Trust: The Art of Delivering Legal Advice Will Persist

Trust has always been a synonym for a client-lawyer relationship, at least in western communities. And trust will remain the primary KPI. You cannot “deliver” trust, you can only build it, but the ways to gain, build and maintain trust have changed.

Trust is the backbone of sustained relationships, which can only be built over time if we adhere to strong core principles such as cooperation, transparency, and efficiency. Trustworthiness, a fundamental value of our daily business, can be improved with techniques and constant learning. Genuine exchanges will happen if our clients sense our authentic care for their concerns, and if they feel our true commitment to satisfy both their business, and their personal needs.

Reliability is also central. If we meet our clients' expectations, deliver on time, and respect what we agreed on—we will build a reputation for consistent efficiency and reliability, which can become one of our best assets. There can't be trust without intimacy. Confidentiality and transparency are absolute musts for building a safe and secure environment and capitalizing on our relationships with clients.

If our ability to screen, analyze and interpret unprecedented volumes of data in order to serve our clients faster, better, and more cheaply is becoming crucial to our success, so is the “art of delivering” legal advice. This cannot be done by machines or software; human relationships will remain a cornerstone of our client interactions. How can lawyers achieve this if they are not perceived as credible? Professionalism is obviously reflected in the words we speak. They have to be accurate, respectful and meaningful. Weighing and practicing our speech and vocabulary will strengthen our credibility, which in turn will enable the cooperation process between the two parties.

Ultimately, lawyers' self-orientation should be minimal. Truly caring about clients is about responding to their needs and not about putting our personal agendas in the foreground. Trust can be sown and benefits reaped if we care about these clients in the first place. Mindfulness and trustworthiness go hand in hand and are sine qua non if we want to successfully and wisely shift our mindset towards meaningful and solid collaborative achievement.

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