Managing Partner magazine (www.managingpartner.com)