One of the standout sessions from the Law Firm Marketing Summit was a brilliant fireside chat with Mike Beswick, Director of BD, Marketing & Communications, Taylor Wessing and Nick Clayson, General Counsel, Rocco Forte Hotels: Client Experience: The New Differentiator for Law Firms?

Law firms operate in a hugely competitive market. Nearly every firm claims to have great lawyers, deep sector expertise, and global reach. From the client’s perspective, many firms look and sound the same. In this environment, technical capability is no longer a true differentiator. The question is, what is? Increasingly, the answer, and especially if you were to ask Mike and Nick, is client experience.

Client experience is more than service delivery. It is every interaction, every touchpoint, and how the client feels throughout the relationship. Other industries, particularly luxury hospitality, already understand this. Guests return not just for a beautiful hotel, but because they felt understood and cared for. Law firms can apply the same principle.

Firms that communicate clearly, personalise interactions, and make clients’ lives easier earn loyalty, even if they are not the cheapest or most prestigious. Strong technical work is not enough if the experience is poor.

Why It Matters: The Three R’s

Mike explained how exceptional client experience drives:

• Revenue – Happy clients return, spend more, and accept cross-selling.
• Reputation – Clients recommend firms based on how they were made to feel. Nick talked about a WhatsApp group with other legal councils, where they share thoughts and feeling towards firms..
• Relationships – Great experiences build trust and long-term partnerships.

What Clients Really Value

The were several important insights from Nick’s perspective:

• Incumbency helps, but it is fragile. We know client loyalty is waning. Clients will often stay with their current firms even when service is average. New instructions are not necessarily a sign of a healthy relationship, or loyalty. The fact is, your GC might be using you again simply because it would be too much effort to instruct someone new. Loyalty can disappear quickly if the relationship is neglected, and if another firm comes along with a solid offering, and makes it easy for your client to switch, they’ll be off.   
• Technical work is expected. Delivering the legal answer is the baseline. It is not a differentiator.
• The “warm, fuzzy feeling” matters. Clients remember how you made them feel, not just what you delivered. It is still a people business; the human to human element is always going to be important.
• Communication is the number one factor. How do your clients want their information? The best law firm communicates in the way that their client wants to be communicated in. Nick talked about “mirroring’ in hospitality , if an eccentric high roller comes into a hotel, staff are encouraged and play up to this and make sure they feel like a rockstar. For your GCs, do they like short or detailed explanations? Email or call? At the end of the day, the key thing legal counsel want from their law firms is to help them look good in front of their stakeholders – or at very least make sure they don’t look bad.
• Personalisation wins. Ask what they need. Anticipate. Adapt.

Where Firms Go Wrong

Many firms treat client experience as “soft” and rely on generic events or content. Instead of sharing valuable ideas, they focus on promoting their capabilities. Nick recalled a firm that spent a 45-minute call with Partners listing their specialisms, completely missing the mark.

A better approach would have been to open with: “We have these experts and a few ideas,are any worth exploring?” Instead, the firm tried to push all its services onto Nick rather than engaging him with insight.

What Differentiation Really Looks Like

True client experience is not necessarily about spending more. It is about being more thoughtful:

• Ask, “How would you like this delivered?”
• Tailor format, tone, and timing.
• Proactively bring ideas based on what the client is doing.
• Use small, relevant gestures rather than big, unfocused hospitality.
• Help partners build deep client relationships, not send 1,000 invitations.

The Mindset Shift

Client experience is not fluffy, it is strategic. In a market where everyone is technically strong, the firms that personalise, communicate, and genuinely care will win loyalty, premium fees, and influence.

So, is client experience a differentiator?
Not only is it a differentiator, from what Nick was saying it may be the most important thing going forward.