THE LAW FIRM REFINERY

One of the ways that the third world countries are able to have some meaning in the global economic space is through OPEC, the oil people and refineries are a really big deal in the industry. In fact, one of the chief means through which the Standard Oil company achieved leadership was that it positioned itself as a refiner and every oil find had to come through its system or else there was no profit for the driller. Refineries made it all happen.

Client Management is the law firm's refinery. The first task is to search for where oil is which is business development, generating a viable book of business and then the next step is to refine the oil so that it can be put to several uses and generate value through the international economy.
Another way of looking at it is eating. You cannot eat food that is not cooked because it tastes terrible for one and your body cannot digest raw food so over a while you will become sick or starve.

The way the oil industry works is that most of the value is actually gotten from the refining process, this is where magic happens and your law firm needs one for all the data information, ideas, issues affecting the client, her industry and the work that you do.

What on earth is a refinery? Since you are in the services and ideas business, here's a go:

Client management is that function at your law firm that develops a conscious plan of studying your clients and the revenue flow they contribute to your business, paying close and continuous attention to the trends in their industry and business and finally using this information to develop a plan for what levels of revenue and relationship you will have with the clients for the long term future.

All this talk of refining is not fear mongering. It is a statement of business fact that has been confirmed by pollsters, consulting people, market research and customer service people.
It is 7 times more expensive to get a new client than it is to make better with current clients, not every new client should come to your book of business, instead of endless line extensions you need to avoid watering down the value of your services offering.
You cannot keep going after new clients if you do not make the most of what you have. For example, Berkshire Hathaway stopped receiving new investors because it did not know what to do with the new money and could not guarantee any value for new money. Its shares are in a class by itself and are transferred from generation to generation while most companies are perpetually cheating the public and watering stock.

A regular refinery costs and maintenance costs are heavy as well so you have a clear idea for what you are about when you sign up for it.
This is a difficult task and an expensive one as well but it really is no more difficult than the burden of crap that is the alternative.