The concept of "The Matrix" has existed for decades in professional services firms, though it represents a relatively new framework within the legal industry. This powerful approach to understanding organizational capabilities and client relationships offers law firms a strategic advantage in today's competitive marketplace.
What Is the Matrix?
The Matrix refers to a multidimensional framework that encompasses both internal firm capabilities and external client structures. Within a law firm, this matrix typically includes practice areas, industry specializations, client teams, and emerging legal issues. When visualized, it resembles something of a Rubik's cube-interconnected, complex, and requiring strategic alignment to achieve optimal results.
Beyond internal considerations, The Matrix extends to understanding sophisticated corporate clients with their increasingly complex buying cycles, specialized legal service requirements, and evolving organizational structures. This dual-focused approach-mapping both your firm's capabilities and your clients' structures and need to those capabilities-provides the foundation for strategic business development and can exponentially increase your win rates.
The Changing Corporate Legal Structure
The traditional corporate legal department has undergone significant transformation in recent years. Where once general counsel operated straightforward pyramid structures with centralized decision-making, today's corporate legal functions often feature decentralized authority distributed across:
- Divisional general counsels
- Technical counsels organized by service line
- Industry-specific counsel positions
- Portfolio company representatives (in private equity contexts)
This fragmentation of legal decision-making requires law firms to adopt a more sophisticated, information-focused approach to client development and retention. Understanding how decisions flow through these matrix organizations has become essential to effective legal marketing and business development.
The First Strategic Map: Internal Capabilities
Before attempting to align with client needs, firms must first develop a comprehensive understanding of their own capabilities, voids, and opportunities. This internal mapping process (sometimes referred to as an internal white-space analysis) serves multiple strategic functions:
- Talent Recruitment: Identifying capability gaps to guide strategic hiring
- Marketing Focus: Highlighting genuine strengths and competitive advantages
- Service Pricing: Understanding where premium pricing is justified by unique expertise
- Cross-Selling Opportunities: Recognizing natural service extensions for existing clients2
Through methodical assessment of practice strengths, industry knowledge, and subject matter expertise, firms can create accurate capability maps that inform strategic decision-making across multiple operational areas, and help attorneys and staff around the firm to understand what the firm does, who they do it for, and what other services lines may be connected.
Avoiding Client Lifecycle Gaps
One of the most valuable applications of matrix mapping is understanding client lifecycles. By mapping your firm's capabilities against typical client journeys, you can identify potential vulnerability points where clients might seek alternative counsel.
For example, a firm might excel at company formation and M&A transactions but lack the labor and immigration expertise needed as a client company expands. This capability gap creates an opportunity for competitors to establish relationships with your client, potentially undermining your position as trusted counsel.
The Second Strategic Map: Plotting Capabilities to Specific Organizations
The second dimension of matrix mapping involves understanding client organizations in sufficient detail to identify decision-makers, influencers, and organizational priorities, as well as the types of work needed for that particular entity. This approach requires looking beyond obvious contacts to develop comprehensive relationship maps that reveal:
- Formal and informal reporting structures
- Decision-making processes for legal service procurement
- Internal client priorities and pressure points
- Cross-divisional relationships and influence patterns
- Decision making metrics and buying cycles/processes
Foundation for Strategic Development
Understanding The Matrix-both internal capabilities and external client structures-provides the essential foundation for strategic business development. Only by recognizing where you are can you effectively plan where you're going. These mapping exercises enable firms to:
- Identify genuine competitive advantages
- Recognize capability gaps requiring investment
- Align marketing efforts with actual strengths
- Target client organizations with precision
- Protect existing relationships from competitive encroachment
Understanding The Matrix is just the beginning. The real competitive advantage comes from applying this knowledge to create strategic alignment between your firm's capabilities and your clients' needs.
Written by Mike Mellor, President and Founder of 742advisors.