By Jim Nicholson
All successful law firms are dependent upon client relationships. Truly successful law firms carefully focus their relationships with their clients and subtly gauge that focus to best serve and expand their client base, while presciently projecting future
client needs. How to best tailor that focus varies from firm to firm, and offers insight into upper echelon legal business
practice. The nuance of the focus allows new and current clients a guide to distinguish the subtle variations between respected firms. A sampling of leading St. Louis firms:
Bryan Cave LLP’s focus, according to its chairman, Donald Lents, is building strong and enduring relationships with clients. By developing and maintaining a deep understanding of each client’s business, legal needs and expectations, Bryan Cave lawyers can most effectively serve as trusted advocates and advisors, bringing added value to the handling of matters entrusted to the firm. This approach has long guided the firm’s strategy, as Bryan Cave has added to its resources and capacities to meet the evolving legal needs of clients as their businesses have grown and changed.
The globalization of business activities, for example, has led Bryan Cave—with more than 1,000 lawyers and other professionals—to expand its reach across the United States and into Europe, Asia and the Middle East. As key areas of legal needs have become more complex—for example, with the advent of “e-discovery” and the need to deal with literally millions of electronic records in many court cases, Bryan Cave has added the depth of capacity required to deal with such matters. And, as new areas of practice have emerged or have become more important to clients’ businesses—such as the burgeoning field of intellectual property—the firm has developed and deepened its expertise in those areas.
Thomas J. Campbell, managing partner of Gallop, Johnson & Neuman, states that service to clients is a core value and focus of the law firm. “It permeates the entire firm,” he continues, “and is evident in the way we interact with each other and provide legal services to our clients.” This attention to service ranges from returning telephone calls and responding to e-mails promptly to helping the client identify short-term and long- term goals in the context of an immediate crisis, transaction, litigation matter, etc.
Although the firm believes that business decisions should always be made by the client, the firm has a long history of providing sound and timely legal advice that has enabled its clients to achieve a more comprehensive perspective of any given situation. Campbell states, “When service to the client is an organization’s focus, it tends to bring people together in a common goal that encourages teamwork and creativity. The firm’s core value of service to clients means you check your ego at the door, roll up your sleeves and provide the client with creative cost-effective solutions to their problems. Commitment to Excellence is not just a
slogan for us.”
At Armstrong Teasdale LLP, our number one focus is to help clients achieve their business objectives, “ says Michael A. Chivell, managing partner. “We do that by bringing to bear the legal skills, experience and
connections of our diverse work force. We have a team-oriented approach to client service, which involves knowledge sharing, lots of communication and creative problem solving.
Solutions for clients are crafted based on the individual issues and concerns of each client.” According to Chivell, this strategy earned Armstrong Teasdale the ranking of Top Corporate Law Firm in St. Louis by Corporate Board Member Magazine. The award was determined by directors of publicly traded companies nationwide. The firm prides itself on doing all it can to understand its clients and the result is great client relationships. “We have extraordinarily talented people at all levels of the firm who personify integrity and provide practical and effective counsel,” adds Chivell. “Our commitment to benefit the communities where we operate and our efforts to attract the best people from all backgrounds are fueling our momentum,” concludes Chivell. “We anticipate additional growth in the next year and intend to maintain our client-focused strategy.”
“Our mission at Thompson Coburn LLP,” states Chairman Thomas Minogue, “is to provide highly sophisticated yet cost-effective legal advice on a wide range of subjects to a broad array of clients.” Those clients range from large public and private companies like Peabody Energy and Enterprise Rent-A-Car to mid-market companies like Insituform to individuals and small businesses in need of special legal assistance.
“When a client calls,” Minogue relates, “We respond. When they ask, we answer. When they’re in trouble, we’re at their side.” To accomplish that mission, Thompson Coburn invests heavily in practice groups, technology and people. Key practices in the firm include traditional groups like business and tort litigation, corporate and securities, intellectual property, real estate and employment law; industry-focused teams like banking, healthcare, transportation and utilities; and specialty practices such as employee benefits, public finance, tax, estate planning, environmental, bankruptcy, immigration and international trade.
The firm’s emphasis on technology—including the heavy use of extranets which enable clients to check on project status without the need to even call an attorney—has led to it being ranked the number one law firm in the nation on technology in an American lawyer survey for two years running. And its emphasis on attracting and training the very best people—and providing them with a civic-oriented work environment—has resulted in young lawyers ranking it in the top 10 of all law firms nationwide to work at in the American Lawyer, as well.
According to Joseph Conran, co-chairman, Husch Blackwell Sanders LLC, with office locations throughout the Midwest and Midsouth and in Washington, D.C. “has the depth, skill, ability and expertise needed to represent clients in sophisticated litigation and transactions throughout the country.”
”We are committed to building a firm that is diverse in terms of its lawyers and staff and our clients value the fact that we emphasize quality, service and efficiency in our delivery of legal services,” reports Conran.
The firm, through a merger with Welsh and Katz in Chicago, has recently increased its focus on intellectual property. With approximately 90 lawyers specializing in intellectual property on staff, the firm is positioned to represent clients in such matters both within and outside the United States.
“We can deliver a quality and depth of practice available from major firms in bigger cities with a higher level of service and at rates increasingly more attractive to large companies and other clients who are looking to control costs,“ states Conran.
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