Legal Mosaic Essays on Legal Delivery

<strong>Legal</strong> <strong>Mosaic</strong>: <strong>Essays</strong> on <strong>Legal</strong> Delivery
Memo to Lawyers:
The Customer is Always Right
A century ago Harry Selfridge, the London retailer, declared: “The customer
is always right.” The temptation to interpret this too literally
belies the wisdom of the remark, because with an economy of words,
Selfridge captured the cornerstones of success in any service business:
(1) convince the customer that s/he will receive good service; and (2)
convince employees to provide a positive customer experience. This
was a departure from the “caveat emptor” standard of the time.
Naturally, customers are not always right, but whether one is selling
shoes or legal services, it helps to instill customer/client confidence. A
critical element of customer trust is the client’s expectation the provider
will be reasonable, transparent, and stand behind the service or product.
Lawyers were not long ago high up on the list of “most trusted” job categories.
But as law firms morphed from small, personalized groups to
enormous, geographically disbursed businesses, that trust has eroded.
The popular and derisive tee shirt that reads “Trust Me, I’m A Lawyer”
speaks volumes.
The UK provides a remarkable example of lost trust in lawyers and the
steps taken to revive it. Can it come as a surprise that this odyssey was
piloted not by lawyers but by the consumers of legal services?
A Quick Legislative History of the <strong>Legal</strong> Services Act of 2007
Complaints against lawyers in the UK were so widespread in the early
years of the new Millennium that Sir David Clementi, former Deputy
Chairman of the Bank of England, was authorized by the British Government
to undertake an extensive examination of the legal profession.
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