It’s fair to say that we’re living in a time of uncertainty. Certainly there has been no more uncertain place than Brazil over the last couple of years!

It’s all around us, be it in politics, the economy or in business. And, while nobody likes uncertainty, it creates tremendous opportunities for us to assist our clients with strategic issues they are facing and to deepen our relationships with them.

In these times, our clients need us more than ever to help them navigate complex and sensitive issues.

Times like these give us the chance to shine, to show our strengths and loyalty, to offer ‘out of the box’ solutions that add value, and to help our clients in areas that really make a difference to them.

That’s why I believe the current global climate offers a tremendous opportunity to us, but to really grasp it, we need to ensure we are truly engaging with our clients on a regular, ongoing basis.

The importance of sharing

I visited our team in Mexico City recently and it illustrated to me how we can use the Firm’s network and share information to expand our client relationships.

While visiting, I joined Partner Manuel Groenewold in a meeting with the head of the Abraaj Group for Latin America.

We were able to use Interaction, our client relationship management system, to quickly get a picture of who in the Firm has a relationship with this client globally and of the types of activity that we have been engaged in with them across our network.

This helped us to be more effective and knowledgeable in the meeting.

At other client meetings that I joined with Vicente Corta and other partners, we saw firsthand the power of the Firm’s global connections.

We were able to ensure that our clients were aware of the depth of our relationships with them, as well as the importance of these relationships to the Firm globally, and to suggest ways that we could grow our relationships in other areas or jurisdictions.

What that and other similar meetings have illustrated to me is just how critical it is for everyone across the Firm to share information about our clients and contacts, so that we can all be smart and informed when meeting with them.

We are one of the leading firms in terms of our use of Interaction, but we can improve.

If you are a partner and are not using Interaction, we can train your assistant on how to work with you to make sure that your client contacts and activities are included.

I have asked all of our Key Client and Industry Group teams to commit to using Interaction, so we can measure the amount of energy and level of activity that we are putting into growing our work in these areas.

Preparation is key

Another notion that has struck me in recent months is how critical it is for us to leave no stone unturned when we prepare for client meetings or pitches.

We recently pitched to be part of Nestle’s first global panel. Attending the in-person meeting with Nestle’s GC and his team were Darragh Byrne (Stockholm), Jacqui MacLennan (Brussels), Bryan Merryman (LA), Vivian Tsoi (Shanghai), Andreas Stilcken (Frankfurt), Chang-Do Gong (New York), and me.

While we all knew one another, we had never pitched or worked closely together on a matter before, but I was extremely impressed with the way our team prepared in advance, holding three meetings, with the support of our terrific Business Development team, to ensure we knew the content inside out and that everyone knew their role.

Our clients also rightly require us to show them the diversity of our Firm through our teams who work with them, and this was a great example of our being able to do that very effectively.

The investment in preparation also helped to establish a chemistry between us that was vital in showing the client that we were a close-knit team who would deliver for them.

The night before the pitch we all had dinner together, which was invaluable in helping us get to know each other better and to come across as one, united team in front of the client.

This is just one example, but it’s important that we make the most of our client interactions to showcase our strengths as a Firm.

To win complex, cutting-edge work, we need to leave no stone unturned and to make sure that we bring all of our resources to bear, wherever we’re located.

Client secondment success

Secondments are another area we invest in, because they can add real value to our client relationships, and they give us a perfect opportunity to showcase our terrific people and skills.

We invested in approximately 100 client secondments in 2016, so it’s vital that we maximize the value of those and think carefully about our business plans before committing to them.

Of course it’s equally important that we match the right people to the right secondment.

A good example is Anne-Marie Wicks and Dan Solomon who have both made significant contributions to developing the Firm’s relationship with our client, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

Anne-Marie and Dan have done a tremendous job representing the Firm to help to position us as a credible alternative to ADNOC’s incumbent external counsel and deepen our relationship more quickly than expected.

As a result, the client has requested that we extend both secondments, which demonstrates the value our secondees are bringing to the client, and positions us well for additional work.

This is another great example of what we need to do to strengthen our client relationships through a combination of engaging with our clients, doing a great job, and sharing insight, so we can help them in other areas and leverage the power of our global network.

Added focus

The recent shift in our Clients and Industries Team, which I chair, will help us increase our focus on Key Clients and growth.

The CIT includes Chief Marketing Officer Michael Hertz, plus a leader from each of our priority industry groups: Patrick Sarch for Financial Institutions, Aalok Sharma for Technology, Oliver Brahmst for Private Equity, and Jason Webber for Oil & Gas.

We have two objectives: to provide maximum support to our Key Clients and Global Relationship Partners, giving them an additional point of contact with the Industry Leaders, and to identify a group of clients in each industry in addition to our Key Clients (we refer to these as Industry Priority Clients) that have the potential to contribute to our 2020 growth targets.

We have identified roughly 100 of these clients, and you will be hearing more about them in the near future.

During this time of global uncertainty our clients need us more than ever, but it’s up to us to identify the opportunities, make sure they know we can help them, and then deliver in a way no other law firm can.

It’s something that I’m confident we’ll achieve together.