The Long Game, Played Daily: How Outside Counsel Become Trusted Advisors

Losing a client is typically a slow process. Ten matters become five — litigation wraps up or transactions die down, so that seems reasonable. Then, five matters become two. There are fewer calls to return, and no moment a lawyer can point to where the client said they no longer wanted to work with them. The work simply goes somewhere else, and they find out at an industry dinner.

The lawyers who retain and expand their work have something in common, and it is not just deep subject-matter expertise. Across the most recent research on how general counsel evaluate their outside counsel — from Chambers, KPMG, and Thomson Reuters, the message is remarkably consistent: your legal skill gets you in the door, becoming a trusted advisor keeps you there. 

Expertise is the price of entry

Consider what general counsel are saying. Only 17% say their outside counsel distinguish themselves through an understanding of the client’s business, according to Chambers. Read that again — not 17% of lawyers falling short on the law, but 83% of relationships where the client sees no differentiation on the thing they now say matters most.

KPMG’s 2026 Global General Counsel Outlook, drawing on 468 general counsel and senior legal leaders across 28 jurisdictions, found that three-quarters of GCs are now regularly asked to weigh in on non-legal business issues — and that the organizations with the most integrated legal functions rely on external advisors as “extensions of their operating model,” not law firms engaged matter by matter. Those “extensions” are the relationships that survive panel reviews and rate pressure.

Thomson Reuters’ 2026 Report on the State of the US Legal Market shows what’s at stake commercially. GCs are signaling spending pullbacks, budgets are stagnant, and demand is already moving from the most expensive firms toward lower-cost alternatives. That pressure lands hardest on relationships clients see as interchangeable.

Clients want proactive, business-oriented advice, and most are not getting it.

Trust is built one conversation at a time

Lawyers have heard for years that they need to become trusted advisors, but that advice rarely comes with instructions. The gap closes through micro-actions, small behaviors that fit inside the calls lawyers are already having.

So how can they do it? Below are a few examples of slight shifts in dialogue that build trust and strengthen client relationships.

Confirm the client’s desired outcome. With a long-standing client, asking “what’s the business outcome you’re hoping to achieve with this matter?” can land as how do you not know my business. Showing your read and inviting the correction is a safer way to ensure you’re aligned. Try: “Based on how we’ve handled these matters, you’ve historically wanted to protect [X]. Is that still the goal here — or is there another outcome you’re hoping for?” Assumptions are where long-standing relationships go wrong, and confirming their goal takes 30 seconds. This is also the checkpoint to ensure that whatever your matter strategy is, it aligns with their business realities. Even excellent legal advice won’t help you achieve trusted advisor status if it conflicts with key client stakeholders, including those outside of the legal team.

Lead with your recommendation and the benchmark. Recommendation first, analysis second. Then add the one thing your client cannot get anywhere else: “For a similarly situated company — not your competitor — here’s how we handle this, and why.” Your matters give you pattern data across companies. Most lawyers are sitting on years of data and never connect those dots for their clients. That means when they do, they’re in rarefied air.

Avoid surprises in the billing cycle. Fee disputes are almost never about size; they are about surprise. A bill 1.5x the number the client had in mind erodes trust, even when the work was flawless. Before staffing up a phase, find the number in their head: “What range are you budgeting for this phase?” Calibration protects the relationship and doesn’t undermine the trust you’ve worked so hard to build with great legal work.

Talk with your client about their priorities. Asked bare, “what’s coming in Q3?” can feel like selling to your client. Anchored to their planning cycle, it is a service. “What are your priorities for the back half of the year? If you’re pulling your legal budget together, we’ll build budgets for the ongoing matters to help you plan.” Their answer will also clue you into where you and your firm can provide additional support.

Each of these recommended conversation points is drawn directly from what GCs told researchers they want, and each requires minutes of preparation, not hours.

How do you start?

The reason most client-service initiatives fall flat is that it can be difficult to prioritize where to start and to know exactly what activities to undertake.

Becoming a trusted advisor means you must have a set of small, repeatable behaviors practiced with intention on calls you are already having until the actions (and conversations) become muscle memory. You don’t need to change your approach for every client right away.

Pick 1-3 clients where you are the face of the relationship and layer in a couple of these talking points at a time over your next few calls. Then, keep track of their responses and take stock of the new information you learn. By the end of the year, you should have 2-3 new nuggets of information that lead to additional work.

Want a cheat sheet? I’ve put together a list of how you can methodically incorporate trusted advisor dialogue into your client conversations, with “say-it-like-this” suggestions and the underlying rationale to take the guesswork out of it. Download the "Trusted Advisor Cheat Sheet" here.

And if you’d like help building these behaviors into your firm’s client teams or coaching program, drop me a note. I'd love to chat.

Sources: Chambers, "Strategic Legal Advice: How GCs Distinguish Strategic Legal Advice from Subject-Matter Expertise" · Thomson Reuters 2026 Report on the State of the US Legal Market · KPMG 2026 KPMG Global General Counsel Outlook.