Latham & Watkins hosts the second event prior to the Legal Marcom 2022 Gala

General counsel, Marketing and BD managers and partners of Gericó Associates debate trends in lawyer recruitment and new developments in the criteria for international rankings

Gericó Associates has organised a new event prior to the Legal Marcom 2022 Gala, this time at the offices of Latham & Watkins in Madrid. Heads of Business Development and Marketing and general counsel discussed trends in Chambers and Partners research, reputation, risks and keys to the growth of business law firms and the keys to hiring general counsel.

 Among the participants were Miguel Soler, from Prosegur; Fernando Ortega, from Siemens; Celia Esteban, from Gómez-Acebo & Pombo; Celia Domínguez, from Clifford Chance; Susana Alesón, from Latham & Watkins; Fernando López de Lorenzo, from Latham & Watkins; Victoria Cerdán, from Squire Patton; Ana Armijo, from Ashurst; Marian Manresa, from Andersen; Renée Cortes, from Ontier; and Patricio Espinoza, Andrés Vanegas, Diana Jennen and Marc Gericó, from Gericó Associates.

Espinoza, who is familiar with the work of Chambers and Partners, introduced the talk by discussing current trends in international rankings research.

In Fernando Ortega’s opinion, rankings such as Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500 “are useful, but they tend to reconfirm the vision you already have. When sending the request for proposal we must be very clear about what we want from the firm so that the delivery meets our expectations, so we must dedicate time to this part”.

He also explained the process his firm follows when outsourcing legal services: “In relevant projects, three or four firms are compared to evaluate the selection. In defence of the proposal, you see the level of knowledge of the business, and you assess whether the team that is going to take your firm adapts to the needs of the company. Pricing is also very important; it should be as close as possible based on a request for proposal that is as detailed as possible. Sometimes creativity is also sought when defining the pricing. Rarely is a price per hour already charged and, as a firm, you can hardly expect all your hours to have the same profit margin”.

 He also explained his point of view on why the core business should not be outsourced, and was joined by Miguel Soler, who explained that “when it comes to outsourcing, the core business should be in-house. We outsource matters that require a high degree of specialisation and other types of matters that are susceptible to being outsourced because they have less added value, they are more commodity”. “On the other hand, I don’t think we should depend exclusively on one firm and one team. Law firms evolve and sometimes innovate in a practice, so it is important to continue observing the market to give opportunities to teams that are doing well, strengthen and innovate”.

Susana Alesón added that “partners try to listen to clients, but the question is whether we could be more efficient in communicating with the Business Development and Marketing teams to really respond to clients’ concerns”.

Celia Domínguez explained that, in her company, they meet to talk about sectors and specific proposals for each client and sector: “We see if any partner in the network has ever spoken to the client to understand the culture. Then the service proposal goes back to the Business Development department to look at culture, diversity, sustainability, etc., everything that is involved in the culture of the company, so that we can get that affinity with the client. We can improve the investment of all the partners’ support teams, to see themselves as a service provider and not only as a partnership that provides legal services”.

Clara Cerdán said that, for her, it is essential “to know if there is a previous relationship and to obtain information about the client when starting to work”. For her part, Ortega adds that “before starting to work with a law firm I ask about their equality policy and with young people, as our company culture includes policies of this type, and we want to be aligned“.

Soler explained that they are “willing to look for the best option in each case and even make changes” if necessary, and Armijo detailed how it works at Ashurt. “We are immersed in a process of client listening and it is a vital process. All our clients agree on the issue of pricing, they don’t want more hourly modalities, and they give importance to diversity and equality issues. The lawyer has become not just a legal advisor, but a business advisor. Clients ask you to be involved in business decisions. Some clients tell us that they would like certain partners to be more commercial and tell them what they would decide in certain cases”.

At Latham & Watkins, the firm where Fernando López works, they try to “understand the client by analysing their business, their strategic plans, their results, etc., in order to know how to offer them the best services. We try to be very proactive in obtaining all this information about clients”.

At Clifford Chance they carry out client feedback processes, according to Domínguez, “but in Spain we seem to have a tendency not to close the process, as well as a fear of asking the client for feedback. In countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom, the process is much more efficient, and feedback is requested more effectively“.

Soler, in agreement with her colleague’s comments, replies that “if we respond to surveys from rankings such as Chambers, it would not be difficult for us to respond to surveys from firms. I think we should encourage this in Spain, as it is a very useful source of information and one that we would be very willing to respond to”.

This event was the second of the meetings prior to the celebration of the Legal Marcom gala on 17 November 2022, in which these and other current issues in the legal sector will be discussed in depth, both from the perspective of law firms and from the perspective of general counsel, at the WiZink Center in Madrid.