Why Experience Is the Brand in Big Law
Fast Read ⏲ 3 minutes
Client Expectations Are Changing
Modern clients, whether corporate legal teams or institutional buyers, expect law firms to deliver fast, personalized, proactive, and AI-enhanced service. According to recent research, 80% say customer service directly shapes brand perception, while 67% would pay more for exceptional support. This mirrors trends in professional services broadly: clients now judge firms not only by legal expertise but by the quality, transparency, and empathy of the overall experience. A single poor interaction, delayed updates, confusing communication, impersonal onboarding, can drive even longstanding clients to competitors.
Why Experience Is Strategy
In global Big Law, service design has emerged as a strategic differentiator, not a UX afterthought. Firms like Baker McKenzie, Clifford Chance, and Allen & Overy have embedded service design into their operations through initiatives like Reinvent, Best Delivery, and Fuse. These programs connect the dots across tech, process, and human touchpoints to meet the rising demand for real-time, reliable, and relationship-based service. Today’s legal clients, particularly younger, digitally native GCs, expect seamless digital access, contextual understanding, and fast resolution. They also demand clarity on where AI ends and human support begins: 70% find it deceptive if AI involvement isn’t disclosed, and nearly half would abandon firms that rely entirely on AI.
How Firms Are Responding
Leading firms are using service design to transform legal delivery across five levers:
Speed & Proactivity: Journey-mapped workflows, legal project management, and AI-enhanced intake tools reduce friction. 60% of clients say they’d pay more for faster response times.
Human + AI Hybrid Models: AI is deployed for low-touch inquiries, but complex matters are escalated seamlessly, avoiding the frustration 70% of clients feel when they can’t reach a human quickly.
Client Co-Creation: Design thinking workshops, client playbooks, and legal innovation labs involve clients in co-designing service models, building trust and brand loyalty.
Transparency & Trust: Smart handoffs, contextual AI, and omnichannel visibility ensure clients feel seen and supported. Firms that excel here are perceived as more caring and more modern.
Self-Service & Personalization: Digital portals, proactive updates, and preference-aware communications (e.g., regional compliance alerts, industry-specific dashboards) allow clients to self-resolve and stay informed without needing to chase their lawyers.
Strategic Insight
Big Law’s edge no longer lies in expertise alone, it lives in the experience architecture around that expertise. Service design, when done right, makes legal services not just usable but desirable. In an era where trust, responsiveness, and relational fluency drive revenue, experience is not a byproduct of delivery, it is the brand. And that brand must now be designed.
Full Text Long Read ⏲ 15 minutes
Client Expectations Are Changing
Clients in the modern legal marketplace, particularly enterprise GCs and in-house teams, now demand more than legal expertise: they expect rapid, reliable, human-centered service across every touchpoint. According to recent research in service expectations, 80% of clients say service shapes their perception of the brand, and 67% are willing to pay a premium for exceptional support. Loyalty is fragile; 59% will leave a provider after just three poor experiences. As service expectations rise across sectors, the legal industry must catch up, or risk being outpaced.
Global Big Law firms are responding by embedding service design into the core of their operations, blending legal expertise with experience innovation. Clients expect not only accurate legal answers, but fast response times (within 2 hours, in many cases), empathy, contextual understanding, and proactive engagement. They want seamless, omnichannel access to updates, transparency in AI usage, and the ability to self-resolve routine issues. In short: they want law to feel more like a service, not just a product.
Why Experience Is Strategy
In the past, law firms won work based on precedent and prestige. Today, the how of delivery matters as much as the what. Forward-thinking Big Law firms are embracing service design not as a tactical initiative but as a strategic mandate. Service design is the method by which firms transform traditional workflows, communication, and delivery models into differentiated, client-centric experiences.
This shift is fueled by three strategic drivers:
Service = Brand: Exceptional delivery, fast, accurate, and human becomes a signature brand promise. It fosters loyalty, boosts referrals, and enhances competitive differentiation.
AI + Human Hybrid: AI is transforming legal service delivery, but clients still demand human clarity and oversight. Service design ensures seamless handoffs, clear AI boundaries, and empathetic escalation protocols.
Operational Efficiency: By redesigning backend workflows and standardizing repetitive tasks, firms increase margins, reduce turnaround times, and elevate service consistency at scale.
Big Law firms like Baker McKenzie, Clifford Chance, and Allen & Overy have demonstrated this transformation through initiatives like Reinvent, Best Delivery, and Advanced Delivery, respectively. Each program embeds service designers, client journey mapping, legal project managers, and innovation labs into daily operations, proving that service design isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.
Enhancing Client Experience, Loyalty, and Brand Differentiation
A clear goal of service design is to strengthen client relationships and differentiate the firm’s brand. By delivering services that are more efficient, transparent, and aligned with client needs, global firms are seeing improved client satisfaction and loyalty:
Exceptional Client Experience as Strategy: Top law firms now treat client experience as a business priority, not a nice-to-have. Freshfields, for example, puts “exceptional client experience” on par with legal expertise, focusing on faster response times, clearer pricing, and solutions tailored to the client’s world. Clifford Chance’s Best Delivery program tracks success not just by outcomes, but by how smoothly and efficiently service is delivered. The goal: remove friction, add clarity, and make working with the firm feel seamless.
Building Loyalty Through Co-Creation: Clients stick around when they feel involved. At Allen & Overy’s Fuse, clients help shape the tools and services they’ll actually use, leading to stronger partnerships and deeper trust. Baker McKenzie and Seyfarth Shaw do the same by inviting clients into the design process, whether through co-creation sessions or client-specific playbooks. By solving pain points with clients, like slow updates or complex pricing, firms show they’re listening. That builds loyalty that can’t be bought.
Service Design as Brand Differentiator: Innovation is becoming a brand signal. Allen & Overy’s Fuse and advanced delivery model show clients they’re serious about staying ahead. Baker McKenzie’s design thinking efforts haven’t just improved workflows, they’ve earned industry recognition and made the firm stand out in pitches. These aren’t PR stunts. As their leaders say: “Being a good lawyer isn’t enough anymore.” Firms that invest in designing better service don’t just deliver legal advice, they deliver confidence, ease, and long-term value.
How Firms Are Responding
1. Speed, Accuracy, and Proactivity
Clients now expect law firms to meet the same standards as their SaaS providers: instant access, frictionless interaction, and proactive alerts. Research shows 60% of clients would pay more for faster replies, while 51% prioritize accurate, context-aware service. Service design addresses this with:
AI-enabled intake and triage tools
Service-level agreements (SLAs) for client responsiveness
Real-time collaboration platforms for live updates and progress visibility
Firms like Clifford Chance have built regional hubs (e.g., Best Delivery centers in London, New York, Singapore) to centralize and streamline service excellence.
2. Client Journey Mapping and Co-Creation
Leading firms now view clients as co-designers. They use journey maps, interviews, and workshops to identify friction points and redesign them collaboratively. For example:
Allen & Overy’s Fuse incubator co-develops tech tools with clients
Seyfarth Shaw uses client playbooks to personalize communications and matter handling
This builds trust, relevance, and long-term loyalty.
3. AI Integration with Transparent Human Handoff
Clients appreciate AI’s efficiency but reject dehumanized experiences. 70% say firms make it too hard to reach a human, and 49% would leave if AI entirely replaced personal contact. Effective service design ensures:
Smart routing from AI to humans
Contextual continuity during escalations
Clarity on what is automated vs. personal
Allen & Overy and Baker McKenzie have led with hybrid models where AI handles intake and documentation while humans focus on interpretation, empathy, and negotiation.
4. Omnichannel and Self-Service Support
Clients expect flexibility in communication, email, secure chat, video, shared dashboards, as well as rich self-service portals. Research shows 64% wish more robust self-service solutions existed. Big Law is responding by:
Building digital client portals for document access and status tracking
Offering knowledge bases tailored to each client segment
Creating high-touch interfaces for global GCs
This gives clients autonomy while keeping firms in sync with their needs.
5. Personalization with Boundaries
While 56% of clients expect personalized service, 40% worry about overreach. Service design in Big Law balances personalization with privacy by:
Capturing preferences (e.g., communication cadence, regional compliance needs)
Delivering tailored briefings and predictive insights
Avoiding hyper-targeted messaging that feels invasive
This nuanced personalization builds trust without compromising professionalism.
Strategic Insight
Service design is now an enterprise competency for global law firms. It translates brand promises into repeatable client experiences, improves margins through operational design, and futureproofs relationships in a market where expectations are accelerating. Firms that lead with service design are redefining what legal professionalism feels like in an AI-powered, client-led world. It’s no longer about selling legal services. It’s about designing trust at every touchpoint.
Bibliography
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