“Lawyers have always been seen as professionals who should not market their services like any merchant, believing that doing so even undermines the decorum of the profession.”
On social media, it’s common to find Richard Branson’s quote: “Clients are not the most important thing; employees are. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.” This idea summarizes two essential pillars of any service-providing organization: employees and clients.
In the legal field, the relationship between lawyers and both groups presents particular challenges. Although there are abundant studies on personnel management, and new ways to connect and sell services emerge daily, the legal sector still lags in certain aspects.
The Lawyer's Historical Challenges in the Market
Relationship with Employees
- The sector is highly competitive (in Colombia, there are 335 lawyers per 100,000 inhabitants).
- This generates distrust towards teamwork.
- New specialties and market needs demand greater collaboration, but it is not always adopted.
Relationship with Clients and the Market
- The traditional idea that “doing marketing” diminishes the profession’s dignity persists.
- This has limited the use of technological tools and commercial strategies.
- Consequently, many lawyers lose ground to large firms with greater communication and offering capabilities.
The Lawyer Must Be Seen as a Business
Today, lawyers must understand their role from a business perspective.
To grow, they need to apply consistent strategies with both employees and clients.
The objective: to generate a solid, empathetic, and lasting relationship.
Essential Elements for Client and Employee Management
Empathy
Empathy is the starting point for any human relationship. It’s not enough to understand feelings or opinions; that knowledge must be used to:
- Build work plans.
- Strengthen continuous communication.
- Leverage individual strengths.
When an employee or client feels heard, it generates: - Sense of belonging.
- Loyalty.
- More lasting relationship.
Stability with Purpose
Stability is valuable, but it should not lead to excessive comfort.
For Employees
- Permanence, yes; stagnation, no.
- It is essential to propose daily challenges.
- Challenges motivate innovation and creative solutions.
- They require trusting the professional and avoiding excessive control.
For Clients
- The lawyer must identify needs that the client has not perceived.
- Propose legal improvements that boost their business.
- Help them innovate from a legal experience perspective.
Constant Feedback
Both employees and clients must feel that their opinion matters.
To achieve this:
- Establish simple service processes.
- Create spaces to express ideas and suggestions.
- Implement a clear timeline when their contributions are accepted.
This dynamic fosters productive synergy essential for any legal firm.
Respect for the Law and Professional Loyalty
Law firms must be an example of ethics and regulatory compliance.
This includes:
- Respecting labor minimums.
- Informing about relevant legal changes.
- Explaining rights, duties, and new regulations.
As Eduardo Couture points out in his Decalogue of the Lawyer:
“Be loyal: loyal to your client, whom you must not abandon until you understand that they are unworthy of you. Loyal to your adversary… loyal to the judge…”
The lawyer’s relationship with employees and clients, although developed in the market, maintains a service vocation indispensable for society.
Therefore, the lawyer must: view their practice as a business, maintain balanced relationships with employees and clients, integrate empathy, stability with purpose, feedback, and ethics.
Only then can they adapt to the market without losing the fundamental values of the profession.
