Banks are the largest source of business for most major law firms. Their size and dispersed structure makes them challenging clients for law firms to cover.

During 2010 Cox Consulting will carry out the second edition of ‘Banks on Law Firms’, a multi-client study focusing on the issue of how law firms manage relationships with their clients in banks. The first edition in 2007 generated strong interest. Ten law firms subscribed, including all the UK global elite firms, with most arranging presentations.

The 2010 research takes place in a very different world, following the banking crisis. It will provide a detailed insight into the new demands being placed on banking clients and how they are translating them into requirements from their external legal providers. Tougher markets require tougher tactics by firms. New questions will explore clients’ responses to personal sales approaches by lawyers and non-lawyers. Key themes are:

•How radical do law firms need to be in achieving fee reductions?

•Is legal process outsourcing now an essential component of firms’ business models?

•How can firms share the lessons they have learnt on cost control with banks’
in-house legal functions?

•What offers should law firms be making to help banks manage the legal/regulatory/compliance mix more effectively from now on?

•How should firms prioritise their BD efforts between updates/seminars etc and direct sales approaches?

Many leading firms are again subscribing. They have highlighted a number of issues they would like raised with Group Legal in banks, such as their extensive reliance on secondees. The new study will therefore include a section called ‘Law Firms on Banks’, which will make the process more of a dialogue.

The research will be based on 30 face-to-face interviews with lawyers and business people in most of the largest investment and commercial banks in London. The subscription fee is £5000 plus VAT and includes the Executive Summary with recommendations, transcripts of all the (anonymous) interviews and a personal presentation. Reports will be issued in the autumn.

Cox Consulting’s experience in the banking market includes being commissioned by five leading firms to carry out research among nine investment banks to explore the viability of their proposal that the firms provide them with a single portal collecting all their public knowhow resources in one place. The positive conclusions from this research contributed to the successful creation of the BLT Portal.