This may seem rather an obvious thing to say, but all too often law firms fail to engage. Rather than a conversation, they end up simply broadcasting: one way traffic, the content chosen by them, and to all intents and purposes no more than upmarket brochure ware. Telling us what they have been doing, or, worse, what they are (and in the language of law firm websites - have you ever seen one that isn't sprinkled with "expertise", "commercial awareness", "solutions", "depth of experience" etc. etc.).
The lawyers' argument is that this is what everyone (i.e. other law firms) does, and why do differently? Of course there is a place for what one of my acquaintances calls "bread and butter press": the announcements of new wins, or the appointment of new partners. But, really, is this all they can do?
I wonder. If I was being critical, I might think that the real reason is that anything else is just too much like hard work.
For conversations to work, there has to be both intellectual engagement and emotional engagement. The latter, particularly for lawyers, is sometimes difficult - and both make demands on time and resource.
But without conversation developing a relationship is going to be next to impossible.
