Loyalty by Design: Why Intentional Client Teams Are Law Firms’ Untapped Growth Engine

By: Jill Huse

In a profession built on relationships, law firms have long assumed that client loyalty is earned by showing up, delivering excellent work, and relying on strong personal connections. But the legal services landscape has changed. Internal legal departments are under immense pressure to drive value, reduce costs, and find strategic partners who understand their business, not just their legal issues.

And yet, many law firms still cling to a dated model of loyalty: one that rewards individual brilliance and rainmaking over team-based execution. One that assumes long-term relationships are immune to market pressure or competition. One that overlooks the power of intentional client teams as a force multiplier for retention, revenue, and, most importantly, relevance.

If law firms want to thrive in a hypercompetitive, value-driven market, they must evolve how they manage client relationships. Loyalty today is built through intentionality, collaboration, and a culture that aligns around the client’s goals, not the partner’s portfolio.

The Loyalty Equation Has Changed

Twenty-five years ago, loyalty was built on legacy, handshake deals, and the long memory of relationships forged in boardrooms and golf courses. Today, businesses, especially legal departments, are asked to do more with less, justify every dollar spent, and seek external partners who are proactive rather than reactive.

Clients no longer stay out of habit. They stay and advocate when their law firm becomes a true strategic partner. That means delivering value, not just legal work. And value is increasingly defined by the client's business goals, not the law firm’s inputs.

Client Teams: More Than a Buzzword

Let’s be clear: most law firms have something resembling a "client team", usually the group of people who work on matters for a key client. But few operate with intention. Few have clear roles, a shared strategy, cross-functional integration, or real accountability for outcomes beyond billable hours.

True client teams are:

Purposeful: Designed with the client’s industry, needs, and goals in mind

Cross-functional: Including not just lawyers, but also other administrative functions such as business development, pricing, knowledge management, legal operations, and IT

Collaborative: Built on trust and knowledge-sharing between internal team members

Client-facing: Focused on how the client experiences the firm, from communication to innovation to problem-solving

From Passive Retention to Active Advocacy

There’s a profound difference between a client who stays and a client who advocates.

A loyal client may give you repeat work. But a raving fan becomes a referral source- and in the legal industry, where credibility is currency, there’s no better business development tool than a trusted client who sings your praises.

Creating advocates requires going beyond competent execution. It requires showing the client that you understand their business, anticipate their needs, and bring fresh insights. These outcomes are rarely the result of a single partner; they emerge from an orchestrated, team-based effort.

Why Intentionality Is So Often Missing

Many law firms are structurally and culturally siloed. Lawyers are trained to focus on the most immediate, pressing legal needs. They aren’t often encouraged—or incentivized—to consider the client's long-term strategy or how the firm can align with the client’s evolving business roadmap.

In firms where origination credit and individual control are prioritized, it can be difficult for relationship partners to open up the client to broader collaboration. Trust must be built not just with the client, but within the firm.

That cultural rewiring takes time — but it’s essential.

Actionable Steps to Elevate Client Teams

Build Cross-Functional Internal Teams Now
Don’t just assign a few partners and call it a client team. Include BD, pricing, tech, KM, DEI leaders- anyone who can help move the needle for the client. Ask: how can we collectively advance their goals?

Conduct Regular Strategic Debriefs
Meet quarterly (internally and with the client) to review what’s working, what’s changing, and where you can innovate. These aren’t billing meetings. They’re relationship meetings.

Create a Client Team Charter
Document the team’s purpose, roles, success metrics, and communication rhythm. Treat it like a client-facing initiative, not just an internal checkbox.

Leverage AI and Data Strategically
Use tools to synthesize client-specific data (billing trends, matter types, timing, communication patterns) and translate that into actionable intelligence. Legal operations and AI can support a team’s ability to be proactive, not just responsive.

Reinforce a Team-Based Culture at the Top
Leadership must model and reward collaborative client service. That means rethinking how credit is allocated, how success is celebrated, and how transparency is encouraged.

How to Measure Success (It’s Not Just Revenue)

Revenue is a lagging indicator. The real measure of success is whether your team is helping the client achieve their business objectives. That might mean:

Helping them enter new markets

Mitigating future legal risk

Streamlining internal workflows

Providing insights that help them look smart to their board

When you exceed expectations in those ways, revenue follows.

Three Signs a Client Team Is Thriving

Client Feedback Is Candid and Positive
Are you regularly interviewing your clients outside the context of daily business? Are you hearing what they value, where you can improve, and what’s on their radar? Intentional client teams seek feedback- not just satisfaction surveys, but conversations.

Internal Communication Is Seamless
Does everyone, from partners to paralegals to business staff, understand their role in the client relationship? Is knowledge being shared, or is it trapped in inboxes? Client teams must communicate regularly, not just during crises.

You’re the First Call When Something Arises
This is the ultimate test: when the unexpected happens, does the client call your team first? If so, you’ve built trust. If not, you may be replaceable.

Cultural Change Starts with Trust

For many firms, the greatest cultural shift required is loosening the tightly held grip on client relationships. Especially in origination-driven environments, there’s an instinct to protect rather than open up client connections.

But the rising generation of lawyers, particularly senior associates and junior partners, is far more attuned to collaboration. They view teaming not as a threat, but as a strength. Supporting and mentoring these future leaders to build client teams early can change the firm’s long-term trajectory.

The Risk of Standing Still

Firms that continue to treat client loyalty as the product of individual star power risk becoming irrelevant. Today’s clients want to be known, understood, and guided. They’re looking for partners who can bring institutional depth, not just individual charm.

When in-house counsel are asked what they value most from outside counsel, the answers are nearly always about soft skills:

Know my business

Be responsive

Understand my needs

Build trust

Competence is assumed; it’s table stakes. What differentiates your firm is how you deliver, who shows up, and how well you align with the client’s strategy.

The Future Is Team-Based by Default

Imagine if client teams weren’t an exception, but the default mode of client engagement. It would redefine partnership. It would drive mentorship, integration, and innovation. It would create raving fans… not just retained clients.

This is the opportunity for law firms that choose to lead, not follow. Loyalty isn’t a legacy to protect; it’s a strategy to design. And that design begins with intentional client teams that move in sync, speak with one voice, and put the client’s success at the center of everything.