Being able to demonstrate the expertise that sets your firm apart is essential as a law firm. It's why thought leadership sits at the heart of most firms' marketing and BD plans. 

We wanted to better understand the relationship between suppliers, their content and their clients. To do so, we went out and surveyed 100 senior General Counsel at large companies, with a 50:50 split across US & UK territories.

Key findings:

There are dozens of insights from the research, here we highlight three of the standout findings:

• 77% of GCs surveyed reported spending 5 hours or more per week staying up to date 
• Just 8% of GCs thought that law firms delivered enough timely, relevant content to the market 
• 48% of GCs would not work with a supplier that did not demonstrate relevant expertise
  
  

Staying up-to-date is a huge part of the role of a GC

It's unsurprising that GCs spend a significant portion of their time staying up-to-date with the latest news and trends.

What is surprising is just how much time they are spending doing so. 77% of respondents indicated they spent more than the equivalent of a working day each week staying up-to-date.

GCs place high importance on thought leadership as part of the buying process

The overwhelming majority (61%) of GCs show a preference for engaging subject matter experts with as little as 7% in disagreement (see fig 8.) 

Furthermore, nearly half (48%) of GCs would not work at all with a supplier which did not demonstrate relevant expertise.

About the report

To compile the data, Passle contracted a third-party research firm, Hayhurst Consultancy, to interview and analyse the data from the General Counsel sample. Respondents were selected based on the size of the company they worked for ($10m - $500m+ annual revenue) and their seniority within that company (5+ years).

The full report is available here. For any questions or feedback, contact marketing@passle.net.